When my daughter was little, one of her favorite books was Where Does Joe Go? The delightful picture book by Vermonter Tracey Campbell Pearson imagines the places where Joe — the proprietor of Joe’s Snack Bar — might go in the off-season.

Joe’s Snack Bar, of course, has real-life roots in Jericho, where it was founded in 1950 by Joe Rotunda. He owned the local IGA store and opened a snack bar, where he made hard ice cream, next to his shop. Joe’s son, Joe Jr., took over Joe’s and ran it with his partner in business and life, Marilyn Kozlowski, for 35 years. Kozlowski, 67, has owned and operated it since Joe’s death eight years ago.

We loved the book about Joe's in part because we loved the snack bar, too. Each summer we’d make the pilgrimage from Burlington for onion rings, hot dogs, creemees, chicken nuggets and fried clams.

Last week, I returned to Joe’s Snack Bar after an absence of several years. I was more than happy to come upon its familiar and welcoming setting: benches on the front porch to wait for your food; a loudspeaker that calls your number when your order is ready; picnic tables with umbrellas in the grassy side yard.  Add to this scene thick milk shakes, hand-cut fries that spill from their container, and friendly people on both sides of the counter.

The downside: a menu with too many things that sound enticing. So I sought the assistance of other customers on the porch when I couldn’t decide what to order.  Cassidy Knight, a 20-year-old college student from Westford home for the summer, advised me to get scallops. “My mom gets the scallop basket and I get the clam basket and I always take a few of hers,” she told me.

Her mother, Lynn Knight, has been eating at Joe’s for 43 years. “The food is pretty much the same,” she said, recalling with fondness her childhood meals.

“If you know in your mind what you like at Joe’s, you can get it and it hasn’t changed,” Lynn , 55, said. She used to work in the restaurant business  and said "Joe’s is the cleanest restaurant I have ever been in.”

The scallop basket is a $9.25 offering of deep-fried summer goodness: four breaded and fishy nuggets with fries to match; crunchy cole slaw and a squishy roll, with tartar sauce and ketchup for dipping. Four is the perfect number of deep-fried anything, and my scallops were a perfect balance of crispy coating and flaky fish.

A couple of days after my meal, I talked by telephone with Kozlowski. She told me she first worked at Joe’s in high school. Now she runs the snack bar with a dozen high school and college kids and a staff of five women. The restaurant makes its own Michigan sauce, chili, cole slaw, spaghetti sauce and more, and smokes its own roast beef.

The other day, a four-year-old girl ate at Joe’s and brought her copy of Where Does Joe Go?, Kozlowski said.

Then she answered the mystery.  She and Joe went to Florida when the snack bar closed for the season.

Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: food@sevendaysvt.com.

Here's an idea: It's sticky and gross outside, so let's grill.

In my non-air-conditioned old farmhouse, this weather calls for dinner outside. Most days,  the sun is waning and the evening breeze has picked up by the time we get around to cooking dinner.

Last Friday I headed to the Chelsea Farmers Market, just over the hill from my house. Chelsea's is a small market, and a lot of the farms are one- or two-person operations. So, at this point in the season, many of the vendors are selling the same things I'm harvesting from my own garden.

Still, the chance to bump into folks in my regional farm community, and to partake in a few awesome specialty products — including a cool and creamy cup of goat's milk gelato from Sweet Doe Dairy — make market visits a treat every time. With hot days in the forecast, I grabbed a package of Angus beef kebab meat from Allenville Farm and earmarked it for Monday's dinner.

In the past year, food and beverage producers have released everything from chocolate truffles to beer laced with cannabidiol, the cannabis compound said to relieve muscle pain, upset stomach, anxiety, autism symptoms and more.  Chefs have even prepared special meals with a dose of the stuff in every course.

Now, Abracadabra Coffee, the Woodstock roastery known for sourcing single-farm, single-origin beans, is set to release its first batch of CBD cold brew, company cofounder Sarah Yetter told Seven Days.

Eric Rozendaal, a farmer whose products included eggs, butternut squash and maple lemonade, died Tuesday morning on a family vacation in the Bahamas.  He collapsed while running  at one of his favorite places, his wife, Keenann Rozendaal, told Seven Days by email.  Rozendaal, who was 51, owned and ran Rockville Market Farm in Starksboro.

He started farming at the Intervale in Burlington, and established his 108-acre organic farm on conserved land in Starksboro in 2001. Rozendaal specialized in several crops — his egg business is called Eric’s Eggs.  He was an innovative farmer who processed his squash for donuts made on the farm and for large wholesale accounts, including the University of Vermont Medical Center.

“I think he was an extraordinary visionary in that he had more ideas than anyone could keep up with,” said Julie Rubaud, his first farming partner and the mother of Rozendaal’s daughter, Louissa. “There’s a huge hole in the world right now. Above all, he was an incredible father.”  Rozendaal also has a son, Hans, with Keenann.