Welcome to the Babble Belt

Of the many artisan cheese-makers in Vermont I recently re-encountered Marisa Mauro of Ploughgate Creamery from up in the Northeast Kingdom.

Montpelier Farmers Market

She sells her cheese on Saturday's at the Montpelier Farmers Market. Her velvety and mild brie-like Hartwell cheese is an award-winning favorite. 
 




At a festival of farmhouse ales, recently, she served me a lightly grilled Foccacia sandwich made with her queso fresco, tomato and basil, and I paired it with a Belgian White Ale. I also sampled Hill Farmstead's Clara on draft; a Grisette brewed with malted wheat, raw oats, hay, black pepper, and fermented with their new house saison yeast.

Not only did I stumble upon a link to an international community of Belgian beer lovers, but I later learned from a new friend what a wonderful treat I had enjoyed. Both beers where delicious and the sandwich was a delightful snack.

While at the Hill Farmstead Brewery in North Greensboro, Vt. I met a guy from Philadelphia who was up to try out some local beers, and from our conversation, he gave me quite some insight into the growing craft-beer market.

And he told me a story about the difficulty he had on Friday trying, to no avail, to get his hands on some bottles of Sean's Lawson's Finest from the Warren Store. He suspects a conspiracy theory by employees to tip-off friends the moment Sean arrives with his shipment. Sometimes he walks in at 9am; others times at 5 pm.. But it sells out each week; only a limited number of bottles are listed on reserve. We'll have to investigate.

Can't wait for the Mad Taco in Waitsfield to re-open next week after we found out it was closed for employee rest and vacation. (during the middle of tourist season; the peak of summer, and The Valley's Festival of the Arts?)  Here's the link to a friend's blog with some words from a fresh perspective: Divine Taco Intervention

It was sad to see Micheal's Good-to-Go go gone; to close up shop. He was one of the first chefs I met who prepared and cooked meals with fresh organic ingredients and was a member of the Vermont Fresh Network.