In my continuing quest to eat pungent foods unadorned, I bought a quart of Farmer Sue's pickled hot peppers last Saturday at the Burlington, Vt., farmers' market. Consider me defeated. These peppers are the spiciest food I've had in a very long time and I can't remember approaching snacks with such trepidation. I instituted a policy of only eating one at a time, and only with dinner, because I fear angina if I were to eat one plain. Thankfully Sue warned me about what the scotch bonnet peppers look like. Apparently, they're the most intense and I'm not sure I'll even try to swallow more than a tiny bite of them.
According to the brochure she gave me, Sue and her family love hot peppers and grow many varieties on their farm in Bakersfield (where they also grow many other vegetables and leafy greens, raise hogs and chickens, sell the latter's eggs, and sow grain; and you can even "like" her on Facebook). They must be connoisseurs because my quart has peppers I've never seen before. Respect is due to her for the peppers. They're worth every dollar. I'm lucky that she happened to be filling a booth in Burlington, rather than taking her usual Saturday post in Shelburne.
Finally, I think Vermont farmers' markets are markedly better than those in Boston because they have live music and lunch served by farms and local restaurants. Instead of simply shopping for groceries, you can spend the morning there, hang out and graze at stands as you become hungry. It probably also helps that Vermont has many more quaint town commons than Boston does.
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