While Away Pairings

Welcome to our new segment Fork & Cork where we share our favorite pairings for our Folklor wines & ciders. Every month we'll pick one of our fermented beverages and share a favorite take out pairing, as well as a home-cooked one.

Featured Product: While Away

While Away is our crisp, easy-drinking cider made with a blend of Wolf River, McIntosh and Golden Delicious apples from our Home Farm blended with Cortland apples grown by King Orchards.

Home Cooked Pairing: Brats and “the Good Salad”

For our home-cooked While Away pairing we cooked brats and what, in our household, we call "the good salad." This pairing works well because the cider cuts through the fat in the brats, and compliments the apple cider vinegar flavors in the dressing.

For the pairing, cook your brats of choice - we love the lamb cherry brats from Providence Organic Farm. I toss them in a cast iron pan in the oven at 400 and make the salad while the brats cook.

Make the dressing Abra Berens' mustard vinaigrette from Ruffage

• 2 tbsp dijon mustard

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

• 1/4 onion minced or grated

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• Salt to taste

Put in a mason jar & shake

For the salad

• Your favorite greens - I used kale, but you can use spring mix, arugula, kale, romaine, etc.

• 1 radish - watermelon is my favorite, but use any kind you can find, quartered and sliced thin

• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds

• 1/4 cup grated parmesan

Toss the greens and dressing with half of the radish, sunflower seeds and parmesan. Put the rest of the toppings on on top of the dressed salad. Serve with your cooked brats and that’s it!

For a more filling meal or to feed a bigger group, serve with a side of bread or grains.

Take Out Pairing: LT’s Chicken Burrito

We love pairing While Away with the chicken burrito (and extra side of salsa) from LT's. If you haven't had the pleasure, LT's perfectly char grills all their meats in a way I can never pull off at home. The ingredients are simple and flavorful (just like While Away!) and always satisfying.

This pairing works great because the cider offers a refreshing, bright sip to the creamy rice+cheese+sour cream bite, and the apple flavors compliment the char on the chicken and acid in the salsa.

This is perfect un-fussy pairing for a weeknight dinner, or a weekend lunch when you need a break from yard work.

LT's is takeout only and operating out of a log cabin in the Family Fare grocery store parking lot... perfection! While Away is available in the tasting room and at our retail partners across the state.

Save this post for this summer, when you want to grab an easy dinner and hit the beach or to bring your takeout to the farm and hang on the porch.