A team of scientists led by UVM chemist Matthew Liptak have discovered a new way that some molecules can make a luminescent glow — a strange, bright green—that may have applications for new LEDs and biomedical diagnostics. The story got picked up a number of science news sites, including Futurism, and the reseach was featured as the top headline on the National Science Foundation’s news feed, Science360. See here.
Source: UVM News
Every year, food producers from all over New England gather in West Springfield Massachusetts for New England’s largest fair: The Big E. The event lasts for more than two weeks, with each state displaying their best in fairground pavilions. Over a million people wander through the Vermont building each year. The building has brought in around $10 million in the last six years.
2016 marks 100 years of the Big E (still a young fair by Tunbridge World’s Fair standards). It features a range of events, competitions, concerts, and – of course- fair food. Dishes up for the popular choice Big Eats award this year include Moo Nuts, Deep Fried Butter, Maple Syrup and Bacon Fried Dough, classic Candied or Caramel Apples, Mini Donuts, the famous Frigo’s 1lb. Meatball, Deep Fried Martinis and Pulled Pork Stuffed Corn Cakes.
You have until October 2nd to visit the building at the West Springfield Fairgrounds. But, many of the Vermont vendors can also be found as visitor stops in the DigInVT network including:
A full 2016 Vermont Vendor list is available online. Vendors are selected through an RFP system managed by the state, with approximately 40 appearing in the buildng each year (not all of them are food producers).
More information on this year’s Big E:
Big E Vermont Building (Video)
Source: Dig in VT Trails
Cedar Circle Farm in East Thetford, VT will hold its annual Pumpkin Festival on Sunday October 9th from 10am to 3pm. Now in its fourteenth year, the Pumpkin Festival offers fun for the whole family with kids’ activities, storytelling, live music, horse-drawn wagon rides, pumpkin picking, and an organic Good Food Concession.
Children’s activities include storyteller/musicians the Swing Peepers in the Circle of Cedars Enchanted Forest playing three sets throughout the day. Live music will also feature two great Upper Valley bands: Off the Rails from 10:30-12:30 and the Stovepipe Mountain Band from 1-3. Children will love the live owls brought by VINS, face painting, educational activities, and crafts.
Be sure to arrive hungry! Lunch and dessert line will open at 10:30am with delicious, organic, farm-fresh dishes prepared by Chef Alison and her crew in the farm kitchen. The fall menu will include pasture raised pulled pork tacos (vegetarian option also) with kitchen crafted krauts, seasonal organic soups and salads. Our pumpkin brownies are just one of the delicious desserts we’ll be offering. We’ll also be offering a new Kid’s Plate this year and the NOFA wood-fired artisan pizza will return as well. The farmstand and coffee shop will be open until 5pm.
Raffle tickets will be sold to raise funds for CSA shares for limited income Vermonters through the Farm Share Program subsidized by NOFA-VT and Cedar Circle Farm. The Pumpkin Festival is a “Green Event” with a waste recovery station, which has yielded only two bags of trash for more than 1500 visitors in previous years. Bring a plate, utensils and cup to help reduce waste.
Parking is available in designated fields for $10 per car, and carpooling is encouraged. No pets please.
Cedar Circle Farm is a forty-acre certified organic farm, dedicated to “growing for a sustainable future” through the production of certified organic vegetables and berries, bedding plants, and quality flowers and herbs. The farm offers a CSA program, harvest festivals, cooking classes, and guided educational farm tours.
Cedar Circle Farm is located on Pavillion Rd. along the Connecticut River, just off of Rt 5 in East Thetford, VT. For details and directions, visit https://cedarcirclefarm.org/events/festivals.
Source: Dig in VT Trails
The 14th Annual Heirloom Apple Day at Scott Farm Orchard on Kipling Road in Dummerston, VT beckons apple lovers of all ages to celebrate this iconic fall fruit. Come visit the 571-acre historic farm and orchard that border Rudyard Kipling’s former Vermont home, Naulakha, and other historic rental properties owned and renovated by Landmark Trust USA.
On Sunday, October 9 at 10 AM, Noon and 2 PM, Scott Farm’s Orchard Manager Zeke Goodband entertains guests with the enlightening history of the orchard and its ecologically-grown fruits, accompanied by a free tasting of some of the more than 120 varieties of heirloom apples grown on the property.
Sample Old World and Early American heirloom varieties such as Esopus Spitzenburg, a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, grown at Monticello; Reine des Reinette, a French apple from the 1700s, considered the best hard cider apple in Normandy; Blue Pearmain, a New England apple dating back to the 1700s, mentioned by Henry David Thoreau in his journal, and Cox’s Orange Pippin, an English favorite, awarded the highest honors by the Royal Horticultural Society—just to name a few of the exciting flavors bound to excite your palate. Following the talk and tasting, guests can fill bags with their favorite selections—all available for purchase.
Visitors can also pick their own apples in the orchard or select them from multiple apple bins in the Farm Market, along with Scott Farm Orchard’s heirloom cider, freshly baked apple pies, fruit jams and jellies, and more.
In addition to the apple tasting, Whetstone Ciderworks, of Marlboro, VT, will be on hand to offer samples of their artisanal wine-like, award- winning hard ciders, such as Orchard King, Orchard Queen, Barnyard Blend, and Moonlighter—blended primarily with apples from Scott Farm Orchard.
Rigani Wood-Fired Pizza of Brattleboro, VT, will be on premises with their portable wood-fired oven, cooking up and vending artisanal pizzas featuring local ingredients.
For more information on Heirloom Apple Day, please visit ScottFarmVermont.com, call 802-254-6868, or email events@scottfarmvermont.com.
The Scott Farm Market is open daily through November 23, and You-Pick apples are available September into October.
Source: Dig in VT Trails
The Vermont Public Radio program “VPR Cafe” recently spoke to reporter Sally Pollack about value-added agriculture in Vermont, a discussion that included featured DigInVT places Morse Farm, the Intervale, and Queen City Brewery.
Value added agriculture transforms raw agricultural product into something that has greater value in the marketplace – turning milk into yogurt, milk into cheese, apples into ice cider, and so on. It’s a key part of Vermont’s farm economy. A new internship program at the University of Vermont this summer connected students with work in value-added operations, a focus that is expected to continue with their new food systems degree.
Queen City Brewery turns farm inputs into, of course, beer. The Intervale is home to a range of farms with value-added components, the one mentioned on VPR was The Juice Bar farm (the vegetables go into a mobile juice bar). Morse Farm is unique in how it has diversified both the value added to their food products, and also the value to their land by adding agricultural tourism components for both visitors and local residents. It’s a popular stop for tour buses in foliage season searching out maple creamies, food gifts, and a chance to feed the goats, but it also offers mountain biking trails and cross country ski trails. In the winter it becomes a popular destination for 26 kilometers of groomed cross country skiing. This summer it became an events venue for the first time with the Eat More Kale music festival on the front lawn.
Farms all over Vermont have creative ways to make the most of their land and the products from that land, and more enterprises start up every year. A great way to get a sense of the different projects Vermont farmers have undertaken is to check out the last of the summer farmers’ markets (most go into October or November), or some of the Food Markets that offer a selection of local products. Check the events page, as well, for harvest festivals that bring together multiple vendors.
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Source: Dig in VT Trails
The Upper Valley News recently featured Lune Bleu Farm in an article on the evolution of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) in Vermont. Farmers Suzanne Long and Tim Sanford began Luna Bleu in the early 1990s, with a diversified organic vegetable and livestock operation. They were an early CSA operation in the Upper Valley, offering weekly shares of the summer’s vegetable harvest to subscribers. Their CSA options have diversified over the years to include more meat, eggs, and dairy products. Farms across Vermont are taking advantage of new technology and business models that help them offer customers more options for payment, delivery, and what makes up their share. The range of choices only increases as subscriber numbers increase – giving farms the scale needed to offer both more products and more flexibility.
Even without a CSA subscription, Upper Valley residents and visitors can get an introduction to farm fresh products through Luna Bleu. They participate in the Norwich Farmers Market (Summer & Winter), Hanover Farmers Market, and Royalton Farmers Market. They are listed as a farm visit site on DigInVT.com. And they were one of the nearly 100 farm locations participating in this year’s Open Farm Week.
Related Posts:
Source: Dig in VT Trails
September 15th – 18th: It’s time for the 145th Tunbridge World’s Fair!
At the fair, you’ll find agricultural exhibits, oxen pulls, pig races, dog agility tests, prize winning dairy cows, contest for homegrown food and crafts, music, dancing, antique tractors, fairground rides, fancy poultry, and peanut pumpkins.
You can see a full schedule of events posted here.
Children under 12 get in free. Regular adult tickets are $15 on Saturday, $10 all other days. On Friday, Seniors get in for $8. Season tickets to the fairgrounds are also available for $35. Check online for more ticket information.
The Tunbridge Fair has run since 1867 (with years off during the flu epidemic and World War II) – it began with a horse racing track and grew to the fairgrounds and events we enjoy today. Proceeds from the fair go to maintaining the grounds, which host events through the summer.
A history of the fair, and its role in the Tunbridge community, was recently documented by Mt. Manfield Media in this 30-minute documentary (available on YouTube).
You can see historic pictures of the fair in this 2012 Yankee Magazine article
Information about all of Vermont’s Fairs and Field Days is available here from DigInVT.com partner, the VT Agency of Agriculture.
Making Ice Cream at the Fair
Source: Dig in VT Trails
We asked William McNeil, co-owner of Hen of the Wood Waterbury and Burlington, for his expert opinion on pairing Vermont hard cider. Turns out, cider is a perfect partner to another Vermont specialty–cheese! Lucky for us, cider and cheese makers are abundant at Vermont Farmers’ Markets. Find a market today and try out a new cider and cheese pairing.
Here’s Wiliam’s advice:
“Hard cider is a naturally pairing jack of all trades! It’s pretty easy to find food that tastes great with cider, whether you’re drinking at a midweek dinner or a celebratory feast. Cider’s naturally occurring low alcohol & carbonation help tremendously! Cider can add a little light to heavy meal or great complexity to a light meal. Its natural fruitiness pairs as well with pork as it does with a green salad. Cider also plays extremely well with Vermont cheese! Many drier styles of cider pair beautifully with rich, buttery cheeses (think cheddar, gouda or a creamy blue), while the big apple flavors of semi-sweet cider is gorgeous with fresh or soft-ripened cheeses. The old ‘rule of thumb’ that was taught to us day one in culinary school is that if two things come from the same region, they will naturally pair together.
Point: Vermont Cheese loves Vermont Cider!”
Want to find your perfect pairing? Travel our Southern Vermont Cheese Trail, check out our Vermont Cheesemakers open to visitors, and read more about the flavor of Vermont cheeses from DigInVT partner the Vermont Cheese Council.
Source: Dig in VT Trails
This is a re-posting of an article from autumn of 2014 – updated to reflect what’s happening in 2016. We’re at the start of apple season now, be sure to keep checking back for more information as the fall continues!
Original post by Helen Labun Jordan – read more about Vermont apples in her article “Apples’ Golden Age” in the 2014 issue of Vermont’s Local Banquet. The 2016 autumn issue is now out, and is available for pick up in stores around the state and online at www.localbanquet.com
When Vermonters want to taste a unique apple, most of us reach for the closest heirloom variety. The definition of “heirloom” isn’t set in stone, but generally speaking it’s an apple variety born around the same time as our Great- Grandparents, or older. Today, heirloom apples are much easier to find than even a few years ago. I’m most familiar with the varieties from Scott Farm in Dummerston, VT. These apples, with names like Sheep’s Nose, Belle de Boskoop, and Knobby Russet, arrive on local store shelves across the state every fall. The store I shop at, Hunger Mountain Co-op, hands out guides to the farm’s 90 varieties of apples in a stack next to the apple bins. I’ve also made the trek south to the farm itself, a historic place where Rudyard Kipling once lived, that’s open seven days a week during the harvest.
The reason why I look for heirloom apples is because these varieties first came into popularity through backyard growers or very small orchards – venues that could value taste or an apple’s ability to serve a particular purpose (like pie baking) very well. These places did not select for other, less tasty, concerns like the ability to be shipped across the country or grow skin without a single blemish. But as much as I’ve thought about backyard growers in the 1800’s and the varieties they tended for future generations, I never thought about today’s backyard growers and the role they still play.
Todd Parlo of Walden Heights Nursery recently set me straight about the backyard orchardists: they’re still around, their numbers are growing, and they have a critical role to play in giving us a wonderfully diverse range of apples to sample.
Walden Heights Nursery, in Walden VT, sells more than apple trees (including pears, grapes, cherries and plums) but apples are clearly a passion of Todd’s. He has hundreds of varieties of apples growing right now. Hundreds, plural. His long term plan is to hover at 350 – 400 different kinds growing at any one time.
It turns out that when you’re experimenting with apples simply because you love to experiment with apples, you can create a lot of diversity.
There are several apple attributes that make them well-suited to playing with many varieties. For one thing, growers reproduce apples by grafting. Instead of growing a new tree from seed, they add a bud from one tree to rootstock, trunk, or branch of another. From that start, you can grow a seedling of one variety or, if you graft wood from multiple different trees onto a single trunk, you can get one tree with many apple varieties that change from branch to branch.
Also, the reason why apples are propagated by grafting in the first place is that apples grown from seed don’t make the same fruit as their parents, they make something new. . . adding a new variety to the mix. Usually this new tree is not something that anyone would want to continue growing, but sometimes it’s a happy surprise — the classic Granny Smith apple came from a seedling that grew out of a bunch of apple cores dumped in a compost pile in 1868 and the first McIntosh was found as a wild seedling by a farmer clearing his field.
And, of course, nurseries will sell seedlings of the known varieties, including heirlooms, some of which have recently been brought back from the brink of disappearing.
I asked Todd to describe some of the unique apples in his orchard that I might not have tasted before. He listed Beacon apples that taste like anise, Sweet Sixteen apples that taste like cherry lollipops, Sunrise apples that taste more like grapes than apples. . . and of course there are also his own experiments still in development. Plus, his website offers: “. . . we can custom graft nearly any variety that is still in existence, or from wood from your own tree.”
Not everyone has a backyard they’re about to convert into a miniature orchard. I don’t. But I do enjoy wandering through other people’s orchards and daydreaming about what is possible. It’s a natural version of Charlie’s Chocolate Factory – endless flavors, textures, and aromas in eye catching apples that I never would have imagined when surveying rows of the standard Red Delicious. Some ways to vicariously satisfy your own inner orchardist in Vermont this fall:
• Visit one of the many Pick Your Own apple orchards open around the state
• Play apples to iPods at one of 21 orchards around the state – see details at the VT Department of Tourism information page
• Sample Vermont’s specialty products that are designed to show off unusual flavors in our apples – particularly traditional hard ciders, ice ciders, and boiled cider syrup.
Source: Dig in VT Trails
UVM scientist Christine Vatovec does boundary-bending research on human and ecological health–and how they’re connected. Her recent studies of how pharmaceuticals flow into wastewater and into lakes and rivers were featured in Quartz, a digital global news magazine published by Atlantic Media, publisher of The Atlantic. Read the story here.
Source: UVM News
