Iron Kids

This past weekend I went up to the Vermont Jr. Iron Chef Competition. Maria, my friend and a former intern at the Round Barn Farm was volunteering with one of the teams. This was only the second year the competition took place, though I see great potential for the future (I really was jealous that nothing like this existed when I was in school). The teams were judged on a few categories but all needed to use local products and make recipes that could be replicated in a school cafeteria. Things really have changed. Bye bye fish sticks and boiled hamburgers.
I didn't wait to see who the winners were that day, but here are the results as sent me in an e-message from Maria, but really congratulations to all the kids for doing the work!

"BHS/Healthy City recipe was Polenta Pizza with Curried Winter Harvest Hash. The local ingredients were butternut squash (prepared), cheddar cheese, celeriac and cornmeal (and maybe the potatoes, too ... not sure).

CVUHS Redhawks won Most Creative with their apple pizza and Twin Valley HS in Wilmington won Best In Show with Huevos M??? (Something ... Read More involving eggs and corn tortillas, but I couldn't hear over the crowd. They were the team with the decorations and sombreros at one of the corner tables). The pizza concept is apparently a good one for cafeterias ... go figure! :-)"

and by the way, Maria's team was the first one listed there (and pictured with the pink bandannas) - BHS - Nice Job!!

I think I can see a Round Barn Team next year....

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.