Local Food: As native to Vermont, cranberries offer the crispest sweet and tart flavors available. Ours come from Vermont Cranberry Company in East Fairfield, who grow full flavored berries that brighten any dish. Steven accents savory dishes with a tart cranberry apple chutney and uses their breezy sharpness to balance sweet desserts. Cranberries also have their place in our bar, where we feature cranberry margaritas made with VT Cranberry Company's cranberry juice.

Music Notes: Our good friend Jeremy Raboin is back this Thursday night at 7:30. Check out his webpage at http://www.myspace.com/jeremyraboin

Local Events: Wednesday, the Greensboro Free Library celebrates Vermont Reads with an afternoon of Japanese children's songs designed for parents and children alike.

Maggie Neale brings her insights into art as well as her inspirations and techniques to the Art House Gallery in Craftsbury Common as part of their Artist Talks on Art, Friday from 6:30 to 7:30, with a reception to follow. For more information, call 586-2545.

Local Food: You don't have to be from the South to love green tomatoes! Steven taps into the flavors of this not-yet-ripe gem to feature it in a spicy soup with tomatillos, and in a chutney that provides a little tart sweetness to accompany the pâté made from chicken liver and duck rillettes. He even has fried green tomatoes served alongside crab cake.

Around the Galaxy: Thursday afternoon from 1:15 to 2:30, Hazen Union's poetry class hosts a reading of student work. Local poets are invited to join in as well. Poetry moves to Stardust in Craftsbury for a Friday night Ghoulish Poe-try Slam from 7 to 8:30.

Music Notes: Welcome the Rustbucket Brothers, an accoustic version of Vermont's own Rusty Romance, this Thursday night for their first visit. Learn more about their blend of honky tonk and old school rock'n'roll at http://www.rustyromance.com/.

Local Events: Halloween is the 10th Annual Haunted Library at the Jeudevine Library, from 5 until 8 and featuring mythical animals, treats, and games.

Local food: Steven's find this week is the husk cherry, which he adds to sweet and savory dishes. Related to the tomatillo, it has been described as a cross between the sweet tartness of strawberries and the mellow acidity of tomatoes. Try this unique fruit in the raspberry pear upside down cake or in a chutney served with the pork chop with maple mustard glaze, roasted potatoes and brussels sprouts. Later in the week, you'll find husk cherries in the chicken molé.

Around the Galaxy: Amy Kolb Noyes is in the house! Tuesday night at 7 the Vermont writer and photographer will talk about her new book, Nontoxic Housecleaning, as well as demonstrate how to make one of the cleaning products. Bring your own spray bottle or container!

Music Notes: Come by Thursday after 7:30 to welcome the return of local back porch music favorites Copper Kettle, with their fiddle, dobro, washtub base, kazoo and guitar.

Local Events: Jeudevine Music School benefit concert this Friday evening at the Hardwick Townhouse features David Budbill's poetry, jazz, steel drums, and the Bleuttes Sauvage quartet. More information is available at 472-5913.

Hardwick Area Transition Towns opens the doors of four energy innovating homes on Saturday, including solar, straw bale construction, masonry stoves, wind and more. Tours start at 8:45 am. For more information, call 472-6185 or email nancyn@together.net.

Local Food: Apples can be found throughout the menu this time of year. Steven uses the versatile fruit in sweet and savory dishes including Moroccan spiced butternut squash soup with apples and leeks; beet, apple, pear and arugula salad; chicken roasted with apples and bacon and a cider blue cheese sauce. Don't forget the gingerbread with caramel apples, hot cider and Vermont's Pomme de Vie apple brandy.

Around the Galaxy: The 24 Hour Read-a-Thon starts Friday at 4 pm and continues through Saturday. Pick up a registration sheet and pledge sheet before Thursday at the bookstore.

Music Notes: Blue Fox, Montpelier's well traveled blues man, journeys to Hardwick so we can enjoy what Seven Days calls his "deep-lazy-growly-sexy" vocals and guitar work described as "ultra strength." Find Blue Fox on myspace.

Local Events: Sunday, October 18, is a busy day! Enjoy an evening pumpkin walk on the Hardwick Trails, lined with 350 lighted pumpkins carved by students at the elementary school. There will be a bonfire, donuts and cider, and a friendly witch. Bring your flashlight to the Hazen School parking lot at 6 pm. Or, if your interests involve energy efficiency, come the the Button Up Vermont workshop at the Craftsbury Library at 6:30, and learn how to improve your home's energy efficiency.

Local Food: Leaves are falling, and so we have pears and the elusive fall raspberry. Steven brings them together with Butterworks Early Riser Cornmeal as a flavorful upside down cake. Jen Boucher raspberries, Bosc pears from Pete's Greens (also in the beet salad), and Butterworks yogurt combine for the perfect end to a fall dinner, topped with a little something extra - whipped cream and berry sauce. Have a forkful of fall and warm your soul.

The vase is the work of Harry and Wendy Besett of Hardwick. Visit their website http://www.vtglass.com/index.htm

Around the Galaxy: Mystery author Don Bredes is at The Galaxy Bookshop Tuesday night at 7 pm to read from the third installment of his Hector Bellevance series.

Music Notes: Singer songwriter Kim Davidson comes by with her "sexy black Martin Guitar" for a performance of what she calls "emo-icana." Learn more and listen to her music at Kim's myspace page.

Local Art: Cheryl Betz creates abstract paintings reminiscent of Turner landscapes. Cheryl's paintings possess an ethereal mystical quality that works to draw the viewer into the picture. She will have 17 oil paintings on view from September 29 through Monday, November 23, 2009.

Local Events: Our friends the Wacky Worm Sisters want to help you learn about indoor composting, Sunday October 11 at 1 pm. For more information or to register, call 533-9836 or email newleaf@vtlink.net.

And while you enjoy the fall foliage and crisp days, remember to come by any afternoon after 2:30 for sweets, coffee and bar service, or for our specials on draft, wine, and cocktails every Sunday and Monday.

Local Food: Fall is officially here and Steven is highlighting the flavors of pumpkin and maple on the menu. What could be better than maple crème brûlée with Riverside Farm pumpkin? Roasted Pumpkins also accompany the grilled trout from Mountain Foot Farm. And it's not fall without pumpkin soup, this time with a twist of curry.

Make a reservation for dinner this Thursday, October 1st and help support NOFA's Share the Harvest, a fundraiser for limited income Vermonters. Learn more at NOFA.

Around the Galaxy: Perennial favorite Archer Mayor returns to The Galaxy Bookshop Tuesday at 7PM to celebrate the publication of his latest Joe Gunther novel, The Price of Malice. All are welcome and the event at Galaxy is free. After the reading he'll dine at Claire's with a lucky contest winner who has bought the book in advance.

Local Music: Jeremy Raboin stops in Thursday night to serenade us with his guitar work and vocals. www.myspace.com/jeremyraboin

Local Art: Look for new art on our walls. The abstract work of Cheryl Betz will be on display beginning Tuesday, with a reception Monday, October 4th from 4-6.

Local Food: Steven brings back his famously spicy gingerbread cake, baked with maple syrup and molasses, served with caramel apples, Strafford vanilla ice-cream, and maple fluff.

The Burlington Free Press executive editor wrote about his recent visit to the Hardwick area and to Claire's as part of his own localvore challenge. You can read his diary entry from Saturday, September 5 at Townsend Takes Eat Local Challenge. He was a little early for the gingerbread.

Around the Galaxy: Charles Sabukewicz brings poetry inspired by 22 summers spent at Coles Pond to The Galaxy Bookshop on Tuesday at 7:00. He will read from his recent chapbook Rowing in Twilight. And get ready for Archer Mayor on the 29th - pre-buy the book at Galaxy and be entered in a drawing for dinner with Archer at Claire's!

Local Events: This week, the Jeudevine Library hosts a special sneak peak at the new Ken Burns documentary, The National Parks: America's Best Idea. The Sunday night screening is followed by a discussion.

The Highland Lodge hosts a Wallace Stegner Centennial all weekend beginning on Friday. The schedule is available at http://www.highlandlodge.com/.

And don't forget the Montpelier Art Walk, showcasing local artists, this Friday from 4-8 pm. More information is available here.

Music Notes: Country outlaws Rachael Rice and the Cosmic Americans return this Thursday at 7:30. Enjoy her transformative sensibility and a unique blend of rockabilly, country, and Americana. For more information, visit http://rachaelrice.com/

New on Main Street: Our sign! Come by and take a look.