Good as Gould

Tonight, I stopped by my neighbors, which is different then "the people that live next door", I think in Vermont, neighbor has a bit of a different meaning. While out taking a trip to town, I stopped at Keith Gould's Farm a few miles from my house. He named the Farm after the Vermont state bird, the Hermit Thrush. Keith has had the Hermit Thrush Farm since 1976, a bit of a gentleman farmer (he was a professor of english until he retired a few years ago), Keith has maple, and honey (if you're lucky enough). I saw the big white clouds of steam and smoke billowing from the shed and decided I needed to participate in the old Vermont tradition and pick up some fresh maple syrup. Keith, set me up with a nice warm jug of grade A dark (I wanted B, but he insisted I try it, we'll see, so far -it's pretty sweet. He has 1000 trees tapped and from what I'm told you can get a half gallon from each tree, Keith said he has already made about 150 gallons. "it's been a great season", Keith said. Keep up the good work Keith, and I am going to try not drinking all the syrup!

Snap Shots

Ok, so it's a busy week and I feel a bit funny about it, but this posting is just going to be snap shots. You see, we have a really nice wedding this weekend, then the next night we have the Green Mountain Opera Gala, sold out, and I hear we are over 200 people! I decided that since the opera is The Marriage of Figaro, we would honor Mozart with an Austrian menu. There will be pumpkin seed oil, Schnitzel, Spaetzle, and Liptauer. Dessert was easy (well, easy to pick) everyone will be sharing platters of Apple Strudel, Sachertorte, and Fig Linzertorte.

The Round Barn Farm will be filled with the sounds of music this weekend, and to prepare I actually, well practiced. I decided to "test" the recipes at home over the last few days. Here are a few snap shots of the test.

Right into Summer

So, this is what I made for our guests this morning it the inn. Though, it is still winter in Waitsfield, these Vermont grown tomatoes brought a touch of summer to the Round Barn farm.
This is a Egg Stuffed Tomato with Carmelized Onion and Chevre, there is Yak Sausage, Spinach, Basil Pesto, and Roasted New Potatoes. The spinach and potatoes were the only items that were not "local". We also had Cider Donuts, and Pear Claflouti. It was like autumn into winter, and then the entree was right into summer.