The American Farmer’s Table

Recently, we attended a wine dinner and to finish the meal, we were presented with a cheese course.  During our host’s presentation of each cheese, she made an interesting point about cheese in America, comparing it to where the wine world was fifteen years ago.  If her theory is correct, and we are at the early incarnation of a cheese revolution here in the states, then I would have to claim Vermont as the Napa Valley of the cheese world here in America.

During our most recent trip to the Green Mountain state we stopped by the Taylor dairy farm, confirming Vermont’s dedication and devotion to crafting high quality small batch artisanal cheeses.  Traditionally only a dairy farm, the Wright family began making cheese at the turn of the century.  Seeking an alternative to the ubiquitous cheddar and wanting to separate themselves from other dairy farms in the state, the Wrights looked to produce something unique, and ultimately chose gouda.  Today, the business thrives and Taylor Farm has won countless awards and accolades for the various types of gouda whose taste they attribute to the high quality milk that comes from their cows who graze openly on 180 year old natural pastures.  We bought a wedge of the the farm’s maple smoked gouda whose distinct taste comes from a gentle smoke over Vermont maple wood.  An exceptional melting cheese, we paired it with a watercress pesto, whose peppery heat was mellowed by the delicate smokey flavor of the gouda.  Feel free to substitute any smoked cheese that can melt well.

For two non farmers, we have spent a fair amount of time on farms. In researching for, The Italian Farmer’s Table, we visited over thirty working farms and prior to that, we spent a year living and working on several farms throughout central Italy. For us, there’s something extremely gratifying about farms; learning their practices, seeing how they grow and raise the products we consume, and we try and patronize as many locally as we can fit into our busy lives. Aside from their raw agricultural products, we love the natural beauty and pastural charm of certain farms we have visited over the years. We have our favorites in Italy, that inspired us with their vine covered hills or mountainous backdrops, and now we have one to add to that list that’s close to home in East Lyme, Connecticut.

White Gate Farm’s idyllic setting is reminiscent of a New England landscape painting from the early 1800’s.  Perfectly restored stonewalls snake throughout the property, climbing hills and encircling the entire farm that’s made up of endless fields, bright white barns and a large silo.  We met owners Pauline and David this past weekend and their obvious passion for what they do is exuded throughout the entire farm.  Currently, in the winter months, the couple spends their time devoted to growing a tremendous variety of salad greens in the protected warmth of two greenhouses.  We were given a tour and encouraged to try some of the lesser know greens which are all grown organically.  Aside from the obvious health benefits of farming organically, Pauline and David also seek to improve soil fertility through the application of natural compost and minerals to provide nutrients that vegetable roots absorb directly.  This is turn allows all of their crops to have an extremely high level of vitamins and nutrients that industrial supermarket vegetables lack.  In addition to produce White Gate Farm also raises chickens, who live happily in a large fenced in area that they share with sheep in the spring .  At the farm’s market we were pleasantly surprised at the vast selection of goods for the middle of January.  Sorting through the fresh produce inspired a craving for a salad to cure our winter blues.  We chose an assortment of salad greens, short and stubby carrots, knotty, irregularly shaped  sunchokes, and a dozen multi colored eggs some whose shells were even blue.  Everything was paid for with an honor system that has customers weigh out their own goods and pay for them by leaving cash in a money box.  Leaving Pauline and David’s farm left us with a warm nostalgia for our days in Italy and at the simple pleasures of quality ingredients that are grown with patience and care in a serene and picturesque setting.

Bread has always been something we have always been slightly obsessed with.  Our pursuit of learning how to make the perfect loaf eventually brought us to a small village outside of Rome to apprentice in a family bakery.  There, our bleary eyed 4 am mornings were spent watching an old man and his son work an enormous 200 year old brick oven to bake delicious crackly and chewy artisanal bread.  Our dreams of opening our own brick oven bakery eventually waned – maybe it had something to do with those 4 am mornings – but a love for baking bread was instilled in us and is something we now do regularly at home.

In all the years of baking bread, pretzels have never been something I considered making.  Looking through some of our baking books a few weeks ago I was struck with an intense urge to learn about pretzels and to try my hand at baking off a few batches.  I mixed doughs from three different recipes and the hands down winner was from Joe Otiz’s The Village Baker.  His simple yet interesting recipe has a slow yeast fermentation that adds a depth of flavor and the big, pillowy, soft pretzels were chewy and toothsome.  They actually rose much higher than expected and we thought to use them as rolls for a German inspired sandwich.  We slow braised red cabbage in white wine with sugar and caraway seeds until meltingly tender, broiled a few German sausages, and slathered some dijon on the split pretzels.  They were salty, and sweet and had a tinge of heat from the mustard and were perfect to wash down with a crisp German lager.

Lately, it seems that pork belly is all the rage.  We’ve seen it prepared on Top Chef, have had it out a few times in restaurants, and Thomas Keller’s new book, Ad Hoc at Home, has a quite involved multiple day process for making the fatty cut.  We thought we would try it out to see what we could come up with and decided to make it for Christmas.  Our local butcher special ordered the belly for us and we were given a serious amount of something we had never cooked before.  We braised half of it for Christmas, which we did Japanese style with soy sauce, ginger, and star anise and it was delicious, and decided to use the rest of it for making what pork belly is most known for – bacon.

It cured in a salt and brown sugar rub for a week and then we smoked it outside over hickory chips on our Weber charcoal grill in 5 degree northeast winter weather. Not the ideal time of year for slow smoking on an outdoor grill – our dog Japhy who loves bacon wouldn’t even come outside to help – but the results were definitely worth it.  Pure salty cured pork without nitrates or preservatives makes a world of difference and worth braving the elements.  We used some in an escarole and gruyere strudel inspired from northern Italy.  And you certainly don’t need to make your own bacon to make this recipe, any good quality, nitrate free bacon will work just fine.

Open pastures and rolling hills make up the vast landscape of Vermont’s Champlain Valley. The state’s northwest corner skirts the NY border and takes its name from Lake Champlain, whose waters extend into Canada.  From its fertile plains, the Champlian Valley takes claim as the most productive agricultural region of the entire state, with cheese as one of its most important products.  Cows and goats graze openly in the valley’s verdant pastures, producing exceptional quality milk used in cheese-making.  At the Middlebury farmer’s market situated in the heart of the region, we bought a semi-soft goat milk cheese from Twig Farm, known for their superior quality goat milk cheeses.  We thought its creamy texture and full bodied taste would be a perfect addition to the mac ‘ n cheese we planned on making that evening.  It proved to be delicious and a foolproof cold weather dish for eating in front of the fire.

We were driving the back roads of rural Vermont outside the quaint village of Dorset, heading for a day hike to check out the foliage and breathe in some good fresh fall air.  Along the way, we passed an unassuming farmhouse whose front lawn was decorated with hundreds of pumpkins surrounding a large trailer piled high with an abundance of different types of squash.  The bright natural orange and green colors of the vegetables were set against a backdrop of the surrounding mountains whose trees were bursting with color.  We stopped and picked through the many different varieties choosing several acorn squashes and a few pumpkins.  We came up with this gnocchi recipe, in which the squash are halved and roasted with butter, honey, and thyme, and then used as a bowl for gnocchi, which are sauteed with mushrooms and chestnuts.

In Southeastern Vermont and close to the NY state line, Consider Bardwell’s 300-acre cheese farm has been producing top notch, small batch artisan cheese since 1864.  In the open fields surrounding the property, cows and goats happily graze on all organic grasses and herbs that result in flavorful whole milk used for making cheese.  We liked their aged goat’s milk tome Manchester, aptly named after the nearby town.  Its creamy texture proved perfect for melting into risotto for richness and depth and its nutty flavor imparted an earthy element to the final dish.

Bishop’s Orchards is our home town local farm and market.  It’s a great place and we are there nearly every day for their superior locally grown produce and products.  We welcomed fall this year by going to their apple orchards to pick our own.  A short tractor ride into the hills and we were surrounded by apple trees with sagging branches heavy with full, ripe fruit.  After loading our bags with several different varieties of apples we brainstormed recipes while sampling a few to test their sweetness.  An apple slaw, inspired by Alto Adige, paired with pork meatballs intrigued us the most, uniting the classic pairing of pork and apples in northern Italian fashion.

Stonington Vineyards is a Connecticut grown local vineyard that has been making award-winning wines for twenty years.  Its proximity to the Long Island Sound creates a temperate climate, ideal for growing a myriad of grapes.  The small, family run farm of about ten acres sits in an idyllic country location and has become a popular destination for both its wine and bucolic setting.  Summer and fall weekends find the vineyard filled with wine lovers enjoying European styled wines while soaking in the tranquil beauty of the rolling vine covered hills.

For our fig tartlets, we bought a bottle of the estate’s white Vidal Blanc, a cloned grape variety that thrives in cold weather climates prized for its high sugar content.  At Stonington Vineyard they ferment their Vidal Blanc until dry, while still retaining a bit of sweetness.  We thought this would make an ideal poaching liquid for black mission figs, which we simmered in the wine with cinnamon and spices. The wine soaked figs were used to top our sweetened mascarpone cream filled tartlets.

This year we attended an Octoberfest celebration at Mount Snow in Southern Vermont.  Huge tents were set up at the base of the Mountain; where people gathered to listen to music, eat good food, but most of all to try this seasons batches of Octoberfest beer.  While many were from Vermont, there were others from neighboring New England states, and a handful from Germany, where the tradition began.  The three I would recommend most, are Otter Creek’s Octoberfest, Smutty Nose pumpkin ale and Red Hook’s autumn Ale.  Feeling inspired by the great flavors of these autumn ales we decided to use one to cook with. We took a recipe from our book, Veal shanks braised in beer, and used a few bottles of the Smutty Nose Pumpkin ale as the braising liquid.  Feel free to use your favorite octoberfest inspired beer.