March can mean delicious local eating

March is often considered the lean month for local eating, especially in northern spots like Vermont. The storage vegetables may be dwindling and while the days are longer, spring isn't really here yet.

We sat down to dinner the other night, looked at our plates full of food from our farm, and thought, we eat well, even in March! Local eating can be delicious, easy and virtuous..not a bad combo.

Most, importantly, the delicious -- our Menu (which was repeated as left overs a few days later)

• Herb Roasted Chicken
• Chevre Chaud Salad
• Potato- Turnip Latkes
• Pumpkin Pie with Maple Whipped Cream

On the easy front:
We roasted 2 chickens, 2 is as easy as 1 and allows for plenty of leftovers.

We formed some of our fresh chevre into patties, dipped in egg and bread crumbs and then heated them in the oven. When they were warm and soft, but not runny, we put them over a Mache salad (any green would do) with a light vinagrette. This is one of my favorite salads, I am in debt to my sister-in-law for introducing me to this simple french delight.

We had made potato-turnip latkes the week before using up some storage potatoes & turnips mixed with egg and fried in our own lard. (Yes, this version won't work for a Hanukkah feast, but lard is delicious and good for you, more on that to come.) We then put some in the freezer, which we pulled out for this meal. All we had to do was heat them in the oven for 10 minutes.

For Dessert, we made pumpkin pie from some pumpkin puree we had stored a few weeks earlier. We did turn to Butterworks farm & our neighbor's maple syrup for the delicious maple whipped cream to top off the pie.

Thanks to our harvesting last fall, the freezer, stored veggies, greens from the hoophouse and the ongoing supply of milk and eggs, local eating in this section of Vermont is quite good, even in March.