What do you get when you combine storytelling, music, and great local food? Must be the VPR Listeners Picnic. Local food is showcased at many Vermont events and what better event than a picnic? Grab a blanket, some great food and enjoy!
Marketing consultants have a question they ask: if your business / organization were a person, what would he / she be like?
No idea.
How about if your organization were a person, where would it go for dinner?
That's easy. That question I can answer for most of the groups I interact with on any given day.
Vermont Public Radio is one Vermont organization that appears, as an entity, to have distinct food preferences. And, like many Vermonters, it's into fresh, local, high quality food (for some reason I also think of VPR as eating more vegetables than the rest of us. .. possibly because of their Vermont Garden Journal with Charlie Nardozzi).
Every week VPR explores food on-air with the VPR Cafe. Once a year they really get into the food scene with their listener's picnic.
Or, I should say, they ". . .hold the listener picnic as a 'thank you' gift to the community" as Ty Robertson, the organizer for the picnic, explains. The thank you is first priority. Fortunately, indulging in a love of Vermont food is integral to that goal.
This year the picnic takes place at Lareau Farm Inn, home of American Flatbread. While many diners will associate American Flatbread with their Burlington restaurant, and perhaps their Middlebury outpost, many of us love the original in Waitsfield, with its outdoor seating, big campfire, and atmosphere that's laid back to the point of feeling more like you're hanging out at someone's casual summer get together than a restaurant.
Ty's rundown of the menu for 2014: "Plenty of fresh flatbread. [Lareau Farm] will be serving local beers as well. The Burger Barn of Jeffersonville will be on hand to provide local fare, and we may get to see Southern Smoke as well, they haven't confirmed yet. We've asked these businesses to take part this year because they feature local products. We'll also be joined by the folks at Switchel, Caledonia Spirits and Shacksbury Cider for tastings."
All of these vendors are stand out foods in their own right. Caledonia Spirits makes, among other spirits, gin from local honey that's lightly floral and perfect chilled with a twist of lemon for any summer afternoon. Shacksbury Cider is reintroducing traditional cider (dry and still) from Europe as well as a hyper-local variety made from apples discovered during their Lost Apple Project - which scoured Vermont roadsides and field edges for abandoned trees with fruits perfect for cider making. Vermont Switchel has convinced many Vermonters, myself included, that Switchel need not be the sour medicinal drink we remember from childhood - it's refreshing, zingy, and old fashioned in a good way.
The food offerings and locations change each year. In 2012, VPR organized a mini-food festival with samples from 45 Vermont food and beverage producers to both thank listeners and welcome special guest Lynne Rosetto Kasper of The Splendid Table. Last year the picnic took place at Shelburne Museum with the Burger Barn again, homemade hot dogs from The Local Grind, and creative grilled cheese sandwiches from Say Cheese!
Ty says VPR always has something a little different to share at the picnic. "Some years Cabot Creamery will send several big boxes loaded with assorted cheeses to serve to guests, other years local orchards have donated bushels of apples to give away. . . It depends on the time of year, and location of the picnic but we can always count on the community to take part."
Local food is not the only highlight of the event. There will also be live music from the Starline Rhythm Boys (I've got my cowboy boots ready for honky tonk dancing) and a story slam with longtime VPR contributor Willem Lange (I also have a story prepared). The event is free and open to the public, rain or shine. It goes 11:00 - 2:00 at Lareau Farm Inn on Rte 100 in Waitsfield.
~Helen Labun Jordan is a commentator on Vermont Public Radio. You can find her commentaries and other food writing at www.discoveringflavor.com
