Posted By Sally Pollak on Mon, Jun 12, 2017 at 5:21 PM

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Courtesy

Vermont Brewers Festival on the Burlington Waterfront

The Vermont Brewers Association announced on Monday afternoon that it will host a brewers festival at Killington Resort next March, to be called — wait for it — the Vermont Brewers Festival at Killington.

The VBA hosts the annual Vermont Brewers Festival at Waterfront Park in Burlington in July (this year Friday and Saturday, July 21 and 22). The organization that represents 52 Vermont craft brewers has been considering for some time adding a second festival to its lineup, according to marketing and festival director Amy Cronin.

"We wanted to play into Vermont being so beautiful," Cronin said. "And offer something in another part of the state, and make it special."

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Posted By Hannah Palmer Egan on Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 9:06 PM

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Courtesy of Vermont Creamery

Cultured butter from Vermont Creamery

On Wednesday afternoon, March 29, news circulated through the Vermont fooderati that Vermont Creamery had been sold to Minnesota cheese-and-butter giant Land O'Lakes for an undisclosed sum (yes, we asked how much, to no avail).

Allison Hooper and Bob Reese cofounded Vermont Butter & Cheese Company from a barn in Brookfield in 1984. Thirty-three years later the business, which changed its name to Vermont Creamery in 2013, brings in tens of millions of dollars annually and employs about 100 Vermonters full time.

While representatives from the creamery and from Land O'Lakes have been forthcoming since news of the sale broke yesterday, many Vermonters were left wondering what it would all mean. Would the company stay in Vermont? What would happen to current employees, and to the farmers from whom the creamery buys milk? Would the chèvre, cultured butter and soft-ripened cheeses be different now?

Tags: Vermont Creamery , Goat Cheese , Land O' Lakes , Deals , Image , Web Only

Posted By Suzanne Podhaizer on Fri, Feb 3, 2017 at 7:00 AM

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Courtesy of the Simmering Bone

Beef broth from the Simmering Bone

After Rachel Collier had her first child, she researched best practices for introducing solid foods to little ones. In the process, bone broth — which is made by simmering bones slowly over a long period of time to extract as many nutrients as possible — came up again and again. Now, it's not only a part of her family's daily diet, it's also the basis for her business, the Simmering Bone. "It's pretty amazing stuff," she explains.

Tags: Bone broth , stock , soup , beef , venison , lamb , chicken , slow food , Image , Web Only

Posted By Suzanne Podhaizer on Thu, Jan 5, 2017 at 3:51 PM

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Suzanne Podhaizer

The Commodities Natural Market storefront

On Sunday, December 18, the long-awaited Winooski branch of Commodities Natural Market opened in Keen's Crossing. The 3,300-square-foot store is the third in the CNM family. The original store opened in New York's East Village in 1993. A Stowe location followed in 2015. Owner Michael Hughes was drawn to the 'Noosk because of its diversity, and its residents' need for a place to purchase healthy, affordable food.

Tags: grocery store , Winooski , Commodities Natural Market , groceries , bulk foods , Image , Web Only

Posted By Julia Clancy on Sat, Dec 17, 2016 at 12:00 PM

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Good Measure Brewing

Tap handles at Good Measure Brewing

Good Measure Brewing moved into its Northfield home base in January 2016. By September, the brewers had begun distributing kegs of their distinct, expertly balanced beer to restaurants and suppliers across the state. A tasting room has been in the works ever since, with extensive renovations and restructuring of the 1920s-era building — formerly home to a series of grocery stores — and bringing everything up to code. At last, Good Measure’s tasting room opened its doors on Friday.

“Our idea is that the tasting room is a meeting place,” says co-owner Scott Kerner (who helped open Montpelier’s Three Penny Taproom in 2009, as well). “It’s a place to fill up your growler, have a pint, have a snack. Food will be simple, but well attended — just like our beer.”

Tags: Beer , brewery , Good Measure Brewing , ale , stout , drinking , Northfield , Image , Image , Web Only

Posted By Julia Clancy on Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 5:32 PM

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Julia Clancy

Kevin Toohey with a tray of truffles at Bijou Fine Chocolate

“Chocolate is more akin to glass than food,” says Kevin Toohey, master chocolatier and cofounder of Bijou Fine Chocolate in Shelburne. He pulls a sheet tray of truffles from a standing rack: squares of dark chocolate blanketing handmade almond marzipan. The chocolate is sleek and glossy. There's an unmistakable, deep-cocoa fragrance. It looks far more appetizing than glass.

Tags: chocolate , chocolatier , chocolate making , Swiss tradition , bean-to-bar , confection , candy , dessert , Bijou Fine Chocolate , Shelburne , Image , Web Only

Posted By Julia Clancy on Sat, Nov 26, 2016 at 9:51 PM

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Vin Bar & Shop

Burlington’s Vin Bar & Shop quietly closed its doors last week. After more than three years of service, owners Kevin and Kathi Cleary —  proprietors of the late, great L’Amante — will no longer be pouring glasses, sampling bottles or pairing meat and cheese plates at their spot on College Street.

“Running a bar is much different than running a restaurant in Burlington,” wrote Kevin Cleary in an email. “I think some people expected [another] L’Amante [from Vin], and that could not happen, because we didn’t have the kitchen and we never planned on putting one in.”

Common customer feedback relayed the opinion that people wanted more food with their sips, he wrote.

Tags: wine , Burlington , Vin Bar & Shop , wine tasting , Image , Web Only

Posted By Julia Clancy on Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 7:00 AM

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Lincoln Peak Vineyard

Lincoln Peak Marquette Nouveau

Saturday, November 19, marks the release of Lincoln Peak Vineyard’s Marquette Nouveau — a dry, young and supremely fresh wine. Fittingly, says vineyard owner Chris Granstrom, it “goes great with a turkey dinner.”

“Nouveau wine is bottled the same year the grapes are harvested,” Granstrom continues. “Using an unusual fermentation technique called carbonic maceration, whole grape clusters are sealed in a tank, which is filled with carbon dioxide — no crushing, no yeast.”

The result is a low-acid, zesty wine with ripe-fruit flavor. The nouveau wine tradition is made famous by the Beaujolais region of France, which annually releases a crush of young Gamay reds, "Beaujolais Nouveau," in the third week of November. This year, Lincoln Peak brings the centuries-old custom to the Green Mountains.

Posted By Julia Clancy on Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 3:23 PM

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Julia Clancy

Hubbard's Country Store in Hancock

Sara and Jon Deering purchased Hubbard's Country Store in January 2013. The small building off Route 125 in Hancock had sat deserted, next to a one-pump gas station, since it was vacated by previous owners a couple of years earlier.

Tropical Storm Irene had left her mark. The house needed to be jacked up and leveled. The basement needed gutting, the infrastructure stabilizing. The pipes, which sat vacant for too long, had burst in the interior walls, leaving behind even more damage.

“I had a vision of the store becoming a better version of itself,” says Sara Deering. “My husband [Jon] and I live here in Hancock. We’re a small community, and there’s a need for a general store locally.”

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Posted By Suzanne Podhaizer on Wed, Nov 9, 2016 at 3:51 PM

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Dana Heffern

Legit stone soup: fish broth heated by a hot rock

On Sunday, October 2, at the Groennfell Meadery in Colchester, a horde of people — some dressed in cloaks — shouted cheers with raised tumblers of mead, read aloud passages from Beowulf in Old English, and supped on Scandinavian cheeses, fish soup heated with rocks, and roasted bear garnished with honeycomb.

That evening, the tables were decorated with swords, animal bones and flickering candles, and the mead hall's lights were dimmed. Squinting a bit to blur out the modern brewing equipment made it easy to believe the cheerful crowd consisted of warring Geats, and that Grendel might show up at any moment to spoil our good cheer.

The dinner — the first in a series celebrating the intersection of food and literature — was put on by Isole Dinner Club, the brainchild of chef-anthropologist Richard Witting.  The second will take place on Sunday, November 20, and will celebrate Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and an ancient volume called The Forme of Cury, which was the first cookbook written in English.

Tags: Medieval , Chaucer , Dinner , Beowulf , Mead , Art , Image , Web Only