Serving Up Vermont
It's midwinter - the season for root vegetables. But you can only eat so many roasted beets, right? But, did you know that you can actually eat beets raw, too? They are best sliced thin or grated and can be used in salads, in baked goods, or as garnishes. And peeling beets doesn't have to be hard. Mary, one of our Produce Buyers, likes using a vegetable peeler to make beet shavings to brighten up salads. She demonstrates her technique in the video below:
Beer and cheese. A perfect pairing in theory, right? (I'm thinking cheddar ale soup, burgers, etc). But how do you know which cheese goes well with which beer? Our friends at Harpoon Brewery and Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company stopped by to offer some suggestions for pairing their respective products. Read on to learn their tips!
In Vermont, we are fortunate enough to have some locally-produced staple foods such as eggs, cheese, yogurt, and bread available year-round, but as the cold months of winter progress, it becomes more and more challenging to eat locally. As the variety of local produce diminishes, we are left daydreaming of the return of the green landscape and the bounty that our dedicated farmers provide.
It all started with a free bag of medlars. I had been interested in using medlars for some time, and so when a free bag of medlars close to their prime were offered up by our Produce Department in December, I snagged them to make medlar jelly.
It's mango season! I don't know about you, but I love fresh, ripe mangoes - in salads, salsa, juice, chutneys or jams, on ice cream, or just eating out of hand. But cutting mangoes can be tricky. Mangoes are stone fruits and have a hard stone pit in the middle. Because of this pit, it's not as simple as cutting the flesh off in slices. Here is our favorite way to cut a mango:
The New Year is here, which has left many of us pondering strategies to be healthier. As many complex resolutions are made, one quite simple approach to do this is by eating well. Eating nutritiously may seem complicated or expensive, but truthfully it is quite simple. Buying raw ingredients and cooking for yourself is often the least expensive choice when shopping, which is one point that we focus on at City Market’s Pennywise Pantry tour. If you think shopping at the Co-op or purchasing local, healthy or organic foods is too pricey, think again.
Pomegranates are a delicious treat this time of year, but I know I'm not alone when I say they are one intimidating fruit. How do you know when they are ripe? How do you cut it? How do you get all those delicious kernels out of the intricate pith inside? But once you figure it out and taste the sweetness of the seeds, all that work seems totally worth it and not as hard as initially thought.
Earlier this month, a few of us from the Co-op went out to visit one of our favorite farmers: David Miskell, from Miskell's Premium Organics in Charlotte. You can find Miskell's produce in our Produce Department, as well as on our Hot and Cold Food Bars.
We are extremely excited about our partnership with Burlington-based Brio Coffeeworks and the four fair trade, organic coffee roasts that we developed with them for sale in our Bulk Department! Magda and Nate from Brio stopped by recently to talk with our staff members about the new coffee roasts and about coffee in general.
Last night at ArtsRiot, an eager crowd gathered for another great food discussion. In this third installment of The Dish series, our topic was “Global Foods, Local Perspectives”. For me, it was another fine example of Vermonters putting their values on the line, even if it means wrestling with some challenging questions. As a community that places a high value on local food and the farmers who grow it, while at the same time cherishing delicious global foods that we will never realistically grow locally (think coffee, chocolate and avocadoes), how can we make informed, value-driven decisions when purchasing those global foods? We can sum up the evening’s conclusion with three simple words: Tell a story.
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