The Week in Review

SO MANY COOL THINGS HAPPENED THIS WEEK!!!!

First off, we got some amazing soft shell crabs, so the video is how to clean the soft shells once you've gotten them home. A small addition to the video... one thing we do post cleaning is to soak the crabs in milk after they are cleaned. We sold out of the crabs, so unfortunately there is no pic of the finished dish, but I can describe it for you. A quick tempura style beer batter(National Bohemian is preferred....) fries up the crabs, some grilled bread, tartar sauce, and a little micro salad. Like I said, we didn't have a 'tester' to take a photo of, but maybe next week. I'll keep you posted.

The next super duper cool thing from the week is that we(or more accurately, my dad) finally finished an overhaul on our corner herb garden. Last year, this garden held most of our herbs, but due to our overwhelming use of the herbs, we had to move some herbs to the raised beds and add more volume of herbs to the corner garden. As an example, last year we had three chive plants, this year we have 14. I couldn't be happier with the extremely polished look these gardens have taken on(everything my dad touches turns to gold)....when you visit the restaurant, I encourage you to have a glass of champagne and stroll the gardens....you just might get to have a conversation with a chef out picking his herbs and garnishes before dinner service.


Kathy Glahn's Gettysburg Market at the Outlets opened this week. Now, we are lucky enough that Kathy delivers to us at the restaurant every wednesday, but I really like getting to the market to see what other great surprises some of the local growers are bringing to market. Plus, it's a huge bonus for me to get to spend some quality time talking with folks who are very passionate about what they are doing. I encourage everyone out there to search out your local markets and start to establish some relationships with the folks who are growing your food. You'll be glad you did!!! So, a huge CONGRATS on the market, Kathy. I'm looking forward to many friday's spent strolling the pop up tents of Gettysburg!!!!





By now, everyone knows my fascination to everything pig and more specifically with country ham. This week, I made a call to Ron Turner of Turner Ham House in Fulks Run, Virginia(cue Country Roads by John Denver and just change the lyrics to just Virginia not West Virginia...I love Virginia...come to think of it, just cue the entire John Denver greatest hits album while reading these posts) Anyhow, a few days later, thanks to UPS, two boneless country hams appeared at the back door. One of regular age and one aged for over a year. Yes, the aged ham was sliced super thin and placed on White Lilly flour biscuits with a little dijon mayo and homemade pickles as an amuse this week. I almost felt like I was back in Old Virginia...can peanut soup be far away???




My good friend, Rich Matosky visited us at the restaurant last week and spent two days in chef's whites going through the paces in the kitchen. I think he had a good time(after getting his ass handed to him for being late on his first day...hey, I don't cut ANYONE any slack in the kitchen) and he has been generous enough to write a full description, a sort of day in the life if you will, of a weekend at The Sheppard Mansion through his eyes. I think you can look forward to this post some time soon(message to Rich: this means you now have a deadline for finishing up this story.... hahahahaha)

We had a great week at the restaurant. So many great products are coming into season, the gardens are popping after weeks of rain, and there is a real sense that this summer is going to be one we'll remember for years to come. Hope to see you soon!!!