Food

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!

This weekend, West Brattleboro, In front of Congregational Church. Tasty BBQ Chicken. Add baked beans and slaw for a delicious dinner.

Broad Brook Grange will present its 17th annual Columbus Day Weekend Apple Brunch on Sunday, October 13, from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm at the Grange hall in Guilford Center.  The proceeds from the event will allow for continued renovations of the historic building and support of its community programs.

The all-you-can-eat brunch features eggs and omelets, any style, made to order.  Also on the menu are apple and regular pancakes, French toast, sausage, bacon and home fries, with Guilford maple syrup.  Other treats include home-baked apple coffee cakes and other goodies, homemade applesauce, and bread for toasting.  A selection of juices — including cider — will be available, along with coffee, teas and milk.

Brattleboro, VT – Ken Flutie didn’t realize how his love and passion for food would change him when Italian grandmothers took him under their wings and taught him to cook the old-world or classic Italian way.

Born and raised in New York, Ken Flutie worked in restaurants as a line cook and sous chef with classical to traditional training during college, but when he first started working in retail (his professional career for thirty years) after graduation, the “Nonnas” (term of endearment which pays tribute to all the women and the women they learned from), who taught Ken to cook the Italian way – with passion, flavor and love. The Nonnas took him under their wing, made sure he knew how to cook and enjoy classic Italian home-made foods. Flutie kept his recipes and love of Italian cooking personal by serving family, friends and sometimes catering events until after he retired in 2005 from the retail business working for Phillips Van Heusen/Calvin Klein when he became a professional chef.

Please keep the Wednesday Farmers’ Market on your to-do list- we are open through October!

This small, friendly market boasts orchards and several farms, offering shoppers a ton of great fall produce, storage crops, apples and cider, plus maple syrup, baked goods, flower bouquets, and pasture-raised pork.
Anon’s Thai Cuisine, too.

EBT and debit welcome! 10-2, Wednesdays, downtown by the Brattleboro Food Coop, through October!

802-254-8885

I found this really moving.

http://youtu.be/dfaPhmFGvt8

Use your Farm to Family coupons at the Farmers’ Market!:

Farm to Family coupons for WIC families may still be available at your local Department of Health office. If you have not yet received coupons or have multiple eligible people in your household, you may still be able to get coupons. The Farm to Family coupon program helps you buy locally-grown fresh fruits and vegetables at 62 participating farmers markets around the state.

Coupons are distributed through September 30th, 2013 and can be redeemed until October 31st, 2013. Please visit www.healthvermont.gov or call 1-800-649-4357 to find out if there are still coupons available at your district office and if you are eligible.

For more information about the Brattleboro Farmers’ Market, please call 802-254-8885.