Ever since our Discovering Our Roots dinner a few weeks ago, I have had a nagging sense of inadequate scientific effort. Turnip afficionadoes will no doubt recall that in that Discovery Dinner we sampled a newly-discovered Gilfeather Turnip from Vermont along with two other turnips. One of those was the fabled Eastham Turnip, but of course we had not acquired an Eastham (Cape Cod) Turnip in Brattleboro, VT; the Eastham entry had come already cooked and lightly seasoned from Annette's freezer.

It wasn't exactly a fair comparison. The Eastham Turnip was not treated the same way as its competitors, and it may have gained an unfair advantage. You can imagine competition among turnips must get awfully fierce, they so seldom get the spotlight... So I vowed to procure an Eastham Turnip and subject it to the same rigorous treatment endured by the Gilfeather and the ill-fated Scarlet Turnip.

Eastham Turnips are not exactly leaping off the shelves of Cape Cod groceries. You have to search diligently, or else you have to know where to find them. Richmond had generously told me of his special hunting ground: a roadside stand on the east side of Route 6 in Eastham. It's a little place, easily missed. I know this because I missed it. Twice. And by the time I got back there, they were closed.

Before reaching the happy end of this action-packed turnip tale, here's the skinny on the Eastham turnip stand:  as you head north on Rte 6 in Eastham, doubtless closely pursued by some impatient pickup truck, don't dawdle.

We explored the stretch of the Connecticut River from the Massachusetts border north to Quechee Gorge, VT and Lebanon, NH. Our itinerary started with a late breakfast at the dedicated locavore Chelsea Royal Diner in Brattleboro, a visit to the farmers market, and then a drive northward along VT Rte 5, hugging the river the whole way.

We made a number of discoveries and renewed our acquaintanceship with some old friends, but nothing beat the Brattleboro Farmers Market!

There are actually two Farmers Markets in Brattleboro: the summer-fall market by the river was having their last, pre-Thanksgiving market, and the indoor market downtown was open. Both were busy.

 What was so exciting? We found a few heirloom local vegetables that were new to us: Gilfeather Turnip, Long Pie Pumpkin, and Lutz Green Leaf Beet, plus the Italian Chioggia beet and a scarlet turnip. We also scored sausages from pasture-raised pork and beef from Dexter cattle, Just So Vermont unsweetened black-currant juice that is sure to become an ingredient in something, and artisanal ciders from Whetstone Ciderworks.

Most of this plunder will be cooked up in one of our Discovery Feasts this week.

We explored Portland on Saturday. It was a pretty blue-sky November day, crisp but not cold, and many people were in the Old Port.

There are many fine galleries and artisans shops in the Old Port, and it soon became clear that Lorna didn't need me tapping my foot by the door. Fortunately refuge was available right down Exchange Street at The Thirsty Pig. Despite the fact that we had recently had lunch at Becky's Diner*. I could not resist trying their own house-made sausages and it was Maine Beer Week.

I selected an Alewife Ale from the Run of the Mill microbrewery in nearby Saco, ME. On the advice of their sausagemeister, I  enjoyed a Lithuanian-style kielbasa made with parsley and ale in the mix, and then served with Morse's Sauerkraut and my favorite Maine Mustard Pickles. It was delicious. Now I have to find reasons to have lunch in Portland again, but that won't be difficult!

*NSFW Warning: The Becky's Diner website plays annoying seagull-and-surf sounds. 

I took Wednesday off for some R&R. It was a beautiful Indian Summer day, so I drove as far as Columbia Point to have a lunchtime walk with Lorna at work, then I left the car there and took the T to South Station.

It's always fun exploring Boston. On this day I scouted the North End for a Taurasi to wash down an upcoming Neapolitan Dinner (and succeeded twice over at Cirace's, then meandered down the Rose Kennedy Greenway to view the activities of Occupy Boston.

After that I needed to kill a couple of hours until Lorna arrived at South Station to join me for dinner; naturally I went to Drink.

Drink is a bar, after a fashion. It is a cocktailian bar, with extraordinarily knowledgeable staff and an unparallelled range of ingredients. When I have trouble with a classic cocktail, I head to Drink to get set aright.  When I am in Boston with time on my hands (after 4pm), I make the trip and explore cocktails made with ingredients I have been unable to find or unwiulling to spend the money on.

In this case, I had time for two: I started with a nod to our Occupy Boston comrades with a Liberal Cocktail, which is made with the virtually unavailable Amer Picon, and then I learned about the bizarre Allspice Dram with a Lion's Tail. Each of these is described in its own page, just follow the links! 

My favorite apples of all do not even come available until late in the season.

Unlike Annette's Red Gravensteins, the Golden Russets and Northern Spy apples that I love are late October and November apples. The Russets especially are not an attractive apple - the russeting that gives them their name means they look a little like a small potato. It's too bad that more orchards do not grow these, because they are great in any kind of baking, holding their shape and responding well to the traditional pie spices.

I found mine at Douglas Orchards in Shoreham, in the Lake Champlain Valley. It is a scenic place (although not quite as scenic in November as the October day that I took the photo above!) above the shores of Lake Champlain. The best drive through the Lake Champlain Valley is along Rte 22a, taking advantage of the side routes out to Chimney Point and Larrabees Point, taking care to be up on 22a if you can be to catch the sundown over the Adirondacks and the lake.

Lorna's birthday is in October, which is surely one of the finest months for cooks! There are still plentiful fresh vegetables, the winter squashes are in, the Apples are ripe and ready, and you can cook without overheating the house!

This feast was one of my four-part Exploring Italy series, set in Tuscany. Most of the dishes came from Ada Boni's Italian Regional Cooking, with additional guidance from Anna Del Conte's The Classic Food of Northern Italy.

We had:

• A starter of four New England cheeses, with a bottle of Rosso di Montalcino 2009
• We opened the meal with the Livornese Cacciucco, a flavorful and generous fish soup.
• Next came La Ribollita, the classic Tuscan white bean soup. I made this extra-hearty so as not to have two soups in the meal. This was extraordinarily savory.
• The main course was a Pollo in Agrodolce, a fascinating and zippy dish that features white raisins, wine vinegar, pignoli, and bitter chocolate - this was the hit of the dinner!
• With the meal we enjoyed a Boscoselvo Brunello do Montalcino 1999 and a Ruffino Chianti Classico Riserva Ducale d'Oro 2000.
• We finished with another surprise hit of the night, the mysterious Castagnaccio, a cake of chestnut flour, olive oil, pine nuts and golden raisins.

It may have been an error in judgment to go to Salem on the Saturday before Halloween, the biigest day of the year in the Witch City. But we were intent upon seeing the soon-to-depart Hudson River School exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum and forgot all about our possible peril.

Sure enough we were surrounded by witches and all sorts of ghoulish companions on the streets of the city, which look like an urban version of a country fair. Every available space seemed to host a Fried Dough truck or a Sausages and Peppers cart. Alas! I saw no Corn Dogs so I had to settle for real, local, organically-raised food instead.

The nice lady at the Visitor Center told us about someplace for breakfast, but it was full so we kept looking. Not far on we saw the Scratch Kitchen, proudly proclaiming local fare, so we went in.

They certainly have local fare well-prepared, including a succulent pulled pork from Lucki 7 Farms topped with a sunny-side up egg and washed down with a Notch Session Ale from nearby Ipswich.
The session ale is a sadly underrepresented type in this day of super-hopmonster Imperial IPAs and Imperial Belgian Drafthorse Ale and Imperial super-high-gravity neutronium ales: Session ales are flavorful but lower in alcohol (Notch doesn't go over 4.5% alcohol by volume) so they accompany a meal nicely without demanding to be the meal.

While Lorna was antiquing in the shops of Putnam, I sequestered myself in the quiet back corner corner of the awesome bar at 85 Main. I had planned on drinking coffee while she shopped, until I noticed the sign for their Classic Cocktails!

One of the cocktails on the menu is the Ramos Gin Fizz, which I have long wanted to try but never had the ingredients (or the courage).

It is not easy to make. Aside from the egg white and the cream and the orange blossom water, it calls for 5 minutes of vigorous shaking. This gives it the requisite body and froth, which opens up the flavors and may provide a show depending on the bartender, but it is exhausting so do remember to tip generously if you order this thing.  

The result is silky and magical, an evocative blend of flavors and textures - do try one!

We took a foliage drive to Connecticut's quiet corner.  Along the way, we discovered Mrs Bridge's Pantry, a great little tea room and market for British goods.

It was the perfect place to relax after touring the lovely historic Roseland Cottage in Woodstock, Connecticut, one of many interesting historic homes owned by Historic New England (formerly SPNEA).

After some more driving (where we scored some fresh preservative-free cider) we headed home by way of the  Stone Bridge Restaurant* in Tiverton, RI, where she enjoyed the special Lobster Cheesecake and I had the Portuguese classic,  Pork & Littleneck Clams.

*NSFW Warning: The Stone Bridge website plays music. If you start to distract your coworkers or wake the baby, you can turn it off with a Page Music Control at the bottom of the page.

In early October, the Old Colony Club had a Colonial Tavern Dinner. The cook roasted three fat geese, and I got the carcasses and a generous portion of the goosefat.

Goosefat is a wonderful savory fat for cooking, but it has other uses. The French, especially in the deep south formerly known as Aquitaine, put it to use in Rillettes and in Confit d'Oie, so I did the same.

Rillettes is a spreadable sort of very rich pate made of the leftover meat and fat pounded together with the quatre epices (lots of pepper, a little each of clove, nutmeg, and ginger). I served it on thin baguette slices, and on crackers when the baguette ran out.

Confit d'Oie is preserved goose; chunks of seasoned, cooked goose packed in melted goosefat to exclude air, and then chilled to solidify the fat.

I planned to serve it sizzling in a chafing dish, but we had no Sterno so I served it from on a hot plate with toothpicks beside it, and more crackers.

Both the confit and the rillettes were very popular, so the ritual will be repeated during the cold-weather months until the supply is gone.

What a discovery! We were driving from Worcester northwest along Rte 122 toward Rte 2 and Greenfield, just out exploring. We had left the suburbs of Worcester far behind and were very near the Quabbin Reservoir when we say a bright orange sign proclaiming the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival!

Well I ask you what foodie could pass up a serendipitous garlic and arts fest? We followed the signs along the twisting roads and came upon another world.

The event filled a large field, with a sort of locavore food court on a small wooded hill overlooking the tents of the main event. The food was all good local fare, and creative - that's where I tried my first garlic ice cream...

We really got into some trouble there. The festival went way beyond garlic. I bought about 18 different heirloom tomatoes for a tomato-tasting event, and a dozen types of garlic for a garlic tasting event, and about a half-dozen different varieties of new potatoes. I don't even eat potatoes! It was a temporary aberration, to be sure. A sort of locavore foodie shopper's high. But we sure had fun sampling those tomatoes and garlic!

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens are all very nice, but they don't make it into my Top 10 for My Favorite Things (most of which can be found in these pages). One of my favorite things is Cask-Conditioned Ale, and one of my very favorite things is Shipyard Brewery Old Thumper Extra Special Ale fresh from a hand-pulled cask.

This marvelous malty elixir can be had all the time (as far as I can tell) upstairs at the Coat of Arms Pub in Portsmouth.

There are many fine discoveries in Portsmouth; it's a shopper's paradise. For the most part, though, I let Lorna do the shopping while I ponder the delights of a fine fresh cask-conditioned ale and scribble down my thoughts.

There's more to the Coat of Arms than the ale, though. You can try a draft Strongbow cider as well. And you can eat traditional delicacies like the Scotch Egg with hot English Mustard!

I wonder why Lorna never wants to eat there? ;-)

Richmond's birthday is in June, when the farmers' markets are starting to fill up with fresh veggies and Strawberries are at their peak.

This feast was one of my four-part Exploring Italy series, set in northwestern Italy: Piedmont, Liguria, and Valle d'Aosta. Most of the dishes came from Anna Del Conte's The Classic Food of Northern Italy with a couple from The Silver Spoon Cookbook.

We had:

• We opened the meal with an antipasto of Fontina Valle d'Aosta cheese and artichoke hearts, white anchovies, and olives, refreshed by a bottle of good Lambrusco, and some Martini and Rossi Dry Vermouth on the rocks.
• This was followed by the Ligurian Cappon Magro, an awesome structure of seafood on a mound of steamed vegetables, held together by a fabulous piquant green sauce.
• Next came a Roast Beet and Cheese Ravioli with Pesto alla Genovese and a Green Bean Tourte.
• Then came White Truffle Risotto, a classic Piedmont flavor, accompanying a rich Chicken with Mushrooms and Cream featuring multiple types of mushrooms.
• With the meal we enjoyed a Batasiolo Barolo 2001 and an Alessandria Barbera d'Alba 2009.
• We finished with the non-Italian but seasonal Frozen Strawberry Torte.

The feast was held on Sunday, 19 June 2011.

Attendees were John and Lorna, Richmond and Annette

I have shopped at Henri Bahnan's store since it was a tiny bakery making Armenian peda bread. I would ride over on my bicycle and get a loaf of the bread hot off the oven-conveyor. Bahnan's also had a crowded skinny storefront where he sold middle-eastern spices and other ingredients. This was maybe 25 years ago.

Today, Bahnan's International Marketplace, Bakery, and Cafe is a much larger, thriving operation. It is still my go-to place when I need Greek or middle eastern foods, spices, and other goodies. It is the only place I know I can always get the Dodonis Feta that I use to make my celebrated Spanakopita, and the heavier country fillo that I use in that popular recipe. I buy my olive oil there, and the roasted unsalted hazelnuts that I use in my Buche de Noel every Christmastime.

Bahnan's is conveniently located just a few doors down from Ed Hyder's Mediterranean Marketplace, another must-visit while in Worcester.

We set out early, but not early enough to beat the traffic to the Fryeburg Fair, a great agricultural fair in western Maine not far from North Conway, NH. By the time we reached the outskirts of Fryeburg (a long way indeed from Plymouth!) the traffic was at a standstill, so we took a left turn and headed north through the Maine portion of the White Mountain National Forest.

It was one of the best foliage drives we had ever taken, the more so because we ended up at the legendary Ebenezer's Pub in tiny Lovell, ME.

Ebenezer's is a funny space by a golf course with an astonishing array of micro- and nono-brews, Belgian Ales, and other treats. It is defiinitely a destination, the sort of place you can go to try something you won't find anywhere else. That's what I did, a wonderful high-gravity nano-brew from NH. It was very malty, with coffee-molasses undertones and a dry finish, balanced by assertive hops that gave structure without intruding. I could find the brewer again, but...I had to promise Chris (the owner) that I wouldn't give the name online!

Ebenezer's isn't really near anywhere, but it's a very nice ride and a great destination.

Sunday was a long driving day. We awoke in Machias and started early with pie and coffee at Helen's before heading further downeast to Lubec and then all the way home to Plymouth. That's not that bad, about 400 miles if you stick to Rte 1 and the interstate, but of course we didn't. We explored all the inlets and points that had roads we could drive on and had great fun. 

Eventually we ran out of time and had to head homeward, through Machias and Ellsworth, back over the excellent bridge at Bucksport and past Belfast back to the comforts of more settled lands. We reached Wiscasset around 7pm, in time for dinner at our favorite waystation when heading home from the Maine Coast, Le Garage.   

This whole long expedition was a special trip for Lorna's birthday, and I had made a reservation in advance. Lorna's dad was from Nove Scotia, and maybe that's why she always gets the Finnan Haddie appetizer - it's a sort of Yankee Soul Food.  We go there quite a lot (we are in Maine quite a lot) and Cheryl knows us well by now. I won't say what she did to make Lorna's birthday special, but it was quite special indeed! (And mercifully it did not involve the waitrons singing Happy Birthday.) 

Downeast Maine is blueberry country, and there are no better blueberies than the tiny Wild Maine Blueberries. I usually try to avoid the carbs, but I can't pass up the black coffee and blueberry pie for breakfast at Helen's in Machias.

From Machias we continued our eastward trek toward the dawn country, arriving in Lubec some time later after exploring the few side roads that reach out to the sea. It's only about 30 miles, but we were in no rush - we were adventuring!

One happy discovery out in Lubec, about as far as you can go in Downeast Maine before you reach Canada, was Monica's Chcocolates. Monica is an excellent chocolatier who makes beautiful shells and filled chocolates that she boxes up and ships all over the country. I still haven't learned how she wound up in Lubec, though - Monica is from Peru!

There's a lot of Maine seacoast, but you're not Downeast until you reach Ellsworth. In Ellsworth, Routes 1 and 3 meet, and most of the cars head out to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Once you've passed Ellsworth, Coastal Route 1 gets smaller and less well-maintained. The towns are smaller and further apart, and there's not much good coffee to be had until you get to Machias, 60 miles on. So you might as well get a cup at The Maine Grind in Ellsworth, fierce locavores who really get what it means to treat food right.

While you're parked, you could do worse than to stop in at the excellent John Edwards Market for some additional road provisions, perhaps something to enjoy in your motel room.

Destination: The annual Common Ground Fair in Unity, ME.

Best of Show: The pasture-raised pork from Tide Mill Organic Farm

The Common Ground Fair is just about the antithesis of the Big E (see last week). It is smaller and quirky, in its own way. But the biggest difference is that it is hosted by MOFGA, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, and so is a venue exclusively for organic and sustainable agriculture.

MOFGA has a number of fearless farmers growing produce that you probably never heard of and that you'll probably never see on the shelf at Stop & Shop, like the German Beer Radishes pictured here. That's one of the best things about coming to these events.

This year was the 30th annual Common Ground Fair. It has grown quite a lot since Lorna and I first visited it in 2001. Then is was certainly smaller, and the organic farmers and other vendors there were more likely to be the pioneers of the movement, the true believers making it happen in a difficult business environment.

The 2010 fair was much, much larger: 60,000 people were expected! There was a three-mile wait to park on Saturday afternoon, and then a 10-minute walk along a muddy woodland path after we'd parked. It was much further than when we'd parked for the Big E the previous week.

Destination: The annual Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield.

Best of Show: The Wild Maine Blueberry Pie at the State of Maine building

The Big E is the biggest "agricultural fair" in all of New England. I put "agricultural fair" in quotes because the ag part of the show is much diminished behind the neon glare. Behind the mad bazaar of offbeat products, the enormous midway, the huge evening crowds for the country music performances, the BMX stunts and the juggler there were livestock and farmers, a cheese competition, and close-ups on regional specialties by state.

Destination: The annual September Brimfield Antiques Fair.

Best of Show: The Leverett Village Coop 

Saturday's adventure started with one of our three annual expeditions to the awesome Brimfield Antiques Show.

You really can't imagine the sense of remote rural deep-hemlock-hillside-dark isolation until you drive through Leverett, turn left on Rattlesnake Gutter Road, and visit the Leverett Village Coop... I got Kombucha and local Irish Stout from Lefty's Brewing, Bernardston, MA.

Destination: Provincetown, MA

Best of Show: A Royal Bermuda Yacht Club cocktail at Bubala's.

P-town is great fun in the summer, and those who enjoy shopping can find some interesting treasures. I'm not much of a shopper, so I typically sit someplace with coffee to work and write while Lorna shops.  

On this particular occasion, I had a foodie goal: I had been learning about the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club cocktail (see link above) and I have even made up a batch of that mysterious elixir known as Falernum Syrup to get the authentic flavor. But it still wasn't working for me; I needed the help of a pro.

Billy's instincts did the job. Billy is one of the barkeeps at Bubala's, on Commercial Street in Provincetown. I think he dreads when I come in because he knows I will want something that nobody else has ever asked for. But he also seems to enjoy the challenge, and always does a great job.

I had brought my Falernum in a little glass jar. He knew trouble was brewing when I set it down on the bar beside my clipboard and pen. I showed him the recipe and told him my troubles - the lime juice was beating up the other ingredients, but if I let up on it then it was too sweet. Alas! I had never had one properly made so I didn't even know what I was shooting for.

He drily said "You're shooting for a good drink, you fool." Then he took the Falernum and lickity-split he had shaken up a delicious Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Cocktail.

I asked him how he did it, and he said he'd just done it. I asked if he could do it again, and measure it this time.

Destination: Vermont Garlic Festival

Best of Show: Tasting 19 kinds of garlic and 21 varieties of heirloom tomatoes!

The journey was memorable, too - we also enjoyed local Mocha Joe's coffee, grass-fed beef and local veggies at the Chelsea Royal Diner in West Brattleboro before we ever got to the Garlic Fest.

After we left the Garlic Fest, it was too early to head home, so wecrossed Vermont on country  roads en route to ... dinner and Benton Lane pinot noir at Giuseppe's in Meredith, NH (well, it's sort of on our way...)

Destination: The Caledonia County Fair, Lyndonville VT

Best of Show: Fresh cheese curds from the cheese-maker truck

The Caledonia County Fair in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom is a good old-fashioned county fair with all the required accoutrements: cows and goats, the draft horse pull, corn-dogs and maple cotton candy - they do it right.

You might think that your source for the classic corn dog might not be fertile fields for foodie fun, but you just have to look around and maybe you'll get lucky.

We did. Way up in the back, beyond the center ring with the fairway and the draft horse competition, just to the left of the cattle barns, we found the Dairy on the Moove, a cheesemaker on wheels with an educational program and samples of tasty fresh cheese curds! 

 The lady with the white Bengal tigers was pretty cool, too!

Destination: Richard Thompson live at Prescott Park, Portsmouth, NH

Best of Show: Shared Reggiano Parmigiana and fresh peaches in the park

Honorable Mention goes to Colby's for an excellent late lunch