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This one's easy! There's local milk, cheeses, plain yogurt, heavy cream, and butter. One good find is the maple yogurt from Butterworks Farm. It's made with local yogurt and maple syrup and available at the Co-ops and Dan & Whit's. Woodstock Water Buffalo VT Honey and VT Maple yogurts are at the Hanover/Lebanon co-ops. Dessert? Strafford Creamery makes a Smooth Maple ice cream using their own eggs, milk, and VT maple syrup (no sugar )
Not a challenge: the Co-ops, Dan & Whit's, and local farms carry VT/NH eggs. You may also have a neighbor producing eggs... ask around.
In late spring, summer and fall, local veggies can be found at farm stands, farmers markets, CSAs, and the Co-ops . . . and maybe your own garden? The other months take planning: canning, freezing, root cellaring, or finding a CSA (such as Luna Bleu Farm) that offers a farm-stored winter share. There will be a monthly Winter Farmers Market in Norwich this year. Be aware of sprouts as a source of "greens' in winter; Gourmet Greens in Chester, VT, offers sunflower, snap pea, and radish sprouts available at the Co-ops.
Summer offers us a bounty of berries and melons, and fall, a wide variety of apples. There are local pears, plums, cherries and peaches. We are lucky to have Poverty Lane, Walhowden, Moore's, and other orchards in our midst! Last year Upper Valley Food Co-op managed to have a supply of local apples year-round.
Local cider is available at the co-ops, pretty much year-round. If you grow and dry mint you can make your own mint tea. Vermont Sweetwater makes a delicious carbonated maple seltzer, available at the Upper Valley Food Co-op. There are local wines and Farnum Hill
hard cider. Flag Hill Winery in Lee, NH, makes wines from local fruit and vodka from NH apples. North River Winery makes wines from local grapes and other fruit; their rhubarb wine is 100% organic and does not contain sulfites and they have a dry pear wine
made from VT-grown pears. Milk. Fruit smoothies with berries (fresh or from your freezer) and yogurt (and a little maple syrup?) Garrison Keeler makes fun of cider shakes but many of us think cider with a little Strafford Creamery Smooth Maple tastes great!
The Upper Valley Food Co-op carries organic flint cornmeal (great for hot cereal and cornbread) and organic whole wheat bread flour from Great River Farm in Windsor VT. UVFC also carries organic wheat berries, whole wheat bread flour, and cornmeal from Butterworks Farm. The Trukenbrod Mill and Bakery (Vershire,VT) makes an Anadama bread from VT wheat, VT flint corn, and VT maple syrup. Their whole wheat bread is usually from local wheat. Their breads are available at all the Co-ops. Consider making popovers for breakfast or as a supplement to a soup or salad. You can make your own tortillas or crepes. The Hanover Co-op bulk department carries Butterworks Early Riser cornmeal as well as Trukenbrod's stone-cracked, 4-grain porridge.
Upper Valley Food Co-op carries Honest-To-Goodness apple cider vinegar from Gingerbrook Farm in South Washington, Vermont. They also carry Butterworks "transitional organic" sunflower oil (Westfield, VT), the only local cooking oil that we have found.
Local cider jelly is available at the Co-ops and Dan & Whit's. The Co-ops have maple butter. We can make our own salsa, catsup, pickles and relish.
Herbs are fairly easy — parsley, mint, oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil, cilantro, etc., are seasonally available and may be growing in your own or a neighbor's garden. Most can be dried or frozen (in ice cubes and popped into a soup or stew!). Spices are challenging;
most come from other countries. Some of us use what we call the Marco Polo wildcard for these.; use Frontier spices from the Co-ops' bulk departments, a socially-responsible source.
Local maple syrup, granulated maple sugar, and honey are available in many places.
The Upper Valley Food Co-op bulk department carries a variety of dried beans grown by Butterworks Farm. The Hanover/Lebanon Co-op carries Jacob's Cattle beans from Butterworks.
The Co-ops and Lebanon Health Food Store carry VT/NH meats, some of which were grass-fed and/or fed with locally-grown grains. (Many of these meats are in the frozen foods section.)
natural, free-range turkey and chicken.
(Orwell, VT): VT turkey sausage (sweet Italian, hot Italian, Cajun-style) and ground turkey meat.
(Cabot, VT): grass-fed organic beef.
(Etna,NH): lamb.
(Orford,NH): stew beef and ground beef.
(Springfield,VT): quail.
: ground beef and steaks.
(Our research indicates that McKenzie's of Vermont deli meats are actually not from VT. Some smoked meats may be processed locally with animals not from local farms.)
The Upper Valley Food Co-op carries Rhapsody Tempeh made in Montpelier from soybeans grown in Westport NY (within our 100-mile radius.)
Sadly, we have discovered no locally-grown coffee or chocolate . . . or local cinnamon, pepper, peanut butter, ginger root, limes, soy sauce, tofu, sesame tahini, oranges, bananas, rice, yeast, baking soda or olive oil!
The Lebanon Village Market is making an attempt to offer local foods: MacNamara milk (Plainfield,NH), Blythedale brie (Corinth,VT), Walhowden maple syrup (Lebanon,NH), Peaslee potatoes (Guildhall,VT), Stonyfield plain yogurt (NH) and VT apples and cider as well as other seasonal fruits and vegetables. |
