The Brattleboro Farmers’ Market

I haven’t written a cooking-oriented post for weeks. I have been cooking, but it it has been of the “quickly-as-possible-so-we-can-get-back-outside-and-enjoy-the-fleeting-summer” sort. Fresh tomato salads, grilled sausages, hamburgers, etc.

One quick tip: Try using rice vinegar and shallots in your next tomato salad. The milder acidity is a great compliment to the sweet, ripe fruit and the onion flavor makes them sing. We’ve been on the road for much of the past few weeks, enjoying New England in high summer. Last week we made our way to the Brattleboro, VT farmers’ market, pictured above. On Saturdays, the market is located right off or Route 9 in a park that borders the West River Whetstone Brook [corrected]—it moves to the parking lot of the downtown Brattleboro Food Co-op on Wednesdays. The semi-permanent stalls are made of tree branches and rough lumber, the colors are vibrant, and there’s a groovy community feeling to the whole enterprise.

More important, the food is extraordinary. Both in the produce, cheeses, meats, pastries, and breads on sale, as well as in the wonderful prepared foods made to order. Thin-crust pizza, Thai, Indian, dim sum, and Malawian food were all on offer. It’s hard to imagine a nicer place to enjoy lunch on a late summer’s day. You can even get a massage afterwards. Being a hard cider afficionado, I got my relaxation from sampling a new brand I hadn’t yet tried. Whetstone Ciderworks’s ciders are made from a blend of traditional British cider apples, giving them a dry and elegant profile with a mineral finish. There were plenty of tomatoes… And flowers. And in another sign that summer is winding down, the peaches where sharing a table with the early season apples. The market runs 9am-2pm on Saturday. To get there, take Exit 2 from I-91 and turn west on Route 9. The market is 1/2 mile on the left, just past the Creamery Covered Bridge.