Jay About the VT Fresh Network Forum

So my special lady has recently joined the VFN and had the opportunity to work on the most recent event this weekend at Shelburne Farms. I grabbed a ticket and perused the event w/ our pals the K-Dogs. We rolled in around 5:45 and had some time to wander the courtyard and sample some of the local cheese, smoked meats, and other smaller apps while knocking down an Otter Creek. As a bit of background, the Vermont Fresh Network has gotten in the local foods mix and attempts to bring together local restaurants and local farmers to present fresh locally harvested options to the drooling masses... or something like that! http://www.vermontfresh.net/about_us/

We are lucky here in VT as there are quite a few interesting local chefs willing to really feature local ingredients and with our rich farming culture, there is no real shortage of these (in the summer at least)!

Anyway, back to the food. We wandered around and had some bread and cheese from the Red Hen, Dancing Cow and Doe's Leap. Lot's of blues, and a surprising amount of aged Goudas. All pretty solid. There was a brief period of rest while the keynote speaker and a secondary speaker did their thing. I like to eat, I do not like to sit in a hot room for lectures. We loitered outside in the courtyard. The one real criticism I have of the event was that they closed the bar during the speech. Not for nothing but that is the ONLY time you really need the bar open!! Anyway, we spent the time chatting and scoping out our first dinner options.

The grounds are essentially a big Victorian farm. There were food booths set up around the perimeter of the inner courtyard and inside what used to be the farm. There was one bar inside, and one out. We had a great vantage point. All of the table/booths were local chefs partnered w/ local farms. We positioned ourselves to hit up a few favorites before lines formed; Bluebird Tavern, Hen of the Wood, and Bistro Sauce among them. Our bad boy loitering paid off for us early. The chefs were not supposed to serve food until the speakers were finished but the Bluebird folks were a little ahead of the curve. Lucky for us! We circled like vultures and then... BAM! we scored the best food of the night, a delicious pits w/ tender beef, a wonderful sauce and just great flavor. That was the big winner and we did not have to wait at all! There were a ton of chefs but some of the highlights were the veggie lasagna from Sauce if you are a weirdo and don't like meat! The little beef balls and beet salad at Hen of the Wood was good. I liked the rabbit balls at Verde, but hey... I like rabbit balls!!! Over at the Pitcher Inn they were serving up a pork something or rather on oiled and toasted baguette, that was good. There was pulled pork at a couple places that were solid. The blueberry meringue cookie at I think bearded frog(?) was light, melt in your mouth delicious! The misses? Well, Leunigs had a mini beef wellington was not great. The pastry was super dense and kind of chewy. Uh, I also was a seller of the elk, a little too gamey.

Overall, I thought the food was great and I am an idiot for not taking notes so that this would be a worthwhile post! The takeaway is that the Fresh Network is doing some interesting things and we should all support our local food sources. That and Bluebird Tavern continues to hit it out of the park! 1 7/8ths thumbs up for the event.

One last little tidbit. We had a beer and a "bread" over at American Flatbread last night. The special meat pizza must have had smoked mozz and leftover sausage, heartburn city! I liked the Deadhorse IPA. My lady ordered 3 beers and they were out of all of them. One beer I had was their own Zero Gravity... "The One". If you see this beer, DO NOT ORDER IT. It sucks, bad. A rare total whiff for Flatbread.

Anyway, I am sure my lady will give me a disappointing headshake and correct my many omissions and mistakes, alright!