A View of Stowe, VT (August 2010)

Ouroboros Now On Tap at the Alchemist in Waterbury, VT

Patty and I stopped in for some beer and food at the Alchemist earlier this week. I tried the Ouroboros brew, which is only available in 12 ounces. The flavor starts out all mild and meek, like an easy drinking summer beer and then the double IPA kicks in full force on the back side for lots and lots of happy goodness. Patty thought it was ok until the hops hit. I loved it. I want to go back for another.

Here is the official description from the Alchemist web site:
Ouroboros
Introduced on 8/8/08. This Double IPA is absolutely overflowing with hoppy goodness. Curacao Orange gives it a distinct, fruity twist. ABV 8.88% IBU 88.8

We also sampled the sausage plate with kraut and perogis, hot wings, curds and jalapenos on fries, and a caesar like salad. Very yummy food, even if a little overwhelming for the two of us. I also liked the fact that the place hummed with conversation and laughter and drinking on a Monday night.

A Zuke-Tastic Day! – Vermont State Zucchini Festival in Ludlow, VT, August 14th, 2010

Zucchinis got all dressed up for the Annual Vermont State Zucchini Festival in Ludlow, Vermont. 
 
The small southern Vermont town hummed with excitement as musicians played in the park, vendors sold hand-made foods and crafts, people went on scavenger hunts, local organizations had sales and showed off their stuff (including slush puppies), authors signed their books, kids played in a bouncy hut, the zukapults flung zukes, and the zucchini was celebrated by all. 
 
Sponsored by the Ludlow Village Merchants and Businesses, the fun and funky celebration of the oft lamented, yet lovable and overgrowing vegetable helps fund the 4th of July Fireworks in Ludlow. 

Memorial Day Parade – Ludlow, VT, May 31st, 2010

 

Immortal Milk by Eric LeMay – An Homage to Fromage (with a few chapters centered on Vermont cheesemaking)

I READ an advanced reader copy of Eric LeMay’s exploration of all things cheese Immortal Milk, which will be available on June 1st. It was a welcome relief in the late days of Winter (early March) after several rounds of snowstorms had hammered the Northeast. The book also inspired me to hunt down some Vermont produced cheese while reading the book. Fortunately for an obsessive compulsive like myself, cheese can be savoured all year round (well not all of it), unlike a lot of other local food stuffs.

And if you love cheese in all its glorious forms, then you will love Eric LeMay’s (and his girl Chuck’s) paen to cheese, cheese mongering, cheese making and cheese eating. The thin volume, but densely packed that celebrates and contemplates cheese from many different perspectives. Part food history, part memoir, and part travelogue Immortal Milk touches upon the literary, historical, agricultural, and cultural aspects of cheese.

Each chapter focuses on an cheese inspired experience like scoring illegal cheese on the back streets of Cambridge, MA, learning how to make cheese in Vermont, or figuring out how to order cheese from a cheese shop in France. Of particular interest to Vermont cheese lovers, there are two chapters that center on cheesemaking in Vermont. “A Tomme at Twig Farm” discusses the evolution of cheesemaking technigues with Michael Lee from the Twig Farm in West Cornwall, VT. “The Whiteness in the Whey” introduces Peter Dixon the cheese fixer from Westminster, VT as part of a introduction to cheesemaking seminar. I had the fortune of visiting the Taylor Farm store and buy cheese from both of these Vermonters. Both of them were very delicious (I have been back since to get more).

Beyond the sequence of chapter essays on different aspects of cheese, there are seventy plus pages at the back of the book. Nominally this is Chuck’s part of the book, but it is densely packed with a plethora of cheese and cheese pairing information. I was particularly intrigued by the whiskey one. Overall, lots of good information on different types of cheese.

LeMay and Chuck’s love of cheese is contagious. Only read the book if you have some tasty cheese in the house or a good cheesemonger close by.

 

Vermont Restaurant Week Starts Next Friday May 14th

VERMONT RESTAURANT WEEK starts next Friday May 14th and runs through the following Thursday May 20th. I had never heard of before, but did when I read my weekly email from the Seven Days folks. Basically you eat out to help a cause (in this case the Vermont Food Bank). Most restaurants offer a fixed price menu that offers a good sampling of the restaurants menue at a great price. It seems to be a mostly northern and central Vermont event at this point. Most of the associated events (wine tastings, talks, movie screenings, etc) are being held in Burlington and Montpelier (you can see the full list on the web site). I have been meaning to try Cafe Provence in Brandon, and this gives me a good excuse to go have dinner there.

NECN Features Quechee, Vermont in its One-Tank Trip Series

NECN producted a nice piece on making the most of a day trip from Boston to Quechee, Vermont. It highlights a number of things to do in the area like see the Quechee Gorge,the Vermont Institute of Natural Science Nature Center and Nature Store, and the Mill, a Simon Pierce manufacturing facility. Watch it at Boston.com.

Flag Hill Farm Sparkling Vermont Cyder

PATTY and I literally popped open a bottle fo Flag Hill Farm’s Sparking Vermont Cyder that we picked up at the Brattleboro CoOp. This is not ordinary cider, but a more impressively produced in the old fashioned sparking wine kind of way cider (Methode Champenoise), which means the bubbles are generated by a second fermentation in the bottle. I am not a cider connoisseur (yet), but I thought the flavor was a balanced, but very earthy, with a nice mild bubbliness. They also make a still cider, but I have never tried that before. I want to now.

Upcoming Beer Festivals in Vermont

I JUST GOT a postcard in the mail telling me about the dates of this year’s Vermont Brewer’s Festival in Burlington. The event will take place on Friday July 16th and Saturday July 17th. Their tag line is “small state. BIG BEER.:, which I like. Tickets go on sale online, over the phone and at breweries) on Saturday May 15th. Regular admission is $25 and designated driver admission is $5. They are still looking for volunteers to help with the event.

If you don’t want to wait until July for a beer festival, Brattleboro is hosting Brattleboro Brewers Festival and Pub Crawl on Saturday May 22nd. There will be beer, food and music. The event is not just about the beer as the money will to go support local Brattleboro organizations – The North End Business Association, The Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce and The Rotary. Tickets are $29 and available online as well as the following locations – Avenue Grocery, Brattleboro Bowl, Flat Street Grill and Tap Room, J.D. McCliments Pub and Weathervane Music Hall.

Both of these sound like a lot of fun and a lot of good beer. Looks like McNeill’s is producing a new beer for the Brattleboro event, which sounds intriguing.

The Vermont Local is On the Move

After spending some time trying to figure out how to upgrade my database for the site in order to move to the next version of WordPress, I decided to abandon my technology tinkering in favor of a hosted blog system. which in this case is WordPress.com. I am still figuring out the new system and getting things setup, so I expect more changes in the coming weeks.

I also have domain forwarding turned on, so if you try to navigate to http://thevermontlocal.com it will take you to http://thevermontlocal.wordpress.com. The new RSS feed is http://thevermontlocal.wordpress.com/feed/.