Farmers' Market Folio

Author: Lizzie Zevallos

Tents sprout across the lawn of Marbleworks every Wednesday and Saturday morning from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30p.m., creating a one-stop-shopping enterprise for all of your gourmet desires. See if you can wake yourself up before mid-day this weekend and take a look at (and a taste from) five of our favorite vendors.

C IS FOR COOKIE LOVE

Softness is key at this friendly trove of baked delights. Sample one of its many delicious and wittily named flavors, including "Forbidden Love", "Addicted to Love" and "Mother's Love," and your love for cookies will reach a new height. Want more for later? No problem. Vermont Cookie Love also serves "DOUGH-ritos", frozen dough wrapped like a burrito, so you can savor these delectable confections in the privacy of your own home or dormitory. Ask co-owner and cookie expert Paul Seyler to demonstrate how to make a beautiful cookie with that textured "homemade" appearance so you can impress friends, hall-mates or that special someone. Using local natural ingredients and a mastery of the craft, Seyler and his wife, Suzanna Miller, hope to revolutionize their product the way American Flatbread and Ben and Jerry's did with theirs. So be part of the revolution while you scarf down a buttered, sugary disk of dough.

SAY BYE TO AUNT JEMIMA

If you are looking for an authentic Vermont gift to send home to the family this season, there is nothing better than the sweet golden maple syrup of Addison County. Tell mom and dad to chuck Aunt Jemima out the window and replace her with Williams Farms' Grade A Medium or Dark Amber syrup. If you are not a pancake or waffle person, sample its maple jelly and maple cream which are both perfect spreads for crackers, toast, English muffins and bagels. Now the glistening, viscous sap that drips from Vermont's maple trees can find its place in almost every breakfast meal. And its just-right flavor comes from years of experience: Lucille Williams boasts of a time when she and her husband, Rob Williams, still used horses and oxen rather than tractors. Although both are nearing 80, their syrup is young in spirit, especially with the help of two more generations of Williams' family syrup makers.

WINE & CHEESE PARTY - BLUE LEDGE FARMS STYLE

Our image of Vermont outside of Middlebury tends to be a green pastoral landscape dotted with the robust black-and-white splotches of grazing cows. Consequently, Vermont's goats are often left out of the picture. Blue Ledge Farms, however, gives these delicate dots the credit they deserve with a popular array of award-winning goat cheeses. For pure simplicity, begin with the classic crottina, a white-mold ripened dainty cheese aged for three weeks, or go bold with the spreadable fresh pepper chevre, which goes wonderfully with crackers at your next classy, college wine party. Co-founders Greg Bernhardt and Hannah Sessions began their cheese-making endeavors in 2000 by reading books and using the scientific trial-and-error method. Their efforts proved successful when their cheese was chosen for the 100 Greatest Cheeses in Wine Spectator Magazine. They didn't let it get to their heads, though, and Blue Ledge Farm cheese remains entirely unique to the Northeast.

THE ONE STOP FARM SHOP

Here, you will find a one-stop emporium of certified organic vegetables, as well as fresh chicken, turkey and whole or half pork. With all products grown on rich clay soil, the Singing Cedars Farmstead prides itself in its high nutritious quality and exceptional taste. In 2006, co-owners, Scott Greene and Suzanne Young decided to use their veggies to create a mouth-watering homemade salsa made from six different kinds of tomatoes, three types of onions, six peppers, a hint of garlic, a touch of cilantro and a perfect amount of parsley. Sample this colorful concoction for a taste that beats anything bought in the store.

NO POISON IN THESE APPLES

Do you want a red, crisp piece of deliciousness to begin your Saturday morning? Look no further. The Stevens Orchard stand has the widest variety of apples at the market, even including those rare, "antique," varieties that you cannot find in the stores. It's most popular kind is Honeycrisp, of which it has been the largest producer in Vermont for several years. For only 50 cents a pop, the stand also serves "Honeycrisp Seconds," damaged apples which have nothing wrong with them except being "cosmetically ugly," according to co-owner, Bob Fields. Located in the Champlain Valley, Stevens Orchard dates back to the late 1800s when barges would pick up these fresh delights and take them en-route to New York City. Fields and his partner, Karen Blair, moved to Vermont from California in 2000 to restore the neglected orchard and plant 4,000 new trees. The duo does not see the orchard as an enterprise but instead a passion.