NEWFANE — For one night only, on Tuesday, Dec. 4, the Four Columns Artisan Restaurant and the Friends of the Wardsboro Library invite everyone to celebrate the season of the Gilfeather turnip, Vermont's state vegetable.
The dinner is, in part, a benefit for the Friends of the Wardsboro Library, recent hosts of the Gilfeather Turnip Festival. It will feature a special menu created by Chef Erin Bevan.
The funds raised will support the cost of lighting, heating, maintaining, and insuring the 1840s farmhouse and barn that houses the library.
The dishes will all include the same special ingredient: Gilfeather turnips grown at Dutton Farm in Newfane.
These turnips have a creamy texture and, because they stay in the ground until after a series of hard frosts, they are sweet and mild, without the typical bitter turnip flavor.
The menu includes Gilfeather bisque with shiitake and truffle mascarpone, served with Gifeather biscuits and herb butter.
Entrées feature braised beef short rib with Gilfeather-apple hash, kale, and Gilfeather gremolata.
To finish the meal: a Gilfeather and maple gelato, with thyme-vanilla bean tuile, flax-graham crumb, and espresso drizzle.
Choose the prix-fixe menu as a three-course meal for $40, not including tax and gratuity, or order a Gilfeather turnip course or two separately.
The inn will match a suggested donation of $5 per table.