vermont’s
local banquet summer 2012 | issue twenty-one
Small-Scale Dairying Eating Invasive Plant Species Vermont Smoke & Cure
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issue twenty-one
6 Editor’s Note 8 Garden Pathways Weed Eater
10 A Smokin’ Place 12 Set the Table with… Gluten-free baked goods
14 Reflections of a Restaurateur Part ll: Seeds and Soil
16 Diversifying Dairy in Vermont Three farms, three stories
18 The Development of a Recipe— and a Recipe Developer 20 Farming without Harm 22 Summer Farmers’ Markets 29 Farmers’ Kitchen Blueberry Bounty
31 Calendar 32 Last Morsel
Editor’s Note Not everyone gets to eat popcorn popped in pork fat. But there it was in a big pot, greeting four sweaty interns after our morning removing a winter’s worth of bedded pack from a hoop house and doing other tasks too numerous to mention. The popcorn was mighty tasty, and eager hands grabbed for it around the communal table. It was a typical noontime meal at Green Mountain Girls Farm in Northfield, where I’m working one day a week this summer. Each workday (which is every day on a farm), lunch is prepared for all by someone who works there: Mari Omland or Laura Olsen, the farmerowners, or one of the interns. (I hear Laura’s mom might get put in the rotation when she moves next door this summer.) What impresses me each time is that the meals are made with whatever is in the fridge— which is primarily what comes from the land we’ve just worked. It’s like that segment on NPR’s The Splendid Table, a program that’s a little too foodie for me, except for the part when a caller tells a celebrity what’s in his or her fridge, and the celebrity has to make a brilliant creation out of it. Our lunches at the farm are similarly experimental and intuitive, mixing pork and chard and eggs and chevre and salsa and ground turkey and tomatillos and radishes in more ways than one could possibly imagine. What did I cook for my first farmers’ lunch? Kielbasa burritos—a true manifestation of multiculturalism in food. Farmer food is the antithesis of most recipes you find in magazines, which try to be memorable by being complex. Yet, as we were putting together this issue of Local Banquet, I realized that improvised farm lunches have a lot in common with the recipes we’re running in this issue. Writers Claire Fitts, Katie Spring, and Jen Smith were all highly experimental in the recipe creations they undertook for their articles. Like the folks at Green Mountain Girls Farm, they were working with a limited ingredient list and following their instincts. As a result, we have an essay on page 8 about turning invasive plants such as Japanese knotweed and garlic mustard into tasty desserts; a firstperson account on page 18 of being a professional recipe developer with an occasional vegan twist; and an article on page 12 about how to adapt favorite baked goods into gluten-free ones. Although recipes aren’t the focus at Local Banquet, we’re happy that synchronicity led most of the recipes in this issue to be paeans to self-taught culinary creativity. Pass the porky popcorn! —Caroline Abels
Publisher Schreiber & Lucas, LLC Editor Caroline Abels Art Director Meg Lucas Ad Director Barbi Schreiber Proofreader Marisa Crumb
Contributors Janet Boyd Eugenie Doyle Claire Fitts Lisa Harris Helen Labun Jordan Suzanne Podhaizer Jennifer Rose Smith Katie Spring Printed with soy ink on FSC certified 50% recycled chlorine–free paper Subscriptions, $22 Subscribe online or send checks to: Vermont’s Local Banquet PO Box 69 Saxtons River, VT 05154 localbanquet.com 802-869-1236 we welcome letters to the editor info@localbanquet.com
vermont’s LOCAL Banquet Mission Statement The purpose of our publication is to promote and support our local communities. By focusing on fresh, local, wholesome foods grown and made in Vermont, we preserve our environment, grow our economy, and enhance our nutrition. Vermont’s Local Banquet (ISSN 1946–0295) is published quarterly. Subscriptions are $22 annually and are mailed in the spring, summer, fall, and winter. Please make checks payable to Vermont’s Local Banquet. Thank you. Copyright (c) 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced without written consent. Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers or editors.
On the cover :Jersey Girls Dairy, Chester; photo by Barbi Schreiber. Contents page : Son of Silas Butson, Farm Security Administration client, helping to cut the hay. Athens, Vermont; photo by Jack Delano, 1941.
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garden pathways
Weed Eater by Jennifer Rose Smith
I planned the dinner with Emerson’s optimism and an eye on my backyard. Through spring’s soaking rains I watched Japanese knotweed swell beside the garden shed and was cheered by the sight of garlic mustard peeping up between the raspberry canes. When slender stalks rose amidst the mustard’s heart-shaped leaves and a few early flowers appeared, it was time to send out the invitations. “Dinner will be served at 7:30,” I wrote, then headed to the basement for the work gloves that had gathered dust since last October. Since moving to the Northeast I’ve learned to love wild foods, and fiddlehead-ricotta tarts are hot sellers at my farmers’ market. But I like the idea of eating weeds even better. When the snow melted away this year, I saw tenacious invasive plants outgrow our casually tended perennials. Weary of a dark-months diet of beets and squash, I thought surely there was something good to eat among the spiny, bitter volunteers that were cropping up in the yard. Transforming unwanted plants into dinner seemed like classic kitchen alchemy. I wanted to fill my belly and tend my ragged backyard at the same time, so I decided to dedicate a day to weeding and then cooking what I pulled from the ground. Although the species of noxious weeds that were crowding out the raspberries pose a serious threat to Vermont’s ecosystems, I was eager for ingredients; quietly, I began to urge on the much-reviled invasives. uuu Garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata, is native to Eurasia and was introduced to North America in the 19th century as a culinary herb. Since that time it has made itself at home thanks to some clever adaptations, such as the production of allelochemicals that suppress mycorrhizal fungi in the soil, inhibiting the growth of other plants. The leaves contain natural anti-freezing agents, which allow the plants to overwinter unharmed, even in chilly northern Vermont. Recipes abound for Alliaria petiolata, and I’d tried a few in the past. Last summer, I ground
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the rounded basal leaves into an inedibly bitter pesto. Still, someone liked the plant enough to bring it across the Atlantic and plant it in their garden as a reminder of home. Garlic mustard, I thought, deserved another try. Japanese knotweed, Fallopia Japonica, came to the United States from Japan, where it is known as itadori, and is wild-harvested for food and as a medicinal plant. Like garlic mustard, it has a few culinary obstacles to overcome. Fallopia Japonica must be harvested when it’s very young and tender, and foragers describe the flavor as similar to rhubarb, but more astringent. Unsurprisingly, many recipes for using Japanese knotweed suggest cutting the taste with large quantities of sugar. By yanking the knotweed and garlic mustard from my backyard, I’d be doing more than improving my raspberry crop. The state of Vermont considers both of those plants to be Class B noxious weeds, which means they’re non-native and “pose a serious threat to the State,” although they’re not so widespread as to be insurmountable. I figured that by knocking down a few weeds in my patch of the Green Mountain State, I was doing my patriotic duty, holding a front line against some very pushy flatland fauna. If I was doing all that weeding I wanted to make it count. Both knotweed and garlic mustard can be pretty tricky to eradicate. Knotweed has an extensive underground rhizome network-horizontal plant stems that can extend up to 60 feet. When disturbed they send up new shoots, so digging it up doesn’t work. If knotweed isn’t too established, you can cut it just above the ground every year for several years, in hopes of weakening the organism. Little bits of the stem can germinate into entirely new plants, so it’s important to discard them carefully (and not throw them onto the compost heap). By contrast, garlic mustard reproduces only by seed, but the seeds are viable for up to seven years and can mature even after the plant has been pulled from the ground. Because of the existing seed bank in the soil, getting the garlic mustard out of my backyard will be a multi-year project; it looks like I’ll be planning another weed-eating dinner party this time next year, and probably for the following six.
Photos by Jennifer Rose Smith
‘What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Like Japanese knotweed, garlic mustard should never be thrown onto the compost heap. Any part of either plant that doesn’t get eaten should be taken to a commercial compost facility, or bagged and taken to a landfill. uuu The morning of the dinner party, I donned some gloves and headed for the garden. The situation was worse than I had thought. Garlic mustard was everywhere, entwined with raspberry canes, nestled up against the fence, and extending down the steep hill behind the house. I set to work, first filling a basket, then making several large heaps of the weeds. The ground was damp from a light rain and the plants loosened easily, roots intact. Somehow, much of the Japanese knotweed was already huge, with stems as high as my waist and fat as a roll of quarters. I chopped it down, bagging the big stems and saving the smaller stems for the kitchen. When I’d cleared the yard of weeds, I had a giant pile of garlic mustard that I began to nibble from, sampling little bits of the various plants. I’d heard that some individuals are more bitter than others, and while a few leaves were too powerful for my taste, others had a strong but pleasant mustard flavor. To my surprise, I found that I preferred eating from plants that had already flowered. With so many to choose from, I harvested leaves selectively, taking small, triangular leaves from the top third of the stem. I went inside and gently cooked these in butter, melting them into a dark green heap. The bitterness was still pronounced, so I balanced it by incorporating it into a rich quiche along with sweet, caramelized onions. To emphasize the mustard flavors in the dish, I added a thin layer of whole-grain mustard and finished off the slim tart with a dusting of sharp Vermont cheddar. Moving onto the knotweed, I chopped the stubby stalks into chunks and simmered them with a bit of brown sugar. Once they were sweetened the flavor was pleasant, with a lemony taste that I liked. Since I’d waited until most of the knotweed grew tall and woody, though, I didn’t have enough of the smaller growth for the Knotweed Fools that I wanted to make, so I added a chopped pear to the simmering pot to make up the difference. That evening, as my husband and I and some friends passed around plates heaped with Garlic Mustard Quiche (see localbanquet.com for recipe), I looked with satisfaction at the garden, finally cleared of all those weeds. While I nibbled at my Knotweed and Pear Fool, however, I had to wonder if Emerson was right about weeds’ hidden virtues. Sure, I’d managed to turn a couple of Vermont’s invasive species into a meal, but only by combining them with enough butter and sugar to make cardboard appetizing. I wouldn’t love either plant in a salad. By suggesting that weeds have qualities that are yet to be discovered, Emerson was challenging the way we classify plants but with a human-centric perspective that now seems naïve. The more I’ve learned about garlic mustard and Japanese knotweed, the more impressed I am by their highly adapted dispersal methods, their resilience, and their range. From their
own perspective, Vermont’s noxious weeds are as virtuous as can be. So, I have to disagree with Emerson. Weeds have all kinds of virtues, from rhizome nets to allelochemicals, but it doesn’t mean that we, or Vermont’s native flora, are going to like them very much. As far as eating the weeds, well, as long as I’m pulling them, I like the idea of turning them into dinner, and that quiche was pretty darn tasty. While garlic mustard and Japanese knotweed might bring an impressive array of adaptations to the table, humans have developed some effective tools to eat them. Until they stop cropping up, I’ll keep eating away at the weeds in my garden armed with butter, sugar, and a good pair of work gloves. Jennifer Rose Smith lives a sweet double life in Burlington. During the summer she makes globally inspired pastries at her farmers’ market bakery, The Nomadic Oven. The rest of the time she writes, travels, taps maple trees, and generally lives it up. Read more of her writing at: www.thenomadicoven.com For more information on Vermont’s invasive plants, check out The Nature Conservancy’s new website, www.vtinvasives.org.
Japanese Knotweed Fool A fool is an English dessert that dates to the 16th century and is so easy to make that you barely need a recipe. All it takes is some heavy cream and a bit of fruit purée. I didn’t have enough knotweed to feed everyone at my weedeating dinner, so I made a Knotweed-Pear Fool, but knotweed would work well alone or combine beautifully with many fruits. 1–2 cups chopped fruit, such as knotweed, pears, peaches, berries, or a blend 1 cup heavy cream sugar to taste Simmer the knotweed, and other optional fruit, with a splash of water and sugar to taste. When the knotweed has broken down smoothly, press through a food mill or sieve to remove the knotweed fibers. Chill. Put a spoonful of knotweedfruit purée into the bottom of 6 transparent demitasse cups or shot glasses, 2–3 ounces. Whip the cream, sweetened to taste, to soft peaks, and use a rubber spatula to fold in the remaining fruit purée, leaving unincorporated swirls of the fruit throughout the cream. Spoon into the glasses, mounding the cream above the rim, and top with a few edible flowers, such as lilacs. Chill until serving, up to several hours.
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A Smokin’ Place How Vermont Smoke & Cure grew from a small smokehouse to a smoking powerhouse by Caroline Abels The previous home of Vermont Smoke & Cure was at the end of the Exit 6 ramp off I-89, at the bottom of a long hill, at the first stoplight on the corner, inside the back of a gas station. “Don’t laugh,” the company’s website said. “Remember that other Vermont food company that started out in a gas station (hint: the ice cream guys).” But now, just as Ben & Jerry’s eventually did, Vermont Smoke & Cure has grown out of its original gas station headquarters. The smokehouse recently moved from South Barre into a bigger facility—a much bigger facility—to better accommodate the region’s insatiable and mounting demand for…bacon. Well, there’s also demand for locally produced ham and summer sausage and pepperoni and other kinds of meats crafted by Vermont Smoke & Cure—so much so that the business is anticipated to grow 30 to 40 percent a year for the foreseeable future, as it has for the past few years. It’s been a long road, going from being a small smokehouse that created comfort food for the now-shuttered Farmers’ Diner to occupying 21,000 square feet in the former Saputo cheese factory in Hinesburg. Walking into the new building, one is struck by the 30-foothigh ceilings, whitewashed walls, brand-new lighting, and freshly painted floors, as well as the excitement of the 15 employees who no longer have to work in the cramped South Barre space. The move—and the business’s expansion—has been overseen by Chris Bailey, a business school graduate who in 2005 was hired by the founder of the Farmers’ Diner, Todd Murphy, to help with marketing and finance. The diner, located in Barre at the time, closed soon after Chris arrived, and the smokehouse it had been running in the old Rollins smokehouse behind the Shell station was spun out and made a separate business, to be overseen by Chris. “It was way too revolutionary an idea then,” Chris says of the Farmers’ Diner, which opened in 1999, just before the local food movement took off. “[Todd] was able to prove that people were interested in the food, that he could buy the food, and that you could make the cost of goods work, but it was a struggling momand-pop.” A handful of people who were involved with the business back then say that location and management issues led to the demise of the chain, which also opened—and then closed—locations in Quechee and Middlebury. 10 local banquet
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uuu As a standalone business, and even when it was part of the Farmers’ Diner, Vermont Smoke & Cure did a lot of smoking for local farmers who needed a place to get their pork bellies turned into bacon. It still does USDA-inspected processing of ham and bacon for small-scale farmers, but today that’s only 2 percent of the business, in terms of revenue. The main focus is on buying meat from farms, processing it from scratch, and selling it under the Vermont Smoke & Cure label. Contrary to what consumers may assume, given the name of the business, only 6 percent of the meat bought by Vermont Smoke & Cure is from Vermont animals. The meat for its “natural” line comes from a Certified Humane farm in Quebec and from Coleman Natural, a Colorado company that buys from farms across the country. Other U.S. and Canadian suppliers provide meat for the “traditional” line. Smoke & Cure puts the phrase “Vermont grown” on the products made with Vermont meat. The other products say “Made from meat grown in the U.S. and Canada.” This will change, however, this summer, when all the Vermontraised meat will be sold under the label “5 Knives.” It’s a product name designed to “tell the story” of the five professions that contribute to the production of local smoked meat in Vermont: the farmer, the grain grower, the butcher, the smoker, and the chef or home consumer. Smoke & Cure hopes the label will help their Vermont-raised product stand out in stores. “It’s a great way to encapsulate everything that’s involved— another way to say that it takes a community to raise bacon,” Chris says. After the 5 Knives launch, the familiar Vermont Smoke & Cure label will only be used on non-Vermont meat.
Right now the “first knife”—the farmer—is Greg Finch of Franklin, who raises all the pork for the company’s Vermontgrown ham, sausages, and uncured bacon. Greg’s farm is pasture based, and the grain for the pigs comes from a farmer down the road (the “second knife”). The pigs are then processed at Vermont Livestock in Ferrisburg (the “third knife”). The partnership works because Black River Produce, a Springfield-based food distribution company, buys Greg’s pigs jointly with Smoke & Cure and the two companies split the various parts according to what each one needs. “It’s a heritage breed, on a single farm, the farmer has total control, the grain is grown locally from non-GMO seed, and the pigs are out on pasture, so it’s much better than anything we’re able to buy out of Canada,” Chris says. He adds that he’d like to purchase more Vermont-raised pork but the quantities aren’t there yet, and the kinks are still being worked out in the current partnership. However, in recent years, retail demand for Smoke & Cure’s “natural” line of products has far surpassed demand for its “traditional” products. uuu Chris has had a peripatetic life working for numerous smallscale food ventures and farms in the Northeast. More settled now than ever, he is widely credited with making Smoke & Cure what it is today. “This has been a long time coming and he’s been very patient,” says Janice St. Onge, who runs one of the financing sources for Smoke & Cure’s expansion (see sidebar). “He’s one of those people who can execute.”
Flexing Muscle Among the handful of entities helping to finance Vermont Smoke & Cure’s move into a giant former cheese factory in Hinesburg is a small, emerging financial tool launched by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF) to support businesses in the food, forestry, renewable energy, waste management, and environmental technology sectors. Called the VSJF Flexible Capital Fund L3C, it offers financing that falls somewhere between a loan and an equity investment. With equity investments, an investor purchases a piece of ownership in a business and gets a significant return relatively rapidly; with a traditional loan, a business must provide adequate collateral. Yet small, growing Vermont food companies often don’t have sufficient collateral to secure a loan or the ability to create a large, quick return that would attract an equity investor. The “Flex Fund,” as it is known, solves this by making “equity-like” loans without an ownership requirement. These higher risk loans don’t require collateral and are often repaid through a revenue share (or royalty) payment over a longer period of time than an investor or lender might usually require. The tactic is akin to the “Slow Money” approach becoming increasingly popular with investors who prefer supporting a meaningful project over making a quick buck. “If a company’s revenues drop significantly for whatever reason, with a royalty loan they’re not locked into a set monthly principle and interest payment,” says Janice St. Onge, president of the Flex Fund. “If their revenues go down, they pay less, if they go up, they pay more.” Flex Fund loans, capitalized by accredited investors and foundations, and “flexible” in their terms, are designed to be complementary with other types of financing. That was the case with Vermont Smoke & Cure, which also secured funding from government agencies, lenders, banks, and mission investors. The company received the first loan issued by the Flex Fund.
Photos by Caroline Abels
He’s also, in addition to being the CEO, one of 20 owners of the smokehouse, some of whom were early investors in the Farmers’ Diner. He calls them “a patient money group,” as the return on their investment will not be as rapid as it might be with other ventures. And just as the diner was unique for its time, Vermont Smoke & Cure is pretty unique in Vermont today. It’s one of only two USDA-inspected smokehouses in the state that do privatelabel work for farmers, allowing them to sell their products out of state. Smoke & Cure also sells gluten-free meat snacks. Called RealSticks, they’re made not only with Quebec pork but also beef from Pineland Farms, a Maine-based purchaser of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic beef. In early May, Chris noted on the company’s Facebook page that after a long day of moving equipment into the new
“Smoke & Cure was a great example of a number of different kinds of funders coming together to provide the right mix of capital and support for this business to stay and grow in Vermont,” St. Onge says. For more information on the Flex Fund, go to vsjf.org/ what-we-do/flexible-capital-fund. —Caroline Abels facility, he and other employees celebrated with some gumbo at a Hinesburg restaurant. He thanked the restaurant in a post and wrote, “Let’s talk andouille someday soon.” At this rate, it wouldn’t be surprising if andouille sausage from Smoke & Cure was on that restaurant’s menu sooner rather than later. Caroline Abels is the editor of Local Banquet and the founder-editor of Humaneitarian.org, a website that inspires people to buy and eat humanely raised meat. S u m m e r
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set the table with…
Gluten-free baked goods by Katie Spring We fell in love over dessert—pie to be specific—and when our relationship began, a friend exclaimed to Edge, “This is perfect! Katie loves to bake, and you love to eat baked goods!” The truth is, we both love to bake and eat, so for one whole summer we enticed each other with homemade bread, muffins, and treats made of flour and sugar and butter, stuffing dozens of cookies in our packs for each climbing or hiking trip. During that same summer, Edge was battling a parasite he’d picked up in Mexico the winter before. After many weeks of seeing naturopathic doctors, he finally gave in to a three-day antibiotic regimen, which killed the parasite for good and wiped his gut clean at the same time. That changed everything. At first, he felt better than he had for months (the parasite was finally gone), but as the weeks went on, new problems arose—heavy limbs and intense fatigue—and Edge slowly came to associate them with gluten intake, a fact he fought hard to deny. After much deduction and many conversations with gluten-free folks, we came to suspect that the antibiotics triggered Edge’s new sensitivity. And since gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and spelt, almost all familiar grains became suspect. Suddenly, bread was out of the picture. Cookies were a definite no. Pies could only be eaten down to the crust. Luckily, our relationship had grown enough that this dietary change did not make our feelings stale. On the contrary, gluten-free baking, along with our marriage, has provided a new realm of possibilities. Re-learning to bake We started out with the most popular gluten-free mixes: Pamela’s, Bob’s Red Mill, and Namaste and found that those with predominately sorghum flour and/or rice flour had the lightest texture and best flavor. Garbanzo bean, or chickpea, flour can have an overwhelming bean-y taste, and even when used sparingly its flavor stands out. (Since we tend to bake cookies, brownies, muffins, pancakes, waffles, and the like, we don’t use much garbanzo bean flour.) Our favorite mix is Pamela’s Pancake and Waffle Mix, which makes great scones and other baked goods, but one 4-lb. bag costs $16, and when you make pancakes three times a week, this becomes expensive. Many mixes also contain additives like xanthum 12 local banquet
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gum, soy lecithin, and modified starches. We try to steer clear of anything that had to be processed in a lab or factory, and thus began our exploration and experimentation with whole gluten-free grains and baking. First of all, it’s different. Sometimes you can substitute a cup of wheat flour for a cup of a gluten-free mix—that’s how we started with cornbread—but if you want to create your own recipes or transform old favorites into gluten-free recipes, you have to be willing to re-learn how to bake, using unusual kinds of flour. Surprising as it may seem, flour can be made from almost any grain, seed or bean, and even from dried potatoes—once these foods are put through a grinder or a mill, they become flour. This past summer, we grew two varieties of dry corn and bought a grain grinder that can turn grains, corn, and beans into flour, so we have been using a lot of fresh cornmeal, along with brown rice flour, buckwheat, and millet. (Millet becomes rancid quickly and must be used fresh, so it is best to grind it yourself; if you don’t have a grain grinder, it can be ground in a blender.) Grinding our own grains has brought a delightful new taste into our lives— cornmeal tastes like fresh corn and there is no rancid bitterness to the brown rice or millet—and as with all foods, the fresher the better. Growing your own grains is empowering and exciting, but there are also many Vermont farmers growing and processing grains such as cornmeal and oats. (If you are completely gluten intolerant, make sure the oats were not grown near or processed on the same equipment as wheat, since oats can become contaminated this way.) Morningstar Meadow Farm in Glover grows oats and dry beans; Solstice Seeds in Hartland grows oats and experiments with quinoa, rice, corn, and sorghum; and Butterworks Farm in Westfield grows buckwheat, corn, and oats. Also, VTbeancrafters.com is a great resource for finding local dry beans that can be ground into flour,
and the Northern Grain Growers website, northerngraingrowers.org, has a wealth of information on all types of grains (gluten and gluten-free) grown in New England.
Photo courtesy of Katie Spring
Second, take chances. We have made cookies that fall apart into crumbs, pancakes that are too heavy, and bread that is… interesting. Even now, our pancakes change each time we make them, but that is more because of our cooking style and reliance on feel rather than recipes. Our basic pancake ingredients are as follows: brown rice flour, buckwheat, millet, yogurt, egg, water, butter or sunflower oil, sea salt, baking soda, and poppy seeds. Sometimes we don’t have millet, sometimes we use only rice flour, sometimes we throw in a bit of cornmeal, and sometimes we use milk. It all depends on what is at hand. If you do like to follow recipes, still take chances. Over the course of a few months of baking cornbread, we have arrived at a final product we like so much that we follow the same formula each time. Third, mix and match. I have to admit, I love wheat bread, and I still bake sourdough loaves once every week or two, but since Edge became gluten free, the diversity of grains in my diet has increased dramatically. Wheat was once the primary grain I bought and baked with, occasionally adding in oats and cornmeal, but now I can add buckwheat, sorghum, garbanzo bean, millet, and brown rice flours to the list. Plus, there are many more flours to explore: amaranth, chestnut, lupin, potato, quinoa, soy, and tapioca. Diversity and pairing of grains increases good health. Take buckwheat and millet, for example. Gene Logsdon, author of Small Scale Grain Raising, writes that buckwheat has a “high content of lysine, a protein our bodies need but can’t make and that is hard to come by in most other grains,” and, “[Millet] is nutritionally superior to many of our common grains, containing more essential amino acids than wheat, oats, rice, barley, and rye. It lacks only lysine, the amino acid buckwheat is high in, making buckwheat and millet a good combination in your diet.” A breakfast of buckwheat and millet pancakes does indeed keep me full and energized all the way to lunchtime, a feat that buttermilk pancakes with white flour attempts but never achieves. Fourth, keep learning. There are many great books out now about gluten-free baking. My first foray into this genre began with babycakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York’s Most Talked-About Bakery, by Erin McKenna. These recipes are great if you are vegan or on an elimination diet and still need your dessert fix, but I love eggs and dairy products and find them so useful in creating gluten-free baked goods that I have strayed from the recipes in babycakes.
An unlikely but fantastic source of gluten-free recipes is the book Bread Matters: The State of Modern Bread and a Definitive Guide to Baking Your Own, by Andrew Whitley. He has a 25-page section on gluten-free baking, including a helpful table of grains, and recipes for rice sourdough, pizza bases, cakes, and pastries. This is an especially wonderful book if you are like me and continue to also bake with gluten-filled grains. If you are interested in growing your own grains, Small Scale Grain Raising: An Organic Guide to Growing, Processing, and Using Nutritious Whole Grains for Home Gardeners and Local Farmers, by Gene Logsdon, is a wonderfully written guide filled with personal anecdotes, instructions, history, and recipes. Last, enjoy! You don’t have to be gluten free to enjoy the delicious possibilities of gluten-free baking. Just as farms and communities benefit from diversity, your body will benefit, too, so add a few new grains to your diet and feel the energy they bring. Katie Spring began farming in 2009 in Northfield, at Green Mountain Girls Farm. She loves traveling and writing, has WOOFed in New Zealand, and managed a school garden in Fairbanks, Alaska. She now lives with her husband and two dogs in a yurt on Applecheek Farm in Hyde Park and writes weekly for her blog Running Barefoot, at kathrynspring.wordpress.com.
Cornbread Adapted from The New Moosewood Cookbook butter for the pan 2 cups freshly ground cornmeal, soaked 2 tsp. baking powder ½ tsp. basking soda ½ tsp. salt 1 cup plain yogurt 1 egg 3 tbs. honey 3 tbs. melted butter *To soak corn: mix with water and let soak for 7 hours (simply start the soak in the morning and you will be ready to bake by mid-afternoon). Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9" cast-iron skillet with butter and heat it in oven. Combine dry ingredients (including soaked corn) in medium bowl. Mix together the wet ingredients, then add to dry and stir to combine (the result will be somewhat more runny than most cornbread recipes). Remove pan from oven and pour in batter. Bake until the center is firm to the touch and the top is golden brown; let set until cooled—if you cut into it too soon, it will be more like corn pudding. The result will be moist and rich.
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Part ll: Seeds and Soil by Suzanne Podhaizer
Reflections of a Restaurateur
As I wandered past the other stalls, examining emerald spinach, rounds of bloomy-rind goat cheese, and pungent wild leeks, I couldn’t shake off the sense that the sarcastic farmer thought I was a fool, perhaps an arrogant one at that, for not leaving the seeding and weeding to professionals. But I’m convinced that this is a move in the right direction. In 2010, before Salt was even open, I’d already begun dreaming up plans for a large garden that could supply some of its produce. Given our focus on making things from scratch—bread, crème fraîche, ice cream, ravioli—scratching around in the dirt seemed like a natural extension. But I didn’t have land, let alone a greenhouse, so the idea lay fallow until a lucky conversation last winter over some Allagash beer and a plate of smoked meat. Every Thursday evening, Nutty Steph’s Vermont Granola and Chocolate Shop in Middlesex morphs into a bar, offering truffles, flights of bacon, and banjo music to order from a “song menu.” The event provides a gathering spot for farmers, foodies, artists, and musicians. It’s a raucous and intimate environment, which can sometimes be fodder for conversations that would otherwise not happen and opportunities that would otherwise not arise. One such night, I learned that Jaquelyn Rieke and Josie Green, Nutty Steph’s co-owners, had purchased a campground in Marshfield, intending to use it as a farm and intentional community. It was a little forward, but I couldn’t resist popping the question that night. “Is there enough land for me to use some for a small farm?” I asked casually, a strip of fat-slicked meat dangling from my fingertips. Jaquelyn answer was yes, and her follow-up was even better. “We’ve got a really big greenhouse,” she noted. “You can use some of that, too.” A few weeks later we came to a financial agreement and the Salt farm was born. uuu From a restaurateur’s point of view, growing ingredients is an easy way to differentiate one’s dishes from those produced by others. A few years ago, I noticed that I could recognize a particular farmer’s mesclun blend and that it was showing up in salads at a bundle of local eateries. It’s a wonderful mix, packed with flavor, and it’s thrilling that so many restaurants are buying local lettuce. But with our own patch of greens, our salads will fluctuate in wild, colorful ways as we harvest edible flowers, a plethora of herbs, baby butterhead lettuces, and Asian mustards. Perhaps we’ll mix the homegrown items with those from another farm or two. Maybe some weeks we’ll have enough of our own. It’s understandable that those who grow food professionally in Vermont tend not to grow the unusual items we’re planning, or don’t grow them in large quantities. During the harvest, farmers rake in significant income with cherry tomatoes and ears of super-sweet corn. How much money is there in growing scads of shiso or salad burnet, when few Vermonters are familiar with them and fewer still regularly employ it in their kitchens?
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Wikimedia Commons photos from top to bottom: Hopi red dye amaranth, garland chrysanthemum, stinging nettle, salad burnet, and anise hyssop.
When I tell farmers that I’m planning to grow a portion of the food for my Montpelier restaurant, sometimes they laugh at me. “Good luck with that,” one wiry, tanned grower at the farmers’ market chortled, noting that I’d probably lose money for the first three years rather than save a bundle. “Let me know how it goes for you,” he suggested as I walked away, a wicked gleam in his eye.
Salt, of course, needs some typical items, too—onions, carrots, and celery for stock, buttery golden potatoes for all kinds of things—and we won’t be growing any of them. The last thing we want to do is to stop buying from central Vermont farmers, the ones who do this for a living, so we’ll be purchasing our staple ingredients from them. The brand-new Farm at Vermont Compost will be one of our major suppliers, and we plan to supplement their produce with goods from our neighbors at Owl Hill Farm in Plainfield and Wellspring Farm in Marshfield (just 2.6 miles down the road from the campground). Saving money is certainly another reason why I’m starting a micro-farm for Salt; the profit margins at restaurants are notoriously small, and anything that improves the bottom line is a boon. Luckily, Salt dropped just a few hundred dollars on seeds and will spend a bit more on equipment, and because I’m on salary, my labor is already accounted for. If we produce a mere 120 pounds of food for which we would otherwise have paid five dollars a pound, we’ll have made back our investment, minus the time I’m happy to give. Some of my tasks at the restaurant will be delegated to others during the growing season, and I plan to work more than usual. In return, I expect to be fit, tan and a little bit wiser at the end of the growing season even if my hourly wage has dropped to nearly nothing. In any case, the financial aspect of this project isn’t the most important motivation. Just as appealing, if not more, are the benefits of working outdoors, gaining a better understanding of what it takes to produce what we use, and adding delicious (practically free) vegetables to our staff meals. (Staffers will be helping me with all aspects of the garden, and will get excess veggies as part of the deal.)
Suzanne Podhaizer is the owner of Salt in Montpelier. She’s been obsessed with food since she was a youngster, designed her own degree in “Food Studies” at the University of Vermont, and spent four years working as the food editor for Seven Days. S u m m e r
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2000 K MADAEstablished M P S ER ARA S M
Visit Us At Our Convenient Downtown Location! 25 regional vendors featuring their freshpicked fruits and produce, cut flowers, grassfed meats, honey and maple syrup, preserved and prepared foods, award winning cheese and wine; alongside quality artisans. Thursdays, Rain or Shine 3pm–6pm, June 7th–October 4th At Adams Park: On Route 7A, in the Heart of Downtown Manchester
manchestermarket.org 518-222-1149 mfmvt@yahoo.com Debit, EBT, Farm to Family Coupons Accepted
Hand crafted hearth baked breads baked in a wood fired oven. Available throughout the region at: Harlow Farm Stand Walpole Grocery Springfield Food Co-op Putney and Brattleboro Food Co-ops or…
I know that I won’t be able to produce my peas, spinach, and chard as efficiently as professional farmers can, but I’m not growing food because I think I can do it better. I expect to make copious mistakes, to shed tears over losses, and to get less sleep than I’m accustomed to. Also, with late planting and shallow topsoil that needs to be built up over time, I’m not expecting bumper crops this year. But if we can produce a few bushels of greens, some cucumbers that we can pickle for the winter and 50—or 500—pounds of rainbow-colored heirloom tomatoes then even if our Middle Eastern red eggplants fail to thrive, my staff and I will be better off for having had the opportunity to dig in the dirt, soak up the sun, and better understand what it takes to supply some of the sustenance we need to make Salt a success.
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There’s also something romantic about the notion of nurturing a plant from before it pushes through the soil and basks in the sun for the first time to the point when it disappears into somebody’s mouth. I imagine serving cooling gazpacho in August and being able to boast that we grew all of the cucumbers and tomatoes ourselves. Or offering a dish of stir-fried long beans and seeing an eater’s eyes grow wide as she realizes that her plate is piled with legumes as long as garter snakes. Explaining that the same people who poured the water and cooked the meal also had their hands in the growing process makes the story of the food a little bit sweeter.
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For Salt to thrive—with its tiny capacity and off-the-main-drag location—it needs to do things differently than other spots. We don’t have signature dishes on which to stake our reputation. Instead, every three weeks, we reinvent our menu, so the more ingredients we have at our fingertips, the easier it is to make each iteration deliciously surprising and to draw new customers as well as regulars. Using fresh garbanzo beans and okra from our garden, plus foraged sumac and Vermont goat or lamb, we’ll be able to showcase the flavors of the Middle East. From another patch, we’ll be able to pluck rich-tasting winter squashes and a variety of beans for drying to use later in cozy, cold-weather dishes.
COME SEE US AT THE BRATTLEBORO FARMERS’ MARKET EVERY SATURDAY
603~835~7845
orchardhillbreadworks.com
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Diversifying Dairy in Vermont Three farms, three stories by Lisa Harris
The couple, now in their 60s, started their farm in 2001 and currently have six Jersey crosses for their raw milk sales. Although the raw milk business had been working well for them—they’d developed a solid customer base selling their milk, along with some other items they and other local folks produce, including eggs, maple syrup, and meats— they recently took a foray into yogurt production. It’s a two-mile trek along a dirt road in Randolph that leads to their farm. “We’re not on the beaten path here, we’re out,” Stuart said. That makes their raw milk sales dependent on people who commit to coming out to the farm. High gas prices this past spring added to the challenge, as more people returned to one-stop shopping at large grocery stores and skipped their occasional trip to the dairy farm. According to Margaret, sales were “sometimes inconsistent, which is why we got into doing the added-value. We thought that might be a good way to use extra milk.” The Oshas began producing and selling their own yogurt last summer, to try to draw in more customers. They were milking five cows and decided to add the sixth for the extra milk needed to make yogurt. But the extra pressures of needing to hire paid help, purchase expensive processing equipment, and provide all the necessary requirements for state inspectors proved to be no small task. Fortunately for them, they were able to construct the processing facility in their garage, which included access to the necessary water and septic systems for processing milk. But they also had to purchase a pasteurizer, chiller, incubator, walk-in cooler, fillers for the yogurt containers, and other equipment. That was a challenge, because some of that small-scale equipment isn’t even made in the U.S. But they did purchase their bulk tank and milking machine from Bob-White Systems, a company in South Royalton that specializes in small-scale dairy equipment. 16 local banquet
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With all of the challenges creating the processing room, locating appropriately sized equipment and dealing with U.S. customs when they purchased an incubator from the Netherlands—along with the current economy and Tropical Storm Irene—Stuart told me, “In retrospect it was probably a mistake for us. We would’ve been better off just selling our raw milk and having our store and our other products.” There is a lot of yogurt already on the market. When the existing shelf space is 12 feet long, creating customer loyalty is difficult to achieve alongside well-known brands such as Stonyfield and Cabot. And finding ways to ship the product to stores can be frustrating for a small operation like Turkey Hill. The Oshas had very little time outside of their farming chores to drive around Vermont delivering their yogurt. Arrangements with other distributors didn’t work out, so once a week they were delivering to Hunger Mountain Co-op in Montpelier and hooked up with Farmers To You, which distributes Northeast farm products to families in the Boston area who commit to purchasing a minimum dollar amount from a list of offerings. A few weeks after I interviewed the Oshas, they informed me that they had decided to make some major changes. They will be handing over the cows and raw milk business to a young farmer from Randolph, Clark Parmelee, who will also set up a small store where other products may be purchased. Yogurt and fresh cheeses will no longer be produced at Turkey Hill, but Fat Toad Farm will continue to make their goat cheeses in the processing room. The farm will become the Osha homestead, where Margaret will continue her educational classes and both she and Stuart will remain chapter leaders for the Weston A. Price Foundation. But back in April, as I prepared to leave the farm, Stuart told me, “What I’d like you to leave with is that the raw milk business is a good, viable small business, and if you can do other products, whatever you can do yourselves, I think it works.” uuu Cobb Hill is an intentional co-housing community that sits on the side of a hill in Hartland. Jeannine Kilbride is the director and an owner-partner of Cobb Hill Frozen Yogurt, the community’s latest dairy venture. She is also a resident of Cobb Hill and works in both the cheesemaking and frozen yogurt enterprises there. She met me one chilly morning to talk about the business and to give me a tour. Of the farm’s herd of 40 or so cows, 16 Jerseys currently provide milk for Cobb Hill Cheese, Cobb Hill Frozen Yogurt, and Spring Brook Farm, which makes cheese in Reading. At peak time in the summer they milk 20 cows. Only so much milk can be used for cheesemaking, though, so Cobb Hill wanted to
Photo by Elizabeth Ferry
Turkey Hill Farm sits on 50 acres of land in Randolph. The view was breathtaking from Stuart and Margaret Osha’s porch, as we sat one morning in April listening to the songbirds and the happy pigs rooting under the trees. I came to the farm to find out what it’s like to launch a value-added dairy product after years of selling raw milk. A few weeks later, the Oshas announced they will be moving on from farming this fall, but their story remains compelling.
find a product that would utilize more of the milk that is supplied daily, courtesy of the cows, and provide the community with another on-farm product. “Frozen yogurt was developed to give us more business,” Jeannine said. “The thing is with yogurt, everybody’s making yogurt. That’s why I didn’t want to make yogurt, plus it’s very perishable. There’s a lot of competition.” She added that frozen yogurt “has a longer shelf life, a year. It never makes it that long…but I ship it out somewhere and I know that we’re not going to lose it in a couple of weeks. I didn’t want to have a product that was highly perishable.” And Cobb Hill is making the only frozen yogurt in Vermont, which is a great niche to have. Like Turkey Hill, Cobb Hill didn’t have to struggle to set up a processing facility. The cheese production area is shared with the frozen yogurt business. But they did make a substantial investment in purchasing a blast freezer, refrigerator, pasteurizer, and batch freezer used to make the frozen yogurt. They make it in small batches, 250 to 300 pints a week, which are sold in co-ops and food stores both in Vermont and New Hampshire. Compared to the three people working Turkey Hill Farm, Cobb Hill’s location within an intentional community is key to their success. There are people living there who rely on the food produced there and who participate in the enterprises without expecting an immediate paycheck.
Photos by Robert Eddy and Barbi Schreiber
“So I live here, I can get raw milk for myself, cheese, meat, beef, lamb, I can buy some maple syrup,” Jeannine said. “A lot of the time our common meals are everything that comes from the farm—all the vegetables we’re eating were raised here, and meats, whoever’s cooking will make some homemade bread. It just makes us feel good that we can be doing something like that. It’s not always profit driven.” In addition, there are other folks who provide valuable consulting resources and often get paid by barter—a gallon of maple syrup or some pints of frozen yogurt—for their time helping with business planning, administrative assistance, and institutional memory from previous years of enterprise work there. I asked Jeannine how she thinks Cobb Hill can become more popular with Vermont consumers. “The only way I see that’s going to happen is to get our products into the big chain stores because people don’t have time to go to the farmers’ market and Shaw’s and the co-op.” Unfortunately, though, there is a lot of red tape involved in that pursuit. Hannaford has expressed interest in Cobb Hill Frozen Yogurt, “but the process is excruciatingly painful, to say the least. I fill out some forms, then two months later I finally pick up the phone and say, what’s going on? And then I’ll be
e-mailed some other form, I fill out that form, then it will be another couple of months.” The subject of distribution also came up. “Blue Moon Sorbet was helping with our deliveries. I’ve had an offer from Leonardo’s Gelato to distribute…So you can get people who are willing to truck your product around who are already doing it, which is good for them. Wilcox Ice Cream is also offering.” Jeannine stresses that it’s important to find out who is located along their routes, and speak directly to the stores to find a way in. One alternative that Jeannine is exploring is a group called the Organic Renaissance Food Exchange (ORFoodEx). Based in Boston, it facilitates relationships between local buyers and local producers to strengthen the Northeast local food system, providing pickup, delivery, and storage space options for the regional farmers. “I think ORFoodEx is going to be big,” Jeannine said. uuu Lisa Kaiman runs Jersey Girls Farm in Chester. She took time from one of her busy days to tell me about the successes, and challenges, of operating a grass-based, raw milk dairy—one that might sell ricotta and pasteurized milk soon, and eventually butter. Lisa started out shipping her milk through Agrimark in 1999. The frustration was evident in her voice when she admitted, “After a few years I realized, every time that milk truck left this cowyard, I was losing money. And if I kept that up I wasn’t going to be here very long.” So she began looking at other alternatives. Consider Bardwell Farm in West Pawlett was looking for cow’s milk to make a high-end cheese. “They needed really high-quality milk out of grass-fed cows because silagefed milk makes cheese gassy.” She supplied them with milk for three or four years, but the one-and-ahalf hour distance “just became prohibitive. We had to cross two mountain ranges, in the winter.” Then she began shipping milk to Spring Brook Farm in Reading for the production of their Tarentaise and Raclette cheeses. That was good for a while, but then along came Tropical Storm Irene. “They couldn’t get here for a month. Their town was destroyed. I had 15 feet of water go through [one of my] fields; it was three feet from my house…I couldn’t ship milk and I didn’t have a road for a while either so that really hurt.” Consequently, she lost that customer and had to just make it through the impacts of Irene. The cows were so stressed that three spontaneously aborted their calves. Those that had already had calves and were producing needed to be milked. And everyone needed to be fed Continued on page 25
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The Development of a Recipe—and a Recipe Developer by Claire Fitts
I got into baking initially because of my restricted diet. I have a malfunctioning pancreas (although not diabetes), which means that refined, quickly absorbed sugars and I just aren’t friends. Sweeteners that hit my bloodstream a little slower than table sugar (like reasonable amounts of maple syrup or agave nectar) are more my speed. But when I was growing up, the sweets that were available to me were either as dry or as tasty as cardboard. So from a young age I took matters into my own hands and started making foods that I not only could eat, but also wanted to eat. Because there existed almost no sweet recipes that I could eat right off the page, I had to start tweaking recipes on day one. I began by just swapping things out here and there. Some things worked and some things needed to be disposed of in the neighbor’s trash. When I started baking for my dining co-op at Oberlin College, I tried out my newly found recipe development skills on other folks’ dietary restrictions. I played with vegan, whole-grain, and gluten-free foods on top of my no-refined-sugar restriction to varying, but usually quite edible success. I learned a lot in that dining co-op. Some folks ask me if I’m “self taught,” and while I never had formal culinary training, I like to think of myself as having had many teachers. Since most of the home cooks I know modify recipes, it took me a while to realize that there was value in my recipe development skills, and it took me longer still to realize that it’s something I’m actually pretty darn good at (if I do say so myself ). This confidence in my palate and logical brain has allowed me to do some really fun stuff. And since this article is about me and what I love to do, rather than based on an ingredient or geared to a client’s needs, I wanted to be able to play. So I decided to work on recipes that were on my “bucket list”—things I had wanted to work on but had never gotten around to or never succeeded in. 18 local banquet
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uuu One of the ways to develop a recipe is to start from one that you know works. This can be one of your own or one that you find online that is similar to your goal recipe. When I work with a recipe I find online, I like to go to recipe websites that include hundreds of reviews from other people who have already tried it out. For this article I started with one that’s familiar to just about everyone: Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. That recipe from the back of the chocolate chip bag —involving butter, flour, sugar, chocolate chips, vanilla, baking soda, and salt—has been tested, tested, and tested again, which makes it a pretty good place to start. The first recipe I wanted to work on was a cornmeal scone. The scone I make at Butterfly Bakery is made with roughcut rolled oats and I always thought that cornmeal would work well in its stead. But rather than just swap ingredients, I wanted to develop a scone that would be centered around the flavors of good local cornmeal. I changed the starting recipe by adding baking powder, cream of tartar (a very classic scone ingredient that reacts with baking soda), and sour cream (makes scones moister than buttermilk), and I used a mix of whole spelt flour (my favorite whole-grain flour) and cornmeal in place of the standard all-purpose flour. I also cut the butter into the recipe cold, rather than creaming it with sugar, because chunks of cold butter will melt in the oven and create little buttery pockets. And because this is just how I roll, I swapped out the sugar for ¾ of the volume of maple syrup. This first batch was too sweet, too buttery, too flat, and while super tasty, it was most definitely not a scone worth publishing. So I upped the baking soda and sour cream, reduced the butter and maple syrup, and then swapped white flour in for the whole spelt (there just wasn’t enough structure in the spelt/ cornmeal combo). That was uber tasty, but I decided to up the ante for batch three, so I added some crumbled blue cheese and chopped red jalapeño pieces to the batter and, oh my, was that a winner (see sidebar recipe). I also rolled the final scoop of each ball of batter in extra white flour. Another baker taught me this trick years ago (I use it on my Butterfly Bakery scones). The flour helps to hold in the melting chunks of butter and creates a kind of buttery layer on the outside. It’s very extremely super yummy. uuu The next recipe that my brain thought would be fun was a rye cake. I had never tried or even heard of a rye cake but
Photo by Claire Fitts
When I entered college I planned on being a computer programmer, but by the time graduation rolled around, plans had changed. My baking hobby was fast becoming a professional interest, and while it might not seem like a clear path from computer science and applied math major to choosing a career in baking and recipe development, both interests make good use of my logical brain that likes to play. I spent a couple of years working in other kitchens before I got the nerve to start Butterfly Bakery of Vermont, and I love the repetitive day in, day out of the wholesale baking gig. But my recipe development gives me some room to play without having to create and maintain whole new product lines for stores.
Blue Cheese Jalapeño Cornmeal Scone the flavors seemed to be something that could be interesting and tasty. I’ve been trying to expand my palate beyond standard flavors and think less about re-creating things that other people have already made than creating new things that just taste good. And while I’m not vegan myself, I don’t think being vegan (or having dairy or egg allergies) means having to eat gross things. So I decided to make this cake vegan for the folks who swing that way. I started with the chocolate chip cookie recipe and swapped the flour for a mix of whole spelt and rye, upped the baking soda (it seemed like it would yield a better flavor than baking powder for what I was thinking in my head), swapped maple in for sugar out (about three-quarters of the volume), switched the butter for oil (oil works well for cakes, is easier to use with maple syrup, and would allow this cake to be vegan), substituted arrowroot dissolved in water for the eggs (my favorite egg substitute), added water (water evaporates in the oven, creating air pockets that the leaveners can expand to create that familiar fluffy cake texture that’s so yummy), and added spices for interest (fennel, cinnamon, cloves, and orange oil). The first cake I made was…delicious. That sometimes happens: something will taste great on the first try. Usually that’s cause for celebration, but I had two problems here. One was that this didn’t make for interesting recipe development article commentary and two was that the cake didn’t have nearly as interesting a flavor as I would like. If I’m encouraging someone to go to the store and buy rye flour, I want that rye flour to say something, but unless you were told that this perfectly yummy cake had rye flour, you probably wouldn’t know. I played around with the recipe a few more times, but ultimately wasn’t feeling it. I took a walk through Montpelier’s Hubbard Park, mulled over my recipe quandary, and had a yum epiphany. I decided to totally change the cake. I decided to make it a ginger cake (with only whole spelt flour), with a lemon-peach filling and a maple cinnamon cream cheese frosting (see recipe on page 27). That sounded super good in my head. The Cake Formerly Known as Rye only took a couple tweaks in the kitchen to make something I was totally excited about. The rye flour could wait for another cake. For those astute vegan observers who noticed that the cake is vegan and the frosting is not, I would recommend a sweet potato frosting. Purée up some roasted sweet potatoes with a little non-hydrogenated margarine, agave nectar (or maple syrup), and vanilla extract. It’s shockingly orange and shockingly delicious. Lest you think that every recipe comes up roses in three to five batches, I should note here my failure with a third recipe attempt. Turns out that developing three difficult-to-develop (yet easy-to-reproduce) recipes on a deadline was a little too much to hope for. After the 14th batch of what was supposed to be vegan coconut cardamom shortbread and a looming publication date for this magazine, I had to admit defeat. I started out just thinking that I would create a coconut cardamom cookie. Coconut oil is something that has recently got-
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour plus more for coating (about a cup) ¾ cup coarse cornmeal 1 ¼ tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. cream of tartar 1 ½ tsp. salt ½ cup butter, cold or frozen ½ cup maple syrup 1 cup sour cream, cold 2 tbs. chopped fresh jalapeño ¹/3 cup crumbled blue cheese Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt. With a pastry blender, food processor, or one or two sharp knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until butter is approximately the size of a large pea. If the butter has softened at all, put the mixture into the freezer to cool. Make a well in the center of the flour-butter mixture and add the maple syrup, sour cream, jalapeños, and blue cheese. Mix until just combined. Don’t overmix. Place about 1 cup of flour onto a large plate. With a pair of large spoons or a disher-style ice cream scoop, scoop 1½ inch balls of batter into flour. Roll balls of batter in flour and place, evenly spaced, on baking sheet. Bake at 350 °F for approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown. Move scones from baking sheet to cooling rack immediately after removing from oven. ten on my radar screen and something that I’m interested in playing with and learning about. After batch one or two I realized that it was quite possible that this cookie could be the answer to my longstanding challenge: to make vegan shortbread that actually tastes like shortbread. But after things that tasted like teething biscuits, dog biscuits, raw flour, fried raw flour, and even a couple of cookies that tasted like perfectly good cookies (but not shortbread), I had to concede that perhaps I was not circling the answer but rather circling the drain. I have not truly admitted defeat but have decided to shelve this particular recipe quest for a while, until a better ingredient or knowledge set comes my way (or until I have a spare moment and my frustration with being so close to something good gets the better of me). Until then I will practice recipe development like Jay Leno practices standup comedy. All the time. Claire Fitts is the owner of Butterfly Bakery of Vermont, as well as a professional recipe developer and yum epiphanator. Check out her recipe blog at GoodGrub.ButterflyBakeryVT.com or email her directly at claire@ButterflyBakeryVT.com S u m m e r
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seeds for change
Farming without Harm by Helen Labun Jordan
Ray Bernier, like many farmers, is inventive. When he realized he needed to transition out of the dairy business, he turned his Milton farm into a home for 400 emus. The emu market didn’t materialize (although he still swears by emu oil and buys some every year at the fairs) so he turned to raising horses. Somewhere along the line there were ostrich in there, too, but he could never get the chicks to grow to adults.
When Ray says “designed,” he means from scratch. Gail has a kit she put together of flagpole holders and PVC pipe so that she can mock up a prototype using photos and measurements from a particular tractor. She brings the prototype to a fabricator and, voila, custom hand clutches. “Each case is very individual,” Gail explains. “I have a [research] toolbox from the national AgrAbility program, but I’ve also got files I’ve built on each individual case…I can’t always remember the company [that supplied equipment] but I can always remember who it was for.
What’s the most dangerous part of farming? Turns out, it’s the tractor. Not only is farming one of the most dangerous occupations, the highest number of fatal farm accidents involve vehicles, usually a tractor overturn. And the Northeast leads the nation in rollovers each year. But tractor rollovers need not be deadly, or even cause serious injury. A seatbelt plus rollover protection bar are 99 percent effective in protecting a tractor driver.
The National AgrAbility Project was established in the 1990 Farm Bill, and Vermont’s own program began at that time. The Vermont AgrAbility Project is a collaborative partnership between University of Vermont Extension, Rural and Agricultural VocRehab, and the Vermont Center for Independent Living. It provides education and technical assistance to help farmers with a disability continue their work. Disability in this case might mean anything from difficulty hearing to the need for a wheelchair. In Ray’s instance, as he simply puts it, “my knee didn’t work too well.” Gail Lapierre, an Extension agent, met Ray on his farm to see what could be done. It’s a beautiful farm, with fields sloping up a long hillside and Ray’s house at the very top. The sloping hills become less beautiful and more problematic, however, when you have a bad knee and are trying to push a wheelbarrow. Gail first reduced that strain by introducing a motorized wheelbarrow. She also added hand clutches to the tractor. “I didn’t know they had these hand clutches,” Ray explained. “But [Gail] came up, took measurements, designed the clutches, and added them to the tractor.” 20 local banquet
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Unfortunately, while we now know that the simple change of a roll bar plus seatbelt can virtually eliminate the leading cause of fatal accidents on a farm, many older tractors don’t include these safety features. With tractors often staying in use for well over 40 years, a lot of retrofitting remains to be done. Rebates for Roll Bars began in 2010 to help with those retrofits. The program subsidizes 70 percent of the ROPS cost. It began with seed money from UVM Extension, then gained support from donors, including Co-operative Insurance, the Lamoille Economic Development Corporation, more than seven county Farm Bureau chapters, the Maple Association, and Pete’s Equipment. These supporters aren’t just protecting farmers’ lives. Studies show that 7 out of 10 farms close within a year after a fatal tractor accident, causing a ripple effect throughout the local economy. A simple investment in ROPS yields a major benefit, preventing both personal tragedy and loss to an entire farming community. Find out more at ropsr4u.com. —Helen Labun Jordan
Photo: morguefile.com
After Ray underwent knee surgery two years ago, his farm needed a bit of a re-invention again to make work easier on his body. Ray made some work adjustments on his own to accommodate the bad knee, including more horse boarding and less horse raising, but his physical therapist recommended that he call Vermont’s AgrAbility program to find out what more might be done.
That’s why Matt Myers, who coordinates UVM Extension’s Rebates for Roll Bars program, insists that installing a rollover protection system (ROPS) is a “no brainer.” He notes that Vermont recently had three fatal rollovers within four months of each other. Those accidents, so close to home, have sent scores of tractor owners to UVM’s toll free number (1-877-767-7748) to find out their options for creating a safer tractor.
AgrAbility is an important resource in an occupation that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) designates as one of the most dangerous in private industry. According to OSHA’s 2009 statistics, agricultural work has a rate of fatal accidents seven times the average and an average daily rate of 243 serious injuries, 5 percent of which result in permanent impairment. The National AgrAbility Project ensures that not only is there assistance to help prevent those accidents, there is also assistance afterward to help individuals continue to work on the farm. The statistics for serious injury in farm work are dramatic. But even if farmers could maintain a perfect safety record for accidents, they would still need to manage the types of injuries we all encounter as we grow older, which are compounded in their case by years of stress on the body from farm work. Hearing loss from working near loud equipment, back pain from lifting, hip and knee pain that make getting on and off a tractor difficult…. Vermont farmers are likely to encounter one, or many, such challenges at some point in their lives. George Cook, UVM Extension’s Farm Safety specialist, notes that the average age of a farmer is around 57. “We recognize that farming is one of those family businesses that maybe someone doesn’t retire from…. There are plenty of farm situations where there’s someone in their 80s or even older doing productive work on the farm.” Of course, for disabilities such as hearing loss, it’s better to reach a farmer before he or she is 80, when there’s still time to prevent the damage. George notes that “as soon as [my son] was old enough to help with chores and he was helping in a noisy environment, the rule was he put on ear plugs or ear muffs. It became second nature to him. When I was his age it was not second nature.” There are many simple precautions that younger farmers—who are not only working on family farms but often coming to farming for the first time through avenues like the local foods movement—should make second nature. There’s hearing protection and also adequate sun protection (Gail points out that a ball cap does not count as adequate), or climbing on and off a tractor instead of jumping off and jarring knees and hips. It all adds up. George recognizes that habits are hard to change. “Everybody gets busy,” he says, and the safety focus can get lost in the focus on finishing a day’s work. AgrAbility is trying to encourage an entire safety culture so that precautions are fully integrated into daily routines.
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Helen Labun Jordan is the project director for the e-Vermont Community Broadband Project, a two-year program that has helped rural communities make the best use of broadband resources, including using online tools to strengthen the local economy: e4vt.org. S u m m e r
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In larger operations, adopting safety measures can be more formal. For example, UVM Extension works with Vermont’s Agency of Agriculture and Department of Labor to offer a safety program for large dairy operations. As part of this program, the farms identify a manager who receives safety training and creates a farm safety plan. They also commit to conducting monthly safety trainings for farm employees. For smaller operations, AgrAbility relies on ongoing outreach through exhibitions at fairs and field days, workshops, and inclusion in educational programs such as the UVM television program, “Across the Fence.” The National AgrAbility Project estimates that 15 to 20 percent of agricultural workers have a disability that hinders accomplishing some on-farm tasks. What that has meant for Vermont’s AgrAbility program is a need to be inventive to address the range of situations this statistic encompasses. These strategies may be fabricating hand clutches for farmers like Ray Bernier or they may be educational, such as teaching a new farmer how to make sure that used farm equipment has the necessary safety features (see sidebar). At the end of the day, AgrAbility ensures that fewer farmers need to give up their work, and that more farmers do that work safely.
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Vermont Farmers’ Market Association
SUMMER FARMERS’ MARKETS If you’re not sure where your local farmers’ market is, or if you plan on driving around the state this summer and want to drop in on a market that is new to you, keep this list as a reference. The markets listed here are members of the Vermont Farmers’ Market Association (VTFMA), whose purpose is to encourage and establish successful farmers’ markets in Vermont. Members of the VTFMA engage in statewide promotion of farmers’ markets, networking opportunities, building a collective voice for farmers’ markets, accessing educational possibilities, and strengthening financial assistance for farmers’ markets. You can learn more about the VTFMA at vtfma.org.
Caledonia Farmers’ Market Association
Waypoint Center May–October, Friday 4–7 bffarmersmarket.com
St. Johnsbury: Municipal parking lot behind Anthony’s Diner Danville: west of Danville village on U.S. Rt. 2 May 12–October 27, Wednesday and Saturday 9–1 sites.google.com/site/ caledoniafamersmarket/
Brandon Farmers’ Market Central Park in Brandon May 25–October, 12 Friday 9–2
Brattleboro Area Farmers’ Market Saturday: Rt. 9 near covered bridge Wednesday: Gibson–Aiken Center May–October, Saturday 9–2, Wednesday 10–2 brattleborofarmersmarket.com
St. Joseph’s Church May 26–September 22 Saturday 10–2 champlainisalandsfarmersmarket.com
Chelsea Farmers’ Market North Common, intersection of Rtes. 110 and 113 Late May–mid October, Friday 3–6 facebook.com/chelseafarmersmarket
Bristol Farmers’ Market Bristol Town Green June 2–October 6, Saturday 10–1 bristolfarmersmarket.com
The Common Market/Craftsbury Farmers’ Market
Burlington Farmers’ Market City Hall Park May 12–October 27, Saturday 8:30–2 burlingtonfarmersmarket.org
On the common May 26–October 6, Saturday 10–1
Burlington New North End Farmers’ Market, Inc. Elks Lodge, 925 North Avenue May 24–September 27, Thursday 3–6:30 newnorthendfarmersmarket.wordpress.com
Burlington Old North End Farmers’ Market
Rt. 5 next to Elks Lodge May 25–Columbus Day weekend, Saturday 9:30–2:30 derbyfarmersmarket.org
Dorset Farmers’ Market
Enosburg Falls Farmers’ Market
South Burlington Farmers’ Market
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Derby Farmers’ Market
H.N. Williams Store Rt. 30 May 20–February 24, Sunday 10–2 dorsetfarmersmarket.com
Roosevelt Park, at St. Louis and Willow Streets June 12–October 30, Tuesday 3–6:30 oldnorthendfarmersmarket.org South Burlington High School June 17–October 21,10–2 Sunday
Champlain Islands Farmers’ Market
Lincoln Park, Main Street May 19–October 30, Saturday 9–1, Tuesday 4–7:30
Five Corners Farmers’ Market Lincoln Place off Railroad Ave. June 1–October 5, Friday 3:30–7:30 5cornersfarmersmarket.com
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Fletcher Allen Health Care Farmers’ Market Fletcher Allen Health Care May 10–October, Thursday 2:30–5:30
Groton Growers Farmers’ Market Lawn in front of Groton’s Community Buidling Last Saturday in May to last Saturday of October, Saturday 10–1
Hartland Farmers’ Market The Library Fields at 153 Rt. 5 June–September, Friday 4–7 hartlandfarmersmarket.com
Jericho Farmers’ Market Mills River Park June 7–September 27, Thursday 3:30–6:30 TwoTownOnline.org
Johnson Farmers’ Market United Church on Main Street May 22–October 9, Tuesday 3–6
Ludlow Farmers’ Market 53 Main Street in front of Okemo Mountain School May 25–October 5, Friday 4–7 ludlowfarmersmkt.org
Lunenburg Farmers’ Market Town Common on Rt. 2 June 6–October 10, Wednesday 2–6 topofthecommon.org/b.html
Manchester Farmers’ Market Adams Park, Rt. 7A North June 7–October 4, Thursday 3–6 manchestermarket.org
Market on the Green The Green in downtown Woodstock on Rt. 4 June 13–October10, Wednesday 3–6 woodstockvt.com
Thanks to VTFMA, NOFA-VT, and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture for providing this list.
Bellows Falls Farmers’ Market
Middlebury Farmers Market
Rutland County Farmers’ Market
By the Falls at the Marble Works May–October, Wednesday and Saturday 9–12:30 middleburyfarmersmarket.org
Depot Park May 12–October 27, Tuesday 3–6, Saturday 9–2 rutlandcountyfarmersmarket.org
Milton Grange Farmers’ Market
Shelburne Farmers’ Market
Milton Grange June–October, Saturday 9:30–1:30
Shelburne center on Rt. 7 and Church St. May 26–October 13, Saturday 9–1 sbpavt.org
Montpelier Capital City Farmers’ Market
6 Main Street, People’s United Bank parking area June 2–October 6, Saturday 10–1
Mount Holly Farmers’ Market
Stowe Farmers’ Market
Mt. Tom Farmers’ Market Mt. Tom parking lot, Rt. 12 North Saturday 9:30–12:30 mttomfarmersmarket.com
Newport Farmers’ Market Causeway in Newport between gazebo and COC info center May15–October 15, Saturday 9–2 June 15–October 15, Wednesday 9–2
Northwest Farmers’ Market Taylor Park Mid-May–October, Saturday 9–2 nwfmvt.org
Norwich Farmers’ Market 300 Rt. 5 next to Fogg’s True Value Hardware Store May–October, Saturday 9–1 norwichfarmersmarket.org
Peacham Farmers’ Market Academy Green May 26–September 29, Thursday 3–6 peacham.net/market
Rt. 108, Mountain Road May 20–October 14, Sunday 10:30–3 stowefarmersmarket.com
Townshend Common Farmers’ Market Intersection of Rtes. 30 and 35 June 7–October 11, Thursday 3:30–6:30 postoilsolutions.org
Vermont Farmers’ Market Downtown Rutland–Depot Park next to Walmart May 12–October 27, Saturday 9–2 vtfarmersmarket.org
Waitsfield Farmers’ Market Rt. 100, Mad River Green Mid-May–mid October, Saturday 9–1 waitsfieldfarmersmarket.com
Williston Farmers’ Market
Rt. 66 next to OSSU building May 19–October 20, Saturday 9–1
Richmond Farmers’ Market Volunteer Green June 8–October 12, Friday, June–Labor Day: 3:30–7 After Labor Day: 3:30–6:30
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West River Farmers’ Market
Putney Farmers’ Market
Randolph Farmers’ Market
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Bennington Station at River Street Park, Saturday Greenberg’s, 321 Main Street, Tuesday May 12–October 27, Saturday 10–1, Tuesday 3–6 walloomsac.org
Mill Street Park June 1–October 5, Friday 4–7 Carol Brown Way, just off U.S. Rt. 5, across from the Putney Food Co–op May 27–October 7, Sunday 12–3 putneyfarmersmarket.org
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Walloomsac Farmers’ Market
Intersection of Rtes. 11E and 100N Memorial Day weekend–Columbus Day weekend, Saturday 9–1 westriverfarmersmarket.com
Plainfield Farmers’ Market
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Springfield Community Market
Corner of State and Elm Streets May 5–October 27, Saturday 9–1 montpelierfarmersmarket.com Belmont Village Green June–October Saturday 10–1
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Rt. 2, On the Village Green June 6–October 10, Wednesday 4–7 (closing earlier in autumn) willistonfarmersmarket.com
Windsor Farmers’ Market Windsor Town Green, State Street May 20–October 28, Sunday 12–3 windsorfarmersmarket.blogspot.com
Winooski Farmers’ Market Champlain Mill Green, Winooski Falls Way June 3–October 21, Sunday 10–2
Royalton Farmers’ Market Town Green May 26–October 6, Thursday 3–6:30
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DAIRY Continued from page 17
and provided with bedding through the winter. Sawdust was nowhere to be found and she had to resort to cotton bales. It was a bad time of year to find hay. The good thing going for Lisa was the popularity of her raw milk, and the inns and restaurants that purchase her eggs and veal. They’ve been wanting her to make a dairy product that they can incorporate into their menus, so she’s decided to make ricotta and pasteurized milk, and perhaps eventually butter. She doesn’t want to make aged cheese, though, which is a more complex endeavor. “I’m not a cheesemaker. I’m not pretending to be a cheesemaker. I don’t want to be a cheesemaker,” she said. “I’ve got enough to do. I’m not looking to make it a whole lot harder…but I’m looking to make it. I’m a dairy farmer. This is what I do.” Lisa began construction on a new processing facility at the end of last year but her plans have stalled because she has to find a way to afford the installation of a toilet for the use of the inspectors, as is required in federal regulations. She has already purchased all the equipment she needs to pasteurize and bottle her milk and to make ricotta cheese—her customers are all lined up and now just waiting. Lisa is content with the equipment she bought, but would rather use a new pasteurizing technology that is gentler on her delicious milk: the Bob-White Low-Impact Pasteurizer, which was developed for micro-dairies by Bob-White Systems. It saves energy, is less damaging to the beneficial aspects of milk, and is less labor intensive for the farmer. Unfortunately, the technology is not a part of the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO), which lays out the regulations for dairies and processors. Hence, it currently cannot be utilized by the farms for which it was designed. (The company is working on changing that.)
Our own backyard eggs, our own lettuce, local raised beef, & classic diner specials.
So for now, Jersey Girls will continue to do what it has always done: rely on its longtime customers. They are a loyal bunch, traveling from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and other places, even at the current price of gas, just for her milk. As Lisa notes, “My customers hug me. They hug me. Which is fine, but I had to get used to it.” Lisa Harris currently lives in Huntington, where she writes, eats, and is breathing new life into her blog, earthskybelly.wordpress.com.
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RECIPE DEVELOPER Continued from page 19
Maple, Ginger, and Peach Cake Cake 3 cups whole spelt flour 2 ½ tsp baking soda 1 ½ tsp salt 4 tsp ground ginger ¼ cup arrowroot or cornstarch dissolved in ¼ cup water 1 cup oil 2 cups maple syrup 1 cup water Frosting 1 lb cream cheese ½ cup maple syrup 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp cinnamon Filling 2 10-oz packages of frozen peaches ¼ cup maple syrup 1 tsp lemon extract or zest of one lemon
Photo courtesy of Claire Fitts
Preheat oven to 350 °F. Grease two 9-inch cake pans. Set out peaches to thaw.
mately 1 hour at 350 °F or until the cake pulls away from the sides and the center springs back when lightly touched (for best results, place cake pans on a large cookie sheet on the center rack in the oven). Let cakes cool for 10 minutes or so before inverting onto cooling racks (tip: before inverting a cake, tilt the cake pan and knock the corner of the pan on the counter until the cake detaches from the center of the pan and slides to one side). While cakes are baking, place the cream cheese, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and cinnamon in a food processor and purée until smooth. Place frosting in fridge until ready to use.
In a large bowl, whisk together the spelt flour, baking soda, salt, and ginger. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the arrowroot mixture, oil, maple syrup and water.
Chop the peaches into small pieces and cook, in a small saucepan, with the maple syrup and lemon zest, over medium-high heat, until the maple syrup cooks down and the peaches start to soften.
While whisking, slowly pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk until smooth. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans and bake for approxi-
When cakes are cool, invert one cake onto a cake circle or plate, top with peach filling, and then top with second cake. Frost tops and sides with frosting.
Baldwin Creek
Mary’s Restaurant
BOYD Family Farm
Honest to Goodness
Farm to Plate Cuisine
Pick Your Own Berries Perennial & Annual Flowers Tree & Shrub Nursery Holiday Wreaths & Trees
Dinner Wed-Sun 5:30-9:00 Bar opens at 5:00 g Local Draft Beers g
Sun Brunch 9:30-1:00 1868 N 116 Road Bristol 802-453-2432
802.464.5618
InnatBaldwinCreek.com
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Putney Farmers’ Market
Sundays, 12–3 • May 27th thru October 7th I-91 Exit 4 Across from the co-op on Carol Brown Way We accept EBT and Debit Cards, and new this year, Farm to Family coupons.
Live music every week, Shop with the Chef and special events. facebook.com/putneyfarmersmarket ■ http://putneyfarmersmarket.org
These businesses proudly support the Putney Farmers’ Market
Creating Community Building Social Capital Educating the Public
Celebrating the infinite riches of chamber music for 43 years
Growing the Local Economy
I-91 exit 4 · open 7 days
June 17 – August 4 Putney, Vermont
www.putneyfood.coop
tickets & info
802.387.5866
Empowering Youth
It’s how we roll.
summer season
www.yellowbarn.org (802) 387-6637
Vermont’s Local Banquet W 3.5” x H 2”
Design and construction of quality porches and other outdoor rooms..... All summer long. Look for us on Facebook @ Just Porches
Just Porches
tomgoldschmid@gmail.com Call to discuss your project 802 579 2207
J.D. McCLIMENTs Pub
Our Patio Is Open For Outdoor Dining Check Our Web Site For Live Music Dates Pub opens at 4:00 pm Tuesday through Saturday
Thyme to Cook a kitchen store
Cookware, bakeware, gadgets, chef utensils, and cook accessories Wedding Gift Registry
s ur price ocal–o l y u B
etitive
are comp
802-428-4077 www. thymetocookvt.com
Rt. 5 Rockingham, VT at Exit 6 off I-91
Frequent shopper? Help save the world from proliferating grocery bags! Consider an all-natural, handcrafted shopping basket from Basketville. We offer looks for just about every fashion taste: Nantucket shoppers, traditional ash-splint styles and exotic Fair Trade African shoppers in stunning tribal colors. Unlike paper or plastic bags, no two baskets are alike!
Dinner is served from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm Rt. 5 Putney, VT jdmac@sover.net • www.jdmcclimentspub.com 802-387-4499
Rte 5 off exit 4 off I-91, Putney, Vermont • Open 7 days 802-387-5509 • www.basketville.com
f a r m e r s ’
Blueberry Bounty by Janet Boyd Boyd Family Farm How many blueberries can you fit in your mouth? I’ll race you up Blueberry Hill! Can we go to the pajama party in the blueberry field? When is the Blueberry Festival? These are just a few of the questions we hear over and over again as the blueberry season begins.
The family worked and lived like many Vermont farm families. At times three generations lived together, sons and cousins went to war, several siblings moved away, and others kept the farm going through the Depression. The gardens were lush, the milk was plentiful, the butter and cream were fresh, and the animals were raised to provide for the family and to sell. The apple orchard was in the upper mowing, and somewhere around 40 years ago the first blueberry bushes went in.
Photo of DJ, Melissa, Logan, Ryan, and Izzy by Janet Boyd
Fast forward to the fourth generation now working the fields, trying to hold true to the same ideas of providing for the family while embracing the vision of the fifth generation, who wanted to plant hundreds of blueberry bushes! So plant we did, and now we have more than 500 highbush blueberry bushes. We also added 1,500 raspberry bushes. Today we also grow year-round produce, operate a nursery, produce our own honey, have PYO berry pickings, host weddings, and engage in many other activities. We are also the host site for several of the Deerfield Valley Blueberry Festival activities. Aside from their wonderful nutritional qualities, blueberries are a perfect crop: very easy to harvest, long lasting, no peeling required, and ours are pre-washed by the rain! Our family is always experimenting with unique ways to enjoy them, and this Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Cake (right) wins raves from all who try it! In short, the farm has been a whirlwind of activities the last few years. Our nieces, nephews, cousins, sisters, brothers, parents, and staff provide the energy and support we need to move forward. Customers stopping by to use their Farm Member cards encourage us. Visitors marvel at our diversity. And the new year-round “Farm Market” is an exciting upgrade to the large barn and might just provide the area required for the ideas of the sixth generation! Visit BoydFamilyFarm.com to learn more about the farm in Wilmington or VermontBlueberry.com to learn more about the Deerfield Valley Blueberry Festival.
Best Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Cake Ever Batter
adapted from King Arthur Flour website
1 cup all-purpose flour ¾ cup sugar 1 ¼ tsp. baking powder ½ tsp. salt ¹/3 cup milk ¼ cup room temp. creamed butter 1 large egg ½ tsp. lemon extract zest of a lemon ¾ cup fresh blueberries Topping 2 large eggs 1 ¼ cups ricotta cheese ¹/3 cup sugar ¼ tsp. lemon extract Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Grease a 9" round spring form pan. For the batter: In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the milk, shortening, egg, and vanilla, beating until smooth. Spoon the batter into a greased pan. Sprinkle the blueberries over the batter but do not mix. For the topping: In a small bowl, beat the eggs till frothy, then beat in the cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread this mixture evenly over the blueberries. Bake the cake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until it is golden brown around the edges. Garnish with lemon basil.
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k i t c h e n
In 1926, the Army Corps of Engineers made plans to build Lake Whitingham, otherwise known as Harriman Reservoir, in southern Vermont. The Boyd family was required to move from their original farm, which is now under the lake. After careful consideration, our present hillside farm on the northern end of Wilmington became the family’s new home, and so our relationship with this piece of earth began.
TOWNSHEND
C O M M O N F A R M E R S’ M A R K E T
Thursdays, 3:30–6:30 PM Market runs weekly June 7 through 11 October Farm to Family Coupons will be accepted, and we will be able to process EBT card transactions. Located at the intersection of Route 30 & Route 35 in the heart of the West River Valley
These businesses proudly support the Townshend Farmers’ Market
Ron’s
Husqvarna
FOREST & GARDEN
F O RE S T & GA R D EN EQU IPME N T
Ron Greenwood Sales & Service 104 Riverdale Road Townshend, VT 05353
Tel. Bus: (802) 365–9778
In State (800) 635–9778
Pizza Hippo
Fire Grilled. Organic. Amazing. Tue, Wed, Thu 3:00–9pm Fri–Sat 11am–10pm Sun 11am–9pm
Outdoor Dining. Take Out. Catering. 802.874.0321
#1 Route 30 Townshend, VT at Kindle Farm
w w w. P i z z a H i p p o . c o m “It Hits the Spotamus!”
Lunch and Dinner Menu - Homemade Desserts - Kid’s Menu Vermont Microbrews - Rick’s Famous Pizza
Live Music on Saturdays www.rickstavern.net Route 30, Newfane, VT 802–365–4310 Closed Tuesday
Local Not-for-profit Financial Co-operative Joining River Valley Credit Union is the most “Local” thing you can do with your finances. You get unbeatable service, and your money gets used to help other local residents achieve their dreams. Join now! ®
The future of banking...now.
Brattleboro, Putney, Townshend, Bellows Falls and Springfield, and now at the Windham Career Ctr. at BUHS. • 802-254-4800 / rivercu.com
We s t R i v e r Fa m i l y D e n t a l Jared V Rediske DDS Jeffrey W Wallace DDS
A Family Feed Company
Pet Food, Bird Seed, Equine, Pet and Stable Supplies, Tack, Hay & Shavings
Open Monday—Friday 9:00-5:30 Saturday 10:00–2:00 802–365–7800
Located on Riverdale Road, Townshend behind the
74 Grafton Rd Townshend, VT 05353 802–365–4313
POS
POST OIL SOLUTIONS Building Sustainable Solutions
www.postoilsolutions.org
The Townshend Dam Diner “best homemade food by a dam site”
Eat in or Take out 2 m i l e s n o r t h o f t h e d a m , To w n s h e n d , V T 802–874–4107 • damdiner@svcable.net Locally owned and operated, offering the West River Valley a full service meat & seafood department, fresh produce, store made salads and lunch specials from our deli, and a complete selection of beer, wine & groceries.
Open 365 days a year! Rte 30, Townshend 802-365-4600
Te n t s Ta b l e s Ta b l e w a r e Chairs Dance Floors Lighting Restroom Services
Green Mountain Tent Rentals Townshend Park, Route 30, Townshend, VT 05353
Ross • Luke • John Evans www.greenmtntents.com gmtents@svcable.net
802–365–7839
1–800–691–8368
June 24, 10am–4pm
Shelburne Farms 1611 Harbor Road, Shelburne A behind-the-scenes look at dairy farming and cheesemaking! Hear our farmers and cheesemakers explain the process of turning fresh milk into farmhouse cheddar. Tour the dairy and taste cheese with the cheesemakers. The tours will meet at the Welcome Center. Registration: $15/person includes a block of cheese. 985-8442 shelburnefarms.org
225 Pavillion Road, off Rte. 5, East Thetford Family fun—our 10th annual event celebrating juicy red strawberries and local organic agriculture! Ongoing horse-drawn wagon rides, strawberry picking, kids’ crafts and activities, theatrical performances, storytelling, and live music. An organic food concession offers strawberry shortcake and treats, grilled local sausages, salads, and local organic ice cream. The farm stand and café are also open. A green event with a waste recovery station. Rain or shine! Parking $5 per car. Come by train, bicycle or foot and get in free! 785-4737CedarCircleFarm.org
Sun to Cheese Tours
2nd Saturday of the month, 10am–2pm
Capital City Farmers’ Market Slow Food VT and Slow Food NECI Tastings
60 State Street, Montpelier Slow Food and NECI Slow Food will be entertaining you with our recipe, demos, and ideas of how to prepare, preserve, and best of all, eat the ingredients available to you from our local farmers, vendors, and sharecroppers. 223-2958 montpelierfarmersmarket.com
10th Annual Strawberry Festival at Cedar Circle Farm
June 28, all day
The Necessary (r)Evolution for Sustainable Food Systems Conference
UVM, Burlington A public conference with thought leaders from around the globe discussing the regional food system approach. 656-8672uvm.edu
June 1–3, all day
June 30–July 1, 9:30am–5pm
Main Street, Brattleboro Stroll Weekend is filled with fun and education for the whole family, built around the world-famous agriculturally-themed Strolling of the Heifers Parade—Saturday, June 2 at 10 a.m. sharp on Brattleboro’s historic Main Street. 380-0226 strollingoftheheifers.com
Golden Eagle, Mountain Road, Stowe Learn how to improve the quality and length of your animal’s life by applying the principles of Chinese medical theory to diet, herbal therapies, and other supplements. 730-5504 holisticanimal.weebly.com/
June 9, 9am–2pm
A Sense of Place: Vermont’s Farm Legacy
Brattleboro Area Farmers’ Market Brattleboro Kids can come sell things they make themselves at the farmers’ market. No baked goods from mixes, please. 254-8885 brattleborofarmersmarket.com
New Haven Congregational Church Town Hill Road The character of a place is shaped by its cultural heritage and folklife, the informal traditions of family and community that guide the ways in which a person plans a meal, treats a neighbor, or understands civic responsibility. In Vermont, the cultural legacy of farming has strongly influenced the identity of Vermonters, and it is these distinctive traditions, which have persisted even with the decline in farm numbers, that help make the state unique. This lecture by Gregory Sharrow explores the fabric of farm culture in the past and probes its relationship to the world of Vermont today. Hosted by the New Haven Historical Society. 453-2999
Strolling of the Heifers Parade and Live Green Expo
Kids’ Day
June 16, 9am–2pm
Master Gardeners at the Farmers’ Market
Brattleboro Area Farmers’ Market Brattleboro Come with your gardening questions and get expert advice. 254-8885 brattleborofarmersmarket.com
June 16, 10am–2pm
Capital City Farmers’ Market Stretching your Food Dollars
60 State Street, Montpelier Vermont Foodbank will host a food demo on cooking on a budget. 223-2958 montpelierfarmersmarket.com
June 17–20, all day
Breakthrough Leaders Program for Sustainable Food Systems
UVM, Burlington An international leadership institute bringing emerging leaders together from around the globe for an intense examination of the skills needed to lead change and build a more sustainable food system. 656-8672uvm.edu
Holistic Veterinary Health and Chinese Medicine Seminar
July 11, 7pm
July 13, 6:30pm Reception with Crescent Dragonwagon Harlow Farmstand
Rte 5, Westminster Featuring popular cookbook and children’s book author and speaker Crescent Dragonwagon. Kick off the 11th Annual Westminster Garden Tour Weekend! 722-3607 westminstercares.org
July 14–15, 10am–3pm
Westminster Cares Annual Garden Tour
Various locations, Wesminster The tour will again feature the gardens of Mary and Gordon Hayward, nation-
ally known garden designer, writer, and lecturer. Proceeds from the tour support the services and programs of Westminster Cares, a volunteer organization whose purpose is to create opportunities for seniors and disabled adults to live with independence and dignity in the community. 722-3607 westminstercares.org
CALENDAR
2nd Wednesday of the Month through October, 2–4pm
August 10–12, all day
NOFA Summer Conference
UMASS, Amherst, MA 38th NOFA Summer Conference with Northeast Animal-Power Field Days. 413-230-7835 nofasummerconference.org
August 12, 1–4pm
Pie & Ice Cream Social
July 21, 9am–2pm
Brattleboro Area Farmers’ Market Brattleboro Come with your gardening questions and get expert advice. 254-8885 brattleborofarmersmarket.com
Rokeby Museum, Ferrisburg Don’t miss our annual extravaganza of homemade pie and ice cream. Relax to music provided by the Vergennes City Band as you sample pies of every type. Proceeds support the museum’s work—so have a second piece! 877-3406rokeby.org
July 21, 6pm
August 13–17, all day
Master Gardeners at the Farmers’ Market
Field to Table Supper
Harlow Farm Rte. 5, Westminster For nearly a century, the 150-acre family farm nestled between Bald Hill and the Connecticut River has produced generous sustenance for its owners, the local community and its New England neighbors. Join us for a field to farm dinner featuring six local cheesemakers and Harlow Farm meats and organic produce. $50 per person, limited seating.376 3258 jstaley@harlowfarm.com
August 2–5, all day
6th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference
UVM, Burlington The conference will bring together food service professionals, farmers, educators, policy makers, representatives from government agencies and nonprofits, entrepreneurs, students and others who are breaking down barriers and expanding the impact of Farm to Cafeteria. 434-8411 farmtocafeteriaconference.org/6/
August 3–5
Youth Farm Safety Mini Camp
Vermont Technical College Randolph Center UVM Extension is offering mini-camps for youth ages 12–15 on tractor safety, ATV, livestock, woodlot, farm first aid and more. Space is limited. Please register at least two weeks prior to date. Scholarships are available. 656-2034 kristen.mullins@uvm.edu
August 4, 10am–5pm
The Chicken and the Egg
Billings Farm & Museum 69 Old River Road,Woodstock Lean all about chickens! The Farm & Museum will feature a variety of breeds of chickens to see their similarities and differences, plus baby chicks. Fun facts about chickens and eggs, plus the egg toss and games. 457-2355billingsfarm.org
August 5, 5pm
The Gleanery Farm Café Grand Opening Celebration
133 Main Street, Putney Come celebrate the opening of this community-supported restaurant with live music, games, and a local goat roast. 380-4651 thegleanery. com facebook.com/thegleanery
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Eastern Apiculture Society Conference
UVM, Burlington Lectures, workshops, hive openings, beekeeping supplies, access to some of the best experts in the world. easternapiculture.org/conferences/ eas-2012.html
August 18, 9am–2pm
Master Gardeners at the Farmers’ Market
Brattleboro Area Farmers’ Market Brattleboro Come with your gardening questions and get expert advice. 254-8885 brattleborofarmersmarket.com
August 18–19, all day
Kingdom Farm and Food Days
Hardwick The Center for an Agricultural Economy, High Mowing Organic Seeds, Pete’s Greens, New England Culinary Institute, and Craftsbury Outdoor Center have once again united to put on the Kingdom Farm and Food Days event. This is a two-day event that showcases Vermont farms, gardens, small producers, and agricultural businesses. Workshops, demonstrations, and tours will be available to all attendees. An official schedule will be released at a later date. 472-5840 vermontfoodventurecenter.org
August 25, 2–4pm
4th Annual Tomato Tasting by the River at Cedar Circle Farm
225 Pavillion Road, off Rte. 5, East Thetford Enjoy a casual celebration, on the farm along the Connecticut River, with live music, honoring heirloom tomatoes and the generations of farmers who have preserved them through seed saving. Sample a rainbow of heirloom varieties and delicious farm-made tomato appetizers. Special farmers’ market features tomato preserves, oils, and vinegars. 785-4737CedarCircleFarm.org
September 1–2, 10am–5pm Southern Vermont Garlic & Herb Festival
1545 VT Rt. 9, Bennington Garlic growers, garlic products, live music, herbal workshops, garlic ice cream, children’s activities, and workshops on growing and cooking garlic. $5/adult. Free parking. 688-7422 bennington.com
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Mizuna by Eugenie Doyle
LAST MORSEL
Mizuna, tatsoi tokyo burkana red kumatsu claytonia, minutina I dip these foreign leaves by the bushel into a sink pond cold and clear and wash away the clay that coats my farm. I toss them with fragile strips of lettuce and arugula so spicy the smell wakes me from worry. I scoop dripping handfuls to rinse again. I fill a second sink. I am filled with care. Will this meet the order, this mix for people who travel to co-ops in hybrids, toting their personal bags and member discounts? Mock them, their privilege, fine. I need those people. May they multiply. In the Big Apple, at 17, I ate only iceberg lettuce or maybe romaine (because my mother was Italian) and the very first cardboard tomatoes. At those my mother shook her head but served them just the same. I learned to mock my food. Wonderbread? Boloney. In what 12 ways was my body built? Much depends on dinner but at 17 my friends traded all that for a single apple savored at lunch. We found romance in starving. At 17, I imagined I’d live and write in a 10th street garret like my great uncle, also Italian, a quiet sculptor of saints and angels. I loved the smell of clay. I imagined I’d live and write cramped in a place like that with hardly a kitchen and a tiled bathroom whose toilet required a long pull chain to flush. I imagined permission to contemplate and create world-saving works amidst the smell of clay. What happened? None of that. This did: I farm in a valley of clay my children used to sculpt birds’ nests and bombs while I weeded nearby. I grow food for lucky people, aware people. I arrange it as still life. Tasks are endless because life is one meal after another. Contemplation is rare, but helps. All my dreams are fresh, wet, draining before me Edible, perishable. At 17 I couldn’t imagine a world, my world, would depend on washing clay from colored leaves in a sink.
Eugenie Doyle is the author of two novels for young adults, Stray Voltage and According to Kit (Frontstreet/ Boyds Mills Press), and many short stories. She and her family operate The Last Resort, an organic berry, vegetable, and hay farm in Monkton. 32 local banquet
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good stuff in... good stuff out
the fine art in food
Growers of Familiar and Unusual Spring Plants for Your Garden Perennials, Annuals and Certified ORGANIC Herb and Veggie Starts Visit our website for info about our Summer Share CSA Program
802–442–4273 clearbrookfarm.com your fresh connection blackriverproduce.com
Opening late April for Plants and June for Produce Rt. 7A Shaftsbury
local food, larger good
Feed your body, mind, and community with the hepl of our friendly staff and wide selection of local products.
Springfield 335 River Street, Springfield, Vermont www.springfieldfoodcoop.com 802.885.3363
Monthly Regional Tours, May - Sept Custom Tours for groups Aug 25-26 Kingdom Farm & Food Days
802.472.5480 www.hardwickagriculture.org
Center for Ag Econ
Let “The Current” Provide Your Ride www.crtransit.org Call us at 1-802-460-RIDE (7433) 1-888-869-6287 We Provide the Ride!
A program of the Center for an Agricultural Economy
Incubator Kitchen, Co-Packer, Value Added Processing & Business Services
Third Thursday Mini-Open House 4:30p Monthly ServeSafe Classes On-going workshops open to the public
802-472-5362
www.vermontfoodventurecenter.org
Walden Heights Nursery & Orchard 400+ apple varieties and other fruit trees & plants. Vermont grown. Certified Organic. Cold hardy. Find planting tips, growing instructions, cultivar descriptions, pest management techniques, workshop descriptions & more at
waldenheightsnursery.com 802-563-3012
120 VT Route 215
Walden, VT
MAY 25th to OCT 5th
45 Vermont Vendors offering fresh produce, meats, cheeses, herbs, flowers, wines, honey, maple syrup, baked goods, breads, specialty foods, and unique artworks.
Celebrating our 20th season Saturdays 9am - 1pm, Rain or Shine May 26th - October 6th Jct. Rtes 11/100 Londonderry, VT
SHARE A TASTE OF VERMONT Savor the experience of inspired American cuisine, thoughtfully prepared with locally sourced food.
westriverfarmersmarket.com
EBT, Debit, and Farm to Family Coupons Accepted
Enjoy the candlelit ambiance of The Old Tavern restaurant (open nightly), or choose the Phelps Barn Pub for casual dining (Thurs-Sun). 92 Main Street, Grafton, VT 05146
GraftonInnVermont.com
800-843-1801
beadniks 115 Main ai Street ee
Brattleboro, a e o o Vermont e o ting Celebra ! 20 years
05301
802-257-5114
Vermont’s Premier Bead Store & A Whole Lot More
www.beadniksvt.com
www.karlpfistersleigh.com
Pfister Farm
Pottery Works
wagon & sleigh rides
Available at the Saturday Brattleboro Farmers’ Market.
Call for reservations 802-824-4663
Susan Dunning 802.228.3230 potteryworks@tds.net www.swdpotteryworks.com
Hand thrownVermont pottery
R. B. Erskine, Inc. Chester Depot, VT 875-2333
Farm - Pet - Garden
$68,500 Bellows Falls along the CT River ■ 4 bedrooms/ 2baths
Monday - Friday 7:30 - 5:00 Saturday 7:30 - 3:00
weatherized, forced hot air, slate roof ■ walk to downtown Contact: Rockingham Arts and Museum Project 802-463-3252 ramp@sover.net
“If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.”—Michael Pollan
2.0
The Book Nook — proudly feeding the mind since 2006.
136 Main Street, Ludlow VT 05149 • 802–228–3238 thebooknookvt@hotmail.com • thebooknookvt.com
3.5
These busnesses proudly support the
bellows falls
farmers market
LIVE MUSIC, FAMILY-FRIENDLY GREAT READY-TO-EAT FOOD LOCAL PRODUCE, MEATS, CRAFTS FRIDAY AFTERNOONS MAY TO OCTOBER, 4 TO 7 PM ■ VISITORS CENTER DOWNTOWN
The Westminster Garden Tour
SINCE 1902
COMMUNITY F E E D S TO R E E QU I N E
BLUE SEAL
R
DAIRY POULTRY & P E T S
Saturday July 14, 10-3:00 & Sunday July 15, 12-3:00 featuring the Hayward Garden
Junction of Rte. 5 and 123 Westminster Station, VT 05159 802–722–9852 commfeed@gmail.com
Reception July 13, 6:30 Harlow Farmstand, Westminster, Vt
www.westminstercares.org
A Family Feed Company
The Rock and Hammer Crafters of Fine Jewelry Precious Metals and Gemstones One of a Kind and Custom Designs Watch and Jewelry Repair Unique Hand Crafted Gifts Since 1989
Tuesday - Sunday 7 - 2 Breakfast Served All day • Lunch til 2
26 Square ~ Bellows Falls
802–463–2289 auknight@sover.net
“Like” us on Facebook or visit our website www.dishonmain.org
“Shop the Rock”
37 Main St • Saxtons River, VT • 802-869-1224
Dayspring Farm Katahdin and Dorper sheep, lambs, meat, and farm store 217 Darby Hill Road • Rockingham VT 802-376-5474 • w w w.dayspringfarm.com
32 The Square, Bellows Falls, Vermont (802) 463-9404
Store Open Daily or visit 24/7: www.villagesquarebooks.com Full Service Independent Bookstore Books, Gifts & Toys
order Books & e-Books at www.villagesquarebooks.com
$5 off $25 Mention Local Banquet
Contributing Local Farms
Full menu available with daily food and drink specials. More than 35 beers to choose from. Extensive wine list.
Harlow’s Farm Old Athens Farm LMC Ranch Hope Roots Farm Pete’s Stand
THURSDAY OPEN MIC 8 PM MON –FRI • 4 PM till 11PM SAT • 2PM till 11PM SUN • 12PM till 11PM FULL MENU EVERYDAY AT 5 PM SEVEN DAYS A WEEK
802– 869 – 4602 16 MAIN STREET SAXTONS RIVER
10% discount if you mention this ad
www.bffarmersmarket.com