At Vermont farmers’ markets, it tastes global

Children frolic to the sounds of live bluegrass at the Hardwick farmers’ market. Samples of sheep’s milk cheese and mead are doled out by Bonnieview Farm and Caledonia Spirits, and High Mowing Organic Seeds offers tastes of 11 varieties of cucumber and 12 kinds of tomatoes, their table a glistening rainbow of red, green, yellow, orange, and purple. This place is the subject of the book “The Town That Food Saved’’ by farmer Ben Hewitt, and the vibrancy of the food community is palpable.

A hand-carved sign heralds The French Tart, a stall selling delicacies of Normandy as interpreted by Montparnasse native Carole Drury, 52. She grew up eating French food but didn’t learn to cook until she and her family came to the United States after the 1968 Paris political turmoil. She cooked at a French restaurant in Stowe and at several other Vermont kitchens until she decided to sell her own fare at five markets each week.

The fillings for her crepes include curried rice, ham and Cabot cheddar, and black currant compote. The crepes themselves are plush, their contents flavorful and well seasoned. Her dinner tarts are topped with roasted vegetables grown in her eight garden beds or in the greenhouse on the roof of her Greensboro home. In the fall she gathers apples from abandoned trees where homesteads once stood. She uses these to make a compote, on top of which she floats a layer of brandy. Her black currant compote uses organic vodka from Green Mountain Distillers in Stowe; she suggests spreading it on fresh bread.