Author: vermontnews

There’s a tradition at Misery Loves Co. where every year, after a few freezes, the staff heads out to the back parking lot to harvest the wild grapes that ramble down the alley. They aren’t sure what kind of grapes they are, but they are sour, tart and bitter and the seeds are the size of the grapes themselves. The grapes are a challenge to process but come late winter, when the duck and pheasant have been hanging just long enough, those preserved alley grapes will be the perfect accompaniment.    

Nasturtium bud capers, dehydrated potato skin stock, lacto-fermented ramp tops and spruce tip vinegar are all results of the ‘kitchen magic’ at Misery Loves Co. in Winooski. It’s easy to celebrate tomatoes or berries in season but it takes vision, labor, skill, and patience to take the ingredients into the long winter. Chef/co-owner Aaron Josinsky has a gift for realizing potential in under-used ingredients like potato peels or nasturtium buds. “After harvesting the flowers, we were left with all these buds and they were peppery but too strong,” he described, “I salted them to release the water, added a lacto fermented juice [another key ingredient in the Misery kitchen] and let them go for 10 days or so.”  The capering process tones-down the strong flavor of the buds, and the resulting capers are bright and briny – perfect for the tartare. Leftover potato peels are dehydrated and used to make a stock that’s both vegetable based and creamy enough to add richness without relying on the kitchen crutch of butter or cream.  

Fermentation, dehydration and preservation using vinegar, salt, sugar, or fat are a smart way to cut down on waste in the kitchen, but the labor it takes to process the large amounts of produce into tiny yields of vinegars, dehydrated bits and preserves far out-costs the money saved. It’s a larger vision that makes these processes worth the effort. Josinsky is focused on preserving the tradition of preservation as much as he’s interested in making unique ingredients for the restaurant. “This all used to happen on the farm,” Josinsky pointed out, “but it’s not anymore and no one knows how to do it.” With the little free time a restaurant owning family has together, Josinsky and co-owner/wife Laura Wade have turned their North Hero home into a homestead with experimental gardens, chickens and fermentations projects taking over their kitchen. “Our house looks like a witch’s cottage,” Wade joked. Even their young daughter, Eda, gets in on the action. Her favorite activity? “Making lilac honey with her dad,” Wade shared. Every summer the two of them infuse honey with the different varietals of lilac that grow around their home. The whole process from soil to plate and capturing native flavors is a real focus for Aaron and Laura right now. Planning for next season has already begun – more land has been turned for gardens, seed catalogues are out, and there’s even talk of bees. 

Treat yourself to dinner in Winooski this week and you can try elderflower honey on the fresh cheese plate, kimchi in the brussels sprouts, Concord grape vinegar in the My Uncle Oswald cocktail, and never pass up a pickle plate. 

Source: Dig in VT Trails

Find all your farm fresh ingredients at a holiday festival or farmers’ market and treat your friends and family to a localicious gift or meal this season! Vermont products make great gifts! Find the perfect cheese, maple candy, cider, sauce, or jam for all your loved ones this season.

Shop at an upcoming holiday market near you…

Northern Vermont

Burlington Farmers Market

→ Dec 10^th & 17^th

Burlington—UVMMC Farmers Market

→ Dec 8^th, 15^th, & 22^nd

Caledonia Farmers Market

→ Dec 17^th

Jericho Farmers Market

 → Dec 15^th

South Hero Farmers Market

→ Dec 17^th

 

Central Vermont

Golden Well Farm & Apiaries Holiday Fair- New Haven

→ Dec 11^th

Hartland Farmers Market

 → Dec 16^th & 23^rd

Middlebury Farmers Market

→ Dec 10^th, 17^th, & 24^th

Montpelier—Capital City Farmers Market

→ Dec 17^th

Northfield Farmers Market

→ Dec 11^th

Norwich Farmers Market

→ Dec 10^th & 17^th

Rutland — Vermont Farmers Market

→ Dec 7^th, 10^th, 14^th, 17^th, 21^st, & 24^th

Touch of Vermont Holiday Gift Market-Montpelier

→ Dec 10^th

 

Southern Vermont 

Bellows Falls Farmers Market

→ Dec 16^th

Bennington Farmers Market

→ Dec 17^th

Brattleboro Farmers Market

→ Dec 10^th, 17^th, & 24^th

Dorset Farmers Market

→ Dec 11^th & 18^th

Manchester Farmers Market

→ Dec 17^th

Putney Farmers Market

 → Dec 11^th & 18^th

Windsor Farmers Market

 → Dec 17^th

 

Source: Dig in VT Trails

Snow is falling throughout the state – we even hosted the World Cup at Killington over Thanksgiving Weekend – and thoughts have turned towards skiing (as they often do in Vermont). 

Naturally, any thoughts of going outside in the cold to expend energy quickly turn to thoughts of coming back inside where it’s warm to replenish energy by eating delicious food. Take a look at any account of Vermont skiing, from the “Slopes in Stowe” to the Top 10 list for a VT family ski vacation and food is on everybody’s minds.

Skiing destinations figure into the DigInVT.com places, too. For example, the Coleman Brook Tavern at Okemo or the Timbers Restaurant at Sugarbush. The seasonal Cliff House in Stowe brings diners to the top of a mountain. There are cross country ski & food destinations, like Mountain Top Inn and Resort, Seyon Lodge, and Trapp Family Lodge – and many Vermont farm fields become skiing destinations (formally or otherwise) in the wintertime, like at DigInVT participant Morse Farm in Montpelier.

Along with dining at mountains, some of our best food destinations have cropped up around mountains. We have four suggested ski & eat itineraries in our library – for East Central, Northwest, and Southern Vermont and the Mad River Valley. Plus, you can build your own trail based on any destination using our Places page. Also, check out the Vermont Specialty Food Days tour of Vermont ski areas happening all winter, starting January 14th. 

If you have your favorite dining picked out and you’re looking for skiing opportunities to go with it, check out the information at Ski Vermont and from the Vermont Tourism Department.

Winter is on its way and Vermont is ready with the perfect food for one of our favorite sports.

 

Source: Dig in VT Trails

Across the country, Thanksgiving has been cast as a dividing line between “holiday shopping season” and “the stuff that happened before holiday shopping season”. But really, if there’s a Thanksgiving dividing line it’s between autumn foods and winter foods. Pumpkins, apples, sweet cider, hard cider, the last hardy greens sweetened by frost, the turn away from quick salads to things that get braised, renewed enthusiasm for baking. . . it’s a delicious turning time. To mark the change, here’s a roundup of late autumn recipes from Vermont recipe writers. And, of course, you can shop for great local ingredients for all these recipes at Vermont’s year round farmers’ markets and local food stores:

• Roasted Delicata Squash & Red Onion Hummus by Tracey Medeiros (from Edible Green Mountains)
• Helles Lager Braised Leek Tartlets by Melissa Pasanen (from Vermont Life)
• Venison Chili by Shawn Calley (from Burlington Free Press)
• Kale Salad from J.J. Hapgoods Store (from Edible Green Mountains)
• Best Pumpkin Pie by Claire Fitts-Georges (from her blog)
• Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirl Brownies by Molly Stevens (from EatingWell)
• Fall Cocktails with Vermont Spirits (from DigInVT.com)

 

Plus the now-annual Thanksgiving recipe posts from Vermont Fresh Network:

Thanksgiving 2016

• Brussels Sprouts with Vinegar-Cured Guanciale and Cheese
• Danish Red Cabbage
• Festive Salad
• Oyster Mushroom Bread Pudding
• Maple Sugared Almonds
• Sweet Potato Chess Pie

Thanksgiving 2015

• Apple Cider Caramelized Onion Tart
• Fat Toad Farm Cajeta Brie
• Cranberry Sauce
• Oyster Stuffing
• Sausage-Sweet Potato Bake
• Bacon-Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
• Pumpkin Custard

Source: Dig in VT Trails

The Floating Bridge Food and Farms Cooperative invites you to spend part of the holiday season at our Festive Holiday Market in the Red Schoolhouse, VTC Campus, Randolph Center & Brookfield’s LH Stowell & Son Christmas Tree Farm.

Make this year a Localvore Holiday and support your local farms. Enjoy great handmade holiday gifts, local pasture-raised meats and winter produce, delicious lunch items and snacks, and hot & cold cider. Shop for handcrafted products such as beeswax candles, soaps, natural dyed silk scarves, and wreaths. For food lovers there’s caramel, honey, localvore bloody mary mix, maple products, jams, and more.

Demonstrations include

Saturday, 2pm – Make your own wrapping paper using Potato Stamps

Sunday, 12pm – Pie Crust demonstration, using Lard from the Green Mountain Girls Farm, as featured on WCAX.

Join us one or both days! Saturday Dec. 3 from 10am-4pm & Sunday Dec. 4 from 11am-3pm.

Location: Red Schoolhouse, VTC Campus, Randolph Center & LH Stowell & Son Christmas Tree Farm, Brookfield 

More information on our website http://www.floatingbridgefoodandfarms.com/

Source: Dig in VT Trails