Windham Gardens

Windham Gardens
Granby, CT
This picture is of Windham Gardens is Granby, CT. It operates a flower nursery, and as a produce farm. It is operated by veteran farmer Doug and his wife, Erin Windham. Following my Freshman year at UVM, I spent a summer working on the farm, mainly doing retail at the farm and at farmer's markets. I enjoyed my time working at the farm, and it's what made me interested in local agriculture.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

In Over My Head

Well....

Today is Tuesday, which means it is Day 4 of my farmer's market experience.

I knew it would be difficult only eating food from farmer's markets, but I didn't realize how difficult.

My first attempt at cooking was Saturday after I returned from the market. I started talking with David Zuckerman, who runs Full Moon Farm in Hinesburg, VT with his wife Rachel Nevitt, and I explained to him that I was trying to sustain myself on food from farmer's markets. I asked David what he suggested, and he just started piling vegetables in front of me. A minute later, I had a small pile of black beans, carrots, onions, potatoes, green garlic, parsnips, and a vegetable I had never seen or heard of, called celeriac. After paying for my small mound of vegetables, I asked David, how do I cook all of this? To this, he replied, chop up all the veggies and throw them in a pot of boiling water and beans. Fair enough I thought, I had no clue what I was doing, but isn't that part of the fun?

So off I went, ready to make some stew. When I got home, I immediately began chopping the vegetables. I planned on making a large batch of stew, and freezing the left overs, so I chopped up all of the veggies. I threw the veggies in a crock pot and boiled water for the beans.


6 hours later, I realized how little clue I had about cooking vegetables. I assumed that the fresh vegetables alone would make a good soup, and there wasn't a lot of cooking knowledge required. The beans were cooked way before the vegetables, so I had a enormous pot of beans, and a lot uncooked veggies. The vegetables weren't bad, but I know they could have been

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