Today's post is by Dani Oddo

Today was our last day in Vermont.  We made a few stops on our way back to Connecticut.  We went out for brunch at 158 Main, I ordered french toast, they had fresh fruit and the syrup was fresh. The french toast was made on a baguette and fried. All the food was fresh and healthy. The food that we had was from local owners and farms, and the bread was made at the restaurant.

Today's authors are Aaliyah Simons and Clare Shurtleff.

(Aaliyah) Our first stop was Cabot Creamery where natural cheese is made using local milk.  During the tour they made us put on slippers over our shoes which was weird because none of the workers had any on.  They have local farms where they get cheese and milk from. You know the farm means something to the company or the family if one person can tell all the cows apart, which did happen because they care about all the animals. People who work for Cabot milk their cows at 3:00am, there is always something to do and there is a never a dull moment. In order for a successful job you have to be into the job and be proud of the product you make, which they were. Our next spot was high in the mountains where Goodrich's Maple Farm was. All the maple was pure and first discovered by Indians which was a big deal back then, and now they make the most amount of maple syrup. Most companies get other people to tap their trees but Glen taps their trees himself and had his own sugar house.  Maple syrup is best produced when the day is warm and the night is cold. Goodrich’s Maple Farm taps their trees in the spring and it's easier for the clean up in the end, to this day they already boiled maple six times. As soon as you walk into the store there are ribbons hanging from the selling, they have over 600 first place ribbons. A little history of how the maple syrup is the way it taste because the use reverse osmosis,  they let their trees to be an age of 40 years, 65 feet tall and weigh 3000 pounds. They tap over 40000 trees and tap a whole 2 inches deep, 2000 of there trees are on their land right by the sugar house. The guy that was giving us a tour made his own invention on how to collect the sap from the trees. They produce 150 gallons per hour. Everyone that works there loves what they do and they dedicate themselves to that job. Later that evening we went to a fancy restaurant that was also in downtown Burlington, called Hen of the woods.



(Clare)

Today we went to Cabot Creamery I learned how they make cheese. They get their milk from New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. All the farms that give milk to Cabot own a part of the company. There are 109 employees working in the plant. One million pounds of milk is delivered to Cabot daily.  Eighty-four thousand pounds of cheese is produced daily. Two hundred thousand pounds cultured product are produced daily.  Four to five truckloads of whey, remaining after milk has been curdled is shipped daily to Middlebury. I tried three different types of Cabot cheese; Adirondack, Everything Bagel and Artisan Reserve. I did not like any of the three cheeses I tried. I am not a huge cheese fan, so I found Cabot Cheese to be very strong and I did not care for it.

After Cabot we went to a Goodrich's Maple Farm where we got a tour of the factory. He told us how they collect sap to make maple products. First they tap the maple tree  to collect the sap. After that they put it in a truck. After that they put is in big containers to store the sap. Then they move it to the boiler machine to boil the sap down to maple syrup.

In the afternoon we had downtime. Then we went to dinner at Hen of the Wood. It was dark and the ceiling was cool. They had good service. For the starter I had oysters - they had good sauces that was served with them. For the entree I had a salad with radishes and blue cheese and some nuts. For dessert I ordered the root beer float. I thought it was good.  Other students had hanger steak, pork shoulder and pork loin. Everyone enjoyed their meals. On my way back from the bathroom there was a window and you could see a pig hanging. You could tell that things were fresh. 

Our posts for today, Day Six, are by Max Rubanenko and Emily Elfman.

(Max) Today we took a tour of Ben & Jerry’s, It only lasted about 30 minutes but we learned a lot of different things about the process of how they make their ice cream and the history of the company and its ice cream as a whole. Ben & Jerry’s was started in the 1970’s by two men Ben and Jerry. They started off in a small shop in Merrick, New York, serving only about 6 flavors of ice cream. The company continued to grow and grow really quickly and is now probably the biggest artisan ice cream maker in the world. We learned that even one of the biggest ice cream companies in the world can still get all of their ingredients from local farmers and still be artisan even is their company is so big. 

(Emily)      We walk in to Ben and Jerry’s and the smell is amazing. It smells like vanilla and cookies. The first thing we see are old fashion ice cream scoops. I want to buy everything at the gift shop. I am picturing where I would put these items in my room. Then I hear  we are coming back to buy them after the tour. We are told to put our tickets on head as we walk up the stairs into this room with a giant movie screen. There were clouds and a button that says play
   “Two kids meet in track class, and they Need to make a living. They both have a love of food, and wanted to go into the bagels Business. They thought about it and decided ce cream was more their style. In the 80s they started cookie dough. They were the first ones to come up with the idea. Once the idea was out everyone copied it. In the 1990s they looked at ingredients and flavors to name after their favorite bands. In the 2000s corporations became interested which is when they became came popular all over the world. In the 2010 social media chose names like "The Tonight Dough" named after the tonight show, “ Americone Dream Come True” the after the Late Show with Stephen Colbert”.
    Now we just walked into the factory. It's fantastic there are numbers to give us an idea of where we are talking about. Number two was the pasteurizer where all the milk gets pasteurized. Then comes the flavor station at number three. They have many different flavors they inject into the ice cream.  Number four is the freezer where they freeze their ice cream at 36-34 degrees. The chunk feeder is number five, where they put chunks of either cookie dough, brownies, or any other chunk they come up with. After five come six, which is the sweet swirl machine, their number one swirl is caramel. Seven is the automatic filler, which leads to eight, which is the hardener to have it settle and make colder.

(Max) After our tour at Ben & Jerry’s we went to Prohibition Pig for lunch. I thought the meal was amazing and so did many of my classmates. I  decided to get the GLT (guanciale, lettuce, and tomatoes - which were fried green tomatoes), which I would recommend anyone who goes here to get. 

After Prohibition Pig we came back to the hotel for a couple of hours to relax and get ready for dinner at Our House. At Our House most of us got one of their 27 different mac n’ cheese's. They all sounded great but I went with the Steak and crab mac n’ cheese which was great. For dessert which all of us got I had a Nutella creme brulee, which might have been the best creme brulee I have ever had.

Day Five, by Mr. Bender

Today we left campus on a five hour drive to Burlington, Vermont, on our quest to study small local food companies.  Almost all of the student slept for the majority of the drive.  Mrs. Sands and I are hoping they sleep tonight!  We ended up having dinner at Outback Steakhouse (I figured it would be okay, as we will be trying a lot of new foods over the next few days).  Everyone seems happy and ready to hit Ben and Jerry's for the tour tomorrow.

Day four's author is Cammy Carter.

Today we went to Avery's Soda to make our own soda. What I learned was that they have over 50 different soda flavors. They are the only soda place that makes their own soda in Connecticut. They also put real cane sugar in the soda so it taste less sweet than high fructose corn syrup. To start the process of bottling the soda, the first machine they use is the cleaning machine what that does is washes the bottles. The second machine is the syrup, carbonated water and capping machine. What that does is brings the bottle through a cycle, where it squirts in whatever flavor you put, adds carbonated water then pushes a cap on the bottle. After all of that you shake up the bottle to mix the water and the syrup.  Everyone had a great time mixing their own flavors of soda and tasting the Totally Gross sodas like Worm Ooze and Alien Brains.

 

Day three's post was written by Julia Graef.

Today we went to Arethusa Dairy, Nodines Smokehouse and Milk House Chocolates. 

We first went to Arethusa Dairy in Bantam, Connecticut. When we got there, a lady, Sam, came down to show us the production rooms for the ice cream and cheese. We weren't allowed in the actual production room because of possible contamination so we looked through the window. She explained the process of how the raw milk gets to the store, then after it's all done, where it is send to be stored. Once they get the milk they can send it to where it needs to go. For example, they can send to where the cheese is made, some where ice cream is made, and wherever else it's needed. We walked upstairs to where the cheese production room was and one of the workers talked a little about how cheese is made. We learned that they make nine different types of cheeses at Arethusa. After the tour was over, we bought some ice cream. At Arethusa, their most popular flavor is sweet cream with dark chocolate chips. They also mentioned that in the winter, business slows down but people still come in. Pints are also more commonly bought in the winter.

We came back to school for lunch and after we took a quick stop at Nodine's Smokehouse. Nodnie's in Torrington, Connecticut, has been a family smokehouse since 1969. They sell foods like maple syrup, beef, bacon, cookies, cheese etc. Something we learned is that they get their pigs all they way from Canada. Mr. Bender went and bought beef jerky for all of us to try. Some people didn't try it but the ones who did and liked it, took the people's beef jerky that didn't like it so much.

Our last stop was to Thorncrest Farms & Milk House Chocolates in Goshen, Connecticut. The first thing we saw were the cows. We walked into the barn and all you see are these enormous cows who are just eating and eating. One of the Owners, came out and talked to us a bit about the cows. Some of the things he said were that a cow's life span at Thorncrest is about 13.2 years and weighs around 1,200. One of the cows there weights about 2,220 pounds. They eat about 114 pounds a day! The cows are separated into flavor groups. The one cow, Daydream, is only responsible for caramel. Four other cows are responsible for milk chocolate, some are responsible for different types of milk, etc. One cow has 7.8 butter fat, breaking the world record. Something that was also really interesting is that they keep the animals at a no stress level and if any type of stress occurs, it can show up in acidic flavor in the milk. He told a story about how after they moved a cow next to a different cow, they received the cow's milk, and felt something was wrong. So they watched the animals go outside and the two cows started ramming into each other. It turns out that the milk was bad because the cow didn't like its new neighbor so it caused stress. Another fact is that they also don't use fly spray on the cows because it can sink into the skin and then when the cow gets milked, in about five hours, you can taste it in the milk. What they also said is that you can buy milk the same say that cow was milked but with others places, you would have to wait days for it. The lady who is married to the man that talked to us, came out and brought a plate of chocolates. She explained each chocolate to us; which we then tried, shared her some things about her including that she is self taught and has been working with chocolate officially for 20 years and answered some of our questions. After, we all went to the tiny store where we all managed it squeeze ourselves in. People bought chocolate, caramels, milk, t-shirts, and or just sampled the chocolates. There were a lot more fascinating facts and things we learned today so overall, this was a packed day of learning and of course eating.  

The trip today (Thursday, March 2nd) was to Great Barrington, MA.  Great Barrington is a town with a number of small businesses and artisan producers of diverse products.  Home to great restaurants and James Beard Award nominees, Great Barrington's community has a tradition of cooperation, and many of the small food producers work together.  We Today's post is by Morgan Yanni.

Today we went to Barrington Bagel Company to try their bagels and get a little tour of the kitchen.  We then got to go into Guido’s Market for a little while we waited to go on a tour.  SoCo Creamery for a tour at around 11, got a look around at how they made the ice cream, and their whole process.  Finally after the tour we go into the town right before lunch and walk around for a little to look at all the different shops.  We got a demo on how to cut with a kitchen knife from a local store.  After we got to walk around for awhile, we got to go to lunch at an amazing pizza place called Baba Louie’s Pizza.  Finally after all of that, we got to go to the Soco Creamery scoop shop to have ice cream and learn more about the business.  We got to talk to the manager, the CEO, a couple workers there and we had a great time.  At the factory we met Matt, the flavour master.  We learned that they have over 100 flavours of ice cream and sorbet.  They make all of their toppings, like cookie dough, caramel, and use local producers for things like their lavender, their honey, their coffee.  We learned about all of the machines in the factory, and about all of the techniques they have with making swirls in the ice cream and adding the toppings into the product as well.  They have many partnerships with different local companies.  They get most of their produce from no more 50 miles away, their honey, their maple syrup, their dairy.  Overall the day was absolutely amazing and i had a great time with everyone.