Food

Consider meandering up the West River Valley and into Grafton today for the 2nd Annual Grafton Food Festival.

All kinds of happenings under their party tents starting with a Jr Iron Chef competition at 10:30 followed by cooking demonstrations all day long.  More than 20 vendors will be sampling and selling their wares including several local food producers.  There will be a petting zoo and ‘interactive hula-hooping/hoop dance demonstration’ to entertain the young ones.  Today’s festivities run from 10am – 6pm.

Tomorrow’s schedule involves a cooking demonstration by Celebrity Chef Mary Ann Esposito and a farmers’ market on the inn grounds.

The Brattleboro Farmers’ Market announces the arrival of Harvest Health Coupons for EBT customers! Use your EBT card at the manager’s booth at market and get free matching value in coupons- up to $10, per visit.

The Brattleboro Farmers’ Market will have Harvest Health Coupons while supplies last, at both Saturday and Wednesday locations. Use these coupons to stretch your EBT dollars, which can buy fresh berries and vegetables of all kinds, maple syrup, jams, and honey, eggs and meat, fresh breads and granola to take home (EBT and Harvest Health CANNOT purchase hot lunches).

The Wednesday Farmers’ Market is back downtown by the Brattleboro Food Coop! 10-2 every Wednesday, our farmers (plus Bijou Bakes and Anon’s Thai Cuisine) offer the freshest locally-grown produce and prepared lunches and baked goods. EBT and debit are welcome; come by for some convenient, farmer-direct shopping–mid-week!

Good nutrition is a key factor in lifelong health, but many senior citizens are cutting back on their food budgets as expenses rise. To encourage healthy eating, the U.S. Department of Agriculture offers the 3SquaresVT program to help eligible Vermonters buy nutritious food.

The benefits come on an EBT card that looks like a debit or credit card; there are no “food stamps” anymore. If everyone in the household is 65 or older or gets SSI, then the benefits may be distributed as cash, deposited directly into the family’s bank account.

JUNE 18th– The Wednesday Market opens downtown by the Co-op on the Whetstone Pathway! We’ve got local farms offering freshly-harvested veggies, plants, strawberries, and cut flowers, plus maple products and preserves, fresh eggs, and more. A new baker, “Bijou Bakery- Jewels from the Oven”, joins us with delectable Italian baked goods, and of course there is the legendary Anon’s Thai Cuisine. EBT and Debit welcome! Open 10am to 2pm.

For more info, please call 802-254-8885 or find us on facebook.

Guilford Church Old-Fashioned Strawberry Supper Set for June 21

Guilford, VT– A summer tradition for the whole family, the Strawberry Supper at Guilford Community Church will be held on Saturday, June 21. There will be two seatings to choose from, at 5 and 6:30 p.m. The price is $11 adults, $5 children 11 and under, and $3 preschoolers. For reservations, call (802) 254-9019 or email guilfordchurchsupper@gmail.com.

The menu features ham, baked beans, deviled eggs, potato salad, coleslaw, fresh baked rolls, strawberries, shortcake and whipped cream, coffee, iced tea, and milk. All proceeds benefit the church, which supports over 20 local programs and organizations that serve the community.

A Chicken BBQ will be sponsored by the West Brattleboro Association (WBA) on Saturday, May 24^th, starting at 11 a.m. and lasting until it’s all gone. So plan to get to the event in front of the First Congregational Church on Western Avenue in West Brattleboro in plenty of time to enjoy chicken and fixin’s. And while you’re there you can also get dessert at the bake sale sponsored by the First Congo Church.

For $6 you can get half a barbecued chicken, or you can enjoy it with sides of baked beans and coleslaw for $10. The recipes used to make these goodies have a local history. The chicken barbecue sauce recipe is one used for the Guilford Fair Fireman’s BBQ for many years by Joe Jewett when he was a member of the fire department. Joe is the ‘griller extraordinaire’ for this semi-annual WBA Chicken BBQ and he still makes the Firehouse BBQ Sauce!

This week at the Brattleboro Farmers’ Market: Saturday, May 17th is Kids’ Day! Kids are vendors, too! Kids can come sell things they make themselves; no cookies from mixes or crafts from kits, please! Come get your garden started with healthy, local plants direct from our talented growers. Garden advice is also available this week from the UVM Extension Master Gardeners table. Bring your questions!

There’s something for everyone at the market. Our local farmers are selling starts, perennials, hanging baskets, herbs, fresh produce and preserves, eggs, meats, cheeses, maple syrup, and much more. Globe-spanning hot lunches, fresh breads and pastries, gelato, and gorgeous crafts of all kinds. Celebrating 40 years in business in 2014! EBT and debit are welcome. Please leave dogs at home!

Yesterday in an historic move in Vermont, Governor Peter Shumlin signed the first in the nation no strings attached law requiring mandatory labeling of genetically engineered (GMO) food in the nation. This is incredible news!

But already this morning, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), and GMA member Monsanto, announced that they plan to sue the state of Vermont to stop the bill from being implemented!

Eh Why am I not surprised?

 If you drink coffees at Mocha Joes, you can get $20 worth of coffee for only $15. 

All you have to do is donate $15 to their fundraiser for Cameroonian organic farmers, and VOILA ! you get a gift certificate that you can use yourself, to get any coffee drink you so choose.  

April 12 is the last day of the campaign. Help yourself, and help others. It really is that easy. 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mocha-joe-s-cameroon-organic-coffee-project

Brattleboro-based Strolling of the Heifers has released its third annual Locavore Index, a state-by-state ranking of commitment to local foods.

By compiling the Index, Strolling of the Heifers hopes to strengthen local farms and food systems by encouraging efforts across the country to increase the use of local foods in homes, restaurants, schools and institutions.  

The 2014 Locavore Index incorporates four measures for which current data is available for all states: the number of farmers markets, the number of consumer-supported agriculture operations (CSAs), the number of food hubs — all compared on a per-capita basis — plus the percentage of each state’s school districts with active Farm-to-School programs. But more data on local foods should be gathered, Strolling of the Heifers says.

Wild Carrot Farm will be making a special appearance at the market Saturday 3/15 to bring you fresh spinach and add some fresh green to the sounds of the Green from Inisheer! Jesse & Caitlin from Wild Carrot Farm will have some locally grown dried beans and popcorn too! So stop by the Winter Farmers’ Market at the beautiful River Garden between 10-2. Let the sounds of Inisheer put some advanced St. Patrick’s Green in your spirit . They’ll even have a stage! And we’ll have open space for an Irish jig or two!

While March may be the final month for the 8th season of the Brattleboro Winter Farmers’ Market, don’t let that fool you into thinking not much is happening each week at the market. The increasing daylight hours means that our farmers’ high tunnel greenhouses are producing early fresh greens. And as the snows melt and ground thaws, wintered-over carrots and the sweetest parsnips with the sweetest taste you can imagine may appear, and maybe even some leeks!

SUGAR SUPPER IN GUILFORD MARCH 1

Broad Brook Grange’s annual Sugar on Snow Supper will be held Saturday, March 1, at the Grange hall in Guilford Center. Always the first sugar supper of the season in Windham County, the meal features ham, baked beans, deviled eggs, cole slaw, potato salad, rolls, pickles, homemade donuts, and Guilford maple sugar on snow.

This is always the first such supper of the sugaring season here in Windham County, with about one per weekend at other venues after this.  

There will be three seatings: at 5:00, 6:00 and 7:00 pm.  At each seating, a half-gallon of Guilford maple syrup will be raffled. Phone in your reservation soon!

Amateur and professional chefs, tie on your aprons! It’s time to gear up for the Stroll’s annual culinary competition, this year featuring that good old-fashioned comfort food, bread pudding!

Now’s the time to start perfecting your bread pudding recipe, whether it’s a family heirloom handed down from your great-grandmother, or something you dreamed up and perfected yourself, and get it ready to enter in the Strolling of the Heifers Great New England Bread Pudding Bake-Off.

This year’s event will showcase bread pudding as an easy, economical and delicious dessert, and as a healthy alternative to processed commercial desserts. Contest finals will happen at the Stroll’s new home at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden, downtown Brattleboro.

Stop by the Brattleboro Winter Farmers’ Market Saturday! 

Lots of familiar faces, as well as some new ones for the late winter season.  Back for their second Brattleboro Winter Farmers’ Market visit is Bee Field Farms of Wilton, NH with honey, herbs, teas and more! Vermont Quince continues to dazzle folks with all the possibilities presented by the humble quince! Green Mountain Flour is serving up smiling pancakes with sweet maple syrup.  Or take home a fabulous quiche or some hummus to enjoy during the week from  Clay Hill Corners Blueberry Farm and CSA. There are still fresh organic apples from Dwight Miller Orchards, and fresh spinach has appeared from Deep Meadow Farm.

Once again, we will be monitoring this thread to help you should you need a hand or a remedy in your holiday cooking adventures. iBratt is full of foodies, and at least one of us will be here throughout the morning and early afternoon. So don’t be shy, we’re here to help.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Winter Farmers’ Market returns to the River Garden for the eighth season of the longest running diverse indoor farmers’ market in southern Vermont. With the upcoming transfer of the River Garden property from BABB to Strolling of the Heifers, the Winter Farmers’ Market keeps it wonderful home on Main St. Fans of the famous outdoor summer farmer’s market in West Brattleboro, can simply follow many of their favorite vendors indoors starting Saturday, November 2 from 10 – 2.

Hello –

Some of you may know that I started a specialty food business last year. Part of Vermont Quince’s social mission is to reintroduce the ancient fruit to palates throughout the U.S. Toward that end, we are teaming up with our primary source of quince on “Honoring the Heirloom: A Culinary Celebration of Quince & Apples,” a food event happening this Sunday afternoon at Alyson’s Orchard in Walpole, NH. 

The local farmers are bringing great fall produce to the Wednesday Farmers’ Market–open through the end of October– downtown by the Brattleboro Food Coop from 10-2. Apples and cider, pears, winter squash, garlic and onions, greens and tomatoes, peppers and potatoes, maple syrup and preserves, flower bouquets, humanely-raised pork, and lots more is all downtown on Wednesdays, fresh from our dedicated local growers.

Don’t forget Anon’s Thai Cuisine for lunch and that the market accepts EBT and debit cards! 802-254-8885. See you at the market! Spread the word!