Posts Tagged ‘Lake Champlain Chocolates’

• The Egg Beat

  Date: 04.02.2010 | Category: The Beat | Response: 1

  Between the easy access to fresh, locally produced eggs and the many great cooks who poach, fry, boil, bake or scramble them to perfection, Vermont is the place for egg lovers.

  Today, we’ve gathered together a few of FarmPlate’s egg-hunting tips for your virtual Easter basket.

  Dyeing Eggs the Natural Way
  If there’s no food coloring in your cupboard or if you’d like to avoid chemicals altogether, you can make your own dye.

  • For pink, grate a small fresh beet into a saucepan. Add 2 cups water and 1 tablespoon vinegar. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, strain and let cool.

  • For blue, simmer 1 cup chopped red cabbage, 2 cups water and 1 tablespoon vinegar for 10 to 15 minutes. Strain and let cool.

  • For yellow, combine 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon ground turmeric and the grated zest of 1 lemon in a saucepan. Heat gently for 10 minutes. Strain and let cool.

  Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op has Maple Meadow Farm’s white eggs on sale this week—perfect for dyeing and eating!

  Remember to wash your hands before and after handling all eggs, and do not eat hard-boiled eggs that have been sitting out at room temperature for more than 2 hours.

  The Prettiest Eggs in the State
  Which came first? The quail or the egg? Cavendish Game Birds also sells lovely quail eggs.

  Chocolate Eggs
  Smart Easter bunnies can pick up an egg-shaped box of coconut cream, caramel, java truffle, hazelnut, raspberry cream and peanut butter eggs at Lake Champlain Chocolates.

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• A Very Vermont Valentine

  Date: 02.05.2010 | Category: Producer Beat | Response: 0

  What do Vermont localvores give their chocolate-loving sweethearts for Valentine’s Day since the nearest cacao plantation is on the island of Jamaica, not in the southern Vermont town of Jamaica?

  

  Truffles. Chocolate truffles. From Lake Champlain Chocolates, of course.

  Most people don’t think of chocolate as a local product, but Burlington’s Lake Champlain Chocolates is working hard to change that. The company uses as many local products as possible, from butter and cream to honey to maple syrup. Because it’s not just chocolate that makes their chocolate truffles so rich, so creamy, so irresistible. The secret is in the prize-winning butter, Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery’s cultured butter to be exact.

  “We carefully select all of the ingredients that go into our chocolates and the butter we use is no exception,” says David Bolton, director of LCC’s product development.” Vermont Butter & Cheese makes a European-style cultured butter, churned from crème fraîche that gives our truffles a fuller, richer flavor.” The butter recently placed first in the country for Best Cultured Butter by the American Cheese Society. The butter is churned from cream from the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery near the Canadian border.

  With a commitment to sustainable agriculture and to creating products of the highest quality, the Lake Champlain Chocolates and Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery partnership is a natural fit. The two companies both began in the early 1980s, back when premium chocolates and cheeses came from Europe, not from a couple of northern Vermont start-ups. Both companies persevered, and now 25 years later, they are doing business together and thriving.

  Lake Champlain Chocolates are sold at the factory store on Pine Street in Burlington, as well as at City Market, Cheese Outlet Fresh Market, Healthy Living, Dakin Farm and many other local retailers. Nationwide, Lake Champlain Chocolates are sold at Whole Foods Markets, Dean & Deluca, Balducci’s and other fine foods stores.

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• Here’s to the Holiday Pour!

  Date: 12.16.2009 | Category: Real Food | Response: 0

  Localvores and beverage enthusiasts alike have much to celebrate this holiday season. Brewing, vinifying, distilling and bottling are thriving businesses in Vermont today. We’ve started a list of just a few Vermont-produced beverages you might enjoy serving this season. We’d love to hear from you as well—tell us about your favorite pours and drink concoctions.

  

  After Skating Warm-Ups
  Serve warm mugfuls of Boyden Valley Winery’s Glogg.

  Sweeten hot apple cider from Vermont’s many fine cider mills (Champlain Orchards, Cold Hollow Cider Mill and Flag Hill Farm to name just a few) with a touch of maple syrup.

  Make hot chocolate from any of Lake Champlain Chocolates‘ five to-die-for cocoa mixes, topped with whipped Vermont cream, of course.

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• Thanksgiving All Weekend Long

  Date: 11.26.2009 | Category: Coming Up | Response: 0

  Back before green bean casserole and jellied cranberry sauce from a can were standard Thanksgiving fare, America’s cooks toiled for days to get ready for our national celebration. To experience how things used to be – and used to taste – visit the Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock, VT, this weekend.

  Bring the family and watch interpreters in period dress prepare a harvest feast in the 1890s farmhouse. Sample homemade treats and go for a horse-drawn wagon ride too.

  The Thanksgiving Weekend program takes place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission ranges from $3 to $12, depending on age.

  More Regional Events

  Friday, November 27

  The annual Vermont Farmer’s Market Christmas Fair takes place at Poultney High School from 9 am to 4 pm on Friday and Saturday. The fair offers crafts, folk art, gourmet foods and more.

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