All Things Vermont

Looking out over Lake Memphremagog

Oh, to be in Vermont! I watched the newest Stuck in Vermont video blog today and wished I could have a buttermilk donut followed by some maple popcorn at the Champlain Islands Farmer's Market. Yum! I found Stuck in Vermont a few months ago on the 7 Days website, an independent newspaper in Vermont... one of my favorite episodes is called "Tiny Houses."

Yesterday I learned all about maple sugaring from Tyler; then I got online and found this publication from the University of Maine that broke down the process even further: "How to Tap Maple Trees and Make Maple Syrup." The whole process amazes me because for a little money and a lot of hard work, you can create something wonderful to enjoy all year (and maybe even sell a little too). After reading about the process I searched again to see what else I could find online (I was also looking for maple syrup recipes) I found the Massachusetts Maple Producers website and the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers' Association website, both are full of all kids of information and recipes.

Random fact: there are only about 600,000 people, 251 towns and 14 counties in Vermont.

In Georgia there are 9.3+ million people (nearly 500,000 live in the city of Atlanta, almost 5 million in the Metro Atlanta area!), over 7,000 cities and towns and 159 counties. In Florida there are over 18 million people living in over 8,000 cities and towns and 67 counties. So, what's the point of this data? Well, in Vermont there is a club called the 251 Club. Basically, people try to visit all 251 towns and document their visit by taking pictures at a local building, say, the Post Office. Here is the description from the website:

In the Summer 1954 issue of Vermont Life Magazine, Dr. Arthur W. Peach suggested the creation of an informal club for people interested in visiting all 251 cities and towns in the State of Vermont... This became known as the Vermont 251 Club.

So Tyler has the idea of mountain biking (instead of driving) all 251 towns in order to get a better feel for them, which I think is a fantastic idea... but, look at this town map:
I think it can be done, but it would take a few summers of biking to complete all of them! Can you imagine Florida having a club like this, "The 8,643 Club?" Hahaha!

Last night, after finishing Finding Vermont (another awesome gift from the BF!) I was inspired to attempt my first, totally homemade, apple pie. I looked in Joy of Cooking first (this is my go-to cookbook for just about everything) for a recipe, and unsatisfied, searched through my new Dishing Up Vermont cookbook (Tyler again, what a sweetie). I liked the recipe there, but not the pie crust so I went online and found this: "How to make the Best Apple Pie You've Ever Eaten." (Using this recipe online was my bad decision for the day!) I wanted to attempt a homemade pie crust too, but was missing a rolling pin and a pastry cutter (I can only dream of one day owning a KitchenAid stand mixer!)

So off I went to Target since they have everything, right? Wrong. I left my house in the rain around 4:30. At 6:30 I had visited Target, Macy's (got the rolling pin here - they have a new Martha Stewart line that is pretty cool!), Williams-Sonoma (where they called a sister store across the street to no avail), and finally, Crate and Barrel. Who knew a pastry cutter could be so elusive? Armed with my tools, I went to Whole-Foods for the apples, cinnamon and butter, the only items I was missing. At 7 I started the pie. I followed the recipe precisely for the pie crust, but when it was time to roll it out disaster struck. The thing fell apart and was basically a huge failure. I improvised a piecemeal crust from the remnants and stuck the thing in the oven. An hour later I took out my pie and laughed... it is so ugly that I refuse to put a picture of it on here! I tasted it and it's okay, but definitely not what I expected. I had dreams of recreating this wonderful pie: I think next time I will use Tyler's Betty Crocker recipe and cheat with a refrigerated pie crust!