Farmers' Bounty

Author: Jennie Currie

There is no better way to break in your brand new suite kitchen this fall than by cooking up a feast with products purchased at your local farmer's market. The Middlebury Farmer's Market offered a prime showing of local fare on Saturday as townspeople and students alike gathered at Marble Works in celebration of Vermont's Local Food Day.

Local Food Day was established to celebrate the state of Vermont's distinction of having the most per capita consumption of local food. Throughout Vermont, local-vores who have pledged to constitute as much of their diet as possible with foods produced within a 100-mile radius are encouraging Vermonters to try two new local foods, participate in potlucks and begin their own effort to sustain Vermont's farmers.

At Marble Works on Saturday, shoppers did not have to search long to find a wide variety of local produce to achieve the local-vore goal. In stalls stretching from the footbridge over Otter Creek to the backside of downtown Middlebury, local vendors displayed the best of the fall harvest. Louise Blake, an artist from Ripton, came to sell bread, wool handbags and hand-painted cards. According to Blake, the market has taken off, especially since the start of the fall season.

"When the harvest is in all the apple people come [to sell their apples] and the farmers have a whole glut of stuff to get rid of," Blake said.

Local apples and cider were among the most prominent sellers on Saturday with vendors such as Stevens Orchard and Kent Ridge Farm handing out samples of sweet honeycrisp apples, crabapples and the latest press of cider. Also plentiful were the vegetables, ranging from ripe, round squash to golden carrots, onions and leeks.

"I come here almost every week," said Wendy Covey, a shopper from Middlebury, as she stocked up on produce for the coming week. Though not a self-professed local-vore, she said she knew of the Eat Local Challenge and said she tries to do "quite a bit of shopping locally."

Other than produce, the market's selection ranged from baked goods fresh from area kitchens to local cheeses, crafts, jams and jellies. Bruce and Sandra Hunt of Vermont Gourmet Candy Dish make and sell jam from their home in Florence, Vt.

"We make 12 jams with as many local ingredients as possible," said Bruce Hunt. "We get the cider for our apple cider jelly at Brown's Orchard in Castleton. It's the best you can get. It's UV-treated, not pasteurized, so it isn't just watered-down apple juice."

Other vendors were just as proud of their natural, home-grown products. Beth Whiting of Maple Wind Farm in Huntington, Vt. was the largest seller of meat at Saturday's market. In particular, the farm run by her and her husband, Bruce Hennessey, produces grass-fed and finished beef as well as lamb, pastured organic pork, poultry and eggs.

"What that means is that our animals are pastured to eat grass, and at the end of their life they are fed grass," said Whiting. "On a feed lot, people will feed their cows corn at the end of their life to fatten them up, along with maybe animal parts, leftovers, antibiotics Ö that's not the way nature intended it."

However, it is not just the nutrition that matters. It is also about taste.

"I can definitely taste the difference between grocery store and our meat," Whiting said. "People can't get enough of our poultry."

Although having two small children has made eating locally more difficult, Whiting also firmly supports the Eat Local Challenge.

"We practice eating well and locally," she said.

The Middlebury Farmer's Market will be putting Vermont's finest on display from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesdays through Oct. 10 and Saturdays through Oct. 27. Do not miss your chance to walk on down and sample some of the season's freshest food.