Sunday, January 18, 2009

Farmer's Market in the New Year

Well the weather sure was frightful and yet lots of folks came out to shop at the Burlington Farmer's Market in this New Year. With several more lamb shares and pork shares to deliver I made the trek to the Memorial Auditorium in minus 15 degrees. Yikes!

Products available were winter vegetables like rutabagas, turnips, daikon radish, potatoes, carrots and even some winter greens. Jewelry, clothing, dried flowers sure enough to perk up anyone's mood were also lighting up the room. There was even a new vendor working on his senior thesis at UVM demonstrating the craft of lacto-fermented vegetable making. He had his setup with cabbage to show how to make old world traditional sauerkraut. What an innovative thesis for the nutrition world!

Speaking of raw sauerkraut, several days ago, I met a friend for lunch at Jeff's Maine Seafood in St Albans, Vermont. He had a Reuben sandwich made with the Flack Farm's lacto-fermented sauerkraut. I even had a bite and there's nothin' like it. It lends the sandwich a nice crunch instead of sogging up the bread and a mouth-watering bit of tartness (from the tang of raw lacto-bacilli in the cabbage). Also, imagine my surprise when I noticed one of my cheeses on their menu. Who knew?

It was a nice change to see a few of my regular customers from the summer market as well as some new faces-it seems as though it has been so long. One man even bought some of my cheese to bring to an Inaugural event in Washington, DC!

I am grateful that despite the weather my health was well enough to make this market.