Rosemary Roots + The Heritage Harvest Festival At Monticello

This post is sponsored by Monticello

If you’re planning a visit to Charlottesville, this coming weekend would make a great time for a spontaneous visit. The 10th Annual Heritage Harvest Festival is happening at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello on Saturday September 10.

The festival is a celebration of Jefferson’s legacy featuring talks and exhibits on gardening, food, sustainability, plants, seeds, and more. I had the chance to experience the festival last year as well as a preview event in 2014, and both years I had a great time exploring all the things that Jefferson loved. General admission tickets to the Saturday festival are $15.

On Friday Night, there’s an opening event downtown at the Paramount Theater featuring keynote speaker Chef Patrick O’Connell from the Inn at Little Washington. (Someday I hope I can enjoy a meal there!) Following his talk, he’ll be joined by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms (also known from “Food Inc.”!), Ira Wallace of the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and culinary historian Michael Twitty. The reception afterwards will showcase local food in chef-created dishes. Tickets to the opening are $65, but I have a special $10 off code for you guys! Use VEG16 at checkout.

In preparation for this year’s event I was invited to Jefferson’s garden, a stunning and well-maintained tribute to his love for exotic and unusual plants. My host was Pat Brodowski, one of Monticello’s gardeners, and she give me a history lesson and a taste adventure all in one.

We tasted many kinds of beans, ate prickly gherkin cucumbers, and plucked salsify straight from the earth as we perused our way through the 24 square garden plots that Jefferson established.

The gardeners at Monticello aim to replicate the historical methods of Jefferson’s time, including the contributions of the enslaved people who would have tended to the gardens. I admire their efforts to tell all sides of the story.

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Pat sent me home with a basket full of some of the most reverent vegetables in the country. What is it about rustic, imperfect, dirty vegetables that is so beautiful?!

With my bounty I made this roasted rosemary roots recipe as the perfect harvest side dish.

Included in the mix were sugar beets, which I had never tried before. I loved that they had the beet taste without me having to worry about all the purple juice stain. I also came home with a rainbow of carrots and couldn’t wait to roast them together with fresh rosemary.

Finally, I picked up this Hickory Syrup at the Monticello Shop, and loved the subtle hickory flavor throughout the recipe.

This was some of the most fragrant rosemary I’ve encountered!

Simply spread onto a pan and roast at 425 degrees for about an hour.

And serve with wine, as Jefferson would have done.

Print Pin

Rosemary Roots

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings 1 bowl of roots

Author Katherine Younger

Ingredients

• 10 multicolored carrots sliced diagonally into bite-sized pieces
• 3 sugar beets sliced in uniform bite-sized pieces
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary about 1 heaping tbsp chopped
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp hickory maple syrup or just regular
• 2 tsp flake salt

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Combine chopped roots and rosemary in a big bowl and toss with olive oil, syrup, and flake salt.
• Spread onto sheet pan and roast for 1 hour, or until fork tender.

So if you’re anywhere near Charlottesville this weekend, I hope to see you at the festival!

Thanks to Monticello for sponsoring a post and all the inspiration!