LaDolceVT: It’s prime time

By Randal Smathers Herald Editor

It’s that applethanksharvestpiefest season again. An apple a day doesn’t begin to make a dent in the bag on the counter.

It is, after all, that time of year when the fall fruits and vegetables start to dominate the local food markets. Unloaded all your spare zucchini? Great: Now give away all this squash.

Here in northern New England, we should really celebrate Thanksgiving Day with the Canadians in mid-October. It is after all a harvest festival, and our harvest season is pretty much wrapped up by Columbus Day, which is generally considered the peak of foliage season and coincides with Thanksgiving for our northern neighbors. While we share the holiday date with Virginia, we share weather patterns with Quebec.

With that in mind, the next few weekends are prime time for fall festivals of all kinds, and that means really good local food, almost anywhere you look.

We hit the Proctor Fall Festival last weekend and had a great time. Mine was greater than most as I was invited to be a judge for the chocolate baking contest — hard job, somebody’s got to do it, etc., etc. The winner was a chocolate cheesecake that edged out the other contestants on the basis of a great decorating job. The moral of the story being that when appearance is 30 percent of the score, you should err on the side of frosting.

There were also apples in a couple of different forms — notably, pie and cider. You’ll find them everywhere for the next several weeks.

In order to maintain peace, love and understanding in the Smathers household, I should mention that Trinity Episcopal in Rutland is holding its annual apple pie sale as a fundraiser soon and the pies are among the best I’ve ever eaten.*

I can’t actually say that I’ve had a bad pie at any of the local events we get to, but as they’re generally homemade, often with orchard-fresh apples, how bad could they be?

There are also any number of farm stands and orchardists that bake their own products. Check your local farmers’ market or just keep your eyes open along any secondary highway in the state.

As far as cider, the big health scare is possible E.coli contamination from pressing windfall apples that may have come into contact with bacteria from animal (typically deer) feces … the same biomechanism that brought us tainted spinach this summer.

The only guaranteed ways to avoid it are to drink pasteurized cider or cider made only from apples picked straight from the tree. Most small operations can’t afford to pasteurize, so if you’re drinking fresh-pressed cider, there’s a small chance (300 illnesses and two deaths nationwide from raw cider between 1980 and 1996, so it’s not exactly like Russian roulette) that you’ll get sick from it.

Most at risk are very small children, frail elderly and those with compromised immune systems. I might be a bad Dad, but I let the boys split a fresh-pressed cider on Saturday with no symptoms beyond big sticky smiles and a mild sugar rush.

The other regular feature at these things is the firefighter barbecue, put on by one of several local departments around the area. They bring in big grills on wheels, fire up the coals and throw on split roasters by the dozens. For (typically) $6 to $7 you get half a bird, a roll and butter and a salad of some description, proceeds to the local VFD. It’s a heck of a deal and you should check it out sometime.

Once in a while the chicken’s a little dried out, but Proctor’s department did itself proud last weekend, with juicy, done-to-a-turn birds.

The only tricky part was the 4-year-old asking how the chicken died. Welcome to the top of the food chain, son, and are you going to eat that drumstick or am I?

I remember watching my grandparents slaughtering chickens on their farm when I was about that age (maybe 5 going on 6). Grandpa thought it would be hilarious to let a headless bird chase the grandkids. He held it with one hand on the chopping block and whacked its head off with a hatchet, as he usually did. Then, instead of immersing it immediately in hot water to loosen the feathers for plucking, he pointed it at us and let it go. The autonomous wing flapping did the rest. I got inside the machine shop and closed the door just in time to hear the bird thump-thump-thumping against it. Think Jack Nicholson in “The Shining,” only without an ax. Those wacky farmers. Doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

But pardon the gruesome diversion (hey, it’s Halloween in a few weeks) and back to the matter at hand.

There are all manner of foodie-type celebrations around in the next few weeks; too many in fact to list individually. A quick search for “festival” on the calendar online at www.invitevt.com turned up, in alphabetical order, Arlington, Brandon, Calais, Dummerston, East Thetford … you get the idea. There are breakfasts, lunches and dinners, potlucks and powwows, Oktoberfests and smorgasbords. Downtown Rutland’s even having a pizza contest on Oct. 11 — pumpkin pizza, anyone? And no headless chicken races, anywhere.

Everywhere you look right now, you have the chance to break bread with your neighbors, maybe meet some new faces and find some great food, cheap.

Ask yourself this: If you don’t take advantage of living in Vermont by going to at least one harvest festival, why live here instead of someplace cheaper and warmer? Now, get out and get eating.

* Yes, my wife does help bake the pies, why do you ask?