Released: Friday, October 1, 2010

Winning dishes named at inaugural Vermont Locavore Culinary Competition

A new component of the 2010 Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival was the inaugural Locavore Culinary Competition held at Mount Snow on Sept 26.

Competing for top honors were recently named “Chef of the Year” Amy Chamberlain, chef/owner of The Perfect Wife Restaurant & Tavern, Manchester, Ismail Samad, head chef of The Putney Inn, Putney, Susannah Walker, head chef of The Wilmington Inn, Wilmington and Tristan Toleno chef/owner The Riverview Café, Brattleboro.  The four chefs were paired at random into two teams. Each team had 1-hour 15-minutes to create an appetizer and a main course for three judges.

Judging the competition were David Rachlin President & CEO of Grafton Village Cheese, Mary Nowlan Editor of Vermont Life and Lisa Sullivan owner of Bartleby’s Books Wilmington and The Book Cellar Brattleboro.  The chefs choose from a generously donated pantry of Vermont products including;

Danaher Fish Farm Trout, Fowl Mountain Farm Rabbit, Misty Knoll Farm Chicken, Boyden Beef Farm, Vermont Butter & Cheese, Champlain Apiaries, Brattleboro Food Co-op, Blue Mountain Produce, Olivia’s Croutons, Sprague & Son Maple, Mother Myrick’s Chocolate, Side Hill Farm Jam, North East Kingdom Mustard, Vermont Smoke & Cure, Grafton Village Cheese, The Hermitage Inn, Boyden Vineyards, Honora Winery, Putney Mountain Winery, Shelburne Vineyards, North Branch Winery, Side Hill Farm Winery, Eden Ice Cider and Woodchuck Cider.

Judges scored on taste, creative use of Vermont products, appropriate wine or cider pairing and presentation.

In the appetizer category the team of Ismail Samad and Amy Chamberlain won with a Rabbit Three Way with brown butter and acorn squash paired with Eden Ice Cider. The judges were impressed by the beautiful presentation, fantastic use of Vermont products and the superior taste.

In the entrée category the team of Susannah Walker and Tristan Toleno won with a Roasted and Braised Chicken with Grafton cheddar potato gnocchi and acorn squash paired with Snow Farm Vineyard Vidal Blanc. The vertical presentation of the plate, creative use of Vermont products and out of this world taste topped the list of comments by the judges.

The 3^rd Annual Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival the collaboration between the Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce and Vermont Life Magazine is a weekend long event held during peak foliage season has been honored as a Top Ten Fall Event in Vermont as well as a Top 100 Event by the American Bus Association for 2011.

Vermont Soup Title up for grabs at the 3^rd Annual Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival

WILMINGTON -The September 24-26 weekend collaboration between the Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce and Vermont Life Magazine adds to its list of events a “Welcome to Vermont” celebration in historic downtown Wilmington featuring tastings of select Vermont Wines, the new festival Soup Contest, Contra Dance and Entertainment; incorporating the downtown businesses as well as historic Memorial Hall, Buzzy Towne Park and the award winning new Bank Park overlooking the Deerfield River.

The 3^rd Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival features a tented two day exhibition area of Vermont Wines, cheeses, specialty food and artisan crafts, chef demonstrations and entertainers as well as a variety of wine and cheese pairings, dinners and “Indigenous Vermonter Breakfasts” throughout the valley. 

Friday September 24^th downtown Wilmington businesses will host the soup contest and wine tastings. The festival soup contest is open to all to enter. Visitors will vote on their favorite soup. A press release naming the entry as the winner of the Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival Soup contest will be forwarded to statewide press and featured on the festival website.

The Wine and Soup Tasting will take place between 5:30 and 7:30pm. The Contra Dance with Andy Davis and friends will kick off at 7:30pm in Historic Memorial Hall in the center of Wilmington.

The 3^rd Annual Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival occurs September 24-26^th 2010 and has been named a Top 10 Vermont Fall event by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce for the second year in a row.

Soup Contest rules:

All soup must be delivered to selected venue by 4:30pm 9/24

Soup venues will be confirmed by Sept 15.

3-gallons per soup. Please let us know if you need us to supply a crock pot.  We will supply tasting cups and ladles

All recipes must be original.

Ingredients and or recipes must be posted with entry in consideration of food allergies.

The soup will be sampled in small cups without spoons. Please consider this when making soup. For example large pieces of vegetables may be difficult to get into the cups.

Pick up for crock pots will be on Saturday 9/25 by 1pm at venues.  For those vending at the wine and harvest festival, delivery of crock pot will be made to your vending site at Mount Snow.

There is no fee to participate; however, a $25 refundable deposit is due upon sign up.  All deposits will be fully refunded to entrants upon delivery of soup at selected venue.

To enter the soup contest, or learn about vending at the Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival, contact Patrice Schneider at the Mount Snow Valley chamber of Commerce at 802-464-8092

Details on the festival can be found at www.thevermontfestival.com

Expansion plans for 2010 Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival announced

DEERFIELD VALLEY – Organizers of the Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival have announced plans to expand the popular three day event. The late September weekend collaboration between the Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce and Vermont Life Magazine features a tented two day exhibition area of Vermont Wines, cheeses, specialty food and artisan crafts, chef demonstrations and entertainers as well as a variety of wine and cheese pairings, dinners and “Indigenous Vermonter Breakfasts” throughout the valley. 

The 2010 festival will add to its list of events a “Welcome to Vermont” celebration in historic downtown Wilmington featuring select Vermont producers and entertainment; incorporating the downtown businesses as well as historic Memorial Hall, Buzzy Towne Park and the award winning new Bank Park overlooking the Deerfield River.  In addition, organizers plan to expand and promote the “Artists at Work” studio tour in the village, and have announced that the tented exhibition area will be moved from its current location at the intersection of Route’s 9 and 100 South to Mount Snow Resort to better accommodate the volume of attendees and vendors.

“The additional events and venue changes add depth and diversity to the weekend and reflects our commitments to grow the appeal of the weekend in harmony with the existing collaboration between our towns and our business community,” explained Mount Snow Valley chamber of commerce executive director Laura Sibilia.  “The support and encouragement we have received from the towns of Dover and Wilmington and Mount Snow Resort the past three years have been incredible, as a valley we are creating an event that positively reflects our community and positively impacts many bottom lines.”

“These plans allow us to take advantage of the best parts of the valleys event venues, our beautiful downtown village and the professional facilities at Mount Snow.  We’re looking forward to being able to expand the well received Vermont chef demonstrations with the mountains commercial kitchen facilities as well as celebrate many of our local artists in their gallery settings.”

The 3^rd Annual Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival occurs September 24-26^th 2010 and has been named a Top 10 Vermont Fall event by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce for the second year in a row.

Details on the festival can be found at www.thevermontfestival.com

photo courtesy Sarah Shippee L to R t: Adam Levine, Rep. John Moran, Steven O'Hern, Laura Sibilia, Deputy Commissioner Steve Cook, Meg Streeter, Rep. Ann Manwaring, Sen. Bob Hartwell, Nona Monis

Three year extension for Vermont Life Wine & Harvest festival

DOVER, VT - On Monday July 27th, The Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce and Vermont Life Magazine signed a three year extension on an agreement to work together on the Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival.  The agreement, which is in effect through 2012, was signed during an official ceremony at the Hermitage Inn in West Dover attended by area legislators, chamber of commerce and local government officials, festival organizers and event sponsors. 

The September event takes place in the Mount Snow Valley in the Southern Vermont town of Wilmington with additional events occurring in the nearby towns of Dover and Whitingham. The festival celebrates the best of Vermont’s wine and food and highlights the rich uniqueness, quality and ingenuity of Vermont producers and artisans.

Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce Director Laura Sibilia and Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing Deputy Commissioner Steve Cook spoke of a shared goal to continue building and growing the event into a premiere destination event. 

“We have been honored to partner with Vermont Life Magazine for two years on the creation of this event celebrating Vermont wines and specialty foods.  Vermont Life has brought much to the table including a readership demographic that is ideally suited for this type of event,” Sibilia explained.

"There has been tremendous growth in Vermont’s wine and agricultural offerings and we are seeing more and more interest by Vermont visitors in food related travel.  Vermont Life is pleased to continue working with the Mount Snow area on growing this festival for an additional three years,” Cook announced.

Area legislators Senator Bob Hartwell and Representatives Ann Manwaring and John Moran spoke about the value of the festival in promoting Vermont products as well as stimulating the local economy.

The 2009 Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival, occurring September 25th-27th, has been named a Vermont Top 10 Fall Event by the Vermont Camber of Commerce.  New to the 2009 event: top Vermont Chef demonstrations including Ted Fondulas of Hemmingway’s in Killington, the Putney Inn and Tristan Toleno of the Riverview Café in Brattleboro, as well as Vermont wine pairing events at the Hermitage Inn and the Roadhouse Restaurant.

The festival is sponsored by a grant from the Town of Dover economic development fund, Vermont Public Radio, Chittenden Bank, Mount Snow Resort, Honora Winery, Vermont Smoke & Cure and Deerfield Valley Supply.

Vermont Life has been the definitive magazine of, for and about Vermont since 1946.  For more than three generations the magazine has defined the unique history, people, places and character of the Green Mountain State. It is one of America's most respected regional magazines and regularly wins national awards for editorial excellence.

The Mount Snow Valley Chamber serves Southern Vermont’s Deerfield Valley towns and the business community of the Mount Snow area.