Posts Tagged ‘Burlington’
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Sugarsnap Zucchini “Linguini” With Basil Pesto
from Sugarsnap, Burlington, Vermont
2 large zucchini
One 8 ounce container of pesto (homemade or purchased)
½ cup pine nuts or nuts of your choice
3+ tablespoons Parmigiano Reggiano or other hard Italian cheese
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepperWash and dry the zucchini and using a julienne peeler, make the “linguini“ using the white flesh and skin of the squash, stopping when you get to the seeds. In a bowl large enough to toss the mix, add pesto (to taste), nuts, half of the cheese and the lemon zest. Use lemon juice to thin the pesto as you would use hot pasta water in a hot pesto/pasta dish.
Add salt and pepper and more or less of anything as you wish. Top each serving with some of the remaining cheese. Serve with a green salad and crusty bread.
Serves 4
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Sugarsnap Expands to Tech Park
When you pull into the parking lot at 30 Community Drive, the hub of South Burlington’s Technology Park, you might have to squint to spot the cheery little sign for the new Sugarsnap restaurant. It’s off to the left, sandwiched between
TelJet’s and Test America’s no-nonsense logos. It feels far away from Sugarsnap’s friendly home at the edge of the Intervale. But once you step inside, warm aromas from simmering soups and just-baked cookies tell you you’re headed to the right place.After six years of serving impeccably fresh, ready-to-eat, mostly local foods from its Riverside Avenue location, Sugarsnap has just expanded into a new commissary kitchen and second retail store in South Burlington. The move brings all the food preparation, storage and catering operations for the growing business into one place—and frees up freezer space in founder, owner and co-president Abbey Duke’s garage. It’s all part of Sugarsnap’s mission to put delicious, sustainable food within reach of everyone.
All of Sugarsnap’s sandwiches, salads, soups, baked goods and daily special entrées (like today’s terrific Beet & Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Wild Mushroom Sauce) showcase ingredients from its own three-acre farm in the Intervale as well as from more than 20 regional Food Partners. Co-0wner and co-president
Rob Smart estimates that more than half of the ingredients used at Sugarsnap are locally grown. “We aim to move that to 60 or even 70 percent over the next couple of years.”“Our plan is to make really great, healthy food accessible to all—and to make the regional economy stronger in the process,” says Smart. “We’re building a new regional food business model here.”
Stop by either of the two stores to have coffee and pastries at breakfast, to savor soup, sandwiches and salads at lunch or to grab ready-made entrées to take home for dinner. The Tech Park location includes restaurant seating as well. Sugarsnap Catering offers farm-fresh foods for events of many sizes, from business meetings to private parties.
Sugarsnap Zucchini “Linguini” With Basil Pesto
from Sugarsnap, Burlington, Vermont2 large zucchini
One 8 ounce container of pesto (homemade or purchased)
½ cup pine nuts or nuts of your choice
3+ tablespoons Parmigiano Reggiano or other hard Italian cheese
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepperWash and dry the zucchini and using a julienne peeler, make the “linguini“ using the white flesh and skin of the squash, stopping when you get to the seeds. In a bowl large enough to toss the mix, add pesto (to taste), nuts, half of the cheese and the lemon zest. Use lemon juice to thin the pesto as you would use hot pasta water in a hot pesto/pasta dish.
Add salt and pepper and more or less of anything as you wish. Top each serving with some of the remaining cheese. Serve with a green salad and crusty bread.
Serves 4
Sugarsnap on Riverside • 505 Riverside Avenue, Burlington, VT 05401 • 802.652.5922
Sugarsnap at Technology Park • 30 Community Drive, Suite 9, South Burlington, VT 05403 • 802.861.2718 • contact@sugarsnapvt.comSee more great images of Sugarsnap on our flickr page!
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Welcome, This is a Farmhouse
No, we’re not referring to the familiar song by Vermont’s favorite jam band Phish, but there’s a new Farmhouse in town! Downtown Burlington welcomes the highly anticipated opening of The Farmhouse Tap & Grill, a new restaurant
located at 160 Bank Street. The location was ironically home to a McDonald’s restaurant for 30 years before closing and remaining unoccupied for the last two. The Farmhouse Tap & Grill is owned by Jed Davis, formerly the Director of Operations at Three Tomatoes restaurants, along with Rob Downey and Paul Sayler, owners of American Flatbread Burlington Hearth.The Farmhouse is a gastropub dedicated to showcasing and supporting the many local farmers and food producers in Vermont, with a top-notch beer bar serving only the best from “our backyard and beyond,” with 24 beers on tap. All are available in full and half pours to encourage sampling—my favorite is the Hill Farmstead Abner, an American Double IPA, brewed by Shaun Hill at Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro, Vermont. The menu features gourmet burgers made with local ingredients, comfort entrées, house made charcuterie, Vermont cheese and farm-style veggies.
On opening night, I was invited to sample the venison burger
made with Hollandeer Farm venison and topped with Jasper Hill blue cheese, a local cranberry mostarda and arugula. All of the beef burgers are made with 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef from Maple Wind Farm in Huntington and Stony Pond Farm in Fairfield. Chef Phillip Clayton’s charcuterie offerings on opening night included a house-smoked summer sausage made with beef and pork and smoked right out back in the outdoor beer garden, a rabbit rillette and a local pork country pâté.The Farmhouse Tap & Grill opened for business on Tuesday, May 18, and will will be open 7 days a week at 4:30 pm for dinner. They will begin serving lunch in June. Soon to open will be an outdoor beer garden, complete with communal tables and container gardens filled with herbs and vegetables—it will be a perfect place to spend a lazy summer afternoon.
The Farmhouse Tap & Grill • 160 Bank Street, Burlington, VT 05401 • info@farmhousetg.com
See more great images of The Farmhouse Tap & Grill on our flickr page!
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Rhubarb Traditions
When foodies think about spring they tend to get all misty-eyed over fiddleheads or ramps or the first tiny peas. For me, it’s rhubarb.
I love how rhubarb stalks squeak when you pull them from the base of the plant. I love crunching away on a stalk, wincing at its tartness. I love the way slow-cooked rhubarb over vanilla ice cream wraps up a great meal. After apple or cherry, rhubarb might be the world’s best-loved pie.
If you love rhubarb’s sweet-tart bite, you must try it in coffee cake. My mother, a Minnesota native, always bakes this unusual and delicious coffee cake with the first rhubarb of the season. For some patrons at Mirabelles in Burlington, Vermont, rhubarb coffee cake has become a spring tradition for them, too, ever since I shared the recipe with owner Alison Lane about five years ago.
If you don’t have the good fortune to have a row of rhubarb plants in your backyard, ask friends if they’d be willing to divide a clump to share with you. Or invest in a couple plants—you’ll reap the rewards for years. Penny Preuss of Equinox Valley Nursery on historic route 7A in Manchester, Vermont, tells me they have plenty of bareroot ‘Victorian Red ‘ or ‘Canada Red’ varieties on hand as well as ‘Chipman’s Canada Red’ in pots. Red Wagon Plants in Hinesburg is a good rhubarb source for Chittenden County, Vermont, residents.
Rhubarb Coffee Cake
by Vivian StuckKing Arthur’s white whole-wheat flour ups the dietary fiber content yet still produces a tender crumb in this easy coffee cake. If you don’t have any on hand, substitute all-purpose flour, not regular whole-wheat flour.
Sliced rhubarb freezes well so you can enjoy this coffee cake all year long.
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 ½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup King Arthur white whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 cup sour cream or buttermilk
2 ½ cups diced rhubarbTopping
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamonPreheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.
Cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
In another bowl, whisk together the flours, soda and salt.
In two additions, add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture alternating with the sour cream or buttermilk. Beat to blend. Stir in the diced rhubarb. Spread the batter in the prepared pan.
Combine the sugar and cinnamon for the topping. Sprinkle over the cake batter.
Bake until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cool and cut into squares.
Makes 12 squares
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A Look at Food Waste in California
In California, more than 6 million tons of food products are thrown away every year by farms, restaurants and supermarkets. Food shelters, on the other hand, do not have the supply to meet the ever-increasing demand.
A recent examination by California Watch and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism took a close look at California’s food system to try to identify the reasons why these unwanted food products are not channelled to food banks and other organizations where donations are greatly needed.The examination concluded that many grocery stores are more likely to throw away food than to donate it to local food banks because of liability concerns. Often, stores will donate bakery products but will throw away other highly perishable foods, including meat and produce, even before the expiration dates have been reached.
This is in spite of a 1996 federal law that, as reported in a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, “protects all donations made in good faith . . . . The only exceptions are gross negligence or intentional misconduct. A plaintiff would have to prove that a company or individual intentionally tried to harm another person by making a donation of food it knew to be unsafe.”
The California Watch examination also reported that the majority of restaurants in California do not participate in food-donation programs, opting instead to throw out tens of thousands of tons of edible food each year.
In the San Francisco area, however, most restaurants in the Golden Gate Restaurant Association participate in the Food Runners program that distributes food that would otherwise go to waste to shelters.
On a national level, Food Donation Connection partners with the National Restaurant Association to link restaurants to food banks. This program rescued more than 21 million pounds of food in 2008.
In Vermont, initiatives are already in place to make sure that food that might otherwise go to waste gets to the people who need it most.
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Allez Cuisine!
The culinary battle of the spring is almost here. Tomorrow morning, the Sizzling Falcons, Chefhawks, Nutritious Hippos and 54 more teams of middle school and high school junior chefs–all with knives honed and whisks at the ready–will head to the Champlain Valley Expo to compete in the 3rd Annual Jr. Iron Chef VT cook-off.
Harwood Union High School's team
Hosted by the Burlington School Food Project and Vermont FEED, the competition challenges teams of middle and high school students to prepare a delicious main dish using at least five local, farm-fresh ingredients. And that’s not all—recipes must also be replicable in a school kitchen by cafeteria cooks. Three awards will be given in each age group: Best in Show, Most Creative and Greatest Number/Best Use of Local Ingredients. The experience encourages students to make healthy eating choices and understand more about nutrition, local agriculture, the culinary arts and school food systems.
Chefs Morris and McCafferty head up the innovative lunch program at Harwood Union High School.
Harwood Union High School’s team coach (and school chef) Paul Morris says his four-student team is ready. They’ve been cooking together since early February and have had five practice runs. “The kids have really pulled it together the last couple of weeks,” says Morris. “They’re working as a team.” Since there are no ovens to use at the competition, they’ve developed a recipe for a “panchilada”—a pan-cooked enchilada that uses lots of great local flavors, such as Pete’s Greens’ butternut squash, Chappelle’s potatoes, black beans from Butterworks Farms and Cabot Vermont cheddar. It’ll be served with a shredded beet and carrot slaw with celeriac sauce, made with local beets, carrots, onions and celeriac.
“The enthusiasm all across the state for this event is tremendous,” says Paul Morris. “It’s not just students, there will be parents and grandparents there too.”
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Michelle Obama Prompts Food Giants to Get Healthy
Last week, First Lady Michelle Obama addressed the Grocery Manufacturers Association to emphasize the importance of producing healthy, affordable foods to reduce childhood obesity. Mrs. Obama asked that the major food manufacturers take responsibility for improving their offerings in grocery stores by improving food labels and reducing salt and fat in the products they sell.
With the national consciousness trending more and more toward healthy food consumption, big businesses are taking note. Several major food companies including PepsiCo, Kraft Foods and ConAgra have since announced that significant and voluntary improvements will be made in the nutritional value of their products in order to better serve the consumer and meet market demand.Yesterday, PepsiCo announced it will cut sodium in its key brands by 25 percent in five years. In the next ten years, the company will cut the average amount of added sugar per serving by 25 percent and saturated fat by 15 percent.
ABC News reports that PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi told investors the company will focus more on producing healthier foods even before additional legislation is passed requiring changes because “the consumer is shifting” and demanding healthier, more nutritious foods that are a better value.
Last week, PepsiCo also announced it would remove full-calorie sweetened drinks from all schools globally by 2012, a policy that is currently in place in the U.S.
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Federal Funding Coming for Farmers’ Markets
The USDA’s Know Your Famer, Know Your Food initiative has earmarked $5 million in funding from the 2010 Farmers’ Market Promotion Program for grants to develop new farmers’ markets and enhance existing markets, roadsides stands and CSA programs as part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign.
USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced the grant funding on a visit to New York City last Thursday, where she said, “The benefits of direct-to-consumer marketing are two-fold. Consumers are provided with fresh, healthy, affordable and locally grown products, while meeting the farmers that produce it. Farmers, on the other hand, are able to expand their economic opportunities and grow their incomes.”The grants are an effort to reduce what the first lady has labeled as “food deserts,” areas in the country that don’t have access to healthy foods from supermarkets or farmers’ markets.
According to the USDA, there are 5,274 farmers’ markets in the country. This figure marks a 13 percent increase in farmers’ markets since 2008. Despite this increase, there are still many areas nationwide that do not have farmers markets. Click on the Local Foods tab then select “Farmers’ Markets” on the USDA Economic Research Service’s recently launched Food Environment Atlas for a visual representation of the so-called “food deserts.”
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One Big Block Party
Move over Crescent City. It’s Burlington’s turn to let les bons temps rouler. The Magic Hat Mardi Gras Celebration in downtown Burlington, Vermont, opens with music at Higher Ground on Friday night. On Saturday, live bands on Church Street will fill the air with Cajun/Creole sounds as pubs and cafes will serve up tasty New Orleans fare.
The King & Queen of Mardi Gras Costume Contest begins at noon outside City Hall. Winners are each awarded $500 and will help lead the Grand Parade with Magic Hat’s Alan Newman and Mayor Bob Kiss. The event, now in its fifteenth year, will benefit the Women’s Rape Crisis Center.• If you go, keep in mind: Smart revelers park their cars at Magic Hat HQ on Bartlett Bay Road in South Burlington or Burlington High School and take the free Mardi Gras shuttle into town.
• Buy your beads to throw at the Magic Hat Mardi Gras Headquarters located in the old Maplehurst Florist shop on Church Street in Burlington. Sales benefit the WRCC.
• It’s going to be chilly! Fingerless gloves are best for catching the beads, authentic Louisiana moon pies and Lake Champlain chocolates as they fly from the floats!
• Families with children under 7 years old are welcome to catch the parade from the Little Jambalaya Viewing Zone, on the corner of Main Street and South Winooski.
More Regional Events
(All events take place in Vermont unless otherwise noted.)
Thursday, February 25
Ron Krupp, local author of Lifting the Yoke: Local Solutions to America’s Farm and Food Crisis offers up practical actions for Vermonters. 7 to 9 pm at Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier. Free. -
Wyoming’s Food Freedom Act Gains Momentum
Wyoming’s proposed House Bill 54 known as the Wyoming Food Freedom Act could exempt food producers selling “cottage foods,” or foods prepared in home kitchens, from state licenses, certifications and inspections when selling directly to consumers. Sue Wallis, a Republican member of the Wyoming State House of Representatives is sponsoring the bill.
Last year, Wallis worked to pass state legislation that made it legal to sell non-hazardous home-produced foods like jams, cookies and bread at farmers’ markets and stands in Wyoming without regulation. The bill was enacted on July 1, 2009. Prior to that date, homemade foods made in a non-licensed kitchen could only be sold at church or charity events.The proposed Wyoming Food Freedom Act would no longer ban potentially hazardous foods, including dairy, canned foods and sauces, produced in uninspected, non-licensed kitchens from being sold direct to consumers.
Those in favor of the Wyoming Food Freedom Act say it will make it possible for small farmers and food producers to sell direct to consumers without allocating the disproportionate amount of capital required to get proper certifications—a financial burden that can put small farmers and food producers out of business.
Others say the bill poses great risk to the consumer. Bob Harrington, the Casper-Natrona county health department executive director told the Casper Journal that without being able to inspect the kitchens where food is being prepared, the customer is no longer safeguarded against problems arising from unmonitored personal hygiene standards and the level of cleanliness of the environment in which the food is prepared.
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