scenes from vermont

post-nemo.

happy long weekend

Outdoor music & art festival. Creativity abounds. Cheers!

happy weekend

free range happy hour

Good food, good drink, great folks (including the furry variety). And of course, chickens. Perfect summer evening.

I love Vermont.

scenes from a vermont weekend

You certainly eat well in Vermont, & perhaps because of the long & dormant winter months, it seems most explicitly so in the springtime. Shoots & leaves spring out & cover the landscape in a tide of green, & produce from local farms begins appearing in droves in the roadside farm stands, markets & shops. One of the things that attracted us to this corner of the world was the close relationship one has with the natural world, & with the cultivation of the very stuff of life, our food.

The first Farmers' Market of the season certainly drove this point home. After picking up a flat of organic herb starts & freshly harvested salad greens, we sat down to a humongous breakfast of local chef Shital's palak paneer & aloo gobi, with piquant garlic pickle & fragrant coriander chutney. Oh how I missed this food over the long winter months! As if that weren't enough, we each got a beautiful & delicious pastry from Patricia, whose artistry, as someone interested in the chocolate arts, I hold in very high esteem. My tender & feather-light meringue cookies had creamy hazelnut & dark chocolate ganaches sandwiched between, & were absolutely swoon-worthy. A cup of Neil's expertly blended hot chai was the perfect compliment. Heaven.

Seeing the Market's newly landscaped common area dotted with picnic tables brought back memories of last year's devastating floods, & was testimonial to this area's commitment to coming together as a community & helping each other in times of need. We sat not far from a spot where J & other volunteers helped shovel fill onto the scarred terrain & rebuild the soil that was swept away.

I love living in a place where we know the people who grow our food, & know the land from whence it came. Our own little garden plot is now populated with herbs & greens that started their lives just a few miles away.

We topped off the weekend with a hike on some of our favorite trails, a place with a colorful history & miles of hilly & rocky terrain. Although we visit this particular forest during each season, I must admit that I like springtime the best; the mosquitos & biting flies have yet to come out, & the riot of green & birdsong is invigorating. Our hike was punctuated every several feet by the alarm chirps of territorial chipmunks, & the astringent smell of pine needles flooded our sinuses & made me feel dizzy.

I certainly slept well last night.

spring kitchen

We are finally getting more much-needed rain, & the views outside our kitchen window are exploding with color & texture against a soft, grey sky. 

Fiddleheads have shown themselves, one of the much anticipated springtime edibles that appear for just a short time: tender & tangy little curled up ferns, picked right before they unfurl. Steamed & tossed with minced garlic, crushed toasted sesame seeds, toasted sesame oil, tamari & a dash of mirin is my new favorite preparation, while our traditional approach, sautéed with butter, white wine, garlic, fresh parsley, & a dash of lemon juice, is a close second. The bounty begins...

behind a hill

documentary of modern New England musicians, featuring many friends, by friends

white blanket

 

Everything finally feels all right now... after a big snow dump in October, we've had no snowfall to speak of in Southern Vermont, until today. My walk home from town was so absolutely beautiful, I couldn't stop snapping pics. I've made myself a bowl of chocolat chaud & am about to go into the studio to begin etching some new designs, probably with a warm cat or two joining me on my lap. Cheers!