La dolce VT: Farmers missed worst of storm, but many local eateries didn’t

By Randal Smathers Rutland Herald

I’m in the farmers’ market in downtown Rutland, talking to the folks setting up for the afternoon.

Generally, they’ve escaped the worst of the storm; one reported that meant building a berm with a bulldozer to keep from losing a crop to flooding, but otherwise, the rain was overdue. Nobody lost their crops and if the sun comes out soon, it’ll be good for the growing produce.

They’ve had enough now, though: The earth — after a warm, dry start to the summer — has soaked up about all the moisture it can and if there’s more coming, it will soon start to create problems.

Others aren’t so lucky. The market is set up across the intersection from the worst-hit spot in the city. Just in terms of eateries, Clem’s, Three Tomatoes and the Back Home Again café are closed for cleanup and repair.

Java News and Three Tomatoes are in the Asa Bloomer Building, where the offices at least might remain closed until the end of the month due to complications with not only the flood waters but electrical and other issues.

It’s a body blow for downtown, already hit with upcoming closures of two stores along Center Street.

I can’t bring myself to write my usual glib patter today. Having worked in the business for well over a decade, I know how narrow the margins can be, and losing fridge after fridge and freezer after freezer of product must be a nightmare.

Still, it’s hard to say if it’s tougher on the owners, with the capital invested, or the staff, who in many cases are living off of their tips. Let’s put it this way: I can’t remember the last time a dishwasher retired from a place I worked.

In the vein of it being an ill wind blowing no good, the places that are open are doing well. Ernie’s Hand-Carved has been extra-busy trying to keep up. Sabby’s is open and, like the places up at the top end of the block, stands to do very well: This week marks the first Friday Night Live of the year, an event that brought a lot of people downtown last year, and for the places untouched by the flooding — Kong Chow, EJ’s and Café Terra, Table 24 and Emma T’s on Wales Street — it’s an optimistic time.

At the farmers’ market, the shower isn’t enough to scare off the first customers, arriving before the tents are fully up and the vendors done stocking their tables. Despite the need for rain before the weekend storm, the flooding is a problem for them as well: This year, the hours of the Tuesday market have been moved into the afternoon to allow downtown workers to drop by the market to pick something up on the way home.

And there’s a brilliant display of local produce to be had: Lettuces, onions, radishes, spinach, hothouse tomatoes, garlic rabe, rhubarb and more. Only problem is that the downtown workers are off work or relocated up the hill to the Stafford Center.

Despite all that, the strawberry vendor is lined up with customers picking up quarts of the first pickings of local fruit for the year.

And in the drizzle of rain, the vendors are in good spirits. They can’t control the weather, after all, and as one puts it, “That’s farming.”

<li> <li> <li>

A lot of readers responded to last week’s hot dog column. Thanks to everybody who dropped me a line, and apologies to those vendors who I couldn’t get to. I’ll try to do another survey later in the year.

My best tip, however, came from a hot dog aficionado over by White River Junction. Not only could he wax poetic about the best brand of hot dogs (transplanted New Yawkers in particular tend to be very choosy about their wiener brands), but he passed along this gem: To help keep a dress shirt white, have the vendor put all the fixings on the bun before the dog itself, so the meat sorta holds everything in place. You, sir, are a genius. Dogs are on me the next time I’m over that way for lunch.

Herald Editor Randal Smathers writes weekly on dining. Contact him at randal.smathers@rutlandherald.com.