Rutabaga redeemed in sweet and savory bites

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September 1, 2008

First-ever Keene festival celebrating root crop a hit

By KIM SMITH DEDAM The Press Republican Mon Sep 01, 2008, 12:00 AM EDT

KEENE -- It was a solid, smashed rutabaga hit.

In food, in story and even in a rutabaga ballad, the lowly root crop turned out to be a worthy cause for celebration.

The first-ever Great Adirondack Rutabaga Festival drew a large crowd Sunday, with scores of the curious and hungry piling on to Marcy Field for a rutabaga bite or two.

Mashed and baked with cranberries, grated with chives into cheesecake, pureed into creamy soup and spiced in frosted sweet cakes -- no matter how they cooked it -- the day was the root crop's redemption.

Lily Frechette, 2, strolled under a red striped tent in a pale-green cotton dress clutching two very large rutabaga plants about her height.

She just tugged them from the community garden ground.

The smallest one earned the tot a first place for perfect-shaped rutabaga.

Her brother, Cedar, 6, won a prize for the most distinctive rutabaga.

And Larry Jaques, a gardener and all-around Keene cook and pot washer, took first place for the biggest rutabaga, a specimen about the size of a honeydew melon.

Some people gawked at it.

They had never seen a rutabaga grown so big.

Some people had never even seen a rutabaga at all.

"In fact, we were just trying to figure out what a rutabaga is," said Carol Young.

Jaques said there was no secret method for growing big rutabagas.

"I just put a seed in the ground and put the water to it."

He also baked a mashed rutabaga casserole that gathered a crowd when he pulled it hot from the toaster oven.

The piping hot crockery was a buttery blend of rutabaga, cranberries and maple syrup with crumb topping.

"I better get out of the way," he said, "before I get run over."

Hudson Treadwell, 6, entered the root-crop coloring contest.

He was hesitant to bite a raw slice of the pungent plant.

"I've tried it before," he said, raising a knowing eyebrow.

But he thought the rutabaga cake was pretty delicious.

His sister Gigi, age 3, worked for 20 minutes on an abstract work of rutabaga art in quick strokes of crayon and colored pencil.

"Well, a rutabaga is a very abstract thing," her grandmother Libby said.

Many festival folks thought Keene might garner distinction as the rutabaga capital of the Adirondacks.

"I think it could be, I think Keene could be put on the map for that," said Pam Both, who served up a three-cheese rutabaga herb spread on crusty bread.

"It think Keene could be the capital of anything, as long as there's a good time involved," Keene Supervisor Bill Ferebee said.

There is already a rutabaga capital of the world in Cumberland, Wisc., said Tom Both, chairman of Adirondack Harvest, who dreamed up the harvest celebration.

"He suggested it to the board, and we told him we weren't going to do it," said Laurie Davis, coordinator for Adirondack Harvest.

"The next thing you know, I was printing out posters."

Both said rutabagas keep well in the winter.

"You can eat them a hundred different ways," she added.

Meanwhile, musician Joan Crane struck up a rooty tune called "music to eat a rutabaga by."

And Alana Both took the tin foil off an iced cake, kind of a carrot-cake recipe made with, what else, rutabaga.

Visiting family at Rivermede Farm, Jane Ross asked for the recipe. Her niece is getting married soon.

"I think this would make a terrific wedding cake," she said.

The recipe and others will be posted on the Web at www.adirondackharvest.com.

kdedam@pressrepublican.com