Time again for a peek at what’s new at the Burlington Farmer’s Market. If you are a farmer interested in branching out, or someone looking to dabble in value-added agriculture my advice is to visit a few of these seasonal outdoor markets and see what goes, what isn’t represented at each, and ask a few people what they want to buy. There’s lots of room for more locally grown commerce, you just have to research how and where you can fit in. Does' Leap Farm, George VanVlaanderen and Kristan Doolan (the cheesemakers of Bakersfield, or East Fairfield depending on where you draw the line) return for their ninth season with a new product, goat’s milk kefir. What’s that? It’s an ethnic Russian fermented drink that is slightly sour and can be naturally carbonated, and ever so slightly alcoholic (traditionally). It’s touted to lower cholesterol and keep your blood pressure down, equalize your digestive system, and help to cut cravings for unhealthy food – the theory being that if your body gets the proper nutrition, it won’t tell your brain to pull in at Wendy’s. Benefits, shmenifits! They had me at lowered cholesterol.
Does’ Leap Kefir was plain (unflavored), and not even slightly boozy. The texture is thinner than buttermilk and tastes like drinking cheddar cheese, which is really fine as it is, if you can ignore the occasional cottage-cheese sized curd stuck to the side of your glass. Being a dairy farmer, I’m against chunks, so I made smoothies with ½ pint of kefir, ¾ of a cup of frozen peaches and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. The result was similar in flavor to cheesecake. I liked it. Who wouldn’t?
I’m envious they have an innovative milk product for sale. My husband Dan and I have tossed around the idea of bottling milk for years and rejected it as being too involved and too expensive to take serious. But here’s a small goat farmer making it out in the boonies, and doing just fine.Success in ready-to-eats at our market seems to depend on offering something you can hold in one hand while you walk. Two, three bites while you shop - that’s what I see people doing.
Enter: Dinky Donuts. I could tell who their customers were because they had powdered sugar on their faces. Since I couldn’t sample these Dan had one each of the chocolate, lemon, and rhubarb filled minis. They were not overly sweet so there was no sugar rush or crash, the rhubarb was something he wouldn’t try again, but the others were just yummy. I liked this couple because on opening day - the morning they came to market to decide where they wanted their stand to be located - Alex Cavalli (a trained-up chef from NYC) and her husband Nick introduced themselves to we two nobody-special farmers. They were the only new vendors who did.
Though they just started business in February of this year they’ve come up with a great idea for a delicious delivery business that also works well at farmer’s market. For more, see eatdinkydonuts.com
