Vermont local food | The Roving Locavore

Posts Tagged ‘Vermont local food’

fruits of August

Posted in Baking, Fruit, Sweet Things, tagged cherry clafoutis recipe, english-thyme.com editing, Hogwash Farm, Luna Bleu Farm, Mon Vert Cafe, Vermont local food on August 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »

These sweet little heirlooms are from Luna Bleu Farm in South Royalton, Vermont. This was one of the farms that got me hooked on supporting local organic farmers. I was in college, taking a journalism course, and the assignment was to write a profile, so I interviewed the owner, Suzanne Long. Her dedication to living off of the land, and to biodynamic farming in particular, was inspiring to this twenty-year-old. One of my high school friends who apprenticed at Luna Bleu is now an organic farmer herself, in Guilford, Vermont.

Anyway, Caprese salad and tomato tart season is here! The tomatoes above were at the Hanover Farmers’ Market, held on the green every Wednesday afternoon. We also picked up some locally produced beer brats from Hogwash Farm, and Jack enjoyed a very large snack.

My last day in Vermont was a relaxing and delicious one. In the morning, my mom and I drove out to Woodstock to check out a new cafe owned by a young couple, Mon Vert Cafe.

We each had a cappuccino, and I also had a piece of coffee cake that looked like your basic cinnamon-swirled bundt but that turned out to be swirled with spices much more interesting: nutmeg and clove hints laced through the cinnamon, and the crumb was as moist and dense as an olive oil cake. I enjoyed reading their irony-touched wine list, too:

Another fruit of summer that I love, although I’m not getting them locally, is the cherry. Since my mom and I weren’t getting enough help in making the huge bowl of them disappear, I decided to make a clafoutis. I used the recipe in Chez Panisse Fruit, which calls for cooking the cherries in a skillet first. The end product was a bit wet on the bottom, but there’s nothing like warm poached cherry juice, so that was fine with me. The cake part had a souffle-like lightness with a hint of almond. This will be my new go-to dessert: so easy, and yet so impressive.

Now we’re back in Minneapolis, and there’s a bowl of cherries in the fridge….

Before I end with the recipe, I’ll just drop a news tidbit. I’ve launched a new website! Please check it out at: english-thyme.com

And now, here’s a jotted-down version of the recipe:

Clafoutis

2tbs. butter
1/3 plus 3tbs. sugar
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. lemon zest
2 eggs, separated
3tbs. flour
1tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 pinch saltIn a skillet over medium heat, foam the butter, add cherries and sugar, cinnamon, zest. Cook for 7-10 minutes until cherries are tender and juice thickens. Arrange cherries in a 9-inch dish.
Preheat oven to 375.
Beat egg yolks and 3 tbs. sugar. until light and thickened. Beat in flour, vanilla, almond extract, and cream.
In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with salt until soft peaks form. Fold into yolks and pour batter over fruit.
Bake 20 minutes.

Read Full Post »

the humble egg

Posted in Eggs, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, fritatta, local eating, local eggs, local food, roving locavore, sage fritatta, scrambled eggs, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 27, 2009| 1 Comment »

Eggs make frequent but unspectacular appearances on this blog. Like dead metaphors–staples of language we barely notice–eggs are ubiquitous, humble, and very nearly necessary.

Aside from windowsill herbs, eggs are probably the easiest foods to find locally. In every little region, you’ll find someone who keeps a backyard flock of laying hens. Just ask around.

We eat eggs often, and of course not just for breakfast. Like dairy products, eggs are nearly perfect foods, offering a healthy dose of fats and protein in neatly portioned packages. They are also relatively cheap, when compared to other sources of animal protein. And to top it off, they cook in minutes. Find fresh, local eggs whenever you can; the difference in taste and quality is huge.

The easiest, and no less delicious, way to cook an egg is to scramble it with some salt and pepper, heat a pan on high, melt a bit of butter, pour in the egg, turn off the heat, move it around a bit, slide it onto a plate, and eat. Lunch in our house is often a changing combination of vegetables alongside an 8-minute egg. Jack loves eggs in all forms, which gives us an easy dinner option when he refuses the bluefish or something “smelly” like that. (Though he did eat bluefish “pate” with relish the other day, when he thought it was just some salty spread.) Fritatta is an easy dinner we have frequently. Anything can be thrown in–from last night’s steamed broccoli to a bit of frozen bacon or a handful of fresh herbs.

One of the best, and simplest, fritattas I’ve had was made by a friend of a friend of the family’s whose apartment we were staying in for a night in Paris. Peter and I were on a post-college trip, crashing for free when possible. These friends of friends, whom we’d only just met that weekend, invited us to stay with them on the night before our early flight home. They had a two-year-old daughter, Chloe, who had to be fed and put to bed before dinner. They’d just arrived back home on a Sunday evening after a weekend at their parents’ in a suburb of Bordeaux. It had been a long day, and a quick meal was in order. The meal Valerie cooked up was a fritatta made with whole sage leaves spread in a six-pointed circle. The eggy texture was perfect–set but still moist in the middle. There was also a bit of salad and baguette. Perfectly simple.

Fresh Herb Fritatta

6 eggs
6 fresh sage leaves
butter
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Whisk eggs with salt and pepper until foamy. Heat an oven-proof skillet over moderately high heat, and melt a bit of butter, spreading it evenly and thinly over the whole pan. Pour in the eggs and cook until it starts to bubble and form a skin on the bottom. Lay in the sage leaves. Pop it in the oven for about 10 minutes or until set. When set, invert onto a serving plate, slice, and serve.

Or, introduce and endless variety of other ingredients….

Read Full Post »

Bread Loaf

Posted in Beer, Poetry, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, eat local Vermont, eat locally Vermont, locavore, Robert Frost After Apple Picking, roving locavore, Vermont beer, Vermont breweries, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

No, not the food staple, but the writers’ conference. I went up to Ripton, VT, to spend the last night of the conference with Peter. It was a great evening. Peter gave a late-afternoon reading of poems from his most recent book, The Lions, in the century-old clapboarded Little Theater.

After the reading, some went to change into their party-wear, while others ambled across rural Route 125 to one of the little yellow cottages, where the cocktail party was happening. There was plenty of imported gin going around, along with some local beer. The choice: Otter Creek Copper Ale.

Peter with friends, old and new

The dinner that followed was full of local yummies, including nasturtiums, though not much grows on this Green Mountain ridgeline but trees.

The conference began as an idea of early-twentieth-century-poet Robert Frost’s, in the 1920s. I love so many of his poems, it would be hard to choose a favorite, but here is one that has to do with a local crop:

After Apple Picking

My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

Read Full Post »

roasty, toasty, rainy

Posted in Baking, Fruit, Pasta, Sweet Things, Vegetables, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, berry crumble recipe, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, organic strawberries, roasted tomato pasta recipe, roving locavore, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

umrella hat

The other rainy night, we had a little casual dinner party with my parents’ best friends of four decades, who happen now to live on the same long dirt driveway in Norwich, Vermont. I’d been wanting to make a recipe from one of my favorite bloggers, Tribeca Yummy Mummy, for roasted tomato pasta with scallops. It was amazingly delicious, especially with picked-that-day organic sungolds and grape tomatoes and basil. Here are the tomatoes, slicked with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, ready to get roasty:

roast tomat

We had spicy greens in a salad, and then a berry crumble. I like making crumble, because it’s so easy. You don’t even need to look at a recipe for the topping if you just remember “it’s all 1.”

Mixed Berry Crumble

Topping:
1 c. flour
1 c. sugar (mix brown and white)
1 stick butter, cut into small nobs
1 tsp. salt
1 handful sliced almonds (or walnuts, or oats)

Filling:

3-4 c. mixed berries (I used blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries)
1/3 c. sugar
a sprinkle of almond extract

Preheat oven to 400. Mix the filling in the baking pan. Frozen berries are ok.

With your fingertips, blend the topping until it all clings together in clumps. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the filling. Bake for 40 minutes or so.

berry crumble

Get it before it’s gone!

crumble

Read Full Post »

raw pleasure

Posted in Salads, Vegetables, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, Cedar Circle Farm, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, grass fed beef, Hogwash Farm, Killdeer, Killdeer Farm, local eating, local food, locavore, Norwich organic farm, raw salad, roving locavore, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

When we got to the Hanover Farmers’ Market yesterday, thunder was rumbling in the not-too-far distance. We wouldn’t be able to linger. I went straight for the Cedar Circle Farm booth, where I was almost overcome by the vivid colors spread before me!

I spent all the cash in my pocket on this pile of (always organic) beauty:

cedar circ vegs

When we got back to my parents’ house at the far end of Turnpike Road in Norwich, it was still too hot to turn on the oven or even think systematically about a meal. I pulled out a tub of hummus, and we used it as dip for the celery (the most celeryish celery I’ve ever tasted!) and the sungolds.

In spite of the sky–another storm brewing after some hot sun–we decided to cook out.

dark clouds over the back hill

We had some grass fed ground beef from Hogwash Farm, so we decided to do burgers, corn on the cob, and a big chopped salad combining the tomatoes, some peppers, radishes from Killdeer, and cucumbers and herbs from our garden. Dressed with a bit of mustard vinaigrette, it was flavorful, cool, and perfectly satisfying.

This is the only season when a raw salad like that, with little adornment or special treatment, tastes so vivid.

Read Full Post »

worth the heat

Posted in Baking, Fruit, Sweet Things, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, roving locavore, strawberry-rhubarb pie recipe, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

pie

For the crust, check out my post of June 7, 2009, but make a double portion, since you’ll need extra pastry for the lattice. Make the pastry, shape into two discs, and chill for several hours.

For the filling, you’ll need 3 cups fresh cut strawberries and 2 cups fresh or frozen chopped rhubarb. Mix these with 1/2 c. flour, 1/2 c. sugar, and 1 tsp. corn starch.

Preheat oven to 375. Roll out two 11-inch rounds of pastry, put one in a 9-inch pie plate, and cut the other into strips. Pour in filling, and construct an over-under lattice with the pastry strips. Bake (with a cookie sheet underneath in case of drips) for 45 or so minutes, until the crust is golden.

Read Full Post »

Summer Baking

Posted in Baking, Fruit, Ice Cream, Sweet Things, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, organic strawberries, pastry frissage, roving locavore, Shiro plums, strawberry rhubarb pie, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore, Vermont plums on August 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

It’s summer. It’s hot. The fruit is ripe. But what the heck, let’s fire up the oven.

We have Shiro plums, the mild little yellow variety which grew originally in Japan, and now grows all over the place here.

shiso

These plums are from Dummerston, Vermont. (The name brings to mind Fort Dummer, near Brattleboro, where we used to go cross country skiing, and where my Dad would release the squirrels he’d caught in his “Have-a-Heart” trap. These were crazed, ferocious squirrels that chewed our wooden siding and clung to the screens of our dining room windows while we ate dinner.)

Back on topic here… plums make a scrumptious rustic galette. I had a helper this morning making pastry. A pinch of salt:

J baking

And a demonstration of the frissage technique, which spreads and flattens those yummy bits of butter, providing the basis for flakiness (push with the heels, fold with the fingertips, repeat):

frissage

We also have chopped rhubarb and strawberries in the freezer–remains from an earlier season. My sister, Bridget, has always loved strawberry-rhubarb pie. We always thought her red hair and freckles predestined her to be a strawberry lover: strawberry ice cream, strawberry shortcake, strawberry-rhubarb pie, strawberries on cereal, strawberry lip balm, the list goes on. She’s moving to North Carolina this week, where strawberries and rhubarb will be distant memories. I think I’ll make her that pie.

And serve it warm with local vanilla ice cream, of course.

Read Full Post »

tomatoes, hot and cold

Posted in Baking, Cheese, Salads, Vegetables, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, Killdeer, local eating, local food, locavore, organic tomato recipe, panzanella, roving locavore, tomato bread salad, tomato salad, tomato tart, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Mmmm… I have such a craving for a luscious tomato tart. Roasting brings out such intense flavors. And melted cheese: the deliciousness of the thought speaks for itself.

However, it’s pushing 90 today, and I won’t be turning on the oven. How to celebrate high tomato season with something a little simpler, more “rustic” and conducive to lazing around than the pretty spiral of tomato, mozz, and basil (though I have nothing against that salad!)?

Panzanella! A bread salad made with summer’s basics: stale bread, tomatoes, basil.

panz ingreds

The structure of this basic flavor combination provides a strong background for additions, if they come in as accents. Have some leftover anchovies or olives? A wedge of lemon? Toss in a few capers, too, from that bottle that always seems full. Some other backyard herbs would be nice too, as long as the basil sets the tone.

We’ll have this tonight, with grilled chicken. Killdeer folks: see you soon.

For the cooler nights later this week, though, I’ll be turning to the tart. I think I’ll try this recipe, recently posted in the Times.

Read Full Post »

Purple Green Beans

Posted in Vegetables, Whimsical, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat locally, eating locally, Killdeer, local food, locavore, purple green beans, purple string beans, roving locavore, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 12, 2009| 5 Comments »

Artist friends, look at this!

Purple beans

Look at these colors. They don’t spring out. They are dark and intuitional, like Arthur Dove’s. Not as overt as Georgia O’Keefe’s, though I’m asking you to look at the small, wet extremity that splits the color spectrum into two.

It’s shocking, disappointing, and then, simply life. These beans, when boiled, go from purple to green. The most intense purple, deep, darkly fertile. To green. Basic beany green.

Romano. String. Wax. Green. Jack and the bean stalk. There’s still some magic, despite the Anglo-Saxon simplicity of name.

Jack's sprout

Jack is thrilled to see his bean coming to fruition. Fruition. It is a fruit. First the little, tender stem. Then, the tiny, furled leaf. He planted it in a Dixie cup full of soil. He didn’t, and doesn’t, know what it was. But his enthusiasm for the greenness of the green shoot is boundless. He’s contemplative, in awe, amazed, incredulous, proud. It’s a pleasure to watch. Does it have anything to do with his asking, “Mommy, why did you decide to grow a baby? … I mean me?”

Read Full Post »

escape

Posted in Cheese, Eggs, Vegetables, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, heirloom tomatoes, king arthur flour, local eating, local food, locavore, roving locavore, Tarentaise, Thistle Hill cheese, Vermont farmers' markets, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 11, 2009| 1 Comment »

This summer, while we live–on extended visits–with various units of extended family, my cooking life has been tyrannized. Not by non-omnivores or picky children so much as by the need to please everyone. How to do so? In our family, it’s with the Square Meal. Protein, veg, “starch,” bev.

Last night, I said, “forget it, I’m making what I want and I’m not cooking.” Well, I did cook, but just two 8-minute eggs for Jack and a handful of green beans. We ate a cold and warm assortment of fresh, ripe, local foods. Remember those heirloom tomatoes I bought on Saturday? Black and pink brandywines. I sliced them thick and sprinkled them with fresh mozzarella, basil chiffonade, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I cooked the green and yellow wax beans just a bit, and tossed them with leftover sweet corn that had been cut off the cob, and with an assortment of chopped herbs from the back yard. We also had Tarentaise, the cheese made by the Putnams of Thistle Hill Farm in North Pomfret. A bowlful of mixed greens with mustardy vinaigrette. A King Arthur baguette. Vinho Verde, the effervescent, airy as seagrass Portuguese white that I love.

I know, doesn’t sound like a very adventurous escape. Ah, well. It was a good meal.

And escape from the tyranny of square meals is a topic that warrants discussion. We eat that way quite a bit more at home, and not just because we’re busy parents of a busy four-year-old. It’s refreshing to eat picnics inside, or to make a meal of the humble egg.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »