Serving Up Vermont
What’s in a word? There’s the technical definition, yes, but our experiences and our perceptions can create a certain understanding of particular words that are different from what others may accept. Likewise, new terms are being created regularly and sometimes even become mainstream (“selfie,” anyone?). Given this, one of our biggest challenges with the rapidly expanding sustainability movement, is explaining the terms commonly used to describe sustainability (the “lexicon”) and making those terms accessible and commonplace to all people. Without a common language, we can’t expect to m
Spring has finally sprung, and it seems like the perfect time to write about a recent Mosaic of Flavors class where we made a special Bosnian bread stuffed with spinach. Spinach will always be a "sign of spring" for me, because it's one of the first crops we get from local farmers in the springtime. Its fresh, green color and large, squeaky leaves are a welcome change of pace from root vegetables!
Fair wages for all (including farmers), include the next generation, equal representation under the law, humane working conditions, good and respectful communication, a grievance policy/conflict resolution process, access to affordable healthcare, kids on farms (both kids of farmers and farmworkers) should have access to quality education, children should only be allowed to work part-time on the farm, and fair pricing of farm products in the marketplace.
Last week, City Market staff had the privilege of attending a special cheese tasting with Adam Smith, Head Caveman at The Cellars at Jasper Hill. The topic was bloomy-rinded cheeses, those delightfully soft, often white, squiggly-molded cheeses that seem to be so popular these days. Bloomy-rinded cheeses are usually made from pasteurized milk, as they are typically aged less than 2 months (raw milk needs to be aged at least 60 days). For bloomy-rinded cheeses, either the milk is inoculated with a specific mold culture, or the cheese is mi
This time of year, when the ground begins to soften, the buds swell on bushes and trees, and squirrels resume their frisky high-wire acts, is a wonderful time to think about treating our whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds to a long, warm soak before we eat them. More than any other time of year, spring is a time when soaking seeds puts us in touch with the rhythms of nature, because it is happening all around us in the forest, fields, and flower beds.
This week we’re continuing an annual tradition that I’m fond of, our local food recipe competition. Picking one extra special ingredient, we ask the community to submit their favorite recipes based on that theme. It’s like Iron Chef*, but without all the pressure or the video cameras (actually, it’s not really like Iron Chef at all). This year’s special ingredient is… beets!
The United States government, in response to consumers' desires to know more about the origin of the food they were buying, passed a law in 2002 called the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law. The law aims to provide information to consumers regarding the origin of food products. The 2002 Farm Bill (and subsequent amendments) requires processors, packers, and retailers to label the country of origin for fish and shellfish; peanuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts; ginseng; fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables; ground beef, lamb, pork, goat, and chicken; and muscle cuts of beef, veal, lamb,
Why is it so hard to reform our food system? Perhaps because so many different arms of the food industry need time and attention. Take food waste, for example. It’s neither glamorous nor obvious, but it is starting to become a leading actor in conversations about food system reform. Why? Because not only does food waste affect how we approach hunger, it also affects our land use patterns and climate change.
The last two weeks of December, I definitely indulged my sweet tooth a lot. Judging by the capacity at our German and Italian holiday baking classes, I was not the only one who participated with a little extra cheer in the holiday dessert department!
Once in a while, you meet a person who is hard to forget. In the case of the Mosaic of Flavor series, that seems to happen every month, as one person after another makes a lasting impression on us with his or her presence, stories, and cooking. As one participant in a recent class quipped: “I don’t come for the food, I come for the stories!” Still, at the end of the evening, when these inspiring people have guided us through preparing a dish or dishes from their home countries, from which they are exiled, the food is almost as unforgettable as the stories.
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