The Second Annual Harvest Brunch helped kick off Kent County Restaurant Week with a local touch.
The event on Sunday at Harvest Ridge Winery in Marydel featured offerings from area farms, wineries and a distillery. The brunch was organized by the Delaware Wineries Association.
Food was prepared by the Inn at Duck Creek, a farm-to-table restaurant slated to open in downtown Smyrna.
Painted Stave Distilling, located in Smyrna, featured a make your own Bloody Mary bar. Fenwick Wine Cellars, Selbyville, created a new drink called the Four and Harvest Ridge offered mimosas, featured Harvest Ridge Winery’s sparkling wine.
Painted Stave offered a scrapple and conventional vodka as options for Bloody Marys.
Also at the event was Liquid Alchemy, a start-up based near Wilmington that is planning to produce commercial quantities of mead, a fermented beverage that uses honey and other foods.
A new member of the Delaware Wineries Association is Rebel Seed Cider, a companion brand to Harvest Ridge that is now being produced in Marydel.
The Harvest Brunch offered one of the first opportunities to taste two varieties of the Delaware hard cider.
Chuck Nunan, Harvest Ridge and Rebel Seed proprietor, said early response to the cider has been strong, with the recent launch event attracting 200 people.
Nunan said Rebel Seed is buying large quantities of apples from growers in Delaware and adjacent areas.
Hard cider has emerged as a fast-growing alcoholic beverage category with large breweries and small artisanal producers working to meet demand.
In its packaging, Rebel Seed takes its inspiration from the popularity of the beverage during colonial times.
Harvest Ridge got its start in 2013 and has won awards at a wine competition in the Finger Lakes area of New York. It is one of four wineries in Delaware.
The winery features a large room for special events that on Sunday served as the location of the brunch.
