New Product: mtn Seasons Bagels!
We are thrilled to be bringing your these amazing Vermont style bagels by mtn Seasons! Check out who’s who and how they got started by reading below. Healthy Living will be getting deliveries of the bagels on Mondays and Fridays!
A chef who loves the seasonality of ingredients, and a farmer who loves to explore what she grows, are creating a wood fired bagelrie and café in Jeffersonville, VT.
Diane used to sell her organic Beet Box Farm produce at Farmers’ Markets and wonder why the prepared food vendors put out the same food every week, and rarely purchased from their neighbor veggie growers. Diane would peddle her goods to Jeff while he worked at a local restaurant. Jeff would troll her Beet Box Farm stand to learn about the varietal differences of the produce in front of him.
Diane began working on at Pleasant Valley Farm, a four season, small scale, diversified farm, while at Skidmore College in upstate New York. That job taught her how to work hard, in every weather condition, for absurdly long hours and low pay. As a liberal arts student who hailed from the Suburbs of New York City, the reasons why she started the job probably had more to do with proving something to herself than any affinity toward agriculture. Make no mistake, the job had its perks. For the first time, Diane began to explore the tastes of seasonal produce, anticipating the arrival of new fruits and vegetables, pasture raised pork, sungold egg yolks, and free range chickens. Really, she began to explore flavors, and how the changing flavors bring people together in their excitement and fervor to share!
Jeff, as a chef throughout New York and Vermont, would wonder why his menu always stayed the same when there were new availabilities of meats, cheeses and produce as the season progressed. He’d ponder “if I’m so excited each week by food that is new, and has been on hiatus for so long, doesn’t that mean restaurant patrons would be too?” Every week from the Spring through the Fall bring new wonders, which inspire new recipes. Poached French Breakfast radishes in the Spring; Brandywine tomatoes with a sprinkle of salt in the Summer; Rosted Brussel Sprouts after the first frost.
By creating a relationship with his local farmers, Jeff learned about heirloom varieties of not only tomatoes, but beans, eggplant, cucumbers and lettuce. Imagine, food that is selected for its flavor and not for its shelf life, packing ability, or production numbers! Why not create a restaurant with a simple, seasonal menu to reflect the splendors right here in our own county?
Diane, the farmer, always wondered why the flavors that persuaded her to continue her work on vegetable farms were rarely found at casual eateries. Farmers tend to eat what is abundant. When we have a bumper crop of cucumbers, we are eating every cucumber salad or stir fry there is. When our crop of eggplant have imperfections, we are making every dip, roast and sautee we can dream up. Casual eateries seem like the most likely partner with farmers. They can bring a rotating menu of seasonal, organic, local delights to their patrons at low costs as long as the farmers and restaurateurs are working together!
Our menu will change daily. Instead of paper menus, we will list our specials on chalkboards. We will bake bagels, make heady breakfast sandwiches, and pizzas every day; however we will have a constant rotation of artisanal cheeses, in house sauces and pestos, fire roasted vegetables and local meats.
And what about our bagels? A girl from New Jersey and a boy from New York grew up knowing that bagels are the staple breakfast baked good for millions of people. And not just any bagel that you can find at a grocery store or chain coffee house, but a chewy, glossy, air pocketed bagel that would make Manhattan proud. But this isn’t just a Manhattan style bagel transplanted up to Vermont. Up in Vermont, we also love Montreal style bagels. These are denser, thinner, sweeter and woodfired to a crispy perfection. Our perfect bagel is a cross between the two. And so we bring you… a Vermont style bagel and a Vermont style business.