Good eats
Sweet ride
Enjoying fried food comforts at the Vermont State Fair
Bridport man lovingly restores 1957 Dodge pickup truck
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September 15, 2012
By Lou Varricchio
newmarketpress@denpubs.com SHELBURNE—Climate change, whether caused by human activity or mother nature all by herself—the scientific debate continues to rage—is underway and it has some Vermont agribusiness owners wondering to do next. In light of last year ’s Tropical Storm Irene, and recent predictions by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of significantly increased rainfall amounts in Vermont in the coming decade, crop growers are moving ahead slowly to see how the two agencies far-flung supercomputer weather models play out. One of the Champlain Valley’s newest agricultural enterprises is the growing of cold-hardy wine grapes. Vineyards have been springing up in Addison, Chittenden and Franklin counties since the 1990s. New, rugged grape varieties, developed by botanists at Wisconsin and Minnesota universities, are well suited to Vermont’s temperature extremes. These local varieties produce award-winning wines that—while perhaps not as glamourous as California and imported vinifera varieties—are worthy of any dinner table, both private and commercial. See VINTNERS, page 11
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Health officials ID Brandon virus victim By Lou Varricchio newmarketpress@denpubs.com BRANDON — Richard Hollis Breen, 87, of Brandon, died after being bitten by a mosquito carrying a deadly virus. Breen was past principal of Otter Valley Union High School and served in the U.S. Navy. Vermont Health Department officials said that Breen died Sept. 4. His death was the result of being infected by eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, carried by mosquitoes in Vermont. Harry Chen, M.D., Vermont Health commissioner, said EEE is spread by infected mosquitoes. The illness frequently develops rapidly in the human body and includes a fever, body chills, a feeling of listlessness as well as muscle and joint pains. One other Vermont person is infected with a mosquito-borne virus. Vermont Health Department officials are not commenting about the victim. A meeting held by the Vermont Health Department in Brandon Town Hall Sept. 4 provided an update on the victims and plans to include airplane spraying of swampy and woodland areas in the Addison County and Rutland County area including the towns of Brandon and Leicester. According to the health department's website, “the most economical and effective measures (where practical) are removal and control of stagnant water in residential areas, in garbage disposal, and the transport of incidental containers such as old auto and farm tires. Mosquitoes of most species are unlikely to travel more than a few hundred feet unless the wind is favorable.” See VIRUS VICTIM, page 11
Aerial pesticide spraying of portions of northern Rutland County and southern Addison County will help reduce diseasebearing mosquitoes. An 87-year-old Brandon man died Sept. 4 after being infected by EEE carried by a mosquito. Photo courtesy of Tallman Aerial
Ben & Jerry’s upset over ice-cream porn spoofs By Lou Varricchio newmarketpress@denpubs.com WATERBURY — The makers of Vermont’s famous Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream are suing a California-based producer of adult videos. An official of Caballero Video and distributor Rodax Video—which sells DVDs of its “Ben & Jerry’s” hetero- and homosexual series online—said he thought it was “cute” to make word plays of the famous ice cream offerings. Caballero’s tongue-in-cheek copywriters changed Cherry Garcia to Hairy Garcia and Boston Cream Pie has been twisted into Boston Cream Thigh—and then there’s Peanut Butter D-Cup. A Caballero gay men’s DVD, titled “AmeriCone Cream” was a takeoff on Ben & Jerry’s AmeriCone Dream Ice Cream, in-
spired by Stephen Colbert, host of the irreverent Comedy Central television show “The Colbert Report”. “I got a good chuckle out of Caballero Video’s Ben & Jerry’s inspired titles,” said adult-entertainment industry blogger Ami Angelowicz, “but the ice cream maker didn’t find them quite so amusing. Nor did they like the twisting of their “famous and distinctive” logo from “Vermont’s Finest” to “Porno’s Finest” or the compromising positions those innocent, grazing cows were put in.” Ben & Jerry’s isn’t exactly innocent when it comes to raising eyebrows with its own offensive product name. Its new Schweddy Balls Ice Cream, a rum-flavored vanilla with fudge-covered rum and malt balls, is See ICE CREAM, page 11
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Vintners consider climate change
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