Our fourth farmer's market on Saturday was a skin-soaker with misty to heavy rain off and on. In anticipation that the hole in front of our stand would suck memere's and babystrollers into the depth of City Hall Park, we brought a piece of plywood from home and covered it. A leaky inlet for the park's central water feature causes gooey quicksand that's made worse when it rains. The city really needs to budget a repair or invest in some yellow "danger" tape, but after two years of watching people slip and catch themselves, I don't think it's made any priorities list.
Local wineries may now sample out their wares as well as sell bottles of wine at Vermont farmers' markets. This really adds to the uniqueness and dynamic of the outdoor shopping experience. We have two such new vendors: Fresh Tracks Farm (freshtracksfarm.com) of Berlin, who sells maple products along with their award-winning wines, and Champlain Valley Vineyards.
Champlain Valley Vineyards of Benson has both a red "St. Croix" and a white "Lacrescent" available, and anticipates bringing a rose (rose-ay) in the near future. They don't have a permanent spot, so you have to stroll through the market to find where they are placed each week. The white is citrus-y, reminiscent of a Riesling and quite nice. The red, I was told by their knowledgeable representative Adam, was suffering 'bottle-shock' and would be better after a few weeks rest. I bought one to set aside for the upcoming 'chicken day' - Father's Day - when the first batch of Cornish meat birds will be processed.Adam's Village Bakery (Westford) has become the market's third bread purveyor. We already have French baguettes (Panadero) and Deeter's Breads (though he rarely shows up). Adam's beautiful loaves are coated heavily in seeds and baked in a wood-fired oven; they look similar to the artificial firelogs in my fireplace, which for artisan breads is a highly desirable thing. The traditional German-style ryes appear as though you'd ingested something intriguingly marked "eat me" and were suddenly confronted by gigantic gingersnap cookies. I wish I could taste them, but you know, I got the no-wheat-thing going on. This Adam also moves his stall location weekly; my friend Willow Smart (Willow Hill Farm - she knows way more than I) says the breads are authentic to type and worth seeking out.
Also new is Jericho Settler's (jerichosettlersfarm.com), a name well known to Burlington localvores; they sell meat through high-end specialty markets all year long. They appear to be a bigger operation than the market's five 'senior' meat people, of which we are one. I would much prefer they were selling bison or venison or ducks instead of directly competing with us, but at least they are bringing in more eggs, for which there doesn't yet seem to be a point of saturation.
There are still several more new vendors to introduce you to; this farmer's market is growing quickly and despite the pangs that come with, our little business will seek to adapt and grow alongside it.
