Scott's Movable Feast

Spring is simple. It is clear. It’s blue skies are crisp and free of haze. It’s gray days of rain fill the air with easy and intoxicating scents unsullied by heat and uninhibited by chill. Its offerings are straightforward and concise. It performs the tight composition and subtle interplay of a quartet unachievable by a symphony. Its complexity lies in the space between remembrance and promise.

So when I walk through the store, I recall the bounty that filled the shelves now bare with promise; just as the fields display signs of last years crops and dreams of this years harvest.

It follows that Spring recipes are fresh and simple. A stir fry of chicken thighs or tofu with ramps, fiddleheads and nettles; Egg soup with chard; Roasted asparagus wrapped in ramp leaves; Rhubarb and wild ginger sabayon.

Spring’s simple pairings make it the the season of the camp cook. Summer’s rich layers are for the saucier.

This Weekend at the Farm:

CSA ONLY Perennial Special: 20% OFF any single perennial plant at the farm ALL WEEKEND (not valid at the farm stand)
20% OFF All Vegetable Starts on SUNDAY ONLY (not valid at the farm stand)
Perennial ‘bargain table’ SUNDAY ONLY (not valid at the farm stand)

     FREE Workshops:

• Sunday 10-11 and 2-3: Vegetable Growing with our farmer Jake Guest.
• Sunday 1-3: Container Arrangements with Liz, Jeanne and Michelle – the wizards who compose and plant our beautiful hanging baskets and planters.
• Our Perennial Plant expert Sonia Scwierzinski will be on hand from 10-3 on Sunday providing knowledge, advice and answering your questions.

At the Farm Stand:

Our Own Organic Vegetables: Mesclun Mix, Baby Lettuce Mix, Spinach, Beets Greens, Swiss Chard, Arugula, Rhubarb, Radishes.

Local Vegetables: Asparagus from Alex Mclennan’s farm in Windsor.
Wild Edibles: Ramps (wild leeks), Nettles, Fiddleheads, Wild Ginger
Legumes: Dried Vermont Cranberry Beans

Dairy: Organic Milk, 1/2 & 1/2, Heavy Cream, Ice Cream, Yogurt, Creme Fraiche, Cultured Butter, Sea Salted Cultured Butter
Meat: Organic Pork (Fat Rooster Farm), Natural Chicken (Misty Knoll Farm)

Our Fabulous Artisanal Cheese Selection:

• Cow’s Milk: Winnemere (Lambic washed rind cheese from Jasper Hill), Bayley Hazen Blue (Jasper Hill Farm), Camembrie (Blue Ledge Farm), “Just a Farmer’s Blues” (Bunten Farmhouse), Constant Bliss (Jasper Hill Farm), Clothbound Cheddar (Jasper Hill and Cabot), Weybridge (aged at Jasper Hill Farm), Willoughby (aged at Jasper Hill Farm), La Fluerie (Willow Hill Farm), Mascarpone (Vermont Butter and Cheese Co.)
• Goat’s Milk: Chevre (Blue Ledge Farm), Crottina (Blue Ledge Farm), La Luna (Blue Ledge Farm), Chevre Spreads: Maple, Ginger Cilantro, Sundried Tomato (Fat Toad Farm)
• Sheep’s Milk: Tomme de Brebis (Hope Farm), Magic Mountain Tomme (Woodcock Farm)

Plus… : Fresh Eggs, Maple Syrup, Honey, Preserves, Cider Vinegar, Cookies, Goat’s Milk Dulce de Leche, Organic Tunisian Olive Oil*, White Balsamic Vinegar*, Local Organic Sunflower Oil

Region: Vermont
Town/Village: Salisbury
Type of Milk: Cow (Pasteurized)
Cheese Style: Soft Ripened
Size: 6 ounce and 12 ounce wheels (hand ladled)
Aged: 3-5 weeks
Flavor Profile: Medium

Hannah and Greg decided to call this cheese Camembrie because they felt it was an hybrid between the two storied French cheeses. The recipe for Camembert and Brie is essentially identical, with the main differences being aging, the size of the wheels, and the regions of France from which they hail.

I find Camembrie generally closer to a Camembert with more earthy notes than Brie and a generally firmer texture, especially the smaller 6 ounce wheels which lose moisture more quickly in aging. Camembrie has a decidedly creamy, mushroomy, slightly grassy flavor.

Fall is setting in and we are nearing the final stretch of the harvest season. But the stand is still full of wonderful and delicious fruits, vegetables, baked goods, cheeses and more. The selection is different from a week ago, and the corn is gone, but it’s still a fabulous place to stock your pantry!

Vegetables (Our own certified organic): Mesclun Mix, Baby Lettuce Mix, Spinach, Beets, Broccoli, Cabbage, Savoy Cabbage, Chinese Cabbage, Napa Cabbage, Bok Choi, Green Kale, Red Kale, Lacinato (dinosaur) Kale, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, Broccoli Raab, Arugula, Cilantro, Beet Greens, Fennel, Parsley (curly and Italian), Swiss Chard, 6 types of Lettuce, Radicchio, Green Peppers, Pablano Peppers, Paprika Pepper, Smoked dried Paprika, Jalapenos, Red Onions, White Onions, Sweet Onions, Leeks, Scallions, Shallots, Garlic, Red Potatoes, White Potatoes, German Butterball Potatoes, Fingerling Potatoes, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Russet Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Greenhouse (vine ripened, soil grown) Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Green Tomatoes, Canning Tomatoes, Radishes, Turnips, Yellow Wax Beans, Celery, Celeriac, Carrots, Acorn Squash, Buttercup Squash, Butternut Squash, Carnival Squash, Delicata Squash, Pie Pumpkins, Baby Hubbard Squash, Baby Bear Pumpkins, Jack-o-Lantern Pumpkins, Gourds.

Local Apples: Ashmead’s Kernal, Bancroft, Golden Russet, Hudson’s Golden Gem, Hubbardston Nonsuch, Esopus Spitzenberg, Pomme Grise, Lady, Wickson, Calville blanc d’hiver, Baldwin, Elstar, Spartan, Jonagold, McIntosh, Cortland, Fuji, Empire, Green Mountain Granny, Macoun, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Gala, Honeycrisp.

Local Pears: Buerre Bosc

Local Dairy: Organic Milk, Organic 1/2 & 1/2, Organic Heavy Cream, Organic Ice Cream, Organic Yogurt, Creme Fraiche, Cultured Butter

Local Meat: Organic Heritage Pork, Natural Chicken, Organic Lamb Sausages, Organic Guinea Hens

Cheese: Mozzarella di Bufala (Water Buffalo), Chevre (Goat’s Milk), Crottina (Goat’s Milk), Bayley Hazen Blue (Cow’s Milk), Constant Bliss (Cow’s Milk), Consider Bardwell Dorset and Pawlett (Cow’s Milk), Lake’s Edge (Goat’s Milk), Goat’s Gouda (Goat’s Milk), Camembrie, Goat’s Brie (Goat’s Milk), Woodcock Humble Pie (Sheep’s Milk), Vermont Shepherd (Sheep’s Milk), Tarrentaise (Organic Cow’s Milk), Sharp Cheddar (Organic Cow’s Milk), Mascarpone (Cow’s Milk).

Plus Local… : Eggs, Cider, Maple Syrup, Honey, Preserves, Organic Cider Vinegar, Organic Whole Wheat Flour, Organic Cornmeal, Cookies

New: Local Goat’s Milk Dulce de Leche, Organic Tunisian Olive Oil, White Balsamic Vinegar

Weekend Baked Goods:

• David’s Apple Pies (Made with this year’s Cortland apples from the stand!)
• Rosemary’s Chestnut/Walnut Pound Cakes

Parentage: Excelsior x Dunmore (?)

Origin: 1878, Charlotte, Vermont, USA by Orson Alexander

Use: Baking, Roasting, Frying, Mashing.

Classification: Floury

Have you heard? It’s the international year of the potato.

Sometimes I just walk around the store eating things. Customers look at me and laugh or jokingly suggest that I am eating the profits. “Quality control, ” I say, and I mean it.

The other day I took one of each of the potato varieties, all of similar size, cooked them in the microwave, and tasted them. I was prepared for the fluffy warm flavors of the German Butterballs and the creamy earthy tones of the Fingerlings, but what blew me away was the Green Mountains. Their flavor was sweet, rich and deep and their fluffy texture melted into buttery creaminess in my mouth.

Green Mountain Potatoes were introduced in the late 1800’s right here in Vermont by Orson Alexander of Charlotte, Vermont, a researcher at the University of Vermont. According to several old Vermonters I’ve spoken with. Green Mountains were the potato to plant in the early part of the 20th century, and were considered the standard for great potato flavor. However, the reliability and uniformity of the russet for commercial production overtook the Green Mountain shortly after World War II and the venerable old potato was planted less and less.

Try this vintage potato mashed alone or with cauliflower or turnips.

The chance of rain is near 100% today, with temperatures only reaching into the low 60s. We need the rain in the fields, and the weather makes these perfect evenings for warm, “cozy” meals after venturing out to our bright, relatively rainproof, colorful stand for all the fresh ingredients you need to prepare them.

New this week: Apples: Green Mountain Granny, Red Delicious, Ribston Pippin, Bramley’s Seedling, Pomme Gris, Wickson, Jonagold; Organic Seckel Pears; Broccli Raab, Celeriac, Purple Top Turnips.

Going, going… : Watermelons (now on sale!), cucumbers, zucchini and summer squash

Weekend Baked Goods:

• David’s Apple Pies (Made with this year’s Cortland apples from the stand!)
• Rosemary’s Bee Skep Honey Cakes: delicious, moist honey cakes (just in time for Rosh Hashanah)

The final days of Vermont summer bless us with a short flush of organic white peaches from our friends the Millers.

Fuzzy skinned, soft and juicy they are an end of summer treat.

Unlike their yellow siblings, white peaches are low in acidity. When you bite into one you taste only sweetness as you release the floral peach-blossom aroma from beneath their skin, and when fully ripe they have a flavor note of muscat wine.

White peaches are very, very delicate so choose and transport them gently.

I saw an old (mid 1960s) interview with a tearful, screaming Rolling Stones fan who proclaimed, “They’re so ugly, they’re beautiful.” It is with nearly that emotional devotion that many of us esteem heirloom tomatoes and to a lesser degree heirloom vegetables in general. They are ugly and beautiful; fascinating and frightening; weird and wonderful. They are non-conformists in the world of perfectly round, red, firm, homogeneous globes found in grocery stores around the country.

But what makes an heirloom tomato an heirloom? Technically an heirloom is “something of special value that is handed down from one generation to another” (Merriam-Webster). It is in that definition that things begin to get confused, because it can be circular: to some degree the special value (probably sentimental) may simply be generated by the process of handing something down.

A quick online search for “what is an heirloom tomato” will yield the following by Craig LeHoullier and Carolyn Male which sub classifies the penumbra term:

1. Commercial Heirlooms: Open-pollinated varieties introduced before 1940, or tomato varieties more than 50 years in circulation.
2. Family Heirlooms: Seeds that have been passed down for several generations through a family.
3. Created Heirlooms: Crossing two known parents (either two heirlooms or an heirloom and a hybrid) and de-hybridizing the resulting seeds for however many years/generations it takes to eliminate the undesirable characteristics and stabilize the desired characteristics, perhaps as many as 8 years or more.
4. Mystery Heirlooms: Varieties that are a product of natural cross-pollination of other heirloom varieties.

I will digress for a moment and say that I don’t think hybridization is a bad word. There have been many nutritional, social and cultural positives that have stemmed from it. Back to point.

The use of the word heirloom to describe vegetables is relatively new. It seems to have its roots in casual use within the agriculture community which led to its use in seed catalogs. According to Tomatofest.com (an heirloom seed company which organizes the annual Carmel Tomato Festival in Carmel, California) its first academic use was in 1981 by Kent Whealy of the Seed Savers Exchange.

Subsequently, as have many ambiguous words and phrases, the word heirloom has been adopted as much for its marketing value as its descriptive accuracy. Naturally the more widely a marketing tool is used, the thinner its original (however heartfelt) concept gets spread. I know that sounds a bit cynical. I compare it to my observation that the more supermarkets try to make their produce sections look like farm stands, the more farm stands necessarily look like supermarket produce sections.

So with that background, here is my working definition of an heirloom fruit or vegetable:

1. It has a history. This is the marketer in me. Its story may be as dry as a Cornell research plot or as colorful as Radiator Charlie and his “Mortgage Lifter Tomato”, and the latter will grab me first, but it needs a knowable story that is older than one’s parents (making it multi-generational).
2. It is being grown and perpetuated foremost for its outstanding flavor quality, despite commercial difficulties such as yield, lack of uniformity, specific disease resistance, and shipping and holding considerations.
3. Because of its lack of large scale commercial viability, it provides a market niche for small community based farms.
4. Through its propagation it helps maintain the genetic diversity of available market vegetables.
5. It contributes to the perpetuation of generational cultural or ethnic histories that have to do with food and eating.

It is the uneasy task of heirloom and heritage varieties to provoke thought and to help us depend on each other through food not just for sustenance, but for cultural mores, folkways, environmental preservation and more.

It is their easy task to be beautiful and delicious.

I enjoy food much as I enjoy music. I love to learn about it and understand its history, but just as often I love to sit back and simply enjoy it. Knowledge should add to joy, not detract from it. So it is with tomatoes, technically heirloom or not. Sometimes, I think, it’s enough that they are just so ugly that they are beautiful.

While tropical systems sweep their bands North bringing us rain and warm temperatures, the trees and plants tell the story that hurricanes’ visits to the Northeast merely attempt to forestall Fall rather than harbor Summer.

In the mean time, like a Dickensian “bumper”, the stand is overflowing (literally: I had to move the apples out front!) with a mix of Summer and Fall vegetables and fruits. A bumper crop indeed.

New this week: Apples: Cortland, Gingergold, Honeycrisp, Macoun, McIntosh; Wild Blackberries, Matsutake Mushrooms, Surrey (European) Arugula, Celeriac, Colored Peppers, Elerberries.

Coming Soon: Winter Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Broccoli Raab.

Gone for the Season: Honey Orange Melons, Cherry and Shiro Plums

Weekend Baked Goods:
David’s Blueberry? Apple? Pies
Rosemary’s Torta di Arancia