Local Food

It was a quintessential fall evening in Vermont. The leaves on the trees were a perfect mix of orange, yellow and red and the crispness in the air was something you only dream of. Honestly, on an evening like this, there is no place I would have rather been than Brot Bakehouse School & Kitchen- the location of our Intro to Sourdough Breads class.

Over the summer you might have noticed a change in our regular class programming as we headed out to farms and vineyards for events and programming rather than our traditional kitchen-based classes. Not to worry, the beloved A Mosaic of Flavor and Taste of Eritrea series (along with many others) will soon return with a full roster of cooking classes in September.

This past weekend we were busy visiting not one, but two farms to kick off the summer season! On Saturday, we visited Butterworks Farm out in Westfield followed by Green Mountain Bee Farm in Fairfax on Sunday. With beautiful weather both days, it was a great way to celebrate the start of summer in VT!  

Fermentation is everywhere! The process has been around for longer than we, most humans can probably imagine. There are a lot of different types of fermentation, and you have probably heard of some of the delicious products that result from the process. For example, there are many forms of vegetable fermentation, think pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, the list could go on forever. How about grain fermentation which is how our beloved sourdough bread and beer are made and last but not least, dairy fermentation, this includes cheese, sour cream and yogurt!

Vermont winters are the perfect time to get creative in the kitchen. While local produce is not quite as abundant in February as it is in the summer and fall, we’re proud to offer a wide variety of local and made in Vermont products all winter long. Each year, we host a We ♥ Local Recipe Contest where we feature a specific ingredient that’s available this time of year. For this year’s contest we’ve chosen the mighty sweet potato!

In January, when you round up at the register, your donation will help to support a number of projects focused on strengthening our local food system through our Co-op Seedling Grants program.

Shirley Richardson grew up on a dairy farm in Vermont, but most of her professional career was in serving as a school counselor and principal. When Shirley retired from education in 2004, she and her husband, Michael Smith, started Tannery Farm Cashmeres raising cashmere goats primarily for their cashmere fiber.

Last week, I sat down with our South End Prepared Foods Buyer, Ashley Nunez to hear about her experience at the Food Tank Summit in New York City. Ashley attended this summit in October through a scholarship program created by the Vermont Fresh Network (VFN). The VFN Conference Program is “designed to help chefs, farmers, food producers, and others working in our local food system attend important conferences beyond our region, and to share what they learn…Our goal is to connect Vermonters to national networ

It’s finally smelling, looking and feeling like fall in Vermont, and here at the coop we could not be more excited to see the continuous abundance of local produce filling our shelves and baskets every day. Whether you are looking for guidance on the type of squash you should roast for a casual Wednesday night dinner or starting to brainstorm recipes for the big Thanksgiving meal, below are tips for cooking and baking with a few fall staples that will enhance your autumn cooking. 

One of our most popular classes this summer has been our Mozzarella Making 101 class. We offered the class in July and August and are rounding out the season with two more classes this month. The class is held at Bread and Butter Farm, an organic veggie, beef, and pork farm located in Shelburne.