nika

Chef Dennis Vieira serves up bold, Mediterranean flavors with a Vermont twist at nika, the new downtown Burlington restaurant that formerly housed Three Tomatoes. Owner, Robert Meyers, has made a point of designing the European-inspired menus of his four restaurants to utilize the best of local ingredients- you can see it at nika in dishes like the Boucher Blue stuffed Dates, and the Vermont Family Farms pork they use in the house-made sausage and bacon.

What is Chef Dennis excited about right now?

Spring, and his Vermont Foraged Salad…

Chef Dennis has been running a special that highlights some of Vermont’s best wild edibles, most foraged from Bridgewater, VT by owner, Robert Meyers, himself! The salad features wild ramps and pheasantback mushrooms, wood fired in their roaring oven, dandelion greens doused in olive oil and grilled, blanched fiddleheads and asparagus tossed with petit arugula, spinach, flakes of parmesan cheese and dressed with a parmesan vinaigrette.

Source: Dig in VT Trails

The Kitchen Table Bistro

“Foragers are coming out of the woodwork,” Steve Atkins, chef/owner of the Kitchen Table remarked jokingly. All puns aside, The Kitchen Table Bistro (KTB) is known for their creative use of seasonally foraged ingredients. Steve receives calls daily from foragers hoping to see their harvest on the plates of his critically acclaimed restaurant.

What is Chef Steve excited about?

Wild Ramps…

Wild leeks have a short, concentrated growing season and, while in supply, Chef Steve celebrates ramps creatively and they work their way into many KTB dishes. While we spoke, Chef Steve was preparing his wild ramp romesco sauce, which blends grilled ramps with red pepper and almonds into a coarse puree. Pickling ramps is another favorite at KTB. Chef Steve will pair his pickled ramps simply—with a tartar or pate, or create a pickled ramp relish that’s perfect for fish. The Kitchen Table Bistro’s restaurant week menu is filled with ramps and their new patio beckons spring diners.  

Source: Dig in VT Trails

Hermit’s Gold Wild Edibles

Colin McCaffrey is obsessed with wild things. Taught about wild edibles and natural medicinal plants by his mother and grandfather, Colin spent his childhood hunting, fishing, and foraging in Southern Vermont. In college, he found himself using the forest as his classroom, focusing on identifying species – especially mushrooms.

What is Colin excited about?

His hunt for morels…

 Morels need the moisture of a wet spring to really flourish, with little rain in the forecast Colin is keeping his spirits up by foraging for other seasonal wild edibles. He is already harvesting wild leeks, fiddleheads, nettles, toothwort, and pepper root—which Colin described as a mix between wasabi and wild ginger. Colin works under the name of Hermit’s Gold Wild Edibles in Washington County and the Northeast Kingdom and you can find his wild edibles on the table at Hen of the Wood, Frida’s, and at the Plainfield Coop.     

Source: Dig in VT Trails

Chef Martin Schuelke moved to Vermont a year ago to take over the kitchen at the historic Grafton Inn. With plans to integrate more local food into his menu, Chef Martin asked fellow chef, friend and former VFN board member, Jason Tostrup of the Inn at Weathersfield to introduce him to area farmers.  Gayle Morabito of Coger Farms and Greenhouses was the first farmer connection Jason helped Martin make.  Gayle grows rare culinary herbs and highly desired, unusual produce. She is happy to grow custom orders for her chef partners.

Chef Martin is currently using Coger’s special variety of wild arugula, spinach, choi, mustard and beet greens along with lemon balm, amaranth, wrinkled cress and other herbs guaranteed to thrill any creative chef! In celebration of Earth Day last week, Chef Martin shared this recipe for Coger’s Greenhouse Spring Greens with VT Fiddleheads and Apricot Vinaigrette. The day we spoke, Chef Martin received a delivery of 15 pounds of foraged fiddleheads, in fact, a Fiddlehead Dinner celebrating the wild edibles is in the works for May 25th at the Grafton Inn!  

Source: Dig in VT Trails

Food shopping suggestions:  Before you go shopping, make a list!  Remember to shop the edges and try to buy as much bulk/whole food as possible.  Whenever possible, buy in bulk from local vendors.  You can place a special order through your Coop, go to the farmers market (Saturdays in Montpelier on State Street), or visit the vendors.

 

For local food sources, visit vermontfresh.net to search an extensive listing.  Here are some to get you started:

Butterworks Farm – butterworksfarm.com – spelt, oats, rye, cornmeal, dry beans, yogurt, sunflower oil

Applecheek Farm – applecheekfarm.com – chicken, lamb, veal, pot pies, sausage

Cate Farm – catefarm.com – seasonal organic produce

 

Food selection criteria (Colbin, AnneMarie. Food and Healing. Random House, 1986.):

Keep it whole. Try to eat food as nature provided it, with all its edible parts intact.  The body is smart: if there are nutrients missing from the food we eat, it is likely we’ll crave what’s missing and try to get it from other sources. 

Choose fresh, real food. Avoid canned or frozen foods whenever possible; read labels and try to choose foods free from artificial sweeteners, antibiotics or hormones. If you can’t pronounce a word in the ingredients list, don’t eat it!

Cook with seasonal, local, non-genetically modified meat, dairy, grains and produce. Whenever possible we source ingredients direct from farmers using CSAs (community supported agriculture), and markets.

Prepare foods that are in harmony with tradition. Gain inspiration from the cuisines of different parts of the world and recognize that food many times can spark a memory of one’s history.

Find balance. Cook colorful foods that offer enticing flavor and texture; savor your meals! Sit down, breathe, and appreciate the nourishment that you need to live.

Dandelion Leek Frittata

You will need:

4 Tablespoons olive oil

1 large leek

2 teaspoons each: salt and black pepper

1 bunch fresh dandelion greens

6 eggs

1 teaspoon each: cumin and coriander powder

Juice of half a lemon

 

Chop 1 large leek into rounds.

Heat olive oil in a skillet and add leeks.

Reduce heat to medium low. Add salt, black pepper, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add dandelion greens. Simmer for 10 more minutes or until most of the liquid has cooked out of the vegetables.

 

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease a pie plate with olive oil.

 

In a bowl, beat 6 eggs, cumin, coriander, and a splash (about 4 Tablespoons each) of water and lemon juice.

Pour egg mixture over the top of the greens and bake for 40 minutes.

 

Healing Properties

Eggs: each one contains 6 grams of protein, 9 essential amino acids, and only 1.5 grams of saturated fat; rich in lutein, which helps prevent macular degeneration and cataracts; improve human lipid profile, thereby balancing cholesterol; contain naturally occurring vitamin D.

Dandelion greens: these iron-rich, fiber-filled spring greens stimulate the bitter flavor on the palate, which encourages bile production, thereby strengthening digestion and aiding liver rejuvenation.

Leeks: strengthen lungs; anti-microbial; anti-bacterial; offer rich source of fructo-oligosaccharides, which stimulate growth of healthy bifidobacteria and suppress the growth of potentially harmful bacteria in the colon. 

 

Oaty Corn Bread 

This is a great thing to bake with leftover oatmeal!

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a bowl, mix together:

1 cup corn meal (I like ‘early riser’ cornmeal from Butterworks farm)

1 cup leftover oatmeal (you can order 5 pound bags of local oats from Butterworks farm)

1 teaspoon each: salt, baking soda, baking powder, coriander and cumin

¼ cup vegetable oil (I like sunflower oil from Rainville farm)

 

Grease any 8 inch pan with vegetable oil.

Pour batter into greased pan.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center tests clean. 

 

Healing Properties

Oats: high in fiber to lower cholesterol levels and reduce risk of heart disease; ease digestive stress and support healthy transit time; enhance immune response to infection and stabilize blood sugar.

 

Savory Sweet Potato Bread

Dry ingredients:

1½ cups rice flour 

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients:

1 egg

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Grated zest of 1 lemon

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 ½ cups steamed, mashed sweet potatoes

2 Tablespoons unsweetened, whole milk yogurt

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Grease 8 or 9 inch pan with vegetable oil.

Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir together.

Make a well in the center, combine the wet ingredients and stir until thoroughly blended.

Incorporate wet and dry ingredients until they are well combined.  

 

Pour batter into greased pan and bake for 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center tests clean.

 

Healing Properties

Sweet potatoes: high in omega 3 essential fatty acids to tonify the internal organs and strengthen immunity; rich in carotenoids and omega-3s, whose anti-oxidant content offers anti-inflammatory support; high in vitamin C to boost immunity; rich in B vitamins to reduce stress. 

 

 

Energy Bars

You will need:

¼ cup dried, unsweetened apricots 

¼ cup dried, unsweetened dates

¼ cup raisins

 

¼ cup sesame seeds – toasted

¼ cup pumpkin seeds – toasted and coarsely chopped

½ cup walnuts, pecans, almonds (choose any combination of these) – toasted and coarsely chopped

 

1 cup nut butter (almond, cashew, peanut butter or a combination of these)

¼ cup honey

4 Tablespoons shredded, unsweetened coconut

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch salt

 

Boil 2 cups water. As water boils, coarsely chop all dried fruit and place it in a small mixing bowl.

Pour boiling water over fruit. Soak for 15 minutes and drain.

 

Meanwhile, mix honey, nut butter, coconut, cinnamon and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

Chop walnuts/almonds and pumpkin seeds. 

Toast all seeds and nuts. Add to mixing bowl and mix.

 

Add soaked dried fruit to the above ingredients. 

Oil a glass baking dish: 7×11″ is a good size.

While the mixture is still warm, press it flat into the dish with wax paper. Chill for 1 hour. 

 

Slice into squares. 

Cover with plastic wrap or store in baking dish in the fridge. Keeps for 2 weeks refrigerated.

 

Healing Properties

Almonds: high in monounsaturated fat, which promotes heart health, helps reduce LDL cholesterol, and aids in carbohydrate metabolism, thus contributing to weight loss; contain flavoproteins to balance blood sugar and improve energy levels.

 

Sunflower seeds: contain selenium to detoxify liver and blood; contain magnesium to strengthen bones, calm nerves and support immunity.

 

Walnuts: rich in omega 3 essential fatty acids; gently laxative; cardio-protective; contain ellagic acid, which supports the immune system.

 

Zoom Balls

You will need:

1 cup tahini (roasted sesame seed butter)

½ cup cashew or almond butter

¼ cup honey (more or less to taste)

1 teaspoon each: cinnamon and cardamom powder

3 Tablespoons coarsely chopped walnuts

½ cup coarsely chopped almonds

2 oz unsweetened shredded coconut 

 

Mix tahini, nut butter and honey until smooth. 

Add coconut and nuts – mix in well.  Mix in enough coconut to make dough thick.

Roll the dough into small balls. You can also spread the mixture onto a baking sheet and cut into squares.

Store the balls in baking tins in a cool place. They will last for 3 weeks.

 

Healing Properties

Coconut: plant-based alternative to saturated animal fats. It stimulates brain function and promotes intestinal motility; its anti-bacterial benefits make it an important fat to choose during times of illness or infection and is specifically indicated for combating intestinal parasites. 

 

Tahini (roasted sesame seed butter): promotes elasticity of bones and joints; helps colon to extract water from food waste before elimination occurs.

 

Visit Lisa’s website at http://www.harmonizedcookery.com/

 

 

 

Source: Dig in VT Trails

The locavore index rates states in relation to both how available locally grown food is and the extent to which it is consumed. The index is compiled by Vermont’s Strolling of the Heifers, which is a group that has been working to promote local food since 2002. It looks at data from the US Department of Agriculture relating to items such as farmers markets, agricultural ventures supported by the local community and food hubs (facilities that help small farmers to distribute and market their produce) per head of the population. These factors are grouped and referred to as locavorism. For the second year, Vermont has topped the list and was followed by Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Iowa; Texas took the last place and Arizona, Florida, Louisiana and Nevada were also at the bottom of the table. The index doesn’t just serve to commend those states doing well with respect to interest in local food production, it encourages all states to become more involved in efforts to make local food the norm again.  

The potential of local food

Vermont’s agricultural heritage and the high priority placed on investment in strategies relating to local food production have led to its standing in the index. The benefits of developing and using local food systems is summed up well by Chuck Ross, the Secretary of Agriculture for Vermont. “A strong local food system creates economic opportunities, preserves the working landscape, serves the nutritional needs of a region, and provides a point of connection for the community.” However, he also acknowledged that there are still many further improvements to be made before we reach a stage where we can feeds ourselves fully using locally sourced items.

Vermont has recognized the benefits of local food not just to its residents, but to the economy of the area and also helps the wider environment. Leading on from Chuck’s summary, here are some of the reasons why Vermont has invested so heavily in its regional food production.

Reduced food miles

By having so many people who grow crops and raise livestock in the state, as well as so many businesses and consumers keen to source food items locally, produce travels a far shorter distance from farm to plate; rather than travelling hundreds or thousands of food miles, it could be less than ten. This helps to significantly reduce the fuel needed for transportation and therefore carbon dioxide emissions; this is very relevant, as global warming remains a key issue.

By having a shorter journey time, spoilage and waste is reduced. This means food is a lot fresher when it is sold and when you come to eat it. Fresher food certainly provides a better food experience – you can definitely taste and smell the difference, as well as appreciating more of a crunch – but it also provides nutritional benefits. The vitamin and mineral content of produce declines with time, so whether it’s a couple of days after picking or a couple of weeks, it potentially makes an impact on the nutrition you receive. The vitamins and minerals found in fruit and vegetables are known to guard against the likes of heart disease and cancer – two of America’s biggest killers – but also can aid your appearance. While you can use all manner of products to help prevent hair loss, wrinkles and brittle nails, what better way to guard against this than nourishing your body from within?

Promoting soil quality

In many parts of the United States, field upon field is devoted to what is known as monoculture, where only one type of crop is grown. While this might be great for producing vast quantities of say corn or wheat, it does little for the soil, as the lack of variety of what is grown contributes to the depletion of nutrients from the soil and also makes it easier for plant diseases to take hold. As a consequence, fertilizers and pesticides need to be used to promote good yields; both items are of further detriment to the soil and a source of pollution. However, the methods used by small local growers tend to steer clear of growing single crops, instead looking to grow a diverse range of items, which maximizes the health of the crops and therefore what they can offer you nutritionally. Without the need to use fertilizers or herbicides, this paves the way for organic farming.

Promoting the local community

More often than not when you shop in a large grocery store, the dollars you hand over to pay for your purchases go to a national chain. However, when you make a spend on locally grown items, this helps to build the area’s economy; supporting family run farms creates jobs not just on their land, but those relating to local processors and distributors as well. Another way that the growth of food close to home can inject money is through the development of agritourism. The opportunity to visit farmers markets and the farms and producers that made the produce they can buy here really does draw people in to visit the area. The growth of tourism helps non-food businesses such as hotels in the region too. Finally, local food also helps to promote community spirit, with many people getting involved and getting to know others who they may never have otherwise met.

Source: Dig in VT Trails

Yesterday, we had a Dig In Vermont intern at the farm.  She is interviewing a few of us Floating Bridge Food and Farms Co-op members for a short video to be featured on the Dig In site.  One of her interview questions was a simple one, but sometimes those are the best, right?  “What do you like best about living and working in Vermont?”  I hardly had to think about it.  Of course, I mentioned the natural beauty that we get to steep in everyday–the mountainscapes free of distracting billboards, the working pastures and forests rolling all about–but what I really wanted to speak to was the community we have here, and how extensively engaged and supportive it can be, without seeming cheeky or contrived.

Our neighbor to the north maintains the woodland trails we wander in our free hours (and she’s a fount of knowledge on the wild edibles to be found there!)  Our neighbor to the south taps the maple stand that provides us with syrup for our pancakes (and maple milk!).  My candles and soap are made by Marda of Brookfield Bees, the honey for my yogurt from her husband, Dan. My dishtowel was woven by Sue, from Williamstown.  And it just goes on and on! These skills braid themselves into a cloth that’s made quite an impression on me. We don’t just have community, we have a connectivity within our communities that makes them so much more resilient, and truly pleasant to be a part of!

Of course, this way of relating to neighbors, friends, and family was commonplace a mere 200 years ago all around the country, but now it’s not so easy to come by.  In this neck of the woods though, it’s been preserved, tended to, and conditioned.  We’re not playing local, we’re thriving in and benefiting from an age old local economy that’s been bustling about in these hills for a long, long time. It’s worked here before, and it’s workin’ now.

With the Floating Bridge Food and Farms Co-op, we’re seeing how effectively we can share this richness with others. Our focus is–you guessed it–food and farms, but we’re not just sharing our story of vegetable, meat, and milk production, we’re trying to show all the different ways food works itself into our community, how it connects us in sometimes rather subtle ways.  Amongst us are food, flower, and christmas tree farmers, caramel makers, picklers, a logger, beekeeper, candle and soap maker, a chef, a wreath-maker, a woman who works with locally-harvested plant-based dyes, an inn, and a retreat center.

Can we invite folks to learn about the honey harvest at Brookfield Bees, follow it with a milking session at our farm, and a cheese making class that transforms the two products into a wholly local cheesecake, bearing witness to the whole process, hive to table, teat to table? Or provide a wedding package with locally produced meals, catering, floral arrangements, a pastoral event space, and lodging for guests?   We’re eager to spread the word about the tours, weekend stays, and events that we offer as a group, and the potential they hold to demonstrate, in a hands-on way, what it means to have a relationship with your working landscape. We also hope you’ll get curious and check out some of our fellow Co-op members for the variety of products and services they offer as individual small businesses.

If you’ve been to the farm stand lately, you’ve surely noticed the sweet additions lining the shelves from fellow FBFFC farms. We hope that the blueberries, caramel, syrup, honey, beef, and lamb not only liven up your localvore dinner plate, but that they provide a deeper peek into the richness of this community, and its apparent ability to really provide for itself, in so many ways.  Dig In, folks!

Source: Dig in VT Trails

Snow squalls swirl round the windows, while shrill winds shake the barn cupola from where I write here on Walden North Farm in Vermont. Much of New England this weekend is wrapped in blizzards of snow “whirling wild without” (to borrow Thoreau’s words). The endless landscapes of white that weather experts are calling “epic,” is for us Vermonters, —simply another winter’s day. 

Whenever asked about Vermont winters, particularly how we stand frigid temperatures that plunge to unthinkable depths, I smile and quote Camus:

“Au milieu de l’hiver, j’ai découvert en moi un invincible été.”

“Even in the midst of winter, I find there is in me an invincible summer.”

Perhaps our secret to embracing winter up here escapes the warm scrutiny of summer residents & visitors: we cold-hardy, multi-generational & transplanted Vermonters simply transform winters into invincible summers. Amid the several feet of white that seasonally blanket our Vermont fields, we see green. Vermont farmers, growers and homesteaders have found ways to maintain an invincible summer, —not only in their hearts, but in their plots as well. 

Even amidst the coldest days of winter, there are those of us who, again in the words of Thoreau, “make the earth say beans.” Well, if not beans exactly, certainly greens. 

During the winter months, Vermonters host, support, & frequent Farmers’ Markets, CSAs, farm stores, & local food restaurants (like the famed Claire’s in Hardwick) that offer a wide array of local root, as well as fermented vegetables, micro- and cold-hardy greens, sprouts and other winter vegetables.  

Some of us go even farther in our attempts to extend the growing season. Like our neighbors to the east in New Hampshire & Maine, we have adopted the classic French tradition of creating invincible summers—techniques for four-season growing, to borrow a phrase made famous by Eliot Coleman, whose book of that title has inspired countless Vermonters to grow year round—with simply astoundingly succulent, fresh, green results. 

Some professional growers, like Dave Allen at Hazendale Farms in Greensboro, Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury, and Bread and Butter Farm in Shelburne grow cold-hardy vegetables such as spinach and kale, arugula, Asian greens, herbs, —even onions and scallions—throughout various months of the winter. Surrounded by snow, a variety of greenhouses, glass cold frames, plastic tunnels, hoops, domes, pods, south-facing windows, and other creative growing spaces contain vegetables sprouting, shooting, blossoming, & growing more or less contentedly. (After all, how content can a salad green be in sub-zero temps?)

In our solar and (sparsely) wood-heated greenhouse here at Walden North Farm, (where we build & sell post & beam greenhouses), we grow an array of vegetables all winter, including greens of various types: mesclun, salad, beet, Asian, & mustard, as well as cold-hardy herbs, peas, scallions, kale, cabbage, spinach, broccoli raab, carrots, and leeks. Even potato plants and tomato seedlings have sprouted in my greenhouse this winter—despite the particularly cold days and even colder nights. 

Some of us rely on a host of techniques inspired by not only fellow New England neighbor-authors Anna Edey, the Poissons & Eliot Coleman, but by our own attempts at keeping warm—creative layering. (I write this now shivering in my barn cupola, as the temperature dips below zero, —where I sit in my own creative insulation of double wool socks, various Ibex inventions to divert the cold from invading the soul, & topped with my grandmother’s Irish sweater.) When temps plunge down—like tonight—to -20F or lower, I add an additional layer of protection for my more tender vegetables, such as my potatoes and tomato seedlings—a Vermont version of the classic French cloche—Mason jars!  (What Vermonter doesn’t have more than plenty of those in stock?) 

For me, one of the most inspirational experiences in my growing life occurs at dawn on early January and February mornings when the outside thermometer reads -20F. Dressed in woolens, I venture into a frosty greenhouse whose temperature reads +20 something, only to find, —protected beneath layers of plastic—, beds of fragrant greens, trellises of pea vines and spicy scallions glistening in the dawning sun. There’s nothing quite like the aroma of Fresh on a frigid winter’s morning to inspire one to believe that anything—and everything—is possible. Like Thoreau, we Vermonters evince great “faith in a seed”—particularly those growing in the midst of winter. 

For true, albeit, frosty inspiration, come visit our farms, markets, & homesteads in Vermont this winter!

(Just how winter growing fits in with Thoreau’s admonition to “live in each season and eat the fruits of each,” we’ll save for another posting.)

Written by Sile Post, www.silepost.com

Source: Dig in VT Trails

“Blown away!” We weren’t talking about the wind. We were neighbors from Northfield, journalists from Montpelier and guests from Connecticut, basking in the glow of the barn, music and community. Mary Bonhang and Evan Premo and the talented colleagues they assemble for Scrag Mountain Music concerts seem to have a blast playing in our barn. 

The musicians say it is because during the farm suppers they begin connecting with you who attend, sharing the meal, watching the goats, figuring out the key of a certain farm sound! And we in the audience are more enthralled than typical. We ate with the musicians, know them to be mortals—folks who share our penchant for farm fresh food. Connecting is not only a hunger, it is a feast.

Our farm sells tangible products from eggs and heirloom tomatoes to chorizo, from catered meetings and tours to farmstays. We offer multiple full diet, year round, free choice farm shares. What our customers value is that we sell these products in the beautiful context that makes the products special in the first place! So here is where it gets complicated.  Green Mountain Girls Farm transactions include intangibles, the kind of things American Express has tagged with a value of priceless. 

Together with our colleagues in the Floating Bridge Food and Farms Cooperative, we organize hands-on farm experiences. This winter, Ariel’s Restaurant Chef Lee Duberman is teaching a series of cooking classes at our farm. Richard Fink, Ariel’s co-owner pairs wine to accompany what the class prepares. When the table of 12 sits to enjoy the meal there is a sense of joy and belonging. The food is to die for. We feast on the unique connections made possible by the fresh food, the talents of gifted teachers, the promise of new friends and enhanced community.

We hope you join us for upcoming concerts and classes or visit the farm soon. In the meantime, feast on the farm’s ambient beauty via the web and connect with us!

Source: Dig in VT Trails