Richard Berkfield, Executive Director of Food Connects, cuts the ribbon on a new cooler and freezer at their distribution hub in Brattleboro.
Photo: High Meadows Fund
Food Connects of Brattleboro, VT delivers locally produced food as well as educational and consulting services aimed at transforming local food systems. Its food hub aggregates and delivers from over 70 local farms and food producers to over 130 buyers in southeast Vermont, southwest New Hampshire, and western Massachusetts. With…
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2019 Vermont Farm to Plate Annual Report
A Letter from Farm to Plate Director Jake Claro to the Vermont General Assembly and Governor Phil Scott:
This year’s Vermont Farm to Plate Annual Report features highlights of key projects from 2019, including grass-fed beef industry development, local planning for food access, wholesale markets, and small-scale on-farm composting. You will also see…
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Salvation Farms provides technical assistance to RAFFL's gleaning program at Thomas Dairy with gleaning coordinator Jen preparing the program's weekly distribution with their volunteer delivery driver, farmer and then RAFFL board member, John.
Photo: Salvation Farms
In a state known for its robust agricultural economy, many Vermonters still face serious challenges and barriers to getting food, particularly, fresh, healthy food that is affordable. The new toolkit Local Planning for Food Access aims to help Vermont towns, cities, and regions increase access to food. Released in November…
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Story and photography by Erica Houskeeper. Original version appears at Happy Vermont's website.
All it takes is flour, butter, salt, and water to make a pie crust. But it takes a community to make a difference.
Pies for People, now in its eleventh year, is a community-building initiative that brings together volunteers, gleaned local…
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Pies
Photo: School of the New American Farmstead
CRAFTSBURY COMMON, Vt. –– Fermentation, cheesemaking, bread baking and more were on the menu at the School of the New American Farmstead at Sterling College this summer, marking the school’s fourth year of nationally-acclaimed courses focused on cutting-edge topics in food and farming. The program creates opportunities for entrepreneurs, professionals…
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The summer meal site and mobile learning kitchen is reaching more youth than ever before.
The Lunchbox food truck is a free summer meal site and mobile learning kitchen operated in partnership by Green Mountain Farm-to-School (GMFTS) and the Abbey Food Service Group. The program aims to provide the community with…
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This August 3-10, Mad River Food Hub (MRFH) will host the second annual Mad River Taste Week event highlighting the farmers and food producers of the Mad River Valley. Originally conceived as a way to bolster marketing efforts for the local food and agriculture community, Taste Week has quickly become a…
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It’s a safe bet that no matter where one finds themselves in Vermont, they’re not too far away from a Vermont food co-op. Boasting the highest number of stores per capita, Vermont’s 15 food co-ops have established themselves as pillars of their communities along with being drivers of the state’s…
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Vermont farmers graduate from livestock profitability school
Vermont Farm to Plate Network aims to create a cohort of leaders who can serve as models of success in Vermont’s emergent grass-fed beef industry
MONTPELIER, VT – This month, 14 Vermont farmers graduated from the leading national livestock profitability school, Ranching for Profit School…
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The Skinny Pancake is one of those iconic Vermont brands: unique, mission-driven, community-focused, a cool back story…and bringing a distinctly ‘Vermont flavor’ to the table.
Since its introduction via a hand-hewn food cart traversing Burlington’s Church Street mall back in 2003, the Skinny Pancake has attracted fans and fanfare across multiple…
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The Center for An Agricultural Economy's Vermont Food Venture Center in Hardwick.
Photo: Todd Balfour
Published from an original story from High Meadows Fund. Find them on Twitter at (@HighMeadowsFund).
We are in a precarious moment where gains made by Farm to Plate and Eat Local initiatives to grow and diversify Vermont’s agricultural opportunities are threatened by consolidation in the retail food industry. This consolidation is creating intense…
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Attendees from a day-long workshop in October designed for livestock farms of all scales and stages of development.
Photo: Troy Bishopp
Are you looking to increase your farm's profitability? Are you ready to look at your business with a fresh perspective, challenge some things you currently do and have the time to explore need ideas? If so, we are bringing that opportunity to your doorstep.
Dave Pratt and his Ranching for Profit School (RFP) are bringing the leading livestock profitability…
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Vermont Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Program Education Coordinator Mary Ellen Franklin (left) with Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts
Photo: UVM Extension
In Vermont and around the country, the economic crisis facing the dairy industry is a top concern, and along with it come significant implications for families, communities and farmland. The problem is complex, the stakes are high, and farmers and those who support them want solutions.As with many complex, persistent problems, the…
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Sally and Walt Goodrich
Photo: Goodrich Family
One of the first things you notice at Molly Brook farm is that Rhonda and Myles Goodrich call every single one of their 77 cows by name. “Move along Clover,” or “this way Charlotte” is heard in the milking parlor during the daily milking sessions. The Goodrichs, like so many…
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Snug Valley Farmers Market Tent
Photo: Snug Valley Farm
East Hardwick, Vt. – Vermont continues to lose dairy farms at a devastating rate – as of July the state had lost 66 this year alone. As dairy farmers struggle with whether or not they can survive in their current industry many look to what could be next. The Notterman…
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Vermonters Feeding Vermonters purchases fresh, local produce like this to share with people facing hunger.
Photo: Vermont Foodbank
Vermont Foodbank launches Vermonters Feeding Vermonters, a new program to purchase local produce for Vermonters facing hunger
This year, the Vermont Foodbank is launching Vermonters Feeding Vermonters (VFV), a brand new program that will purchase high quality fruits and vegetables directly from Vermont growers to distribute to Vermonters facing hunger.
Every Vermonter…
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The Toolkit equips markets with the knowledge to confidently continue being valuable community spaces while improving management tactics where needed.
Photo: Illustration by Mike Custode
The rapid growth of farmers markets across the country has been good for local food. Communities have better access to fresh produce and other local goods, farmers have another outlet to reach customers and market their products, and people of varying income brackets can better access fresh, local food. However,…
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By Dominique Giroux, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, & Markets
Prevention versus reaction. For the produce industry, these words have become the backbone of a federal regulation that shifts the focus of our national food safety system from responding to foodborne illness to preventing it. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)…
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Hermit Thrush Brewery’s Charles Soucy compares notes with Magic Hat Brewery Manager Robert Kuntz
Photo: Efficiency Vermont
How Vermont Beer Makers Brew up Energy Savings
By Morgan Hood, Efficiency Vermont Account Manager
Big things are brewing at Magic Hat Brewing Company in South Burlington. That’s where skilled beer makers from five Vermont breweries gathered recently with energy efficiency experts from Efficiency Vermont, Burlington Electric Department, and Loureiro Engineering Associates for a three-day intensive dive…
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Local kids line up for lunch at Roosevelt Park in Burlington
Photo: Hunger Free Vermont
Across Vermont, just over 36,000 school-age children rely on school breakfast and lunch to provide the nutrition they need to grow and thrive. When summer vacation begins, these children are left vulnerable to food insecurity and the resulting consequences. Communities are taking action by offering free meals for kids and…
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Kelsey and Phelan O'Connor
Written by Kate Stephenson
After spending the past seven years providing low interest loans to farmers across the state to grow their businesses, the Vermont Farm Fund is expanding to partner with the Vermont Land Trust to offer loans to farmers who have gone through VLT’s Farmland Access Program. The Farmland…
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Coupons and marketing materials for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Coupon Program
Photo: Green Mountain Farm to School
The Newport-based non-profit, Green Mountain Farm-to-School (GMFTS), in partnership with the national non-profit, Wholesome Wave, is making fresh fruits and vegetables more accessible to low-income residents of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom through the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Coupon Program. This innovative approach to food access offers all Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program…
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Sodexo’s Vermont chefs and managers tour Vermont Packinghouse in Springfield, VT, where all animals are slaughtered and processed for Black River Meats.
Photo: Vermont First
As she tallied up the final numbers, Sodexo’s Vermont First Coordinator Annie Rowell already anticipated the decrease in Sodexo’s local purchases for 2017. Launched in 2014, Vermont First is Sodexo’s commitment to increase local food purchasing at all of Sodexo’s Vermont accounts, which helps achieve Vermont Farm to Plate’s goals…
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Vermont Smoke and Cure employees
Photo: Vermont Smoke and Cure
Written by Ellen Kahler
Vermont’s struggle to grow its workforce weakens our economy, inhibits the ability for Vermont businesses to expand their operations, and threatens the ability for Vermonters and future generations to grow and thrive here in the Green Mountains. An aging workforce, stagnant wages in jobs without career ladders,…
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Christa Alexander in a year round greenhouse at Jericho Settlers Farm
Photo: Efficiency Vermont
Written by JJ Vandette
Fifteen years ago, Christa Alexander and Mark Fasching started selling the extra produce from their prolific vegetable garden. They invested in some chickens, then some livestock, some more land, and before they knew it they were farming full-time. Fast forward to today. Jericho Settlers Farm is a…
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Johnson State College Staff at Peaslee’s Potatoes in Guildhall, VT
Photo: NOFA-VT
Strategies and Opportunities for Greater Local Food Procurement in Vermont Higher Education Food Service
Written by Jennie Porter
Institutions represent a unique opportunity in Vermont to increase access to local foods because they serve many meals a day to a wide range of people, and they can help to increase consumer awareness…
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Consumer shopping for local food
Photo: Rooted in Vermont
Written by Jake Claro
When you ask people their definition of the Vermont food economy, they’ll often talk about farms, farmers’ markets or CSAs. What’s often missing from the conversation are the supply chain of local businesses such as distributors, food processors and manufacturers, and seed, feed, and equipment dealers.
Vermont’s local…
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Meat processing in Vermont
Photo: Over the Hill Farm
Gathering the Herd: A Vermont Meat Processing Case Study captures lessons learned over a three year period from the Farm to Plate Meat Processing Task Force through interviews conducted by Carrie Abels with members of the task force and industry leaders.
The Meat Processing Task Force within the Farm to Plate…
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Kale harvest at Good Heart Farmstead in Worcester, Vermont
Photo: Good Heart Farnstead
Written by Kate Spring
In 2013, writer Kate Spring and her husband started Good Heart Farmstead with the mission to make local food more accessible. Not only did they aspire to make it easier for people to find local food, but they wanted to make it easier for them to afford…
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Take 5 is a series of 12 local food sourcing and merchandising training videos for Vermont retail stores to help increase local food sales. The Farm to Plate Independent Grocers Task Force launched the Take 5 series of five-seven minute training videos for convenience, general, grocery and other retail stores…
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What is Rooted in Vermont?
Rooted in Vermont is a grassroots movement to increase consumer demand for local food. Rooted in Vermont is shifting the local food narrative on social media and in Vermont communities to be inclusive of the many ways Vermonters enjoy and acquire local food. Traditions like gardening,…
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In 1994, the then Vermont Department of Agriculture, Food and Markets issued the land use planning guide "Sustaining Agriculture: A Handbook for Local Action". Prepared by Deb Brighton and Jim Northup of Ad Hoc Associates, the guide was a valuable resource for citizen and professional planners interested in maintaining the…
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Long Trail Brewery
Photo: Vermont Brewers Association
Written by Celia Riechel
Maple syrup and outdoor adventure may have put Vermont on the map, but increasingly, breweries are showcasing the best of the Green Mountain State. Vermont is at the forefront of a nationwide growth trend in the craft beer industry, ranking 1st in number of breweries and production…
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Greenhouses at new Mighty Food Farm location in Shaftsbury
Photo: Mighty Food Farm
Written by Nadine Berrini
In 2006, Lisa MacDougall and a business partner started Mighty Food Farm on five leased acres in Pownal with a 1953 Ford Golden Jubilee and an old Troy-Bilt rototiller. She now has 200+ members in her year-round CSA and 10 employees.
Lisa spent six years searching for…
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Meat processing class at Vermont Tech
Photo: Mad River Food Hub
Written by Molly Willard
Vermont Tech is one of several educational institutions in Vermont helping to strengthen the food system. In collaboration with other educational institutions, degrees and certificate programs are offered to help meet Vermont’s Farm to Plate food system plan goal to offer a wide range of curricula,…
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Wellspring Farm
Photo: Corey Hendrickson
Written by Shane Rogers
Green Mountain Farm Direct, a food hub run by Green Mountain Farm-to-School, is working to connect local farmers with schools, restaurants, and institutions across northern Vermont to increase the farm’s sales and boost consumption of local food in institutions and the overall region. Those partnerships have created…
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Energy efficient maple production at Scrag Mountain Sugar House
Photo: Efficiency Vermont
Written by Liz Gamache
Each spring, many Vermont sugar makers are already looking ahead to producing the next year’s crop and they may be considering what equipment upgrades they’ll need to save time, energy, and money next season.
With over 1500 maple sugar makers in the state, Vermont is the largest producer…
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Volunteers at the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf prepare fresh food donations
Photo: Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf
Written by Helen Labun
The University of Vermont may not be a traditional restaurant, but it moves a lot of food. Their dining units serve an average of 12,812 meals each day—enough to feed dinner to every resident of Montpelier with plenty left over for everyone to grab dessert and a…
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Berry picking is a low cost way to bulk up on local food.
Photo: Rooted in Vermont
Vermonters enjoy local food and beverages in a variety of ways—growing or foraging their own, purchasing directly from a farmer or at the store, hunting or fishing, eating at schools and institutions serving local food, finding food from a community food shelf or the Vermont Foodbank, or just by trading…
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Chelsea Wagner works to get local food in front of consumers in the Hannaford Local program.
Photo: Mainebiz/Tim Greenway
Written by Erica Houskeeper
Chelsea Wagner wants more consumers to buy local food.
A specialist for Hannaford’s Local program, Wagner works with farmers and producers across the region to give them shelf space at Hannaford supermarkets across five states.
The Portland, Maine-based supermarket chain owns 181 stores in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,…
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Melanie and Jeff Carpenter of Zack Woods Herb Farm
Photo: Vermont Farm Fund
Written by Kate Stephenson
Zack Woods Herb Farm grows a wide variety of medicinal herbs sold as dried herbs, live plants and fresh herbs. Based in Hyde Park, their products are all certified organically grown or ethically wild-harvested on the farm. After 16 years in business, Jeff and Melanie Carpenter recently authored…
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Fall pumpkin harvest
Photo: Land For Good
Written by Kathy Ruhf
Farmland access and affordability are top obstacles for new and beginning farmers in New England and nationally. Many new farmers cannot afford to purchase land to start or expand their operations. At the same time nearly 30% of New England farmers will exit farming in the next decade.…
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Food preparation skills are developed through cooking for Meals on Wheels in the Cornucopia program in the NEK.
Photo: NEK Food System Plan
Written by Taylar Foster
The Northeast Kingdom Food System Plan was re-released in December of 2016, marking a substantive update to Vermont’s only regional food system plan. The Center for an Agricultural Economy, the Northeastern Vermont Development Association, and a steering committee composed of Northeast Kingdom cross industry experts and social…
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Vermonters find purchasing season products direct from farm stands to be a good value.
Photo: Rooted in Vermont
Written by Rachel Carter
When choosing to purchase food, cost is often a deciding factor for consumers. Why buy a 12-ounce package of local bacon for $7.99 when you can get it for $4.98?
Purchasing local food means you know where your food comes from, you’re buying food that is generally healthier,…
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Intervale Food Hub delivers fresh produce to UVM.
Photo: Intervale Center
Written by Bobby Young
For over 10 years, the Intervale Food Hub has been working with Sodexo and the University of Vermont to increase their procurement of local foods. The Intervale Food Hub, a social enterprise of the Intervale Center, works with nearly 40 Vermont producers to sell local food direct…
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Tom Stearns of High Mowing Seeds, Clean Yield's first direct local agricultural investment.
Photo: Delia Gillen
Written by Karin Chamberlain
Clean Yield Asset Management clients aim to align their money with their values, and for many that means finding…
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Farm to School program gleaning at Pete's Greens
Photo: Center for an Agricultural Economy
Written by Betsy Rosenbluth
Vermont has much to celebrate as a national leader in the Farm to School movement and it hasn’t happened by accident. Nearly a decade ago, in 2007, Vermont was one of the first states to pass a Farm to School bill. That legislation has supported more than…
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Healthy and local dining options at UVM Medical Center
Photo: UVM Medical Center
Written by Alison Nihart
New research from the University of Vermont has quantified the economic impact of local food purchasing by the University of Vermont Medical Center. This study, the first of its kind in the state, shows how Vermont’s largest hospital is contributing toward Vermont reaching its institutional consumption…
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Vermont Commodity Program crew members bag potatoes at Salvation Farms’ facility in Winooski gleaned from Barber Farm in Jericho.
Photo: Salvation Farms
Written by Marcella Houghton
Pick a food – and you are likely to find a Vermont-made version. From coffee to peanut butter, from to bread to beer, the abundance of edible goods with the Vermont brand is just one measure of how we value our state’s food system. But one place we’re…
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Farm to Institution distribution at the Intervale Food Hub
Photo: The Intervale Center
Written by Nessa Richman
New England food distributors play a significant role in how people eat both in and outside of institutional dining facilities and have a strong interest in local food, according to “Getting It There: Understanding the Role of New England Food Distributors in Providing Local Food to Institutions”…
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School Lunch at Edmund's Middle School
Photo: Hunger Free Vermont
Written by Alida Duncan
Hunger Free Vermont’s vision is for Vermont’s school cafeterias and classrooms to be a welcoming place where all kids equally share meals together, and that school provide a learning lab for healthy eating—including exposure to local foods and creating localvores for life. This vision aligns with Vermont’s…
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Woodchuck Hard Cider employees pick for their neighbors
Photo: Vermont Foodbank
Written by Judy Stermer
September is National Hunger Action Month, a time when food banks across the country work to mobilize the public to take action on the issue of hunger. But hunger in Vermont is a 365 day-a-year problem. In Vermont, the Foodbank provides food assistance to 153,000 Vermonters. Nearly…
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CRAFT greenhouse learning session in Addison County
Photo: NOFA VT
Written by Maria Buteux Reade
A group of farmers gather in a pasture and stare intently at a young man struggling to push a long probe deep into the ground. He shakes his head sheepishly and hands off the penetrometer to the next volunteer. No luck for her either. The…
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Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, Vermont
Photo: Efficiency Vermont
Written by Tim Perrin
Beer matters in Vermont. Not only do we have more breweries per capita than any other state, we also consume 25 percent more beer than national average per capita. That’s not surprising -- if everyone else’s beer was as good as Vermont’s, they’d drink more of it…
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Tim and Magnolia at Laughing Child Farm
Photo: Vermont Housing and Conservation Board
Written by Lindsay Quella
Tim and Brooke Hughes-Muse, owners of Laughing Child Farm in Pawlet, knew they had great idea for their farm when they enrolled in the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) Farm & Forest Viability Program, but weren't so sure about its feasibility. “When we came across sweet potatoes, we thought it…
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Written by Katie Spring
Published in Vermont's Local Banquet
In 2012, new farmers Jesse McDougall and his wife, Cally, decided not to spray the kinds of chemical pesticides and fertilizers that had long been applied to their hayfields in Shaftsbury. Their 50-acre farm, which had been in Cally’s family since 1936, was…
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Des Marais Farm wetlands in Brandon
Photo: Vermont NRCS
Written By Amy Overstreet
Here in Vermont, wetlands help filter polluted runoff that could otherwise carry chemicals and bacteria into Lake Champlain and other waterbodies. But, half of the world's wetlands have disappeared since 1900. Development continues to pose threats to wetlands, even though their value and importance are obvious.
Here in…
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Written by Caroline Abels
Published in Vermont's Local Banquet
The Williamsville Eatery’s website features a list of local farms and food purveyors that’s even longer than its menus. The impressive list shows where the Eatery buys its local food—but the length of the list is just one reason why the two-year-old restaurant…
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Written by Erica Housekeeper
The original version of this post was published on the UVM Food Feed blog.
Nearly 30% of New England’s farmers are likely to exit farming over the next decade, and nine out of 10 of those farmers do not have someone else ready to take the reins, according…
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Cobb Hill Frozen Yogurt owner partner Jeannine Kilbride
Photo: Cobb Hill Frozen Yogurt
Written by Rachel Carter
Published in Small Farm Quarterly
Creamy farmstead frozen yogurt in vanilla, chocolate, maple, and coffee flavors is pumped into 300 Cobb HillFrozen Yogurt pints a week—a number that has more than doubled from this time last year.
“A year ago, it took us three production days to do what we…
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Workers at Black River Meats (Springfield)
Photo: Black River Meats
Written by Mark Cannella
Published in Vermont's Local Banquet
Small farms in Vermont contribute tremendous value to our evolving food system by being nimble enough to respond to shifting consumer demand quickly. Small farms have pioneered niche products, such as multi-variety mesclun mixes and hybrid CSA memberships. They are engaged in cutting-edge production…
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Full Sun Company sells sunflower and canola oil.
Photo: Full Sun Company
Written by Cheryl Herrick
Published in Vermont's Local Banquet
Netaka White remembers going to some of the first local food challenges in Vermont—potluck meals to which attendees would bring food that was entirely grown or raised within Vermont, or a 50-mile radius.
“There would be all this great stuff,” he recalls, “but there…
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Maggie Atherton, an 8th generation future dairy farmer
Photo: Aires Hill Family Farm
Written by Laura Hardie, New England Dairy Promotion Board
Karie Thompson Atherton, 35, is the seventh generation to grow up on her family’s dairy farm in Berkshire, Vermont and always knew she wanted to continue the tradition of dairy farming.
“There's definitely easier ways to make a living, but none as fulfilling,"…
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Green Mountain Farm-to-School AmeriCorps members teach food preservation at Old Stone House in Brownington
Photo: GMFTS
Written by Shane Rogers, Green Mountain Farm-to-School
Be on the lookout, AmeriCorps members serving with Green Mountain Farm-to-School (GMFTS) as farm-to-school coordinators are bringing place-based nutrition and agriculture education into schools across the Northeast Kingdom – 27 to be exact. Using original, grade-specific curriculum, created with the financial support from the Stony Point…
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Happy consumer at Nea-Tocht Farm during last year's Breakfast on the Farm
Photo: UVM Extension
Written by Julie Smith, UVM Extension, Animal and Veterinary Sciences and Ted Ferris, MSU Extension, Animal Science
The first Vermont Breakfast on the Farm event gave consumers and farm neighbors a first-hand look at modern food production. Hosted by Nea-Tocht Farm in Ferrisburgh in August 2015, the event was organized and…
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Grinding Masa! All Souls Tortilleria packaged tortillas are now available at City Market in Burlington VT
Photo: All Souls Tortilleria
Written by Sarah Bhimani, City Market, Onion River Co-op
City Market, a community-owned food co-op in Burlington, VT, has a list of Global Ends that guides their business and all that they do. One of their Global Ends is “strengthening the local food system,” which is met through a myriad of…
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David invites guests to visit with the cows and help with daily chores in the barn.
Photo: Rachel Carter
Wrtitten by Rachel Carter
Published in Small Farm Quarterly
Tucked delightfully in the foothills of the Green Mountains along scenic Rte. 100 in Rochester, Vermont, sitsLiberty Hill Farm—a working dairy farm defined by the 1890’s red barn with cupola—one of the most photographed in all of Vermont. Beth and Bob Kennett milk…
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Farmer Jack Lazor and UVM Extension agronomists Sid Bosworth and Heather Darby discuss results of a small grains research trial with funding from NE-SARE.
Photo: NE-SARE
Written by Debra Heleba, University of Vermont Extension
Research and outreach activities are crucial to building our collective knowledge about the food system and moving it forward to meet our Farm to Plate goals for 2020 and beyond. However, funding these activities can be challenging; while a number of local, state,…
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The Vermont Tech greenhouse with nutrient management specialist Sosten Lungu (right)
Photo: Vermont Higher Education Food System Consortium
Written by Vicky Tebbets
Students from around the country plunged into a whirlwind tour of Vermont last June with one goal: immersion in Vermont’s food systems. For 21 intensive days they traveled 404 miles, learned from leaders at five colleges, one university, and a law school, and spent 54 afternoon hours…
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Seth Gillim and Mike Ingalls are managers of the Intervale Conservation Nursery, founded in 2002 and dedicated to growing native, locally sourced trees and shrubs for riparian restoration projects throughout Vermont.
Photo: Rachel Carter
Written by Rachel Carter
Published in Small Farm Quarterly
Native trees and shrubs intertwine with one another, keeping 350-acres of flood plain intact along the banks of the Winooski River, best known as the Intervale. Located within the city limits of Vermont’s urban metropolis (42,000), Burlington boasts a solid urban farming culture,…
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A loan is helping kickstart Rob Rock’s agriculture machinery and fabrication business, a bonus for Vermont farmers in need of his custom farm equipment and metal-working services.
Photo: Farm Fund
Written by Caitlin Gildrien
Published in Vermont's Local Banquet
Early on a January morning in 2011, Pete Johnson of Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury heard a funny noise. When he looked out his window, he saw his barn engulfed in flames. The building and all of the equipment and product inside was in…
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Eden Ice Cider
Photo: Homepage: DigInVT; detail page: Eleanor Leger
Written by Jen Rose Smith
Published in Vermont's Local Banquet
2015 was a banner year for apples. By early October, Vermont’s trees were bowed low with ripe fruit. At Windfall Orchards in Cornwall, Brad Koehler’s century-old trees groaned under cascades of apples he would sell at farmers’ markets or ferment into a…
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Bread & Butter Farm
Photo: Erica Housekeeper / Happy Vermont
Prepared by Carrie Abels for the Financing Cross-Cutting Team
Bread & Butter Farm, which straddles the South Burlington/Shelburne border, sells an array of farm products and experiences—everything from grass-fed beef to fresh-baked German bread to winter vegetables to farm-fresh burgers served on Friday evening “Burger Nights.”
But the diversity of Bread &…
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Written by Alex Brown
Published in Vermont's Local Banquet
The Chelsea Royal Diner’s 1939 dining car has been in its present location on Route 9 just outside Brattleboro since 1987, but today it’s home to a successful demonstration of the modern resurgence in serving locally grown food. Todd Darrah, enjoying his 25th…
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Montpelier's farmers' market.
Photo: Rachel Carter
Written by Caroline Abels
Published in Vermont's Local Banquet
Over the past 10 years farmers’ markets in Vermont have burst forth like a backyard garden in July. Currently there are 63 markets in the Vermont Farmers’ Market Association, and a dozen or so that aren’t members. But every now and then you…
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Caledonia Spirits whiskey cask.
Photo: Jennifer Rose Smith
Written by Jennifer Rose Smith
Published in Vermont's Local Banquet
Do you know a cooper? It’s a query likely to produce confusion, as Caledonia Spirits’ founder Todd Hardie learned by putting the question to just about everyone. “For most of a year, each time I met someone, I’d say ‘Hello, do you…
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The work crew at Chappelle's Potatoes.
Photo: CAE.
Written by Alissa Matthews and Sarah Waring
Vermont's Local Banquet
There’s no vegetable more basic than a potato. This humble, tuberous root crop, Solanum tuberosum, grows in the dark, hidden from view most of the year, and emerges late when the air is frosty. It’s not as exciting as kale, not as…
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Packaging meat at Vermont Packinghouse.
Photo: Caroline Abels
Written by Caroline Abels
Vermont's Local Banquet
Ironically, given that it’s the only slaughterhouse in Vermont with public viewing windows, the new Vermont Packinghouse doesn’t have a single window on the outside, save on the front door of the main office. I peered through that office window when I visited the newly…
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In 2014 Farm to Plate’s Consumer Education and Marketing Working Group conducted a target audience analysis to identify and map customers and potential customers of Vermont’s food products. Spearheaded by co-chairs Beth Cullen of Root Consulting and Chris Howell of Vermont Farm Tours, the “Understanding Vermont’s Food Consumer” project is…
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Salvation Farms' gleaning programs are changing lives through community engagement and food systems work.
Photo: Salvation Farms.
Written by Suzanne Podhaizer
Vermont's Local Banquet
At some of Vermont’s correctional facilities, inmates are required to labor while serving time, so it’s not uncommon for those in the custody of the state to spend their days picking up trash on the side of the road or punching out Vermont license plates.
But…
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Hoop house at Little Village Farm.
Photo: VFF
You know things are moving in the right direction when you see a farmer whose fields were completely underwater a few years ago going on to invest for growth in their business.
A 2-acre family vegetable farm dedicated to bringing the benefits of a CSA to their tight-knit Proctorsville community, Little…
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Many small producers use VAT pasteurizers, but the LiLi processes more quickly, at 2 gallons per minute, and uses heat more efficiently, resulting in a less energy-intensive process and milk that retains more of its nutritional value and flavor.
Photo: Caroline Abels
Written by Caroline AbelsVermont's Local Banquet
To understand what the LiLi pasteurizer—conceived and developed in Vermont—could mean to the dairy community of Orange County, New York, I drove to the Hudson Valley in early July and chatted with some longtime dairy farmers.They told me—a few minutes before the ribbon-cutting ceremony that…
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The chalkboard at DownStreet Eats, Cabot.
Photo: Caroline Abels
Written by Elena GustavsonVermont's Local Banquet
The sun is up, the kids are stirring, and as I sit at my kitchen counter in Cabot with a cup of strong black coffee in hand, I review my list: 7 a.m., Kids to School; 8 a.m., Craftsbury; 9 a.m., Hardwick; 9:45 a.m., East…
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Karyl Kent (Richmond Elementary), David Horner (Chittenden East), and Alison Forrest (Brewster Pierce Elementary, Huntington), school nutrition directors holding the new school cookbook they contributed to.
Photo: Caroline Abels
Written by Bonnie North
We all know that “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” Similarly, as any parent knows, you can put good, healthy food on kids’ lunch plates but that’s no guarantee they’ll actually eat it.
But who can blame them? Consider what they’re…
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The menu changes daily at Hen of the Wood, and also includes regional seafood.
Photo: Hen of the Wood.
Written by Carrie Abels
Chef Eric Warnstedt would rather switch to an entirely different line of work than run a restaurant that’s not committed to local food. At 38 years old, he’s been cooking since he was 21, always at restaurants that skew local – “so there’s simply never been another…
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Guascor engines are commonly used with methane digesters in Vermont.
Photo: Vermont Agency of Agriculture
Prepared by Alex DePillis, Senior Agricultural Development Coordinator, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets
Highlights: 225 kilowatts of installed capacity ● 1.75 million kWh of electricity generated per year ● 7-year payback ● Cow Power farm generates electricity and uses waste heat for greenhouse
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Lois and Maurice Maxwell started…
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Vote with your dollars.
Photo: Anna Svagzdys
Written by Mari Omland
Read more in Vermont's Local Banquet Spring 2014 issue.
At a wedding last summer, I sat next to a neighbor who buys her Thanksgiving turkey from our farm. She described her daily drive-by dose of the farm, and her ritual of slowing down to see where the goats, pigs,…
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Dan and Marda’s daughter, Abby, with beehives.
Photo: Vermont's Local Banquet.
Written by Dan Childs and Marda Donner
Read more in Vermont's Local Banquet Spring 2014 issue.
As I look out my window in early January at my beehives, I’m in awe of how bees do what they do. The temperature is well below zero, the wind is blowing, and snow is falling. Yet…
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Roger Rainville with BioPro 190 automated biodiesel processor at Borderview Farm.
Photo: VSJF
Prepared by Sarah Galbraith, Vermont Bioenergy Initiative Program Manager, VSJF
Highlights: Cost of biodiesel production = $2.29 per gallon ● Seed meal used as a co-product for livestock feed or crop fertilizer ● Central processing facility and shared equipment use maximizes efficiency for neighboring farms
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Roger Rainville’s dairy-turned-energy farm in Grand…
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McKnight Farm solar array in East Montpelier.
Photo: Catamount Solar
Prepared by Alex DePillis, Senior Agricultural Development Coordinator, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets
Highlights: 95 kW (AC) of installed capacity ● ≈120,000 kWh generated annually ● Payback period = 6 years ● Fixed rack solar PV systems and trackers are common throughout Vermont
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McKnight Farm, an organic dairy…
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Alex explaining how the variable frequency drive holds the vacuum level on his milk pump.
Photo: Gregory Nesbit Photography
Prepared by JJ Vandette, Planning and Development Associate, Efficiency Vermont
Highlights: $7,600 in first year savings ● $94,000 in lifetime savings ● 58,300 kWh in annual electricity savings ● Close relationship with the equipment vendor and Efficiency Vermont led to major cost savings and business improvements
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Brace Farm Inc. is…
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Pick up time.
Photo: Bonnie North
Written by Bonnie North
Read more in Vermont's Local Banquet Winter 2014 issue.
“Eat Fresh! Eat Local!”
Back in 2008, teacher Hans Estrin’s ecology students at The Putney School heard that rallying cry and launched a well-intentioned project: Take the surplus from the 3-acre garden at the private and progressive Putney School and…
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Charles Dodge of Putney Mountain Winery pours a sample for tasting.
Photo: Barbi Schreiber
As skills are wont to do, the production of fermented drinks fell away with the growth of cities and electricity, but the process is now making a comeback. The high sugar content of grapes, and their suitability for European growing conditions, made them de rigueur for wines around the world,…
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Lila in former mobile slaughterhouse.
Photo: Local Banquet.
Whiz by it on Route 2 between Richmond and Bolton and you might think it was an abandoned rail car, a housing unit for migrant farm workers, or a storage shed. Bland and inconspicuous, the boxy structure doesn’t look like it has the potential to re-shape Vermont’s local food scene…
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Trout fry.
Photo: Cheryl Herrick
On a sunny spring day earlier this year, steam was pouring out of sugarhouses, calves and lambs and kids were being born, and greenhouses were teeming with plant starts. And on Curtis Sjolander’s Mountain Foot Farm in Wheelock, in the barn just behind his house, hundreds of brown trout were…
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Joe Bossen of Vermont Bean Crafters producing bean burgers at the Mad River Food Hub.
Photo: Mad River Food Hub
White walls and stainless steel sinks and industrial-sized freezers and workers in smocks may not form our image of “local food.” But if Vermont agriculture and food production are to remain viable, places like the Mad River Food Hub might become increasingly necessary.
Opened in October 2011, the Mad River Food…
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Harvesting wheat; bagging croutons.
Photo: David Caccavo
Olivia’s Croutons has grown from a small, home kitchen operation—where 20 bags was a large order—to occupying an 8,000 square foot facility in a renovated barn in New Haven that ships to stores across the US. While the move to the new facility was prompted by a need for a…
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Technical assistance providers on a tour of Misty Knoll Farm.
Photo: VHCB/Farm Viability.
Perhaps long ago, in a simpler world, farmers needed only tools, the support of helping hands, a market for their products, and advice from their neighbors to successfully grow vegetables and raise animals. But farmers today need a lot more than that. Complex equipment, well-designed facilities, marketing skills, and a…
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Vermont Fresh Network 16th Annual Forum at Shelburne Farms (2012).
Photo: B. Harrewyn | Hoverfly Photography
Chefs and farmers couldn’t have more opposite schedules. Chefs work primarily in the late afternoon and well into the evening. Farmers are early risers, falling into bed soon after summer poultry are locked in for the evening.
The fact that chefs and farmers are like ships passing in the night is…
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Taylor and Nick Meyer in a field of sunflowers at North Hardwick Dairy.
Photo: Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.
Everyone in the Hardwick area knows the North Hardwick Dairy —“it’s the one on the hill with the wind turbine.”
The turbine is evidence of farmer Nick Meyer’s focus on meeting his goal of greater self-sufficiency. “I want to produce everything the farm needs on the farm.”
The higher and relatively stable…
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Good Food Good Medicine community meal.
Photo: Food Works
Food Works at Two Rivers Center’s Good Food Good Medicine program takes a seasonal approach to good health and nutrition at two low-income housing sites in Barre. In the spring and summer months, residents at Highgate and Green Acres apartments grow their own food in community gardens or in raised…
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Kathryn watering the seedlings at High Mowing Seeds.
Photo: High Mowing Seeds.
A healthy food system begins with seeds. But a healthy Vermont food system requires seeds that are well adapted to Vermont. If farmers and growers sow varieties that don’t thrive in local soils and micro-climates, local agriculture doesn’t thrive. This is why High Mowing Organic Seeds is one of the…
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Rob Litch with turkey flock.
Photo: Caroline Abels/Vermont's Local Banquet
Yes, there is a knoll—and it’s misty.
At least it was on the day this past October when I visited Misty Knoll Farms, Vermont’s largest chicken producer. Standing on the small rise at the eastern edge of the farm in New Haven, facing a swath of Addison County dairy land below…
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Tony Brault.
Photo: Julia Shipley
Tony Brault has cut things all his life, everything except his own hair, and he’s so busy lately, he hasn’t gotten around to letting someone else at it. One of his earliest memories as a kid in the Northeast Kingdom is “standing on an overturned soda crate, cutting meat beside…
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Grazing cattle on a cloudy day.
Photo: Maple Wind Farm.
At Maple Wind Farm in Huntington, the beef cattle “harvest their own feed,” as farmer Bruce Hennessey likes to say. They’re grass-fed cattle, meaning that for six and sometimes seven months of the year they eat grass on pasture, using their own energy to walk around and fatten themselves.
Bruce, who…
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Farms Program class of 2009.
Photo: Intervale Center.
The Farms Program, a nationally recognized farm business incubator, has supported the growth of dozens of farms since 1990. Farms are accepted into the program after a rigorous application process that includes developing a business plan and presenting it to staff and existing Intervale farmers.
New farmers have access to land…
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RAFFL Farm to Workplace event.
Photo: RAFFL.
In the summer of 2009, Rutland Area Farm and Food Link (RAFFL) piloted a workplace farm share delivery program to 65 employees at the Rutland Regional Medical Center (RRMC) and the Rutland Area Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice. Initially, RRMC wanted to establish a farmers’ market at the hospital, but area farmers were disinclined to start another market…
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A sampling of Liz Lovely cookies.
Photo: Liz Lovely, Inc.
Recently, the Mad River Valley’s Liz Lovely Cookies received the long sought after capital needed to grow the popular gluten free, vegan, and non-GMO cookie company located in Waitsfield. Last fall owners Liz and Dan Holtz competed on Shark Tank, a national television show where entrepreneurs pitch their business to…
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Monument Farms Dairy in Weybridge.
Photo: Monument Farms Dairy.
Monument Farms Dairy began in 1930 as a home delivery route run by Richard and Marjory James in the Weybridge area.
Today, the company is managed by their grandson Jon Rooney and two of his cousins, Bob James and Pete James. And their responsibilities are doled out equally, just as you’d…
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Just after Memorial Day in 2013, the Audet family hosted a community celebration of the installation of a 100-kilowatt wind turbine.
Photo: Vermont Agency of Agriculture
Prepared by Alex DePillis, Senior Agricultural Development Coordinator, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets
Highlights: 100 kW of installed capacity ● ≈150,000 kWh generated annually ● Unique partnership with Green Mountain Power facilitates community-scale wind energy installation
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The Audet Family has operated Blue Spruce Farm since 1958 and currently…
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Filling Greek yogurt containers at Commonwealth Dairy.
Photo: Gregory Nesbit Photography
Prepared by JJ Vandette, Planning and Development Associate, Efficiency Vermont
Highlights: $150,000 in first year savings ● $2.1 million in lifetime savings ● 1.5 million in annual kWh savings ● Refrigeration system, compressed air system, motors, lighting, heating, and ventilation optimized
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When German Company Ehrman AG partnered with Commonwealth Yogurt,…
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The Central Boiler Maxim 250 boiler installed at River Berry Farm in Fairfax, VT. These boilers may look like outdoor wood boilers common around Vermont, but they are EPA Phase II qualified due to improved emissions controls.
Photo: Chris Callahan
Highlights: 220,000 BTU/hr biomass boiler ● $13,000-21,000 installed cost ● 12-14 year payback period ● 5,910 pounds of CO2 avoided ● Advanced pollution controls in new boilers reduce emissions
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David and Jane Marchant of River Berry Farm—an organic vegetable and fruit producer in Fairfax—were early adopters of biomass heating…
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Ayers Brook Goat Dairy’s new barn in Randolph, central Vermont, is designed to house 500 goats, including state-of-the-art facilities for milking, breeding, and for raising goats for the dairy and for the region’s goat farmers.
Photo: Aegis Renewable Energy
Prepared by Alex DePillis, Senior Agricultural Development Coordinator, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets
Highlights: 180 kW (AC) of installed capacity ● ≈200,000 kWh generated annually ● Minimal changes to the roof structure required ● Largest PV installation on a barn in Vermont
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Upon retirement, Carol and Perry Hodgdon sold…
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For over 100 years dairy farming has had significant economic, ecological, and cultural impacts in Vermont. Despite the longstanding importance of Vermont’s dairy industry, volatile conventional milk prices, concentration in the dairy industry, rising farm input expenses, and many other factors have impacted its perceived and actual sustainability for at least the past 35 years. Appendix B: Revitalizing Vermont's Dairy Industry describes and analyzes issues impacting Vermont’s dairy industry, and suggests strategies for improving its sustainability over the next ten years.
Appendix C: Connecting the Dots focuses on the distribution chain that links farm production, processing, and market outlets and provides strategies for aligning these elements of Vermont’s food system more closely. A key insight of our research is that, to be successful, food enterprises must align their stage of development and the type and scale of their operations with suitable market outlets.
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