Foliage in Hardwick

Foliage in the Northeast Kingdom is approaching its peak. Stop through Hardwick on your road tour and visit us for Blunch or dinner this weekend.

A Squash by Any Other Name

Local Food: Not inclined toward edible decorations, Steven prefers to harvest pumpkins for satisfying rather than scaring. This week, the plump squash from Mystic Morning Farm star in a tarte of leeks and pumpkin, paired with the smoky texture of bacon and the dry bite of Tarentaise cheese. You will also find the prolific fruit roasted with young chard alongside the crab cake. Pumpkin is also for breakfast, featured as pumpkin pancakes with hot buttered rum apples and whipped cream. And dessert is more than just pie. Look for spicy gingerbread with caramelized pumpkin and apples as a sweet finish to your meal. And if you are craving the flavor profile of pumpkin pie, you can find it at the bar in a pumpkin martini. You might also enjoy the stunning pumpkins from Ben's Pumpkins we feature in the dining room as sculpture. You can get your own pumpkins from Ben Notterman on Pumpkin Lane in East Hardwick.

Around the Galaxy: Archer Mayor returns to The Galaxy Bookshop on the publication day of his 21st Joe Gunther book, Red Herring, on Tuesday. As anyone who has been to one of Archer's many appearances at Galaxy can attest, he entertains the crowd every time. In addition to writing mysteries, Archer is a death investigator, a sheriff's deputy, a volunteer firefighter and an EMT. Come to Galaxy to celebrate Archer's success as a writer, and to kick off his bookstore tour in style. The evening begins Tuesday, September 28th at 7PM and is free.

Music Notes: Singer/Songwriters Ryan Arthur from Danville and Steve Wright of Gopher Broke will play this Thursday, September 30 at 7:30. Come out and support local acoustic rock and bluegrass music.

Local Events: On Saturday, October 2, The Hardwick Town House will present the Mellow Yellow Experience, an immersive musical theater show that transports audience members back to the time when "Baby Boomers" were coming of age. The show features live music, outrageous costumes and a stunning multi-media video light show. Doors open at 6:30 and the show starts at 7:00. Tickets are available at the door and are $12 for the general public and $10 for those over 65. Call Shari at 472-5920 or David Cooper at 399-2589 for more information.

Reminders: We are open daily after 2:30 for coffee, bar service, and baked goods, and free WiFi, with dinner reservations available from 5-9. We will return to our regular Sunday dinner hours on October 17, seating arriving guests from 5-8. We serve our special Blunch menu Sundays from 11-2. Claire's is closed every Wednesday.

We appreciate it when you reserve a table with us, as it helps us plan a relaxed and hospitable experience for you and all our guests. To show our appreciation, when you call, email, or stop by to make a reservation, you will be entered into our weekly drawing for a $20 gift card for your next visit.

Take a Bite out of Fall

Local Food: New England is as famous for the ripe colors of apples as for fall foliage, and Josh Karp and Maria Schumann bring us some of the best heirloom apples from their 100 year old Cate Hill Orchard. The first available are tart Duchess apples and the soft, sweet Peach apple, perfect for making sauces. Steven has included them at Blunch in the spiced brioche French toast served with hot buttered rum apples. Served raw and crisp, Duchess apples are found in the beet and spinach salad to add some sweetness and crunch against the creamy tang of blue cheese, dressed with walnuts and maple balsamic vinaigrette. They also accompany the duck leg confit in a warm salad of apples, cabbage and green beans. With blackberries and apples, Steven creates a compote served with the chicken liver mousse. We'll also be featuring apples in many forms at the bar, like our apple cidertini.

Around the Galaxy: Get ready for another World Premiere! Galaxy will welcome Archer Mayor on September 28th, publication day for Archer's 20th Joe Gunter novel, Red Herring. Come celebrate and help Archer kick off his tour in style, Tuesday, September 28th at 7PM!

Music Notes: Hardwick's own Jeanne Segretto Miller and Josh Gould, aka The Butterbeans return for their second performance on Thursday, September 23 at 7:30. Don't miss this opportunity to support Hardwick's music scene featuring Jeanne on fiddle and vocals and Josh on guitar, banjo, mandolin and vocals.

Local Events: Highfields Center for Composting will host a Livestock Mortality Composting Workshop on Thursday, September 23 from 10-12:30. The workshop is for farmers and agricultural professionals interested in learning how to compost routine livestock mortalities. The workshop is free and will be held at the Center's Demonstration and Research Site.

Reminders: We are open daily after 2:30 for coffee, bar service, and baked goods, and free WiFi, with dinner reservations available from 5-9. Please note we have extended our Sunday dinner hours and will seat guests until 9:00 pm. We serve our special Blunch menu Sundays from 11-2. Claire's is closed every Wednesday.

We appreciate it when you reserve a table with us, as it helps us plan a relaxed and hospitable experience for you and all our guests. To show our appreciation, when you call, email, or stop by to make a reservation, you will be entered into our weekly drawing for a $20 gift card for your next visit.

A Piper's Peck of Peppers

Local Food: Steven loves peppers more than almost anything else, so he brings an aficionado's sensibilities to their use on the plate. Warm with a hint of sweet spice, crisp and a bite of heat, or that dash of energy. Right now, Steven is using the large and earthy green peppers from Pete's Greens as an edible bowl. He fills the hollow of the pepper with wheatberries and groats for some texture, then adds fennel, onions and tofu from Vermont Soy to round out the stuffing. Mozzarella from Maplebrook Farm is baked on top of the pepper, and the plate is served with dragon tongue beans from Mystic Morning Farm, cauliflower, and lacinato kale from Harvest Hill, with a dash of pesto.

Around the Galaxy: Thanks to everyone who came to welcome Rowan Jacobsen and his new book American Terroir to the bookshelves. The Galaxy still has some autographed copies of this fascinating book. If you missed Rowan in Hardwick, catch him at Bear Pond in Montpelier before he heads across the country on his tour. And for those of you busy preserving your own terroir, come browse the shelves at Galaxy to discover many books on canning and preserving.

Music Notes: Blue Fox returns this Thursday at 7:30. Don't miss what Pamela Polston of Seven Days calls his "deep-lazy-growly-sexy" vocals and his ultra-strength guitar playing.

Local Events: Celebrate Buffalo Mountain Co-op's 35th Anniversary on Saturday, September 18 at Atkins Field in Hardwick. The clothing swap will be from 2-5; make cider, hear poets, storytellers and musicians and play old-time games from 3-6. The potluck begins at 6- bring a dish to share, and your garden surplus for the community-wide stone soup. Following dinner, dance to local favorites the Butterbeans. For more information or to volunteer, stop by the Co-op or call 472-6020

Reminders: We are open daily after 2:30 for coffee, bar service, and baked goods, and free WiFi, with dinner reservations available from 5-9. Please note we have extended our Summer Sunday dinner hours and will seat guests until 9:00 pm. We serve our special Blunch menu Sundays from 11-2. Claire's is closed every Wednesday.

We appreciate it when you reserve a table with us, as it helps us plan a relaxed and hospitable experience for you and all our guests. To show our appreciation, when you call, email, or stop by to make a reservation, you will be entered into our weekly drawing for a $20 gift card for your next visit.

Something to Flap About

Local Food: With its intense flavors, duck from Applecheek Farm offers the perfect savory partner for the sweet fruits of late summer and the first tart apples. When roasted in duck fat - confit, as the French call it - duck legs offer a tender and succulent intensity that Steven balances with a warm salad of crisp vegetables that tames some of the richness with red cabbage from Mystic Morning Farm, apples from Champlain Orchards and green beans. Steven tosses the salad with a plum mustard vinaigrette, featuring plums from Champlain Orchards and mustard from Northeast Kingdom Mustard Company.

Around the Galaxy: Come to Galaxy on Tuesday, September 7th at 7PM when Rowan Jacobsen, a James Beard Award winning author from East Calais, introduces his new book, American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters and Fields. Come to Galaxy to get your copy now, and read about our neighbors who produce syrup and cheese, as well as a forest gastronomer from Quebec and avocado growers in Mexico. The book is delicious to read and Jacobsen explores the flavors of the food we are so fortunate to have in ways that extend new depths of appreciation and understanding.

Terroir is not just a concept; it gives us a lot to celebrate and appreciate. So come by before or after Rowan’s talk at the Galaxy Bookshop on Tuesday, September 7, to take note of “ terroir at the bar.” We’ll be offering specials on cocktails, spirits by the glass, as well as a flight of vodka or of whiskey. We hope you enjoy.

Music Notes: Rachael Rice and the Cosmic Americans return this Thursday at 7:30. Support local music and catch the performance of the "sweetheart of alt-country rodeo," according to Dan Bolles of Seven Days.

Local Events:Spend the weekend at Wheelock Mountain Farm in Greensboro Bend. The First Annual Planetary Wellness Day will be Saturday, September 11 from 10-8 to look at the environmental health of our planet. Sunday September 12 is the Third Annual Community Health and Wellness Day from 10-5. A variety of workshops led by local healers will be held throughout the day. Please bring a dish to share for the potluck lunch and a donation of $5-30 each day. For more information about Saturday, contact Robin at 533-2296. Questions about Sunday, contact Emily at 533-9929.

Reminders: We are open daily after 2:30 for coffee, bar service, and baked goods, and free WiFi, with dinner reservations available from 5-9. Please note we have extended our Summer Sunday dinner hours and will seat guests until 9:00 pm. We serve our special Blunch menu Sundays from 11-2. Claire's is closed every Wednesday.

We appreciate it when you reserve a table with us, as it helps us plan a relaxed and hospitable experience for you and all our guests. To show our appreciation, when you call, email, or stop by to make a reservation, you will be entered into our weekly drawing for a $20 gift card for your next visit.

Terroir and at the Bar

With summer coming to a close just as Rowan Jacobsen comes to the Galaxy Bookshop next week to talk about his new book, American Terroir, we thought it was a good time to provide an update about our local terroir and what’s brewing at Claire’s. Take a look below at what we have “on the menu”, and come by before our after Rowan’s talk at the Galaxy to learn more and enjoy some specials at the bar.

Terroir is a French term, usually spoken in conjunction with wine production to define the particular qualities of a vineyard that shape the wine produced there, including microclimate, soil, sunlight, neighboring plants as well as human traditions and cultivation. More recently, it has been adapted to emphasize the unique nature of any growing community and the constellation of circumstances that provide opportunities for farmers and imbue food with distinct flavors. Terroir is another way of emphasizing the sense of place within the concept of local food.

For Claire’s, of course, our sense of place is about both flavor and community. We celebrate the ingenuity and capacity of our farming community, the dedication of those who work the soil, and the good fortune we have in our beautiful summers, our appreciation of the working landscape, and our ability to manage winter in sustainable ways. So we measure terroir on our menu in taste and place. Claire’s is a space for all of us to come together in our daily lives, and in doing so, we provide an opportunity to invest directly in the economic well-being of our neighbors in these difficult times.

That investment continues to be measured by our purchasing within 15 miles of the restaurant or just a bit farther in the NEK. In terms of our kitchen, Steven has crafted a menu that, from month to month and season to season, still puts 80 cents of every dollar we spend for the food we serve directly in the hands of the farmers, artisans, and businesses who are our closest neighbors. We don’t count the herbs and vegetables Steven produces in his kitchen garden, because Claire’s pays nothing for those. Beyond 15 miles, we purchase cooking wine from Shelburne Vineyards, fruit from Champlain Orchards, and, since the closing of the Vermont Milk Company in Hardwick, ice-cream from Strafford Creamery. Regional food-related purchases are upwards of 90 percent of our total spending, which now include Vermont sunflower oil and other cooking oils from Maine and Quebec. The seafood we serve from our coastal neighbors supports Stowe Seafood as well as New England’s fishing industry. Our spices and sugar are certified fair trade, providing confidence that when our dollars travel, we support communities with a deep tradition of producing and trading food staples.

Our impact, of course, is greater than our food purchases. We do business with the Village Laundry and other professional services, we employ more than 25 people cooking and serving your food, and we purchase more than just food. Overall, our contribution to the local economy – the farms, businesses and families that make up our terroir – has totaled 64% of every dollar we spend in the restaurant since we opened our doors in May 2008.

But we still have much more we can do. Bar and beverage service, for example, have been the most difficult to imagine differently. We face the regulatory limitations of the Vermont Department of Liquor Control, a variety of market forces that structure pricing, the still relative rarity of organic or sustainable commitments in spirits other than wine and beer, and relatively few distilled spirits in Vermont. As well, our small bar tucked into one corner of the restaurant provides operational limitations.

From opening day, though, our bar has striven to be different. We started by deciding to be a corn syrup free bar – one of the first in the country to do so – and found a variety of sodas, Vermont produced bitters, and other condiments. Our cocktail menu highlights Vermont produce, including pickled ramps, cucumber, berries, and now melon. And our wines are selected for a balance of quality and sustainability, emphasizing smaller producers and innovators, some of whom are certified organic, but in general, no matter where they come from, vineyard and vintners that provide sustenance to their communities. Increasingly, as they have become available, our wine list includes the best northern varietals our state has to offer, as well as our distinctive local meads. Of course, our draft beer is always redolent of the varieties of terroir in Vermont, especially with the introduction of Hill Farmstead this summer.

Overall, then, the share of purchases made in Vermont has varied by category of beverage. Highest on beer, increasing with wine, and lowest on distilled spirits. We’ve decided to improve on that. With quality and a range of price points in mind, we’ve decided to focus our bar service on that sense of place best defined in the term terroir – when available, our purchases will go first to Vermont distillers. So you might have noticed that already we offer three moderately priced and impressive vodkas produced in our state: Green Mountain Organic, Vermont White, and Vermont Gold. We also have a distinctive maple liqueur from Green Mountain Organic, served in a shot glass or mixed in a cocktail. When not available locally, we hope to source our spirits from small and artisan production as nearby as possible, but also around the world as necessary, looking to organic or fair trade certification, or for distillers who respect their ingredients as well as those who provide and shape the ingredients into the final product. Sometimes our goal is to identify the distinctive terroir in which a spirit is produced. Other times, we support smaller producers over those who dominate markets to promote more appropriate scale and a diversity of products within vibrant markets that can nurture artisan production.

With no local producer making a well vodka, for example, we searched far and wide before settling on Luksusowa, distilled since the end of World War II in Western Poland from local artesian well-water and potatoes grown only along that country’s Baltic coast. It has the added benefit of being a distilled spirit that people who are glucose intolerant can enjoy. Our rums come from two distilleries that have been family run for generations, we have an organic London Dry gin, and we now offer a selection of distinctive whiskeys from small batch American and Scottish producers. Our quality tequila is now 100 percent pure agave, and we have added unique liqueurs to enhance or cocktail menu or to enjoy by the glass, including one made from wild elderflowers harvested in Switzerland.

Though we have tripled our sales of Vermont produced spirits this year over last, we do have a ways to go. We’re talking with producers and innovative thinkers in the industry, assessing what additional steps are possible and how to monitor our goals. As we develop our menu driven cocktail service, we’ll be trying out new mixes and intriguing local ingredients. Right now, we regret that the DLC has not yet licensed a Vermont rye Whiskey or those produced in New York and Massachusetts, nor a potato vodka from Maine and a gin from New York. It is still difficult for us to access wines produced in the Fingers Lake region. But we are looking forward to the introduction of Caledonia Spirits produced in Hardwick. Even citrus has been a concern, as first the real estate bubble and then a series of frosts limited the production of fresh lemon and lime in Florida. At this point, our only source for citrus is from far away in California’s parched orchards, where an elaborate system of water distribution provides the weekly soaking required for citrus trees, but at the same time depletes fisheries in the northern part of the state and literally drains the Colorado River delta. But we have plans, which include growing our own lemon and limes in the restaurant and our homes.

Terroir is not just a concept; it gives us a lot to celebrate and appreciate. So come by before or after Rowan’s talk at the Galaxy Bookshop on Tuesday, September 7, to take note of “ terroir at the bar.” We’ll be offering specials on cocktails, spirits by the glass, as well as a flight of vodka or of whiskey. We hope you enjoy.