Juniper's Restaurant Farm to Table

Deep Mountain Maple

2010-10-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature maple marshmallows from Deep Mountain Maple of West Glover, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use locally-produced, wood-fired Deep Mountain Maple products in main dishes, appetizers, desserts, and drinks. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Deep Mountain Maple Special!

The Farm
Deep Mountain Maple is a maple syrup producer in West Glover, Vermont. They produce pure wood-fired Vermont maple syrup of many flavors as well as a variety of maple candies and confections. Deep Mountain Maple sells the bulk of their products at the Green Market in New York City and to fine restaurants in Brooklyn and Manhattan, as well as in Vermont at the Lake Parker Country Store in West Glover.

“Slow Food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world that links the pleasureof food with a commitment to community and the environment.”
-www.slowfoodusa.com

Slow Food is the anti-Fast Food. The Slow Food Movement began decades ago in response to the construction of a McDonald’s in an Italian town that prided itself on the local cuisine. Today, Slow Food International has thousands of members around the globe and promotes the slow production and consumption of indigenous foods through workshops and conferences. Maple syrup, Vermont’s famous indigenous treat, is a perfect example of Slow Food: it reflects the environment and community of the place where it is made, takes time and skill to produce, and is best when consumed in a leisurely fashion, like over homemade pancakes late on a Sunday morning.

Howie and Stephan Cantor have been producing maple syrup in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom for over 25 years. Though born out of state, Stephan in Georgia and Howie in Massachusetts, the Cantors are truly at home in their nearly one-hundred-year-old sugarbush in the Vermont woods. Their farm, Deep Mountain Maple, lies three miles outside of the tiny village of West Glover, about 20 miles south of the Canadian border. This week the Cantors are far from their home in the woods at the Terra Madre International Slow Food Conference and Festival in Torino, Italy, along with Marisa Mauro of Ploughgate Creamery, another one of Juniper’s Restaurant’s featured local cheese producers.

The Cantors are in Italy as representatives of New York City’s Green Market, a network of farmers’ markets in Manhattan and Brooklyn where they have been selling their products for 26 years. In Torino, they will have the opportunity to sample Slow Food from around the world and educate the international Slow Food community about Vermont foods. The idea of educating people about the source of their food has always been part of the Deep Mountain Maple philosophy. “We’ve been going to the Green Market in New York City for 26 years now,” says Stephan. “It is the largest urban outdoor farmers’ market in the country. And we’ve been standing on the street for 26 years, talking to our customers and hearing how people feel about food and maple syrup. We came to understand that we like the real marketplace, and the whole idea of a farmers’ market, especially in an urban place, where people come and meet the people who are producing the food they eat. For me that’s a big part of it, reconnecting people to their food.”

The Terra Madre Conference promotes local foods whose production have a positive impact on their environment and community, and the Green Market chose Howie and Stephan as delegates because Deep Mountain Maple embodies this ideal. The Cantors’ maple syrup is made without pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers of any kind, and their maple trees are healthy thanks to constant, generous rain and snowfall and the Northeast Kingdom’s rich, rocky soil. Deep Mountain Maple employs local people to boil and package their wood fired maple syrup, and their customers in New York and Vermont know they are buying products that represent and enhance the place where they were made. “In all that we do, we seek to manage the forest in a way that sustains it, and our future as sugarmakers,” Stephan writes on Deep Mountain Maple’s website. The Cantors are proud that their product is “real food” and contains no artificial ingredients. “I’m way into real food,” says Stephan. “It’s just a little thing we can do as producers to put real food out there, and Vermont is a real greenhouse for these kind of ideas. In our own little way we’re part of that movement. It’s all tied together, respect for the forest and for ourselves, for what we put into our bodies.”

Maple syrup production has changed in recent years, becoming faster and more industrialized, though it is still a slow and painstaking process. The Cantors currently use a system of hoses connected to a vacuum to harvest sap from the trees, but they used to collect it in buckets, guiding a sledge pulled by draft horses through silent, snowy woods to deliver sap to the sugarhouse. Do they miss the old days? “I don’t!” says Stephan. “It was really hard work!” “I sort of miss it,” says Howie. “It’s a whole other sport. But it’s hard to find people willing to do that kind of work these days.” The vacuum system doesn’t seem to affect the syrup’s flavor. The Cantors still boil their syrup in a wood-fired sugarhouse in the heart of the sugarbush, and they bottle it on the farm in their own canning facility. Howie tempers the adoption of new technology by continuing to respect and care for the forest. “Sugaring used to be this really sacred thing,” he says. “It’s gone from this incredible respect for the forest and what the trees give, to getting as much as you can as fast as you can. We try to honor the forest, maybe because we live in it.” Howie and Stephan’s beautiful wood and stone house sits in the middle of their sugarbush, sheltered by the very trees that provide their livelihood.

The Cantors use maple syrup constantly in their own cooking. “We use it for everything. If a recipe calls for sugar, you can substitute maple sugar,” says Stephan. “It’s great in any basic Asian sauce, great in tomato sauce. Fortunately, I don’t have a huge sweet tooth, so eating too much syrup isn’t a big problem for me!” Some of their customers in New York use Deep Mountain Maple products in more unconventional ways. “We have friends in New York who are high-end mixologists, which is a fancy way of saying they’re bartenders,” Stephan says. “There’s a place in New York has used our syrup to make several interesting things, not least of which is a bacon-infused Manhattan sweetened with maple syrup.” Deep Mountain’s maple marshmallows, an original product of which the Cantors are particularly proud, can be used just like traditional marshmallows, and I must say that they are delicious in homemade hot cocoa. My personal recipe calls for the cocoa to be sipped slowly, from the comfort of an armchair next to a woodstove, with a good book in hand.

You can read more about the Cantors and their trip to Italy in the Barton Chronicle online, Orleans County’s weekly newspaper.

www.deepmountainmaple.com

*This is my final post as the Farm to Table Project Coordinator this season. Thank you all for reading, and be sure to check the blog again when Juniper’s Restaurant reopens in December. It has been an honor and a privilege to interview the members of the Northeast Kingdom's agricultural community and hear what they have to contribute to the ongoing conversation about local foods. There are some truly exciting and delicious things happening around here.

-Meg Gibson

Meadow View Farm

2010-10-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature all natural grass-fed beef from Meadow View Farm of Lyndonville, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Meadow View Farm products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farm
Meadow View Farm raises 100% all natural grass-fed Belted Galloway beef on their property on Darling Hill, right next to the Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville, Vermont. Meadowview Farm beef can be found on the menu at Juniper’s Restaurant at the Wildflower Inn as well as at summer and winter farmer’s market in Lyndonville, Vermont and in Massachusetts.

Meadow View Farm

The Downing Family’s properties on Darling Hill in Lyndonville, Vermont, are the realization of a family philosophy: care for the mind, body and spirit. Meadow View Farm, which raises all natural grass-fed Belted Galloway beef, is a sister property of the Wildflower Inn, the Stepping Stone Spa, and the Chapel of the Holy Family. Meadow View’s herd of 120 “Belties”, large black, red and dun cows with a broad white stripe encircling their bellies, dot the fields surrounding the Inn, Spa, and Chapel. The beef on the menu at Juniper’s Restaurant at the Wildflower Inn is exclusively from Meadow View Farm, and it gets rave reviews from diners eating signature Beltie burgers, meatloaf, shepherd’s pie, filet mignon and New York sirloin. Paul Downing, sales manager at Meadow View Farm, works with his sister Mary and brother-in-law Jim O’Reilly at the Wildflower Inn and Juniper’s Restaurant to help their guests experience food that benefits the mind, body and spirit: grass-fed beef that is good for the consumer, the cows, and the environment.

Richard Downing Sr. and his sons began raising cows in the 1970s at their home in Massachusetts. They started with a small herd of Herefords, kept mainly to help feed their large family. When the pasture they leased from a neighbor was sold to developers in the 1980s, the Downings moved their herd to the Wildflower Inn, a property they had recently purchased in Lyndonville, Vermont. Over the next decade the family bought adjacent properties on Darling Hill totaling 895 acres, 275 of which is lush pastureland perfect for raising grass-fed beef, and in 1996 Meadow View Farm was born. The Herefords were unsuited to the harsh climate of the Northeast Kingdom, so in 2001 the Downings decided to switch to Belted Galloways they purchased from a breeder in Maine. The animals were cold tolerant, well suited to eating grass, and did not need to be milked, in addition to being good-looking and docile. “We couldn’t be happier with them. They are just phenomenal,” says Paul. “They are such nice animals. The people that train these cows are, on average, 14 year old girls, and even the bulls are so calm that these kids can handle them.”

Meadow View Farm’s Belties are regularly shown at local and regional fairs where they have collected dozens of blue ribbons. One of their bulls recently won a national award, which is especially significant because he was in direct competition with grain-fed animals. The herd at Meadow View Farm possesses some of the best and oldest Belted Galloway genetics in the country, highly sought after by other breeders. Belted Galloway is an over four hundred-year-old heritage breed that originated in Europe and is growing in popularity in United States. Written history traces Belties to the islands of North Wales, and before that they are known to have been bred in Scandanavia. They are originally descended from extinct European Bison, which until seven or eight hundred years ago inhabited the plains of northern Europe. Thanks to their ancestry, Belties are well suited to Vermont’s long, cold winters. A warm double coat of fur allows them to spend most of the year outside and prevents them from developing a thick layer of back fat.

The Belties’ distinctive coats also help them retain more energy from their feed, which is entirely made up of grass. Even in the winter, the cows are fed on hay made on the farm. Meadow View Farm practices Intensive Rotational Grazing, where 30-40 cows graze a half acre of lush grass for a short period of time and are rotated to new pasture throughout the season. Grazing on the high quality, pesticide-free grass quickly adds nutritional value to the beef and adds nutrient rich manure to the pastures. Grass-fed beef is high in vitamins, trace minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, and CLAs (conjugated linoleic acids), which suppress the formation of cancer cells and reduce vascular blockage. According to Paul, the human body requires 1.2 grams of CLAs per pound of fat to process red meat. Feedlot beef has .6 g/lb, which means that in order to process the meat the body is depleted of CLA’s. Grass-fed beef from Meadowview Farm contains an average of 2.6-2.8 g/lb, so eating it actually replenishes the body’s stores.

In January of 2009, Time Magazine ran the story “How Cows (Grass-Fed Only) Could Save the Planet.” Reporter Lisa Abend explained to America that, in addition to being good for human health, grass-fed beef benefits the environment by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

“It works like this: grass is a perennial. Rotate cattle and other ruminants across pastures full of it, and the animals' grazing will cut the blades — which spurs new growth — while their trampling helps work manure and other decaying organic matter into the soil, turning it into rich humus. The plant's roots also help maintain soil health by retaining water and microbes. And healthy soil keeps carbon dioxide underground and out of the atmosphere.

Compare that with the estimated 99% of U.S. beef cattle that live out their last months on feedlots, where they are stuffed with corn and soybeans. In the past few decades, the growth of these concentrated animal-feeding operations has resulted in millions of acres of grassland being abandoned or converted — along with vast swaths of forest — into profitable cropland for livestock feed. "Much of the carbon footprint of beef comes from growing grain to feed the animals, which requires fossil-fuel-based fertilizers, pesticides, transportation," says Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. "Grass-fed beef has a much lighter carbon footprint." Indeed, although grass-fed cattle may produce more methane than conventional ones (high-fiber plants are harder to digest than cereals, as anyone who has felt the gastric effects of eating broccoli or cabbage can attest), their net emissions are lower because they help the soil sequester carbon.”

-Abend, Lisa. How Cows (Grass-Fed Only) Could Save the Planet. Time Magazine. 25 January 2010.

Grass-fed beef is more expensive for the consumer than feedlot beef, but the true cost of feedlot beef is measured in its negative effects on the environment and on human health. Paul points out that in Argentina, where nearly all of the beef is grass-fed, the incidence of heart disease is 70% less than that of the United States.

Not only is grass-fed beef better for you, it tastes great, too. The flavor of grass-fed beef differs from grain-fed beef and can take some adjusting to, but Meadow View Farm beef has a reputation for high quality, consistent flavor. Paul’s favorite cut of grass-fed Meadow View Farm beef is a New York strip steak, cooked just shy of medium and allowed to rest for 3-4 minutes. He recommends paying close attention when cooking grass-fed beef because it can overcook more easily than grain-fed beef. Paul’s favorite cut of beef from the menu at Juniper’s Restaurant is a harder question to answer. “I like everything at Juniper’s,” he says. “The Burger and Beer is definitely a favorite.” He is referring to the Tuesday night special, where any of Juniper’s 100% all natural Belted Galloway burgers and a pint of Vermont-made Switchback or Trout River Red on tap are only $10 ($11.50 with tax). Meadow View Farm’s grass-fed beef is good for the mind, body and spirit, and on Tuesday nights at Juniper’s Restaurant, it's good for the wallet too!

www.meadow-view-farm.com

Ploughgate Creamery

2010-10-10T12:36:00.000-07:00

photo credit Ali Kaukas and Meg Gibson

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature Hartwell Cheese from Ploughgate Creamery of Albany, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Ploughgate Creamery products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farm
Ploughgate Creamery is an award-winning artisan cheese creamery in Albany, Vermont. Ploughgate collaborates with the Cellars at Jasper Hill, a cheese again cave in Greensboro for affinage, or cheese aging expertise, as well as for distribution. Artisan cheeses from Ploughgate Creamery can be found at farmers' markets in Montpelier and Stowe as well as at restaurants and stores throughout Vermont and in select locations in Boston and New York.

Ploughgate Creamery

In Vermont, we believe that the principles of Freedom and Unity are not mutually exclusive. Individualism benefits the community, and vice versa. It’s kind of like in the song: “I get by with a little help from my friends.” Marisa Mauro owns and operates Ploughgate Creamery, an artisan cheese making business in Albany, Vermont. When she was getting started three years ago, she borrowed equipment, solicited advice from colleagues and neighbors, and got free assistance from the Small Business Association of Vermont to develop a business plan and take out a loan. Help was donated enthusiastically and generously. “I had to cook ten different people pies because no one would take money!” she says. Today, Marisa makes award-winning artisan cheeses whose production supports local people and enhances the local landscape. It is a shared accomplishment that she and the community can be proud of. Marisa hosted a pig roast this summer to thank everyone who supported Ploughgate Creamery along the way, and the field next to her house could barely contain all of the cars that showed up.

Marisa grew up in southwestern Vermont. Her career as a cheese maker began at age fifteen when she went to work at Woodcock Farm, a sheep dairy in Weston. It was apparent that this was the life for her, and she spent the next several years traveling and working on dairy farms in northern California and southern Vermont before moving to the Northeast Kingdom to study farming for a year at Sterling College in Craftsbury. She ended up getting more of an education working for Neil Urie at Bonneview Farm in Craftsbury, where she spent two years making sheep cheese and becoming involved in the Northeast Kingdom's local foods community.

It wasn’t long before Marisa and Princess Maclean, a friend at Bonneview who cofounded Ploughgate and later left the business, decided that they wanted to start their own cheese operation, but they lacked the start-up capital necessary to buy a farm and animals. Neil encouraged them to purchase an abandoned creamery in Albany instead. It was already equipped with washable walls, drains, draining racks and a walk-in cooler. He would lend them stainless steel tables, cheese moulds, and various other equipment. A small cheese vat, more moulds, and cooling coils came from Mateo and Andy Kehler of Jasper Hill Farm, old family friends of Marisa’s. Cabot Creamery even lent the odd piece of equipment from their warehouse. With a little help from their friends and a loan guaranteed by the Small Business Association of Vermont, Ploughgate Creamery was born.

The new business plan included purchasing milk from a local farmer, which eliminated the cost and labor of running a farm and allowed Ploughgate to give back to the community that had given them so much. Marisa buys her milk from the Hancock Family Farm in Coventry, which milks Ayshire cows and has been owned and operated by the same family for one hundred years. Ayshire milk is prized by artisan cheese makers, and the Hancocks raise their cows naturally on feed produced on the farm. Marisa pays $20 per hundredweight for their milk, compared to the current national average price of $16. Studies have shown that conventional farmers need to makie $18 per hundredweight to survive. Marisa is happy to pay more to support a local farm that raises their animals responsibly and to do her part to keep the Northeast Kingdom’s farmland open and working. “I believe in good farming practices and in keeping things local,” she says.

Ploughgate’s cheeses are aged and distributed by the Cellars at Jasper Hill, a system of cheese aging caves in Greensboro, Vermont. The Cellars is an invaluable resource for Marisa as a small cheese producer. “The aging process is its own art,” she says. “Having Jasper Hill there allows me to just focus on making quality cheese.” The Cellars also provides opportunities for Marisa to perfect her craft. Once a year she works with a man she calls “the cheese ninja,” a consultant from France who is hired by the Cellars to teach classes to local cheese makers. Even with the support of the Cellars, developing her cheese recipe has not been easy. Plenty of batches have ended up feeding her pigs. “So many times, my boyfriend would be looking for me, and he’d be like, oh, she’s crying again at the pigpen!” she says. But her hard work is paying off. At the American Cheese Society awards in Seattle this year, Ploughgate’s Hartwell Cheese won a blue ribbon in the cow milk camembert category. Ploughgate Creamery will produce and sell around 13,000 pounds of cheese this year locally at the Montpelier and Stowe Farmers Markets, as well as to restaurants and stores throughout Vermont and in select locations in Boston and New York.

Marisa currently makes three kinds of cow milk cheeses, all named after local bodies of water. Hartwell is the award-winner, a mild, slightly grassy brie with a velvety texture and a good shelf life. Willoughby is a pungent soft cheese with a washed rind, made with local artisan mead and occasionally washed with Eden Ice Cider. Elmore is a delicious fresh cream cheese available in local markets in plain, sundried-tomato garlic, and chive. Marisa recommends making a baked brie out of the Hartwell, with a Vermont twist. She bakes the brie and tops it with local maple butter, chopped nuts and homemade jam, using fresh Elmore Mountain bread for dipping.

www.ploughgate.com

The Cellars at Jasper Hill

2010-10-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature Vermont artisan cheeses from the Cellars at Jasper Hill of Greensboro, Vermont as well as vegetables from Joe's Brook Farm of Barnet. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use products from the Cellars at Jasper Hill and Joe's Brook Farm in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farm
The Cellars at Jasper Hill is a 22,000 square foot, seven vault system of cheese aging caves located in Greensboro, Vermont. The Cellars were constructed for the purpose of providing affinage, or aging expertise, as well as distribution opportunities for local cheesemakers so that they may access the burgeoning market for artisan cheese nationwide. Artisan cheeses from the Cellars at Jasper Hill can be found locally and nationally in farm stands, natural and gourmet food stores, and fine restaurants.

The Cellars at Jasper Hill

Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is currently engaged in a delicate economic balancing act. Land rich but cash poor, as a region and as a state we face critical decisions about which we value more. How can we build strong local economies while continuing to preserve and protect our natural environment? The political and geographical landscape of northeastern Vermont has been shaped by the dairy farming industry for decades, but a drop in commodity milk prices in the 1990s and the highly competitive organic milk industry have threatened dairy farming's long-term viability.

Enter the Cellars at Jasper Hill, a new 22,000 square foot complex of cheese aging caves on Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Vermont. The Cellars are a partnership of several northeastern cheese producers who are using the infrastructure of the caves, Jasper Hill's existing national distribution system, the technical expertise of world-renowned artisan cheese makers and Vermont’s landscape of dairy farms to create a vibrant and profitable artisan cheese industry. In an article he wrote for the Diner Journal, a Brooklyn-based culinary magazine, Jasper Hill Farm owner Mateo Kehler writes, “We are building a local economy that is an expression of the landscape."

After getting enjoyably lost for a bit in Greensboro’s labyrinth of dirt roads and fall foliage-splashed pastures, I find myself only slightly late for my interview at the Cellars. My host is Zoe Brickley, the Cellars’ primary account manager and event planner. Zoe is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute of NYC and has a B.A. in philosophy. These dual focuses fit neatly into her work at the Cellars, where the prevailing philosophy is that a commitment to a place and its people can bring about the successful reinvention of its agricultural economy.

The Cellars at Jasper Hill is the brainchild of brothers Andrew and Mateo Kehler, along with a community of like-minded farmers and cheese makers looking to join forces to promote their products. The Kehlers, longtime summer residents of Caspian Lake in Greensboro, own Jasper Hill Farm where the Cellars are located and have been producing artisan cheese there since 1998, building their first cheese house in 2002. The Kehlers were sending their award-winning Bayley Hazen Blue, Constant Bliss, and Winnemere cheeses to New York City in a refrigerated truck when they realized they could share their distribution resources with other local cheese makers. The idea for the Cellars was born, and a few years later a $3.2 million state of the art cheese aging facility was built with grants and loans from the state as well as funding from private investors.

The Cellars is a “medium-sized business” that currently ages cheese for nine producers: Jasper Hill Farm, Landaff Creamery, Von Trappp Farmstead, Scholten Family Farm, Crawford Family Farm, Twig Farm, Cobb Hill, Cabot Creamery and Ploughgate Creamery, all located in Vermont except for Landaff, which is just over the border in New Hampshire. The producers vary in size from Ploughgate, a single-person cheese making operation in Albany, Vermont, to Cabot, which as a branch of Agramark is part of a $400 million a year business. The Cellars also provides technical support and educational opportunities to aspiring artisan cheese makers. At the Vermont Food Venture Center in Hardwick, currently under construction, employees of the Cellars will offer training in artisan cheese making and in the use of the Center’s cheese making facilities.

While the Cellars is dedicated to promoting local farms and cheese makers, they do not restrict their market to just Vermont or even just New England, where they sell about half of their products. The Cellars see themselves as a natural part of the east coast “foodshed” that extends as far south as Washington DC, and the market for their products is truly transnational: they distribute to New York, Chicago, California, and the Pacific Northwest. The Cellars at Jasper Hill will age and sell over 100,000 pounds of cheese this year, employ 22 people full time, and generate $5 million in sales. They have expectations of 50-100% growth in the next few years.

Artisan cheese is what is known as a value-added product, one in which raw ingredients are manipulated to create something more valuable, and its production is an exacting scientific process that requires time, skill, and proper facilities. Zoe and I don hairnets, rubber clogs, and lab coats to enter the caves, a necessary precaution to prevent foreign microbes from entering. The air inside is ripe with odors of ammonia and mold. Zoe leads me through the Cellar’s seven vaults, three large and four small. Each has a specific humidity and is used to age different kinds of cheese (bloomy rind, washed rind, etc). The vaults are built into the bedrock, where ambient temperatures are constantly near 52 degrees.

A variety of processes are used to keep out random bacteria and control the salt, moisture, and pH of each batch of cheese. These elements determine which kinds of mold, yeast, bacteria and mites will be able to grow and give each type and individual batch of cheese its unique flavor, which is also influenced by the milk that is used. It is all quite complicated and fascinating, especially for those who enjoy the science behind it. Zoe and I meet a couple of scientists walking through the vaults. For one, it is his first day on the job, and he looks like a kid in a candy store. “Are you excited?” Zoe asks. “Yeah, I feel like I’m on safari!” He smiles. “It’s a microbial jungle in here!”

A driving force and major source of capital behind the creation of the Cellars was Cabot Creamery, the nationally-renowned Vermont cheddar cheese maker. Cabot wanted to produce an artisan cheese with milk from a single source, but as a large, well-known producer they were having difficulty breaking into the artisan cheese market. They decided to co-brand with Jasper Hill Farm, who already had a national reputation for their artisan cheeses, and Cabot Clothbound Cheddar now takes up the majority of real estate in the cheese caves. In 2006, the first year it was produced, Cabot Clothbound Cheddar won “Best in Show” at the American Cheese Society Conference, and it was recently named one of the Best-Tasting Products in the first-ever Taste Test Awards hosted by Cooking Light in New York City.

The most recent issue of Brooklyn's Diner Journal is dedicated entirely to articles about the farms involved with the Cellars at Jasper Hill. The magazine is emblematic of the surge in popularity of gourmet, local foods, and one of its primary goals is to support the creation of healthy food economies by promoting medium-sized agricultural companies like the Cellars at Jasper Hill. Writer Annaliese Griffin informs Brooklynites, “By supporting a robust medium-sized economy, we give farmers options that are better than growing cheap subsidized calories or selling their land to condo developers. And best of all, we can do it from Brooklyn, knowing that our dollars will support and inspire more and more medium momentum.” They can do it also knowing they will have a delightful dining experience. Cheeses from the Cellars at Jasper Hill cheeses are rich and delicious. Paired with local artisan and domestic beers or a glass of dessert wine like Eden Ice Cider, a slice of cheese from the Cellars at Jasper Hill is a treat that can be enjoyed on many levels.

www.cellarsatjasperhill.com

Eden Ice Cider

2010-09-27T04:56:00.000-07:00

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature ice cider from Eden Ice Cider of West Charleston, Vermont, as well as organic potatoes from Pete’s Greens of Craftsbury, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Eden Ice Cider and Pete’s Greens products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farm
Eden Orchards and Eden Ice Cider Company was started by Eleanor and Albert Leger in the winter of 2007. Located on what was an abandoned dairy farm in West Charleston, Vermont, the business currently consists of around 1000 apple trees and a small pressing operation and winery in the basement of the rebuilt farmhouse. Eden Ice Cider products can be found in locally and nationally in farm stands, natural and gourmet food stores, and fine restaurants.

Eden Ice Cider

It is autumn in the Northeast Kingdom, and the colors red and gold fill the senses. They are in the brilliance of the trees on the hillsides, the flames of the first fire made in the woodstove, and the ripe apples and fresh cider coming in from the orchards. In West Charleston, Eleanor and Albert Leger are putting a twist on a New England tradition with their ice cider, a slightly sweet, slightly tart dessert wine that has its origins in Quebec. The Legers have been operating Eden Orchards and Eden Ice Cider Company since 2007. Located on what was an abandoned dairy farm, the business currently consists of around 1000 apple trees as well as a small pressing operation and winery. This is only their third season, but Eden Ice Cider has already won gold medals at the Los Angeles International Wine Competition and at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition. “From day one we knew we didn’t want to be a mass market, cheap thing,” says Eleanor. “We wanted to be high quality and reflect the place that we’re in, the climate that we’re part of, the land and the beauty of the environment.”

Before this relatively new venture, the Legers lived in Massachusetts. Albert was a chemistry teacher (“so he is the science behind it,” says his wife) and Eleanor had a corporate business career. The couple "had always been food and wine appreciators,” and had always wanted to own a working farm with heirloom apple orchards in the Northeast Kingdom, where Eleanor’s family members have been residents and visitors for seven generations. Eleanor was writing business models for hard cider and apple brandy, but she was having a hard time seeing how they could make money producing either. “We were thinking about wonderful and interesting ways to use these fabulous apples, and we wanted create something that was high quality and tasted good,” she says. It was on a trip to Montreal to visit Albert’s sister (he is French Canadian) that Eleanor and Albert first tried ice cider. “We literally tasted it, looked at each other, and said ‘We’re going to make this!’” says Eleanor.

Unlike ice wine, apples used for ice cider are not left to freeze on the trees, but are harvested, pressed, and frozen as a liquid in large tanks. Ice cider is produced during the coldest months of the year, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, so that ambient outdoor temperatures can do the freezing. The cider press produces up to 250 gallons of cider per day, which is pumped into large tanks that are placed outside to freeze. After about 6-8 weeks, the containers are brought back inside and warmed to 36-38 degrees. When the tap is opened, the first 20-25% of the cider that melts is what will be used to make ice cider. This liquid is denser and contains all of the sugar and flavor of the fruit. The concentrated cider goes into stainless steel fermentation tanks and is warmed to about 55 degrees, at which point yeast is added and the cider is left to ferment for around 2 months. When the cider reaches 10-11% alcohol content, it is placed back outside to kill the yeast, which dies naturally at temperatures under 40 degrees. Each batch of cider is made from only one kind of apple (mcintosh, empire, russet, etc.), and the different batches are blended to create the final vintage of ice cider. The final product is filtered into bottles, labeled, and allowed to sit for a few weeks before being shipped. The Legers will sell over 12,000 bottles of their ice cider this year to regional and national distributors as far as California and as prestigious as the Union Square Café in New York City.

Eden Ice Cider and other local producers of “value-added” products (items like cheese and wine in which raw materials are manipulated to create a more valuable product) are having a positive impact on the Northeast Kingdom’s agricultural economy by catering to a national market and creating local, sustainable jobs. They are also making the Northeast Kingdom an attractive destination for culinary vacationers. “There is a lot of support in Vermont from the Agency of Agriculture and the USDA for making value-added products, because we’re never going to be big commodity producers of anything,” Eleanor says. “So I think value-added, but also culinary tourism, will be the future of farming in Vermont.” She recently attended an international conference on culinary tourism in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as part of the Vermont delegation. Eleanor believes that, with a bit more emphasis on marketing, the Northeast Kingdom’s excellent food, beautiful scenery, and unique culture are ripe for culinary tourism. “We have a great tourism business in Vermont, and we just need to branch out beyond ski resorts and beautiful leaves to say there’s other stuff to do here, which is to experience an incredible variety of value-added products, and the farmers themselves,” she says.

Culinary tourism in the Northeast Kingdom will be strengthened by the strong spirit of collaboration that already exists between the local producers of many value-added products. The Cellars at Jasper Hill in Greensboro, Vermont, is an internationally acclaimed producer of local artisan cheeses, and they often pair their cheddars and bleu cheeses with Eden Ice Cider for client cheese tastings. The Cellars at Jasper Hill also partners with the Legers to make an artisan cheese that is hand-wrapped in grape leaves soaked in ice cider, and Grafton Cheddar’s cheesemaker recently won third prize at the American Cheesemaking Society Awards for cheeses marinated in Eden Ice Cider. Eleanor suggests pairing Eden Ice Cider with local artisan cheeses, especially bleus and cheddars, and also with savory hors d'ouevres like foie gras, patté, and venison sausage. The Legers enjoy sampling their wine with cheddar cheese, and for dessert, a small glass with a sugar cookie is a perfect way to end the day.

www.edenicecider.com

Lazy Lady Farm

2010-09-20T07:37:00.000-07:00

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature goat cheese from Lazy Lady Farm of Westfield, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use organic Lazy Lady Farm products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Lazy Lady Farm Special!

The Farm
Lazy Lady Farm is an off-the-grid, organic farm located in the town of Westfield in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Owner Laini Fondiller milks 40 registered Alpines goats and produces over 21 varieties of goat and cow cheese, raises pork with whey from the cheese plant, and produces grass fed beef raised in her farm’s lush pastures. Lazy Lady Farm products can be found in locally and nationally in farm stands, natural and gourmet food stores, and fine restaurants.

Lazy Lady Farm

Like the state of Vermont, Lazy Lady Farm of Westfield was “green” before “green” was cool. In the late 1980s when owner Laini Fondiller started her small, organic off-the-grid farm, this meant using candles, gas lamps, hand water pumps, an outdoor privy and a car battery for running a radio. Today, Laini and an apprentice milk a herd of 40 goats and raise whey-fed pork and grass-fed beef using power from 17 solar panels and a one kilowatt wind generator. Laini's approach to farming has nothing to do with trendiness and everything to do with environmental sustainability and an appreciation for quality food. “I make natural food because that’s what I like to eat!” she says. “I don’t want any chemicals in it.”

Lazy Lady Farm, Laini's small, successful cheese plant and meat farm in northern Vermont, has been many years in the making. After graduating from college in southern Indiana, Laini moved to Vermont during the “Back to the Land” movement of young people from urban to rural areas that was a hallmark of the 1970s. She spent some time working for Butterworks Farm in Westfield, another one of Juniper’s Restaurant’s featured farms, where she learned to work with cow milk. In the early 1980s Laini visited Corsica, France where she spent two years learning to make French style goat and sheep cheese. When she returned to Vermont, Laini began making goat cheese in her kitchen to sell at local farmers’ markets and in gourmet food shops in Stowe and Montpelier. Her first licensed cheese plant, a 10 by 12 foot room where she made cheese in five gallon batches, was finished in 1995, and her first geothermal cheese aging cellar was built in 1996. In 2003 a loan from the VT Community Fund allowed Laini to build a cheese plant capable of housing a 50 gallon cheese vat, and this year Laini completed a second cheese ripening cellar.

Lazy Lady Farm currently offers 21 varieties of cheese made with both goat and cow milk. Laini enjoys creating so many kinds of cheese for a number of reasons, number one being her own enjoyment of the flavors that goat cheese is capable of. “I have such fond memories of the cheeses I enjoyed in France,” she says. Political humor is another aspect to her productivity. “An underlying pulse to some of the cheeses is my addiction to politics and political figures,” she says. “I can’t resist creating a cheese to fit a politician or a political topic.” Examples of cheese with names that are politically inspired: BiPartisan is a combination goat and cow cheese, Barick Obama is a square goat cheese, and Tomme Delay is a French style tomme cheese. Another influence is “the environmental factors of the farm, cheese room and cellar,” she says. “Certain cheeses can only be made at certain times of the year, where it is enhanced and made possible by the external conditions.” Laini stops milking her goats in November and only offers cow cheese, made with milk from Butterworks Farm, during the winter months.

Laini is very proud of her herd of 40 registered Alpine goats. “I like goats,” she says. “They have good personalities. They’re not dopes. Well, they are, but they’re not too bad.” The herd is meticulously managed in order to produce high quality cheeses. They are pastured in the summer, May through October, using intensive rotational grazing, and in the winter they are fed on hay produced on the farm and on grain from Green Mountain Feeds in Bethel, Vermont. The goats are also given plenty of minerals to keep them healthy, vital, and productive.

Lazy Lady Farm currently produces around 12,000 pounds of cheese per year that is sold to gourmet food stores and fine restaurants as far as New York City and Chicago. Laini’s cheeses are the recipients of multiple national cheese awards and her farm has been featured in the food section of the New York Times. Beyond being part of the local foods movement, Laini sees Lazy Lady as part of a growing national appreciation of better-tasting food. “Local foods have gotten so good, now it’s just associated with being good versus being local,” she says. Laini enjoys eating her own cheese, and takes a simple approach to its use in her meals. Contrary to her farm’s name, Laini doesn’t have time to be lazy, and accordingly she says, “I don’t cook. I just like a big blob of cheese on a cracker or a piece of bread.”

Lazy Lady Farm
973 Snyderbrook Road
Westfield, VT 05874
802-744-6365
www.lazyladyfarm.net
www.vtcheese.com/members/lazylady/lazylady.htm

The Joy of Gardening

2010-09-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

This week we are pleased to once again feature organic dairy products from Butterworks Farm of Westfield, VT. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Butterworks Farm products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

“Next him, September marched eeke on foote,
Yet he was heavy laden with the spoyle
Of harvests riches, which he made his boot,
And him enricht with bounty of the soyle.
-Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queen

This morning I am harvesting my garden to supply a coming vacation with friends. Finally, a chance to use up the rest of the zucchini! As I gather ripe tomatoes, carrots, beets, and a late crop of peas, the cool September breeze reminds me that summer is slipping away, and with it the time I have left to spend in the garden.

Having a small organic garden helps me understand the passion of the farmers we have featured in the Farm to Table Project for the work they do. It is a pure joy to spend one’s days in a garden, where there is a daily feast for the senses. At times it also is hot, buggy, and cramp-inducing, but nothing can match the sense of pride and accomplishment felt at the successful ripening of a single experimental cantaloupe. Read on for seasonal pictures from the garden and for a Farm & Garden to Table recipe to start your day off right!

A beetle and a caterpillar among the peas, an encounter
made possible by not using pesticides on the plants.

Sunflower whorl.

Jasmine tobacco distracts
a potato beetle from its customary victim.

It also attracts beneficial pollinators.

Ripening corn.

Homegrown tomatoes.

Carnations, a natural pest deterrent, and the single zucchini I’m allowing to grow to full size. Current length – 16 inches.

Calendula and kale.

A Farm & Garden To Table Recipe

Open-Faced Egg, Bacon, Tomato, Cheddar & Basil Sandwich
Yields 1 serving

Add onions, peppers, and seasonal greens as desired.
Omit cheese, mayonnaise and bacon for a low-fat version.

Ingredients
2 slices Shuttleworth Farm bacon
1 egg
1 slice multigrain bread
1 clove garlic, cut
mayonnaise or Dijon mustard
sliced fresh tomato
1 slice Butterworks Farms smoked cheddar cheese
3 large basil leaves
cherry tomatoes for garnish

1. Fry bacon in a cast iron pan at medium heat. When fully cooked, remove bacon from pan and place on a paper towel to drain.
2. Fry egg, sunny side up or over easy to taste.
3. While egg is frying, toast the bread to desired color. Rub the toast with the cut garlic clove. Spread toast with mayonnaise or mustard to taste.
4. Layer egg, bacon, sliced tomato and cheese onto toast. Place in a toaster oven or under a broiler just long enough for the cheese to melt. Remove sandwich from heat onto a serving plate.
5. Top with fresh basil. Garnish with cherry tomatoes.

Butterworks Farm

Butterworks Farm is a family owned and operated certified organic farm located in the town of Westfield in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. They produce an array of exceptional quality yogurts, heavy cream and cheeses widely available throughout Vermont and many of the Eastern states.

It is no easy task to interview a farmer. They rarely have time to sit still for even fifteen or twenty minutes, so as an interviewer it is essential to cultivate an ability to walk, talk, and sometimes be of a little help. But though you must learn to juggle camera, notebook, pencil, recorder and the occasional fencepost, it is in these unrehearsed moments that you witness a farmer’s genuine commitment to and love for his work.

It is a windy, overcast day as I follow dairy farmer Jack Lazor on his chores. Jack is co-owner of Butterworks Farm in Westfield, Vermont, which he operates with his wife Anne, his daughter Christine and her family and a small army of farm hands. He is moving fence for his herd of Jersey cows, who follow a system of rotational grazing in which they are moved onto new grass or forage every twelve hours. It is so windy that Jack’s soft voice is often whipped away as I jog along behind him. Butterworks Farm’s signature windmill is working overtime where it sits atop this high plateau just east of Vermont’s Green Mountains. The windmill produces roughly one third of the farm’s power, most of it during the winter months, so a gusty summer day like this is an unexpected boon for the Lazors, though it does not help the quality of my sound recording.

Butterworks is a producer of fine quality yogurts, heavy cream and cheeses widely available throughout Vermont and many of the Eastern states. All of the products except for the cheeses are processed and packaged right here on the farm. Jack attributes his products’ excellent quality and flavor to the protein-rich milk of his Jersey cows. The animals, all born and raised on the farm since 1982, are kept healthy without the use of antibiotics or hormones, and the closed nature of the herd prevents the importation of foreign bacteria and germs. The Lazors chose Jerseys for the high butter-fat content of their milk and their ability to produce milk on a diet composed of at least 80% forage. The remainder of their diet is a mixture of corn, oats, barley, peas and soybeans that are grown organically on the farm and stored in a beautiful new grain silo. The cows spend the winter bedded down in deep clean straw in a large solar barn.

This industrious farm is a “Back to the Land fantasy” come true for the Lazors. Jack is originally from Springfield, Massachusetts. He met his wife Anne at Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts when he was visiting on spring break from the University of Wisconsin. The couple moved to Irasburg, Vermont in 1973 as part of the “Back to the Land” movement of young people from urban to rural areas that was a hallmark of the 1970s. In 1976 they bought the farm just over Lowell Mountain in Westfield and began dairy farming in a way that was good for the health their animals, the environment, and health of themselves and their customers. Jack and Anne chose Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom for its natural beauty and its unique cultural character. They enjoy their proximity to Quebec and the mixture of Quebeçois and transplanted (moved to Vermont from out-of-state) farmers.

According to Jack, Butterworks is the oldest organic dairy farm in the United States, certified since 1984. The farm has been influential in the food economy of the Northeast Kingdom for decades now - many local farmers, including Laini Fondillier of Lazy Lady Goat Farm who we will feature in future weeks, got their start working for the Lazors. Jack is also very active in several local agricultural organizations, including acting as vice president of the Northern Green Growers Association. “Agriculture is not an easy way to make a living, but there’s something wonderful about it,” says Jack. “I think that right now Vermont is so much better than anywhere else in having support for alternative, diversified small business.” He also sees the state as a place where the “independent mindedness” of local farmers and local consumer demand for high quality, socially responsible food is creating a model for small sustainable food economies all over the country. “I see Vermont leading the nation as producers of high quality, organic, value-added food,” he says.

Butterworks Farm’s products have been featured in a number of regional and national publications, including in Martha Stewart Living in 2006. Martha used their yogurt, cream, butter, and cheese in a variety of gourmet desserts and savory dishes. I can tell you from first hand experience that their products are of exceptional quality and flavor. Raw milk directly from the bulk tank is smooth, creamy, and lightly flavored. I also sample a slice of their smoked cheddar, and I think it is on par with the best that Cabot, Vermont and the entire state of Wisconsin have to offer. I ask Jack how he uses Butterworks cheddar in his cooking, and the answer is, of course, “What doesn’t taste better with cheddar?”

www.butterworksfarm.com

True Love and Homegrown Tomatoes

2010-09-05T16:55:00.001-07:00

Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes,
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes?
Only two things that money can't buy-
That's true love and homegrown tomatoes.

-Guy Clark, American songwriter

This week the Northeast Kingdom Farm to Table Project is pleased to once again feature Joe’s Brook Farm of Barnet, Vermont, who will be providing Juniper’s Restaurant with fresh tomatoes and assorted seasonal vegetables.

It is the second week of September, and my garden continues to produce mind-boggling amounts of zucchini. Luckily, the tomatoes are catching up, and their glowing red sweet acidity is a perfect visual and gustatory (word of the day: relating to the sense of taste) complement to cool, green zucchini.

The recipes in this week’s post are inspired by the harvest of my garden, particularly by the sweet cherry tomatoes coming in by the dozen. I’ve included some tomato laden main dishes as well as side-dishes of other seasonal vegetables.

Here's to True Love and Homegrown Tomatoes!

Main Dishes

Salmon Provençal
A recipe given to me by my grandmother, I made this seasonal salmon recipe the other night and served it with quinoa pilaf (a tasty and nutritious grain from South America), zucchini spears in a maple-soy marinade, and spicy sweet chilled beet soup.
Yields 4 servings

Sauce
4 cups diced, deseeded tomatoes (any size or variety)
¼-½ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar
½ cup minced shallots
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoons lemon zest
½ cup chopped fresh basil
optional: ¼ cup chopped fresh herbs (thyme, oregano, chives, etc.)
sea salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste

Salmon
four 6-8 oz. salmon filets
olive oil
sea salt & black pepper to taste
lemon wedges

1. Combine ingredients for the sauce in a medium, non-reactive bowl, three hours to two days ahead of time. Mix well, cover and put in the fridge to marinate.
2. Preheat the oven to broil.
3. Brush the salmon filets with olive oil, add salt and pepper to taste. Place filets skin side down (if using filets with skin) onto an oiled piece of aluminum foil on a baking sheet.
4. Place salmon in the broiler about 5-6 inches under heat. Broil for 7-8 minutes until salmon is firm to the touch and opaque pink in the middle.
5. Spoon a generous amount of the sauce onto individual dinner plates. Place salmon filet on top of sauce, spoon more sauce on top. Serve with lemon wedges

Baked Stuffed Zucchini with Beef, Broccoli & Tomatoes
My mom’s recipe, I made this dish for a Labor Day Weekend potluck. It transports well and tastes great hot or cold. A vegetarian version can be made by substituting spinach, garden vegetables, and/or soft cheese for the hamburger meat. To satisfy the carnivore, replace or augment the sliced tomatoes on top with fried bacon.
Yields 4 servings

2 large (10-12 inches) zucchini

Stuffing Mixture
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1½ cups chopped fresh seasonal vegetables: I used broccoli and diced cherry tomatoes
¾ lb. ground beef: I used all-natural Belted Galloway beef from Meadowview Farm on Darling Hill
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
sea salt & black pepper to taste
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water

shredded Vermont cheddar cheese
thinly sliced fresh tomato

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Halve zucchini lengthwise. Scoop out seeds to create 4 “zucchini boats”.
3. Poke several holes into the zucchini with a fork. Place onto an oiled baking sheet and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
4. Heat olive oil on medium heat in a medium-sized saucepan.
5. Cook onions until soft, then add garlic. Sauté until garlic is aromatic.
6. Stir in ground beef, mixing well with the vegetables. Cook thoroughly until brown.
7. Add seasonal vegetables in order of the length of time they take to cook to tenderness: add broccoli just after the onions and before the garlic; add tomatoes after the hamburger has browned.
8. Boil the water in a separate medium saucepan. Stir in quinoa, lower heat to medium. Cook covered for around 15 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is fluffy. Stir into stuffing mixture.
9. Fill the zucchini, mounding stuffing slightly above the edge of the “boat”. Top zucchini with cheddar cheese and bake for a further 20 minutes, adding sliced tomatoes on the top for the final 10 minutes.
10. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and cool for 10 minutes.

Side Dishes

Quinoa Pilaf
Most boxes have easy directions on the side.
Yields 4 servings

2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup minced onions
1 clove minced garlic
2 cups water or chicken broth
1 cup quinoa
¼ cup fresh chopped parsley
2 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Heat olive oil on medium low heat in a medium-sized saucepan.
2. Cook onions until soft, then add garlic. Sauté until garlic is aromatic.
3. Add water or broth, cover and turn up heat to high to bring water to a boil.
4. Stir in quinoa, lower heat to medium. Cook covered for around 15 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is fluffy.
5. Stir in parsley and lemon juice, serve hot or cold.

Zucchini Spears in Maple-Soy Marinade
My own invention.
Yields 4 servings

Sauce
¼ cup pure Vermont maple syrup-what else?
¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
¼ cup olive oil
black pepper to taste

2 medium (8-10 inches) zucchini

1. Combine maple syrup, soy sauce, olive oil, and pepper.
2. Cut zucchini into 4-5 inch spears.
3. Marinate zucchini in sauce for 20 minutes or more.
4. Cook zucchini in your favorite manner: broiled, grilled, or sautéed until cooked through.

Spicy Sweet Chilled Beet Soup
My own invention.
Yields 4 servings

2 cups diced beets (any variety)
1 cup diced red potatoes
8 tablespoons butter
¼ cup pure Vermont Maple syrup
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, add more to taste
sea salt & black pepper to taste
4 cups milk
sour cream
¼ cup chopped fresh herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, chives, etc.)

1. Steam beets and potatoes until tender enough to separate with a fork. Mash well.
2. Add butter, maple syrup, cayenne, salt, pepper and milk. Blend well.
3. Chill until cold. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, sprinkle with fresh herbs.

Joe's Brook Farm

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature organically grown tomatoes and assorted seasonal vegetables from Joe’s Brook Farm of Barnet, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Joe’s Brook Farm products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farm
Joe’s Brook Farm is an organic vegetable farm in Barnet, located south of St. Johnsbury in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, eggs and specialty items to 10 local members and they attend weekly farmer’s markets in Lyndonville (Fridays from 3-7pm), St. Johnsbury (Saturdays from 9am-1pm), and Danville (Wednesday mornings). They also provide produce to several local fine restaurants.

www.joesbrookfarm.com

It is good to know and be friendly with your neighbors. The connections you make with the people in your community have a real impact on the quality of daily life, especially when you live in a sparsely populated area like the NEK (Northeast Kingdom). The most important connection you can make when you are trying to be a “localvore” – one who eats only or mostly food that is produced locally - is the one you make with your local farmer. So it is good to have neighbors like Mary Houde-Skovsted and her husband Eric of Joe’s Brook Farm, because they provide members of their community with beautiful, organic vegetables, and keep their land healthy, active, and undeveloped in the tradition of the small family farm. As it turns, out, I am technically a neighbor-once-removed of Mary and Eric, who attended Middlebury college with my real life next-door neighbor. It is a typical kind of connection in this NEK of the woods.

I am visiting Joe’s Brook Farm in Barnet, about 8 miles past St. Johnsbury on Route 5. It is a muggy July morning during this third week of uncharacteristically hot weather here in the Kingdom. At the famous red round barn in Barnet, I make a right on Joe’s Brook Road, pass Brook Hill Road and pull into to the 19th century farmhouse on the left. Across the street sits the barn, sagging back slightly from the road. Eventually the barn will become a farm stand with help from a historic restoration grant from the state. The land drops off sharply behind the barn to the fertile floodplain of Joe’s Brook.

I meet Mary at the farmhouse and we walk behind the barn to the rows of lush vegetables below, discussing our mutual friend and the small world we live in. Mary points out her portable greenhouse, which moves along a rail system that allows it to house cold weather crops like spinach until they can survive outdoors, then moves to shelter warmer weather crops like tomatoes. One of Mary’s neighbors and the former owner of the farm, Stewart Hoyt, stops by looking for plant starters. Stewart is a carpenter and artist, and created the beautiful statue of the man that overlooks Mary’s garden (could this be Joe of Joe’s Brook?). The main greenhouses where Mary grows her tomatoes are on a plot of land that includes the home, sugarhouse and garden of the late Airie Lindsay, one of the founders of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA). Airie’s daughter and son-in-law now lease the land to Mary and Eric and also donated their tractor and farm truck to the fledgling farmers. It's all about connections.

I am setting up the camera for our interview when Mary comments that these farm visits I’m doing must be starting to blur into each other. I have to admit that in certain ways, yes, they are. Whether they raise animals, vegetables, or make syrup there seem to be only a few reasons why people choose to be natural and organic farmers in northern Vermont: they love the area, they feel strongly about protecting the environment, and they are passionate about good, fresh food and want to share it with others. But how did they get to where they are now? That part of the story is always unique and interesting.

We interrupt this article for a brief Northeast Kingdom moment:
Mary and I are talking and walking through the garden when the frantic barking of her huge dog Maddy brings our attention to the large bull moose who has just arrived in the next field over.

Okay, now we can move on.

Mary is from Barnet and grew up about 2 miles away on a dairy farm, the eleventh of twelve siblings. She met Eric in college. The couple moved to the Northeast Kingdom in 2007 and bought their farm. This year is their first doing a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, eggs, and specialty items like maple syrup to 10 local members, and they attend weekly farmer’s markets in Lyndonville, St. Johnsbury, and Danville. Growing up, Mary did not want the life of a dairy farmer, but vegetables had their appeal. “I grew up down the road and my mom always had a big garden, and we always ate out of the garden,” she says. Her early exposure to homegrown food influenced her shopping habits in college and ultimately her views on our national food system and choice of career. “I think everyone should have the chance to buy fresh local food and see what it tastes like, because to me, that’s real food,” she explains.

Since purchasing the farm, Mary has devoted herself full time to the endeavor and has witnessed a surge in the demand for local, organic foods. She is excited to be a part of a community of farmers who are working together to promote the local foods movement. “There are a lot of opportunities for more education,” Mary says. “I think we all realize that we’re not in competition with each other, we’re in competition with Price Chopper and California, the bigger guys, and if we can all just be on the same page, and be friends, and share our techniques, then we can get much further standing together.” Mary is also appreciative of work that the state is doing to promote small vegetable farms. The Vermont NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) is an organization that traditionally provides aid to dairy farms, and they recently began offering an opportunity for local vegetable growers to obtain free large greenhouses. The program stipulates that the greenhouses cannot have heat or electricity, but the structures alone will allow farmers to grow cold weather crops far later in the season.

Joe’s Brook Farm currently grows everything from spinach, broccoli and tomatoes to pak choi, fennel and ground cherries. They will soon offer strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, and will have maple syrup in the spring. I ask Mary how she is eating her vegetables at the moment. “I like tomatoes raw, with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil,” she says. “You can’t underestimate good olive oil because that adds a lot to any dish. I’ve been eating a lot of gazpacho in this heat.” Good idea. I drive away with plans to jump in Joe’s Brook, make gazpacho, and visit my nextdoor neighbor to tell her about the new connection I’ve made.

www.joesbrookfarm.com

Shuttleworth Farm

2010-08-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature country style ribs, bacon, and lamb from Shuttleworth Farm of Westfield, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use naturally-raised Shuttleworth Farm meats in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads.

The Farm
Shuttleworth Farm is a family owned and operated farm located in the town of Westfield in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Their sheep, pigs, and poultry are raised on the lush pastures that grow in the shadow of Jay Peak and lie along the banks of the Missisquoi River. Most of the meat from Shuttleworth Farm is sold within two hundred miles of the farm to individual customers as well as fine restaurants and natural food stores.

Shuttleworth Farm

In the green meadows of Westfield at the foot of Jay Peak, a flock of Shuttleworth Farm sheep graze contentedly as clouds engulf the moutain above. The flock is guarded by three border collies and two Great Pyrenées who keep the lambs and ewes from straying too near the banks of the Missiquoi River. This graceful valley is home to Kelli Fogg and Todd Shuttleworth and their daughter Isla, along with a few other small farms and country homes. Shuttleworth Farm is one of the biggest lamb producers in the state of Vermont and part of the growing local foods movement. Most of their lamb, pork, and poultry products are sold within two hundred miles of their property.

I am visiting Kelli and Todd at their farm on a cool morning in June. Isla, their sixteen month old, shows me around the barn, fearlessly toddling up to the dogs and sheep. Like her parents, she seems a born farmer. Todd Shuttleworth has loved family farming since spending his childhood summers on the original Shuttleworth Farm in Canaan, New Hampshire, where his grandparents raised dairy cows and vegetables. “A little bit of nostalgia helps you get involved. It can also help you keep going,” he says.

Todd studied farming at the University of Maryland. After graduation, he moved to the Northeast Kingdom to try his hand at running the family farm. It was in Vermont in 2003 that Todd met Kelli, his real estate agent and a former marketing major at Alfred University. Their shared passion for family farming and naturally raised foods led them to purchase a small flock of sheep and the former dairy farm in Westfield. This new generation of Shuttleworth Farm is a wonderful example of how a combination of responsible farming practices, favorable market trends and modern advertising strategies can support and sustain a small family farm. The Shuttleworths currently have 150-250 ewes, produce up to three hundred lambs a year, and have nine sows.

Nostalgic it may be, but this old-fashioned, low-tech approach to farming in many ways works better and is cheaper, healthier, and more environmentally sustainable than industrialized agriculture. The Shuttleworths have successfully adopted many traditional practices on their farm. They keep their pigs in the Swedish manner, with lots of clean deep straw for bedding and a separate area for their manure. “Pigs are very clean animals, if you give them the choice to be,” Todd observes. His work with the dogs is both nostalgic and effective. “I like to joke that the dogs saved our marriage.” He smiles. “Before we got them it would take us hours to round the sheep up.”

The Shuttleworths are excited about the local food movement and the surge of interest in organic and naturally produced food, though they are realistic about its challenges. “It’s tough. It’s tough for us to get the attention of lawmakers. The dairy industry gets plenty of low interest loans and subsidies,“ Todd says. “Getting a bank to believe in you and your business plan, that’s tough. But I think that as the movement grows, and more people are successful, it’ll get better.”

Another challenge lies in educating consumers about the cost of producing healthy food versus the cost of producing cheap food. Though local and natural foods will often be more expensive, consumers should consider that they are also purchasing reassuring knowledge of where their food is coming from and how it is produced. The cost of producing of cheap foods is more hidden, funded by government subsidies and, ultimately, taxpayers. “I think that consumers can provide some of the most powerful oversight, environmentally and otherwise,” says Todd. “When you have to live in the community where you sell your food, if you were raising a poor product you’d have a bad reputation quick. But when your food comes from God knows where, it’s like this invisible curtain that everything is hidden behind. There’s no real accountability, there’s no liability.”

The purchase of Shuttleworth Farm meats and other locally produced natural foods contributes not only to the growth of strong communities and a safer food system, but also to a healthier environment. “You don’t want to create problems,” Todd says. “We accept responsibility for all of the food we’re producing, everything. All that grain for the animals, all the manure from the animals, that gets handled responsibly.” Their sheep are mostly grass fed, which reduces the use of the fossil fuels it takes to grow and ship grain, and Todd believes the meat is the better for it. “Keeping those animals healthy, and they grow quick on a low or no grain diet, produces a leaner meat, so it’s not greasy,” he says. “You don’t need the mint sauce. It’s very tender.”
.
So of course, one of Todd’s favorite things about sheep farming is the opportunity for quality control. “I love it when a package breaks open and we have to eat it ourselves,” he grins. “I like everything grilled.” Kelli prefers roasting; she says that one of the family’s favorite meals is a boneless rolled lamb shoulder with Montreal steak seasoning, slow roasted in the oven.

The Shuttleworths have a wonderful website and farm blog at www.shuttleworthfarm.com. You can visit their website for information on ordering their products and to learn more about the family and their farming philosophy.

Shuttleworth Farm Mission Statement

People speak about sustainable agriculture as an ideal goal, but at Shuttleworth Farm, we think that sustainability is the least we can do. We are not about maintaining, we are about improving:

* Improving our soils with carefully planned rotations of sheep, laying hens, broilers, turkeys, pigs and hay that perfectly complement the natural growth cycle of our native cool season perennial grasses.
* Improving the health of our animals. Fresh air, sunshine, clean water, and lush green grass benefit all types of livestock, yet so much of modern agriculture denies animals these basic necessities. We let our animals eat and behave as nature intended them to.
* Improving the health of our consumers. Pasture-raised meats are much lower in fat, higher in heart healthy Omega-3 fatty acids and Conjugated Linoleic Acids (CLA's), and excellent sources of Vitamins A, B3, B6, B12, D and E (Jo Robinson, Eat Wild, 2006)
* Improving the health of our community. The average morsel of food in this country travels more than fifteen-hundred miles before it is consumed. (Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma. New York: The Penguin Press, 2006. 239p). We service our local markets. The vast majority of our meats are consumed within two hundred miles of our farm. This permits us to offer quicker time to market, reduced handling charges and huge reduction of the use of fossil fuels.

Northeast Kingdom Garlic

2010-08-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature certified organic garlic from Northeast Kingdom Garlic, located in Newport Center, VT. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Northeast Kingdom Garlic products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farm
Northeast Kingdom Garlic is a certified organic garlic farm located in Newport Center, VT in the shadow of Jay Peak on Clark Mountain Road. Northeast Kingdom Garlic sells most of its product to local Vermont customers in addition to clients as far as Boston, MA. Northeast Kingdom Garlic is a registered trademark and a member of the Garlic Seed Foundation of Rose, NY.

A Tribute to Garlic

Garlic, all powerful
marvelous seasoning,
you are the essence,
the incense which
revives and exhilarates.
You are the spur that
excites, stimulates.
Garlic, you stir up,
you impel, you cheer;
you are the only
condiment, you are
the glorious one,
the sovereign extract
of the Earth.

-G. Coquiot

Mr. Coquiot obviously really liked garlic. We really like garlic, too, here at Juniper’s Restaurant at the Wildflower Inn. So does Zachary Hart of Northeast Kingdom Garlic in Newport Center, Vermont. He has been raising organic garlic for six years, and this week we are pleased to feature it in a variety of our regular and special offerings.

I saw Mr. Coquiot’s poem hanging on the wall in Zack’s off-the-grid homestead, and thought that it spoke beautifully and passionately about the endless possibilities of garlic. “It’s almost hard to find a recipe that doesn’t use garlic,” Zack points out. "It’s almost like a spice or a condiment. I use it in everything, aside from maybe dessert.” He is working to create a local source for this most essential of bulbs in northern Vermont.

Zack is a native of Coventry, Vermont and a 1997 graduate of North Country High School in Newport. He attended college in Boston and Syracuse, New York, obtaining a degree in environmental and forest biology. Zack returned to the Northeast Kingdom several years ago after spending time in various other parts of the country, including in Alaska where he worked for one of the premier birch syrup producers in the state. An opportunity to work full-time for Landvest, a real estate company in Newport where he is a field forester specializing in GIS (digital mapping) technology, brought Zack back to his home turf.

Northeast Kingdom Garlic is a side endeavor, though it is nearly is a full-time job in itself. Zack currently raises around 600 pounds of certified organic music garlic (a popular variety from Germany) per year, and he would like to increase that number in the future. He also keeps bees (Z’s Bees) and raises chickens and vegetables for his own consumption. Zack and his single employee/accomplice, his partner Emily Dehoff, will sell most of their garlic this year to local Vermont customers in addition to clients as far as Boston.

Most garlic used in Vermont is imported from places like China, Mexico, and Argentina. Zack thinks it makes more sense to create a reliable local source for this crop that grows so well in Vermont’s cool climate. “I want to be the go-to garlic guy,” he says. He sees great potential for Vermonters to grow and distribute many crops locally, and his foray into garlic farming is a response to local demand for naturally produced food. “I think Vermont is lucky in that we already have a strong agricultural base intact,” he says. “People want to know where their food is coming from, and that knowledge is hard to put a price on. I’ve always farmed naturally. It makes sense for our health and the health of the soil.”

“I got into garlic because I love to cook,” Zack says. “It is a great crop. Good for the circulatory system, immune system boosting, and a natural antibiotic.” He is hard-pressed to choose a favorite way of preparing his garlic, but stresses that, “The most important thing you can do is to get a good garlic press.”

nekgarlic[at]gmail.com

Zucchini Nation

2010-08-15T17:01:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to once again offer farm to table vegetables from Pete's Greens in Juniper's Restaurant this week. I'd like to take this opportunity to acquaint you with a hallmark of the summer, the great zucchini invasion.

They say that August is the only month you need to lock your car around here. If you don’t, you might find it filled with zucchini. Everyone who’s planted it has more than enough, and they’d be thrilled to give you their extras, with or without your consent.

We’ve had an exceptionally warm summer in the Northeast Kingdom this year, with the perfect amount of rain to send gardens into overdrive. Overnight, innocent little zucchini become monster two-foot-long zukes. My kitchen table holds a growing pile of giant zucchini that I don’t quite know what to do with, the prodigy of only two plants. With my pile of zucchini as inspiration, the Northeast Kingdom Farm to Table blog post this week is about this incredible edible vegetable and how to use it up.

Know Your Zucchini

A bit of zucchini history from Wikipedia:

“The zucchini or courgette is a small summer squash. Along with some other squashes, it belongs to the species Cucurbita pepo. They can be yellow, green or light green, and generally have a similar shape to a ridged cucumber, though a few cultivars are available that produce round or bottle-shaped fruit.

Zucchini, like all summer squash, has its ancestry in the Americas; however, the varieties of squash typically called "zucchini" were developed in Italy, many generations after their introduction from the "New World". The first records of zucchini in the United States date to the early 1920s. It was almost certainly brought over by Italian immigrants and probably was first cultivated in the United States in California.”

Eat Your Zucchini

Some recipes:

Zucchini Frittata, from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest

Yields 4 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup minced onion
¾ teaspoon salt
pinch dried oregano
pinch dried thyme
8-10 mushrooms, sliced,
about 1 cup diced zucchini
½ cup minced bell pepper
1 small clove garlic, minced
2 handfuls chopped spinach and/or arugula
freshly ground black pepper
a few leaves of fresh basil
4 or 5 eggs (okay to delete a yolk or two)
¼ lb. fontina cheese, grated or sliced (optional

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Heat the oil on the stovetop in a 9 or 10 inch cast-iron skillet. Add the onion and half the salt, and sauté over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the dried herbs, mushrooms, zucchini, bell pepper, and garlic, and cook, stirring, over medium-high heat for another 5 minutes – or until the vegetables are just tender.
4. Turn the heat up, and add the spinach or arugula with remaining salt and black pepper to taste. Stir and coook for just a minute or two – until some of the liquid evaporates. Stir in the basil.
5. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, then pouthem into the vegetables. Sprinkle in some cheese, if desired. Place the pan in the preheated oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the frittata is solid when you shake the pan. (If you so desire, you can ad some extra cheese to the top midway through the baking).
6. Serve cut into sedges – hot, warm or room temperature. This will even tast good cold in a sandwich on lightly toasted bread, with a little mayonnaise, and sliced, very ripe tomatoes.

*top with fresh tomatoes and sliced green peppers, add basil for garnish

Sweet Zucchini Bread, from the Joy of Cooking

Makes one 9 x 5 inch loaf

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Whisk together:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Blend well in a large bowl:
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
Stir in the dry ingredients. Blend in with a few swift strokes:
2 cups grated zucchini, squeezed of excess moisture
1 ½ cups ground pecans or walnuts
Scrape the batter into the greased pan. Bake until the bread pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 45 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before unmolding to cool completely on the rack.

* I added 2 tablespoons cocoa and some dried cranberries for a variation on this recipe.

Zucchini Blossoms

This is my favorite way to involve zucchini in a meal, though it doesn’t make the zucchini pile any smaller. Use the unopened male flowers (they are longer and thinner, and lack a round ovary at the base) of zucchini or any other squash plant and remove the stamens (center spike inside the flower) for cooking. Make a stuffing out of soft cheese (ricotta, chevre, etc.), herbs, and anything else you want to add - I made some out of herbed chevre, bleu and mozzarella cheeses, sautéed mushrooms, tomatoes, minced garlic, and fresh basil. Stuff the blossom carefully, trying to not rip the petals. Dip it into a beaten egg and lightly coat it with flour, then pan fry in oil or butter until golden brown, turning the blossom to cook each side.

Take heart friends, the zucchini flood will soon recede. In the meantime, I hope this gives you some ideas!

Pete's Greens

2010-08-08T07:34:00.000-07:00

The Special:
This week we are pleased to feature fresh basil, fingerling potatoes, mixed beets, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, carrots, kale, basil, dill and chicken from Pete’s Greens of Craftsbury, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use locally-grown Pete’s Greens veggies and herbs in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Pete’s Greens Special!

The Farm:
Pete’s Greens is a certified organic vegetable farm in Craftsbury, located on the southern edge of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables to members of the local community, and they have a farmstand in scenic Craftsbury. The folks at Pete’s Greens are making a name for themselves and the Green Mountain state by providing high quality Vermont produce and meat products to restaurants and markets in Vermont, Boston and New York.

Pete’s Greens:
Craftsbury, VT – Pete’s Greens of Craftsbury is not your average small Vermont farm. During a time when so many are going out of business due to rising energy costs and an inability to compete with big agriculture, Pete’s Greens and a number of other small agricultural businesses in the Hardwick, Vermont area are thriving and even expanding production. A rising demand for local, organic, and safely processed foods is creating markets for vegetables, eggs, and meat from Pete’s Greens as far as Boston and New York.

Pete Johnson, owner, is a native of Greensboro, VT. He’s been farming for over twelve years, six of those on his land in Craftsbury. Pete is a big believer in small-scale agricultural production. “We are really interested in rebuilding village-based local food systems,” he says. For Pete, it’s a matter of long-term sustainability. “A lot of factors are pointing to local and regional production,” he notes. “As energy costs rise, so will the price of food that is shipped long distances. Soon local food will be almost as cheap as stuff grown elsewhere.”

Greenhouses powered by recycled vegetable oil allow the folks at Pete’s Greens to supply vegetables to wholesale and CSA customers year-round. Members of their Localvore CSA receive 30 pounds of locally produced vegetables and other Vermont products once a week throughout the year. This includes six to eight varieties of vegetables and three to five local food items, like Elmore Mountain bread and pies made with organic apples from Champlain Orchards. At $792 per yearly share, it’s a small price to pay for delicious produce, Vermont products and for the peace of mind that comes with eating safe, healthy food.

Recently, Pete’s Greens and other Hardwick, Vermont area businesses have garnered a good deal of positive local and national press. With their success and growth comes a role of leadership and advocacy on behalf of other small Vermont farms. “We want to stimulate the success of local business,” Pete says. Last year, Pete’s Greens purchased over $300,000 worth of products from other local business for their Localvore CSA shares.

So what does Pete see for the future of Vermont’s food economy? “The sky is the limit. Technology is really making it possible,” he enthuses. He refers not only the use of alternative energies and advances in organic growing techniques that allow for his year-round production schedule, but also to the power of technology to connect farmers directly to consumers, and to each other. Through formal and informal networks, small Vermont farms are coming together to promote themselves and their high quality products. The Vermont Fresh Network (www.vermontfreshnetwork.org) allows consumers to find business and restaurants that produce and use Vermont products.

And now, the important question: How do the folks at Pete’s Greens like to eat their basil? “With Vermont mozzarella and tomatoes, on homemade bread, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and cracked pepper.” Mmmm. Simple, fresh, delicious. That’s how to eat like a local.

http://www.petesgreens.com/

The Lyndon Farmers' Market

2010-08-01T16:54:00.000-07:00

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature all natural blueberries, tomatoes, Rhond de Nice squash, garlic, fingerling potatoes, peanut potatoes, beans, and dill from the Lyndon Farmer’s Market in downtown Lyndonville, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Lyndon Farmer’s Market products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Market
The Lyndon Farmer’s Market takes place in historic Bandstand Park on Main Street in downtown Lyndonville, VT every Friday from 3-7pm.

www.lyndonfarmersmarket.com

On a beautiful Friday afternoon in July I have the delightful task of purchasing the freshest local fruit and vegetables in the Northeast Kingdom for the patrons of Juniper’s Restaurant at the Wildflower Inn. I am visiting the Lyndon Farmers’ Market in Bandstand Park on Main Street in Lyndonville, VT, where all summer long between 16-18 vendors will sell their local produce and handmade goods on Friday afternoons from 3-7pm. During the winter a smaller group of vendors gathers on a Saturday once a month at the Tom Breslin Community Center, just down the street from Bandstand Park.

This is the third year of the Lyndon Farmers’ Market, and it is already one of the most vibrant and best-attended outdoor markets in the Northeast Kingdom. Residents and visitors stroll the green in historic Bandstand Park where they have the opportunity to support Vermont’s agricultural economy by purchasing fresh produce from local growers and the goods of local bakers, food vendors and crafts people. A band offers free live music throughout the afternoon, and the wide lawn invites sunbathers and games of Frisbee. I am enjoying perusing the stalls and purchasing the best-looking produce the Kingdom has to offer.

The tomatoes from Joe’s Brook Farm look great. Mary Skovsted helps me pick out some of the best ones.

Our organic blueberries this week come from Biz-Z-Bee Farm in Lunenberg. Brothers Dylan and Korey Cantin provide excellent sales service while their father Tom bags up the berries.

At Gourmet Gardens, I purchase Rhond de Nice squash, an heirloom variety from France that make excellent stuffing squashes, and peanut potatoes, a diminutive and hardy variety developed in Alaska. Owner Jill Rebillard recommends frying the peanut potatoes in a pan with a little water until tender, then adding cream and rosemary.

Chandler Pond Farm is busier than ever, and their market stand shows it. I pick out dill, garlic, and fingerling potatoes. The Martins are getting ready for their Feast in the Field on August 29.

H & H Farm Products uses no chemicals or pesticides on their green and yellow beans. The ladies of the Hartsock and Houghton families assist me with my purchase.

Eden Ice Cider Company offers samples of their delicious dessert wine, a regular feature on our menu at Juniper’s Restaurant. Not too sweet and not too tart, Eden Ice Cider use several apples varieties to create their delightful drink.

Meadowview Farm is in attendance today, offering choice cuts of belted Galloway beef raised on Darling Hill next to the Wildflower Inn.

To visit the Lyndon Farmers’ Market, simply leave the Wildflower Inn and follow Darling Hill Road to where it intersects Route 114 and make a right. Go straight through the traffic light in front of the Lynburke Motel into the town of Lyndonville. The Market is held in Bandstand Park, about a quarter mile up the road on the right, across the street from White’s Market.

From the Lyndon Farmer’s Market Website

The Lyndon Farmers’ Market was started in June 2008 by local farmers Eric and Cathy Paris. It was held for the first year next to the Freighthouse Restaurant beginning in June, 2008. A small number of dedicated farmers and craftspeople attended the market faithfully during its first season, then organized a winter market which enjoyed the participation of additional vendors from Lyndonville and surrounding towns. After much discussion and with the advice of a NOFA consultant they decided to change the day of the 2009 summer market from Sunday to Friday and were fortunate enough to be given permission by the Lyndonville trustees to use Bandstand Park as a new location for the market. This beautiful park has ample parking and great visibility in the center of Lyndonville.

The Lyndon Farmers' Market has a variety of fresh produce, canned produce and fruits, organic products, and products from local craftsmen and artisans. Here is a list of products that are offered at the farmers' market on a regular basis:

Vegetables
Fruits
Home baked Breads
Pies
Maple Syrup
Maple Products
Aprons
Wood Carvings
Vegetable Plants
Flowering Plants
Eggs
Herbs
Meat
Milk
Crafts

www.lyndonfarmersmarket.com

Mountain Foot Farm

2010-07-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature organically grown kohlrabi, French filet beans, lettuce, zucchini, summer squash and brown trout from Mountain Foot Farm of South Wheelock, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Mountain Foot Farm products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farm
Mountain Foot Farm is an organic farm in South Wheelock, located just outside of Lyndonville in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They have a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables to around 10 local members and they attend weekly farmer’s markets in St. Johnsbury (Saturdays from 9am-1pm), and Danville (9am-1pm). They also provide produce to several local fine restaurants.

www.mtnfootfarm.net

Mountain Foot Farm

Do you know the Vermont Recycling Motto?

Use it up,
Wear it out,
Make do,
Or do without.

Curtis Sjolander of Mountain Foot Farm is familiar with the motto, and he credits much of his success as a small trout, vegetable and flower farmer in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom to its principles of thrift and ingenuity. “I drive old cars,” he says, “and I have a small mortgage.” He plans to expand his brown trout production into three new tanks this year, which he will construct out of an old grain silo he was given. “Creative Answers to Interesting Questions” might be a good motto for Mountain Foot Farm.

Curt was born in Massachusetts but has lived in Vermont for most of his life. His parents moved to St. Johnsbury where they still live, and he attended high school at St. Johnsbury Academy. Curt obtained his degree in computer science in Troy, New York, where he met his wife Joan, who is a nurse. They built their house on South Wheelock Road in 1984 and began to make a real go at farming in 1989. They have been regulars at the Caledonia Farmer’s Markets in St. Johnsbury and Danville for over twenty years. During the few months of the year when there is not much to do on the farm besides feeding and processing the trout, Curt works part time as a freelance software engineer.

The Sjolanders own a total of about 30 acres of land in two parcels. One parcel in the town of Wheelock, about 10 acres, contains their home, attached greenhouse, barn with trout rearing tanks, maple sugarbush and woodlot. The other parcel, about 20 acres in the town of Lyndon, has the main gardens, hoop houses, storage sheds, pasture, softwoods and undeveloped land. A third parcel is on Curt’s parents' land in St. Johnsbury where there are garden plots.

Why trout farming? When they bought the property and built their house at the foot of Ide, Wheelock, and Stannard Mountains, the Sjolanders discovered that the land had a particularly good spring that produced more water than was needed by the house alone, and they could think of no better way to use the excess cold, clean water than to install gravity fed trout tanks. Why vegetables? Curt has learned that diversifying his production is a good safeguard against the inevitable small and large disasters that farmers face every season (lost crops, personal or financial difficulties, etc.), and he also likes to keep life interesting by learning to raise new, unusual crops. Why farming at all, for a person who could make a steady living as a freelance software engineer? “I like to be out and about,” Curt says simply. “Who wants to sit at a computer all of the time?”

While not certified organic, Mountain Foot Farm does follow organic principles. Curtis practices long distance rotation of crops on his three parcels of land, which keeps pest populations under control by interrupting their generational life cycles. Another organic practice: cats, a perfectly natural and effective method of pest control. Throughout the interview, barn cats wind around our legs and keep watch for rodents. Mountain Foot Farm's fish are kept healthy without the use of medications, which Curt achieves by keeping a low density of fish in each tank and feeding them only once a day to promote slow growth and optimal health. The trout thrive in gravity-fed tanks filled with fresh spring water, which ranges in temperature from 46-52 degrees Farenheit. They are around 10–12 inches long and about 3-4 years old when they are sold.

Last year, which was one of his best for the trout business, Curt sold between three and four thousand trout to local restaurants and still was not able to keep up with demand. Curt has watched interest in local foods increase during his years at the Caledonia farmers’ markets, and in particular there are more requests than ever from local chefs for his fish. Unfortunately, this year has not been a good one for his trout because of heavy mink predation on their tanks this winter. His tanks normally produce 200 fish a week, but this summer Curt has only 200 total fish to ration to his customers over the next few months. This is the type of annual farming disaster that is predictably unpredictable, and a good example of why the Sjolanders are so diversified in their farming.

One of the unusual vegetables that Curtis raises is kohlrabi, a leafy vegetable in the cabbage and broccoli family. He recites for me the regular spiel he gives to his farmer’s market customers on how to prepare it: “There are three ways you can do it. Peel it, cube it up or slice it up thin, and boil it. Or you can thin slice and stir-fry. Your other option is to thin slice it and eat it raw in a salad.” The trout his eats is prepared simply. Most days Joan breads the fish and throws into the frying pan, but on special occasions she likes to bread it lightly, stuff the cavity with herbs, sprinkle it with a bit of white wine, and bake it in the oven. At Mountain Foot Farm, a delicious answer to a tasty question.

Joe's Brook Farm

2010-07-19T04:35:00.000-07:00

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature organically grown tomatoes, broccoli, basil, cucumbers, summer squash, green beans and peppers from Joe’s Brook Farm of Barnet, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Joe’s Brook Farm products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farm
Joe’s Brook Farm is an organic vegetable farm in Barnet, located south of St. Johnsbury in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, eggs and specialty items to 10 local members and they attend weekly farmer’s markets in Lyndonville (Fridays from 3-7pm), St. Johnsbury (Saturdays from 9am-1pm), and Danville (Wednesday mornings). They also provide produce to several local fine restaurants.

www.joesbrookfarm.com

Joe's Brook Farm

It is good to know and be friendly with your neighbors. The connections you make with the people in your community have a real impact on the quality of daily life, especially when you live in a sparsely populated area like the NEK (Northeast Kingdom). The most important connection you can make when you are trying to be a “localvore” – one who eats only or mostly food that is produced locally - is the one you make with your local farmer. So it is good to have neighbors like Mary Houde-Skovsted and her husband Eric of Joe’s Brook Farm, because they provide members of their community with beautiful, organic vegetables, and keep their land healthy, active, and undeveloped in the tradition of the small family farm. As it turns, out, I am technically a neighbor-once-removed of Mary and Eric, who attended Middlebury college with my real life next-door neighbor. It is a typical kind of connection in this NEK of the woods.

I am visiting Joe’s Brook Farm in Barnet, about 8 miles past St. Johnsbury on Route 5. It is a muggy July morning during this third week of uncharacteristically hot weather here in the Kingdom. At the famous red round barn in Barnet, I make a right on Joe’s Brook Road, pass Brook Hill Road and pull into to the 19th century farmhouse on the left. Across the street sits the barn, sagging back slightly from the road. Eventually the barn will become a farm stand with help from a historic restoration grant from the state. The land drops off sharply behind the barn to the fertile floodplain of Joe’s Brook.

I meet Mary at the farmhouse and we walk behind the barn to the rows of lush vegetables below, discussing our mutual friend and the small world we live in. Mary points out her portable greenhouse, which moves along a rail system that allows it to house cold weather crops like spinach until they can survive outdoors, then moves to shelter warmer weather crops like tomatoes. One of Mary’s neighbors and the former owner of the farm, Stewart Hoyt, stops by looking for plant starters. Stewart is a carpenter and artist, and created the beautiful statue of the man that overlooks Mary’s garden (could this be Joe of Joe’s Brook?). The main greenhouses where Mary grows her tomatoes are on a plot of land that includes the home, sugarhouse and garden of the late Airie Lindsay, one of the founders of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA). Airie’s daughter and son-in-law now lease the land to Mary and Eric and also donated their tractor and farm truck to the fledgling farmers. It's all about connections.

I am setting up the camera for our interview when Mary comments that these farm visits I’m doing must be starting to blur into each other. I have to admit that in certain ways, yes, they are. Whether they raise animals, vegetables, or make syrup there seem to be only a few reasons why people choose to be natural and organic farmers in northern Vermont: they love the area, they feel strongly about protecting the environment, and they are passionate about good, fresh food and want to share it with others. But how did they get to where they are now? That part of the story is always unique and interesting.

We interrupt this article for a brief Northeast Kingdom moment:
Mary and I are talking and walking through the garden when the frantic barking of her huge dog Maddy brings our attention to the large bull moose who has just arrived in the next field over.

Okay, now we can move on.

Mary is from Barnet and grew up about 2 miles away on a dairy farm, the eleventh of twelve siblings. She met Eric in college. The couple moved to the Northeast Kingdom in 2007 and bought their farm. This year is their first doing a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, eggs, and specialty items like maple syrup to 10 local members, and they attend weekly farmer’s markets in Lyndonville, St. Johnsbury, and Danville. Growing up, Mary did not want the life of a dairy farmer, but vegetables had their appeal. “I grew up down the road and my mom always had a big garden, and we always ate out of the garden,” she says. Her early exposure to homegrown food influenced her shopping habits in college and ultimately her views on our national food system and choice of career. “I think everyone should have the chance to buy fresh local food and see what it tastes like, because to me, that’s real food,” she explains.

Since purchasing the farm, Mary has devoted herself full time to the endeavor and has witnessed a surge in the demand for local, organic foods. She is excited to be a part of a community of farmers who are working together to promote the local foods movement. “There are a lot of opportunities for more education,” Mary says. “I think we all realize that we’re not in competition with each other, we’re in competition with Price Chopper and California, the bigger guys, and if we can all just be on the same page, and be friends, and share our techniques, then we can get much further standing together.” Mary is also appreciative of work that the state is doing to promote small vegetable farms. The Vermont NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) is an organization that traditionally provides aid to dairy farms, and they recently began offering an opportunity for local vegetable growers to obtain free large greenhouses. The program stipulates that the greenhouses cannot have heat or electricity, but the structures alone will allow farmers to grow cold weather crops far later in the season.

Joe’s Brook Farm currently grows everything from spinach, broccoli and tomatoes to pak choi, fennel and ground cherries. They will soon offer strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, and will have maple syrup in the spring. I ask Mary how she is eating her vegetables at the moment. “I like tomatoes raw, with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil,” she says. “You can’t underestimate good olive oil because that adds a lot to any dish. I’ve been eating a lot of gazpacho in this heat.” Good idea. I drive away with plans to jump in Joe’s Brook, make gazpacho, and visit my nextdoor neighbor to tell her about the new connection I’ve made.

www.joesbrookfarm.com

Chandler Pond Farm, July 12-17

2010-07-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

The Special

This week we are pleased to feature chicken and seasonal vegetables from Chandler Pond Farm of South Wheelock, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use locally-grown organic Chandler Pond Farm veggies and meat in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Chandler Pond Farm Special!

The Farm

Chandler Pond Farm is a certified organic vegetable farm in South Wheelock, located just outside of Lyndonville in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, meat and eggs to around 30 local members, are regulars at the Lyndonville and St. Johnsbury Farmers’ Markets (Fridays from 3-7pm and Saturdays from 9am-1pm respectively), provide meat and produce to several fine Vermont restaurants, and have a farm stand not far from the Wildflower Inn.

As we have now gotten to know Chandler Pond I thought it would be nice to get to know some of their partners. The movement for sustainable farming practices is a grassroots endeavor, requiring a lot of help from local and national organizations, as well as our community. Sustainability is self reliance but no farm is an island.

Vermont Land Trust
Chandler Pond Farm is conserved under Vermont Land Trust. This organization helps to preserve farms for future generations.
NOFA-VT
Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont. A driving force in Vermont's organic agriculture movement. Our products are certified through this organization.
Lyndon Farmers Market
Our home town farmers market. We hope to see you there Friday afternoons throughout the growing season.
Lauren Stagnitti Photography
Our wonderful photographer, Lauren loves to visit our farm from her home in Morrisville.
Juniper's at the Wildflower Inn
An exciting Vermont eatery in Lyndonville featuring a localvore menu!
Center for Sustainable Agriculture

You can also find Chandler Pond Farm at our two local Farmer's Markets...

Lyndon Farmer's Market
Every Friday from mid-May to mid-October, 3-7 at Bandstand Park in downtown Lyndonville.
Lyndon Winter Market
Second Saturday of every month, November to May, 10-2 at the Breslin Center on Main Street in Lyndonville.
St. Johnsbury Farmers Market
Every Saturday from May to October, 9am-1pm in the parking lot behind Anthony's Diner in downtown St. Johnsbury.
St. Johnsbury Winter Market
First Saturday of every Month, November to April, 10-1 and is held at the St. Johnsbury Welcome Center.

Contact Information:

Chandler Pond Farm
528 Burroughs Rd.
South Wheelock, VT 05851
www.chandlerpondfarm.com
info@chandlerpondfarm.com

802-626-9460

On a glorious Wednesday morning in late May, Chandler Pond Farm in South Wheelock is gearing up for what looks to be a great summer season. Orderly rows of radishes and assorted greens bask in the spring sunshine, and Rob and Tamara Martin direct their summer interns in a variety of projects. It’s their third year as organic farmers in the Northeast Kingdom, and they have big plans in the works - new blueberry and asparagus patches overlook the pond, the farm stand is almost ready, and expectant Devon cows are due to calve any day.

The Martins lease 200 acres in South Wheelock and have about five acres in crop rotation, producing tomatoes, strawberries, sweet corn and a variety of other vegetables. They also raise one thousand chickens for meat each year, have a small flock of laying hens, several pigs, and a small herd of Devon and Jersey cows from which they get raw milk and meat. They plan to make maple syrup in the spring and they host visitors for oxen rides and tours of the farm.

It’s a huge amount of work for the Martins, who have three children under five years old, even with the help of their four farm interns and a retired neighbor, but there is no doubt it is a labor of love. “With all the things we do, Rob says sometimes he feels like the conductor of an orchestra,” Tamara says. They are certainly making beautiful music. The farm is orderly, productive and serene. A walk up the road to the property’s second farmhouse reveals a lovely view of Chandler Pond, where the family and their helpers enjoy canoeing, fishing and swimming. Their days are filled with hard work and the enjoyment of good food, family, and the natural splendor of the Northeast Kingdom.

Rob Martin is a fifth generation Vermont farmer from Bradford, Vermont. An avid sailor, Rob met Tamara in her hometown of Cordova, Alaska, famous for its salmon fishing, where he was stationed as a member of the Coast Guard. After a wonderful year of sailing around the Bahamas together and four years working on an organic farm in southern Vermont, Rob and Tamara settled their family in the Northeast Kingdom and began making their dream of building an organic family farm together a reality.

Tamara says that growing up she knew a lot about salmon and not a thing about farming, but she has taken to it like a fish to water. She is excited about the future of small-scale organic agriculture and local food systems, and she sees great potential in Vermont for the production of staple crops as well as specialty food items. As a mother of three, the well-being of her children drives her commitment to farming. “The more I learn about the food system,” she says, “the more I’m convinced that small-scale agriculture is necessary. A big reason we decided to farm and do so in a sustainable and chemical-free way was for the health of our children. I want my kids to be able to eat the dirt – and they do!”

They love visitors at Chandler Pond Farm and host several public events throughout the year, including an Open Farm evening on Wednesday June 16th from 3-6pm, a Farm Play Group for kids of all ages on the first and third Thursdays of the month from 10am to noon during June through August, and a Harvest Potluck on Saturday, October 9th at 3pm. Starting this June, CSA shareholders will be able to pick up their shares from the farm stand for around $18 a week, $345 for the entire season. The Chandler Pond Farm website, www.chandlerpondfarm.com, keeps customers updated on what’s happening at the farm and has several links to organizations that promote sustainable farming practices.

This spring, the Martins are enjoying eating their greens and radishes in salads – “It’s salad season!” beams Tamara – and also in some unconventional ways: cut into slices, Tamara lightly fries or roasts radishes in peanut or olive oil and sprinkles them with soy sauce and toasted sesame seeds. Mmm, simple, fresh, delicious. That’s how to eat like a local.

Butterworks Farm

2010-07-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

The Special

This week we are pleased to feature yogurt and cheese from Butterworks Farm of Westfield, Vermont and chicken and seasonal vegetables from Chandler Pond Farm of South Wheelock, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use certified organic Butterworks Farm and Chandler Pond Farm products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, salads and desserts. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farms

Butterworks Farm is a family owned and operated certified organic farm located in the town of Westfield in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. They produce an array of exceptional quality yogurts, heavy cream and cheeses widely available throughout Vermont and many of the Eastern states.

Chandler Pond Farm is a certified organic vegetable farm in South Wheelock, located just outside of Lyndonville in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, meat and eggs to around 30 local members and have a farm stand not far from the Wildflower Inn.

www.butterworksfarm.com
www.chandlerpondfarm.com

Butterworks Farm

It is no easy task to interview a farmer. They rarely have time to sit still for even fifteen or twenty minutes, so as an interviewer it is essential to cultivate an ability to walk, talk, and sometimes be of a little help. But though you must learn to juggle camera, notebook, pencil, recorder and the occasional fencepost, it is in these unrehearsed moments that you witness a farmer’s genuine commitment to and love for his work.

It is a windy, overcast day as I follow dairy farmer Jack Lazor on his chores. Jack is co-owner of Butterworks Farm in Westfield, Vermont, which he operates with his wife Anne, his daughter Christine and her family and a small army of farm hands. He is moving fence for his herd of Jersey cows, who follow a system of rotational grazing in which they are moved onto new grass or forage every twelve hours. It is so windy that Jack’s soft voice is often whipped away as I jog along behind him. Butterworks Farm’s signature windmill is working overtime where it sits atop this high plateau just east of Vermont’s Green Mountains. The windmill produces roughly one third of the farm’s power, most of it during the winter months, so a gusty summer day like this is an unexpected boon for the Lazors, though it does not help the quality of my sound recording.

Butterworks is a producer of fine quality yogurts, heavy cream and cheeses widely available throughout Vermont and many of the Eastern states. All of the products except for the cheeses are processed and packaged right here on the farm. Jack attributes his products’ excellent quality and flavor to the protein-rich milk of his Jersey cows. The animals, all born and raised on the farm since 1982, are kept healthy without the use of antibiotics or hormones, and the closed nature of the herd prevents the importation of foreign bacteria and germs. The Lazors chose Jerseys for the high butter-fat content of their milk and their ability to produce milk on a diet composed of at least 80% forage. The remainder of their diet is a mixture of corn, oats, barley, peas and soybeans that are grown organically on the farm and stored in a beautiful new grain silo. The cows spend the winter bedded down in deep clean straw in a large solar barn.

This industrious farm is a “Back to the Land fantasy” come true for the Lazors. Jack is originally from Springfield, Massachusetts. He met his wife Anne at Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts when he was visiting on spring break from the University of Wisconsin. The couple moved to Irasburg, Vermont in 1973 as part of the “Back to the Land” movement of young people from urban to rural areas that was a hallmark of the 1970s. In 1976 they bought the farm just over Lowell Mountain in Westfield. The idea was to farm in a way that was good for the health their animals, the environment, themselves and their customers. Jack and Anne chose to relocate to Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom because of its natural beauty and its unique cultural character. They enjoy their proximity to Quebec and the mixture of Quebeçois and transplanted (moved to Vermont from out-of-state) farmers.

According to Jack, Butterworks is the oldest organic dairy farm in the United States, certified organic since 1984. The farm has been influential in the food economy of the Northeast Kingdom for decades now - many local farmers, including Laini Fondillier of Lazy Lady Farm who we will feature in future weeks, got their start working for the Lazors. Jack is also very active in several local agricultural organizations, including acting as vice president of the Northern Green Growers Association. “Agriculture is not an easy way to make a living, but there’s something wonderful about it,” says Jack. “I think that right now Vermont is so much better than anywhere else in having support for alternative, diversified small business.” He also sees the state as a place where the “independent mindedness” of local farmers and local consumer demand for high quality, socially responsible food is creating a model for small sustainable food economies all over the country. “I see Vermont leading the nation as producers of high quality, organic, value-added food,” he says.

Butterworks Farm’s products have been featured in a number of regional and national publications, including in Martha Stewart Living in 2006. Martha used their yogurt, cream, butter, and cheese in a variety of gourmet desserts and savory dishes. I can tell you from first hand experience that Butterworks Farm's products are of exceptional quality and flavor. Raw milk directly from the bulk tank is smooth, creamy, and lightly flavored. I also sample a slice of their smoked cheddar, and I think it is on par with the best that Cabot, Vermont and the entire state of Wisconsin have to offer. I ask Jack how he uses Butterworks cheddar in his cooking, and the answer is, of course, “What doesn’t taste better with cheddar?”

www.butterworksfarm.com

Berry Creek Farm

2010-06-27T18:03:00.000-07:00

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature fresh organic strawberries and assorted seasonal vegetables from Berry Creek Farm of Westfield, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use certified organic Berry Creek produce in main dishes, appetizers, soups, salads and desserts. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Berry Creek Farm Special!

The Farm
Berry Creek Farm is a family owned and operated certified organic farm located in the town of Westfield in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. They are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, chicken, and Vermont specialty products to around 60 local members, and they have a farm stand in Westfield. Berry Creek Farm is dedicated to pursuing sustainable organic agricultural enterprises by linking local food to the community.

www.berrycreekfarmvt.com

Berry Creek Farm

To visitors and locals alike, I highly recommend taking a road tour of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Cruise down Routes 5, 5A, 14, 16, 58, 105, 100 or 122 in your car, or better yet on your bike, and take in the wide open vistas and rolling hills. If you take Route 100 north from Lowell to Troy, slow down just before the village of Westfield when you see the big, peach colored house with attached barns. The sign outside proclaims “Berry Creek Farm, Organic Strawberries, Vegetables” and “Buy Local,” and I suggest you take its advice. Turn left into the driveway, park in front of the garage, and get out your shopping basket. You are about to visit one of the sweetest little farm stands in the Kingdom.

This is my plan on an overcast Thursday in June. I have been visiting several farms in Westfield today for the Northeast Kingdom Farm to Table Project. I am coming from Butterworks Farm, the oldest certified organic dairy farm in the country, and my next stop is Lazy Lady Goat Farm, makers of delicious natural goat cheeses and naturally raised pork. Shuttleworth Farm, which has been our featured farm at Juniper’s Restaurant for the past two weeks, is just up the road. Already I feel like I am in foodie heaven, and it is about to get better.

I am greeted at the farm stand by owners Gerard and Rosemary Croizet. The couple has been farming organically here since 1993 with help from their two sons and a few part-time assistants. Gerard and Rosemary met on the farm several years ago when it was owned by Rosemary’s parents. Gerard is originally from France and was visiting the Northeast Kingdom on a recommendation from a friend. He had no intention to settle here permanently until he met Rosemary. Gerard’s interest in farming came from his travels as a young man. He was drawn to organic farming because it was “much more interesting, more challenging, and more sustainable in the long term” than conventional farming. Rosemary grew up on the farm but never planned on staying. “Both my parents were quite surprised when I chose to do this,” Rosemary says. “I was teaching before I did this, elementary school and French.”

The Croizets may not have planned to own and operate a small organic family farm in northern Vermont, but they are certainly good at it. Berry Creek Farm is locally famous for its delicious strawberries and beautiful perennial and annual plants. The farm also produces a large variety of vegetables, many of them heirloom varieties, as well as chickens for the 60 members of their CSA. The Croizets are committed members of the local food economy, and their produce travels as only far as the farmer’s markets in Craftsbury and Newport, Vermont. The farm stand is filled with wonderful looking vegetables, locally produced specialty foods, and even homemade honey and beeswax candles.

Berry Creek is also notable for their commitment to education. The walls of the farm stand chronicle their work with NOFA, the Northern Organic Farming Association, whom they partner with to do workshops for local school children. A poster behind the cash register informs customers of the farm’s use of IPM, the Integrated Pest Management system that allows the Croizets to grow their strawberries and vegetables without the use of pesticides.

It is always fun to ask farmers how they like to use their products in their own meals. Mostly they tend to prepare things simply and allow the fresh flavor to shine through. The Croizet’s answer is no exception. Their favorite product is strawberries, straight from the garden. “In strawberry season we eat a quart a day,” says Gerard. On my way home after visiting Lazy Lady Goat Farm, I purchase a quart of strawberries at Berry Creek and eat them straight from the box. I have no fear that I am also consuming pesticides or other chemicals. The berries are perfectly complimented by one of Lazy Lady’s delicious bries spread on whole grain crackers. The sun is starting to peek out from behind the clouds, and I couldn’t be happier to be eating like a local.

Berry Creek Farm’s “WHY CSA?” Philosophy

Know where your food is grown! As a NOFA-VT farm we do not use any genetically engineered seeds, harmful pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides that damage your health and the environment.

Reduce packaging, distribution and transportation waste! Lessen your carbon footprint!

Broaden your food horizons by sampling some unusual varieties with recipes which we gladly share, and increase your dinning enjoyment.

Support a local family farm that, in turn, supports other local businesses and labor, while practicing healthy land stewardship and ensuring clean green space in Vermont.

Learn about how your food is grown by visiting the farm and build a healthy new link to your community.

Support the Jay Area Food Shelf and the Troy Area Senior Meal Site through the Vermont Farm Share Program - fresh, local, organic food for those who need it most! Ask us about this program.

“WHY ORGANIC?”

Protect Future Generations

Build Soil
Save Energy
Reduce Health Risks
Protect Farm Workers
Help Family Farms
Support a "True" Economy
Promote Bio-diversity
Great Taste

www.berrycreekfarmvt.com

Local Foods

2010-06-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

I hope you have been enjoying reading the Northeast Kingdom Farm to Table Blog. This project has been a wonderful opportunity for me to become more familiar with the local food scene. It is exciting to learn about so many good people working so hard to provide high quality, healthy food for their neighbors.

Here are links to all of the farms we’ve featured so far:
Pete’s Greens, Craftsbury VT
www.petesgreens.com
Chandler Pond Farm, South Wheelock VT
www.chandlerpondfarm.com
Deep Mountain Maple, West Glover VT
www.deepmountainmaple.com
Shuttleworth Farm, Westfield, VT
www.shuttleworthfarm.com

And to the Vermont Fresh Network, a program that links farms and restaurants across the state of Vermont: www.vermontfresh.net.

This week we are once again featuring meat from Shuttleworth Farm, and I’d like to take this opportunity to familiarize you more with the concept of “farm to table” or “local foods.” I’ve taken the following information selectively from the Wikipedia article on local foods. There are links at the end to some excellent online articles to read about the movement, as well as recommendations for books and movies to check out.
full article
“The Farm to Table, or Local Foods Movement is a collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place” and is considered to be a part of the broader sustainability movement. It is part of the concept of local purchasing and local economies, a preference to buy locally produced goods and services. Those who prefer to eat locally grown/produced food sometimes call themselves locavores or localvores.

The concept is often related to the slogan "Think globally, act locally'', common in green politics. Those supporting development of a local food economy consider that since food is needed by everyone, everywhere, every day, a small change in the way it is produced and marketed will have a great effect on individual's health, the ecosystem and preservation of cultural diversity. Activists in the movement claim that shopping decisions favoring local food consumption directly affects the well-being of people, improve local economies and may be more ecologically sound.

Critics of the movement often say that local food tends to be more expensive to the consumer than food bought without regard to provenance and could never provide the variety currently available (such as having summer vegetables available in winter, or having kinds of food available which can not be locally produced due to soil, climate or labor conditions. The actual cost of local food versus non-local food is still being debated, since costs can vary depending on the region. Generally there is a consensus that local food can be more expensive, though community-supported agriculture (CSA) can make eating local food more affordable and accessible to the local community.

Local food proponents point out that the lower price of commodified food (which is sometimes called cheap food) is often due to a variety of governmental subsidies, including direct subsidies such as price supports, direct payments or tax breaks, and indirect approaches such as subsidies for trucking via road infrastructure investment, and often does not take into account the true cost of the product. As a result, organic and sustainably grown food will continue to cost more until policy changes are made. Some suggest that it is acceptable to favor local foods when available, rather than limit oneself to strictly local foods."

Well said, Wikipedia.

Thanks for reading, check back next week when we’ll be featuring Berry Creek Farm of Westfield!

Recommended Books
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan’s
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver

Recommended Movies:
The Future of Food
Food Inc.

Online Articles:
“Food That Travels Well.” The New York Times, August 6, 2007
"A Locally Grown Diet With Fuss but No Muss." The New York Times. July 22, 2008
“The Lure of the 100-Mile Diet.” Time Magazine. Sunday June 11, 2006.
“Eating Better Than Organic.” Tim Magazine. March 2, 2007.
“The Cost of Eating Green.” MSN Money.

Deep Mountain Maple

2010-06-06T10:27:00.000-07:00

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature blueberry, raspberry, hot pepper and ginger maple syrup from from Deep Mountain Maple of West Glover, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use locally-produced, wood-fired Deep Mountain Maple Syrup in main dishes, appetizers, salads, deserts, and drinks.

The Farm
Deep Mountain Maple are maple syrup producers in West Glover, Vermont, about 20 miles north of the Wildflower Inn in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They produce pure Vermont maple syrup of many flavors as well as a variety of maple candies and sundries. Deep Mountain Maple sells their products almost exclusively at the Green Market in New York City and their syrups are featured in fine restaurants in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Their syrups can be found in Vermont at the Lake Parker Country Store in West Glover and now at the Wildflower Inn!

Deep Mountain Maple
Howie and Stephan Cantor have been producing maple syrup in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom for over 25 years. Though born out of state, Stephan in Georgia and Howie in New York City, they are at home in the Vermont woods. Their farm, Deep Mountain Maple, lies three miles outside of tiny West Glover village, about 20 miles south of the Canadian border.

Here is what the Cantors say about their work:

“They say there is no activity that ties a person to the whims of nature as much as sugaring, and therein lies the attraction and the addiction. Sap flows in maple trees when the winter first starts to thaw into spring. Cold nights and warm days are generally what is needed, but you can never predict exactly what the trees will do or when they will do it. At Deep Mountain we honor the traditional, inherent sustainability of maple sugaring. The production of maple syrup can be a beautifully complete agricultural circle, and maple trees, properly managed, can remain productive for one hundred years or more.

We are committed to maintaining their sugarbush and creating a product in ways that are pure and sustainable. Deep Mountain Maple Syrup is wood-fired. Large stands of sugar maples occur naturally in the forests of New England. These “sugarbushes” are interspersed with many other native species of trees and shrubs. Each year, in order to create optimal conditions in the forest ecosystem both for the growth of the sugar maples and for sap production, some trees must be cut down and removed from the forest in a process known as “thinning.” In any orchard, the growth of excess vegetation must be controlled; a maple agroecosystem is no different. But in this case, the wood that is cut from the sugarbush provides the necessary fuel for the process of boiling maple sap down into pure and delicious maple syrup. Supplemented with waste wood from a local sawmill, our own maple forest is our main source for locally abundant, renewable fuel. While many maple producers have embraced the use of oil-fired sugaring operations in order to eliminate the need to cut firewood and to make boiling easier and faster, we remain firmly committed to a responsible, sustainable cycle of maple syrup production.

A sugar maple tree must be 30 to 40 years old before it is big enough to tap. Once the tree has attained at least 12 inches in diameter, a small “spout” is inserted into a hole that has been drilled into the tree. This activity is called “tapping,” and each hole with its accompanying spout is a “tap.” Each tap is a small hole drilled into the tree. The sweet, clear sap flows from the taphole to tanks in the sugarhouse. Each tap is a small hole drilled into the tree. The sweet, clear sap flows from the taphole to tanks in the sugarhouse.

We manage our maple trees using a “one-tap” policy; that is, only a select few of our oldest and largest trees receive more than one tap in a given season. Done responsibly, tapping does not harm the trees at all. A tap hole naturally dries up after a few weeks of sap production, as the small puncture in the tree begins to heal. Also, because of new technologies that move sap from the trees to the sugarhouse more efficiently, today’s maple spouts are much smaller than in the past. They require a smaller hole in the tree, which heals even faster.

Deep Mountain maple syrup is made without pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers of any kind. Our maple trees are healthy due to constant, generous rain and snowfall throughout the year; deep, long winters that slowly lose their grip to the warm, bright sun of early spring; and, above all, the rich and rocky soil that sugar maples love; these characteristic elements of the rugged heart of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom combine to produce maple syrup that is absolutely unsurpassed in flavor and quality. We bottle their syrup on the farm, in our own canning facility.

In all that we do, we seek to manage the forest in a way that sustains it, and our future as sugarmakers.”

www.deepmountainmaple.com

Chandler Pond Farm

2010-05-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

This week we are pleased to feature radishes, beet greens, lettuce, chicken, and eggs from Chandler Pond Farm of South Wheelock, Vermont. Chef Casey Graham will use locally-grown organic Chandler Pond Farm products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads.

www.chandlerpondfarm.com

The Northeast Kingdom Farm to Table Project

2010-05-24T05:49:00.000-07:00

Throughout the coming summer and fall, Juniper’s Restaurant at the Wildflower Inn will feature a weekly farm-to-table dinner special made from ingredients produced here in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. The restaurant will partner with local farms to promote the use of locally raised, hormone, pesticide and chemical-free produce, meat, and dairy products in our restaurant and by the Northeast Kingdom community. A different ingredient and farm will be promoted each week in the restaurant and on our new website (www.junipersrestaurant.com). Chef Casey Graham will use the ingredient in his main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads.

The Wildflower Inn and Juniper’s Restaurant are owned and operated by Jim and Mary O’Reilly. The couple raised eight children on the inn property and have long recognized the benefits of providing healthy, locally produced food to their family. It is only natural that they have the same cares and concerns for the food they serve the guests of their inn and restaurant. “We feel that what is not in our food is just as important as what is in it,” Mary notes. Juniper’s Restaurant currently features all natural beef (some from right here on Darling Hill Road at Meadow View Farm), chicken, and pork, farm fresh ingredients, an extensive wine list including Vermont-made and organic wines, and a great selection of Vermont-brewed beers.

The staff of Juniper’s Restaurant at the Wildflower Inn is excited to have the opportunity to raise awareness of responsible agricultural practices and support our local food economy. We invite you to come on in and find out what it means to eat like a local!

Juniper's Restaurant Farm to Table

Deep Mountain Maple

Meadow View Farm

Ploughgate Creamery

The Cellars at Jasper Hill

Eden Ice Cider

Lazy Lady Farm

The Joy of Gardening

True Love and Homegrown Tomatoes

Shuttleworth Farm

Northeast Kingdom Garlic

Zucchini Nation

Pete's Greens

The Lyndon Farmers' Market

Mountain Foot Farm

Joe's Brook Farm

Chandler Pond Farm, July 12-17

You can also find Chandler Pond Farm at our two local Farmer's Markets...

Butterworks Farm

Berry Creek Farm

Local Foods

Deep Mountain Maple

Chandler Pond Farm

The Northeast Kingdom Farm to Table Project