by Jill Lightner

For a dedicated Puget Sound locavore, oil is an ingredient that presents you with a simple choice: Stick with butter, or sigh, and resign yourself to a permanently less-than-perfect score. A small company in Yakima has a third option, which not only qualifies as local, it also qualifies as tasty, healthy and environmentally friendly.

The Yakima Valley grows a remarkable number of grapes each year, and only the juice gets turned into wine. The pomace is what’s left behind after the juice is extracted. Après Vin keeps the grapes carefully sorted by varietal, and converts the pomace into a handful of products. Cold-pressed grapeseed oil, a mild-tasting oil that gives lovely results in salad dressings or in sautéing (the smoke point is an impressive 475 degrees), is produced from the whole seeds. Gluten-free flours are created from the pressed seed cake once the oils have been extracted. Try the flours as flavorful thickeners for summer fruit pies or as additions to your favorite homemade cookies (the reds go well with spice or chocolate; the whites add a friendly nuttiness to shortbread or blondies).

www.apresvin.com

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