The Charlottesville 29

Where to eat in Charlottesville

Tag: Whisper Hill Farm

08/22/2025

Five Finds on Friday: Holly Hammond

Today’s Five Finds on Friday come from Holly Hammond of Whisper Hill Farm, whose August tomatoes are worth waiting all year long. The tomatoes will be among the offerings at Tomato Tomato Fest, Tuesday August 26 at The Little Market at Lampo. Tomato farmers, artisans, and vendors will celebrate the Charlottesville area’s tomato harvest, while Lampo makes a special tomato-centric menu for the occasion. Details here. Dress in tomato gear, enter gardening and art competitions, and celebrate this year’s harvest. Hammond’s picks:

1) Basil Tofu at Cafe 88. “Jenny is always at the front counter, ready for my favorite order when I go to Cafe 88. When I asked her for her favorite tofu dish, she did not hesitate -Basil Tofu. Wowee! She sends this bento box out of the park, with crispy tofu fried to perfection, saucy eggplant, and green beans. Everything cooked to perfection. Being a veggie farmer, I am particular about these things, and Jenny nails it with this dish. To be honest, everything she sends out is excellent.”

2) Avocado Toast at Petite MarieBette. “There’s something special about going into PMB on a Sunday morning after a long week farming and a vibrant Saturday sale at IX Farmers Market. The vibe is chill, and the staff is always warm and friendly. Pair that with an iced London Fog and their Avocado Toast with an egg, and life is good. Avocado toast might not be something I would typically order, but theirs is done so deliciously. Perfectly mashed avocado on a slice of their multigrain sourdough topped with corn, cotija, and pickled onion. What’s not to love?”

3) Banh Mi at Vu Noodles. “Julie soars in the kitchen, and her banh mi is no exception. That toasty baguette with tofu, vegan mayo, cilantro, cucumbers, and jalapenos hits the mark every time. She is also just a bright human whose spirit shows up in her food. Truly, a Charlottesville treasure.”

4) Veggie Pizza at Mona Lisa Pasta. “After eight hours of setting up and selling to our wonderful customers at market, the perfect place to pick up lunch to bring back for the crew is Mona Lisa’s. If you haven’t ordered pizza from them, you are missing out. A little Italian gem in the heart of Cville, you can find all kinds of things to love at this shop and take home a delicious meal. The veggies on their pizza are cut and cooked perfectly, with not too much sauce or cheese on the pizza. The best after-market meal.”

5) Caesar Salad at Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie. “I can’t forget to mention another favorite place to go out on a weekday evening. It’s always hopping, and the staff at Dr. Ho’s gets it done. The best way to start your meal is with their Caesar salad. The dressing is cheesy, and the salad always comes very well dressed, with that classic crunchy romaine and flaky parmesan, and croutons. Don’t sleep on that Fat and Sassy either.”

 

01/23/2021

Holy Mole: Mole from Conmole Makes Dinner Easy and Charlottesville’s Bounty Even Better

When “Comal” became “Conmole” last year, a main reason for the change was the restaurant’s plan to begin offering its signature moles for sale. A mole is a slow-cooked Mexican chile sauce typically served with a protein or vegetables. Conmole’s outstanding moles are the backbone of its menu, and when the restaurant changed its name last February, its aim was to launch sales of its moles by the end of the year. Not even a pandemic could stop it from doing so, as online mole sauce sales are now underway.

This is excellent news for Charlottesville diners. While Conmole’s moles take hours to develop their flavor, making dinner with them at home can take just minutes. Just sauté a protein or some vegetables, smother it in your favorite mole, and you’ve got a world class meal.

The Culture of Takeout Meets Charlottesville’s Bounty

A great plus of the Culture of Takeout is convenience. Place your order, pick it up, and a delicious dinner is yours. Sometimes, though, it can be fun to spend a little more time to use foods from the Culture of Takeout as ingredients to create your own dinner. With Charlottesville’s bounty, the possibilities seem endless. And always delicious.

Tonight’s dinner began with a soup of turnips and butternut squash from Whisper Hill Farm. As much as we miss Whisper Hill Farm’s tomatoes in the warmth of the summer, the farm’s beautiful winter vegetables sustain us through the cold. By themselves, the turnips and squash would have made for a delicious soup. The addition of Conmole’s guajillo mole made a great thing even better.

Guajillo peppers are a classic ingredient of Oaxaca, where Conmole co-owner Benos Bustamante is from. The recipe for Conmole’s guajillo mole comes from his mother Yolie Bustamante, using toasted guajillos, onions, tomatoes, and Yolie’s secret blend of spices. For our soup, to accent the smokiness of the peppers and spices, we added a little Mezcal. Why not? Turnips, butternut squash, and guajillo mole. Thought it came together in just minutes, the result, wow:

Next was a simple sauté of shrimp and chorizo in the same guajillo mole. The shrimp came from Surfside Sustainable Seafood, a business re-launched last year by restaurant industry veteran Lenny Craig. Craig’s business model is simple: source sustainable seafood from Virginia’s coast and deliver it to Charlottesville restaurants and consumers. Craig posts offerings each week, takes orders, and then makes a run to the coast to retrieve them. Our shrimp were fresh — never frozen — shell-on Carolina shrimp, 16-20 per pound.

The shrimp were sautéed in Mexican chorizo from the charcuterie wizards at JM Stock Provisions.

Pour over Conmole’s guajillo mole, and ahí está!

06/29/2018

Five Finds on Friday: Stacy Miller

Stacy_UACC

Today’s Five Finds on Friday come from Stacy Miller of Good Phyte Foods, the local producer of healthy and vegan foods that now offers locally grown superfood salads at the Wednesday Farmers in the Park, some City Market Saturdays, and by delivery for group lunches on the Downtown Mall. Email goodphytefoods@gmail.com to book your lunch delivery. Miller’s picks:

1) Fresh Basil from Twin Oaks Community Farm. “Their genoa basil is the BEST. Tom, their head flower grower and the one you’ll meet at City Market, will tell you it’s because the basil plot is right adjacent to an old cattle barn and the plants get lots of good nitrogen to fuel leaf growth, but I’ll tell you it’s just plain heaven to smell and that it makes our pesto crackers possible. I am also working on developing a new pesto proton (grain-free crouton), so will be getting a lot of their basil this summer!”

2) Warm-from-the-bush Blueberries at Seaman’s Orchard. “Spending a Sunday afternoon in July picking blueberries with my son is a treat I look forward to all year. I picked blueberries with my mom as a child at our local orchard, and I look forward to continuing the tradition by picking excessive quantities, gorging myself for weeks, eventually using them to make my son’s birthday cake, and then plaguing our freezer with plump ziploc bags through the winter.”

3) Fresh Jersey Milk from my milk share at Windy Hill Farm.  “At the end of the day, I fill a coffee mug with granola and whatever chopped fruit I can find  (Gold Rush Apples or the rarer Shizuka from Vintage Virginia Apples are my favorites) and granola (usually the “well-done” chunks of magnolia crunch), and sloppily pour from one of our half gallon ball jars until it overflows onto the counter. If I’m lucky, I get to open a fresh jar– one with 3-4 inches of cream at the top, and intentionally do a crappy job of shaking it up, so that I mostly get cream in my mug. There is no better comfort food than homemade granola and raw Jersey cow milk, in my book.”

4) Kombucha on Tap from Mountain Culture Kombucha. “The Ginger, Coconut Turmeric, or Blueberry Lemongrass are my favorites, especially at the end of a market day in the summer. We barter good phyte bars for their bucha at City Market, and I chug it sloppily before breaking down our booth after six hours standing on asphalt!  I only wish it were available on tap at more bars in town!”

5) Monster Lacinato Kale from Whisper Hill Farm. “Their greens are absurdly large and are ideal for dehydrating for our bars since they lay so flat on the trays. Their kale and chard are great for getting creative with wraps or rolling and slicing to make long shreds in a salad. I am so impressed with certified organic farmers who manage to grow flawless vegetables with ease — I’ve never seen them sell a single leaf with flea beetle damage, which is hard to do!”