There’s nothing better than growing your own food. Ask any Vermonter and they will proudly show you their vegetable garden. If they don’t grow their own they can tell you who did and usually it’s just right down the road. Vegetables, fruit, honey, bread, beer, maple syrup, eggs, milk, sheep, goats, cows, pigs, cheese, kombucha, did I mention maple syrup? The list of what’s available to you fresh and local is incredible and most Vermonters that I spoke to take pride in all things made in Vermont. Needless to say I was in food heaven and I did not want to wake up from my lovely food coma. My first two weeks were spent at Vermont Studio Center where I had a two week artist residency. I did not have to lift a finger. Which meant no cooking. Fine, I’ll live I thought, at the whim of some school line-cook! I judged way too soon. Almost all the food was from the Vermont Fresh Network. NETWORK!!! And our "school line-cook" was the former head chef of a five star restaurant in Montpelier, VT. I ate my own thoughts.
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner were all expertly done. Lunch and dinner always had a vegetarian main course option, only once in two weeks was red meat served and above all the food was amazing. One night we had Bouillabaisse with key lime pie for dessert. How decadent is that? When I asked the Chef how much of his ingredients came from VFN he said he guessed about 75%.
I took no pictures of the food I ate. Looking back it was probably because I was too busy enjoying scrumptious meals with fellow artists and basking in one of many of Vermonts fine qualities: complete food fulfillment.
More Vermont to come!
