Vermont's Local Banquet Magazine Spring 2014

vermont’s

local banquet spring 2014 | issue twenty-eight

Pastured Geese Dandelion Greens Gardening with the Elderly

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local banquet 3

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1/28/14 10:17 AM

C ON T E N T S S

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issue twenty-eight

Vermont dairy farmer and his neighbors gather sap in the spring, which spoils as readily as fresh milk. The gathering tank, once pulled through the sugarbush by horses, is now drawn by tractor. It takes 30 to 40 gallons of sap for one gallon of syrup.

The tank will hold enough sap to make approximately seven gallons of syrup. Barre, Vermont, 1974.

6 Editor’s Note 8 Set the Table with…

Dandelion Greens

10 Think Globally, Dine Locally

20 From Nano to Micro One small-scale brewer capitalizes on Vermont’s beer trend

22 Seed for Change The Thorny Issue of Farmer Pay

13 Fired Up on Local

25 Vermont Cheesemakers

14 Flourishing in the Fields

29 Farmers’ Kitchen

16 Horticultural Therapy

31 Calendar

18 Field, with Geese

34 Last Morsel

Editor’s Note

Publisher Schreiber & Lucas, LLC

Every now and then, I wonder what life would be like without any small farms. If Vermont’s diversified farmers were to pack up and sell out. If there were no longer a neighborhood farmers’ market to wander through on a Saturday morning. If those of us who regularly buy local food had to go back to fondling Chilean apples and freakishly large carrots at the grocery store.

I know, it’s a bleak scenario—but don’t put down the magazine! This isn’t going to happen anytime soon, if ever. Our farms are getting stronger by the day, with many great minds working on issues of farm viability, farmer health, soil regeneration, fair food policy, and land affordability. In many ways, it’s a very exciting time to be a farmer, with all the intellectual inquiry and support.

The problem is that the majority of the public may not be aware that threats to the small farmer are very real.

One major threat is low-profit margin, as farmer Mari Omland points out on page 22 of this issue. If farmers are unable to save for retirement, pay for their children’s education, or afford decent health care, will they continue to farm? Other threats include physical burnout, being able to stay on (afford) one’s land, navigating government regulations, and handling new challenges brought by climate change.

It seems to me that we who buy local food should be aware of what small farmers are up against; if so, we might think of some creative ideas for how we can support them, beyond just engaging in a monetary transaction. Farmers are the last people to ask for help and are the most resilient people in our communities.

But remember the old-time “husking bees,” when neighbors turned out to shuck a farmer’s entire corn harvest? What fun, and what a contribution.

Greater awareness of what farmers are facing could also lead consumers to more easily accept some of the “high” prices and apparent inconveniences that come with buying local. We might even start dabbling in citizen lobbying or community organizing to spark policy change that strengthens the lives of small farmers.

We at Local Banquet are interested in addressing some of the thornier issues now facing Vermont farmers and the local food movement—issues that can get obscured by delight over August tomatoes or the sight of Jersey cows in a spring meadow. If the public doesn’t know what’s threatened, how can they be asked to safeguard it?

Of course, as the magazine looks at these tough issues more closely, we’ll keep bringing you the tasty stories, too, and the illuminating ones. Inspiration will always be our main ingredient.

It’s easy to take local food for granted, but at the end of the day, that food is on our plate because somebody decided to farm—and farm responsibly. Let’s do what we can to keep them farming.

—Caroline Abels

Editor Caroline Abels Art Director

Meg Lucas

Ad Director

Barbi Schreiber Proofreader

Marisa Crumb Contributors MK Bateman Dan Childs Jeffrey Gangemi Abigail Healey Helen Labun Jordan Mari Omland Kim Peavey Suzanne Podhaizer Jamie Scanlon Printed with soy ink on FSC certified 50% recycled chlorine–free paper Subscriptions, $22 Subscribe online or send checks to: Vermont’s Local Banquet PO Box 69 Saxtons River, VT 05154 localbanquet.com 802-869-1236 we welcome letters to the editor info@localbanquet.com vermont’s LOCAL Banquet Mission Statement The purpose of our publication is to promote and support our local communities. By focusing on fresh, local, wholesome foods grown and made in Vermont, we preserve our environment, grow our economy, and enhance our nutrition.

Vermont’s Local Banquet (ISSN 1946–0295) is published quarterly. Subscriptions are $22 annually and are mailed in the spring, summer, fall, and winter. Please make checks payable to Vermont’s Local Banquet. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced without written consent. Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers or editors.

On the cover : Goslings; photo by Suzanne Podhaizer.

Contents page : Photo by Jane Cooper; National Archives and Records Administration.

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local banquet 7

Set the Table with…

Dandelion Greens

by Helen Labun Jordan I’ve spent years walking past any dandelion greens I see for sale, on the grounds that I will not pay for something that’s growing everywhere I look all spring and summer. Granted, I never stop to pick those free dandelion leaves, so inevitably, a vegetable that I won’t buy because it’s too common ends up not being at all common on my plate. It’s the Dandelion Paradox. This past winter, I wanted to unravel it.

I started my inquiries with Vermont gardening guru Charlie Nardozzi, the go-to guy for plant introductions.

“You can blame it on the Italians,” Charlie said of the issue of cultivated dandelion greens versus foraged ones. Dandelions have been a mainstay of Italian kitchen gardens for centuries, which explains why my memories of enjoying these greens all involve Italian restaurants, where I’ve found them on top of pizzas or tossed with pasta and olive oil. In fact, in the Johnny’s Seeds catalogs, the dandelion options all appear grouped under “Italian Dandelion.”

These are not the yellow-flowered Taraxacum officinale we see growing unbidden across lawns and fields. They’re a variety of chicory instead—albeit a variety that tastes like the wild dandelion for which they’re named. No matter what the origin, though, we’re dealing with a bitter green. And since I wasn’t going to be able to tell the difference in taste between the cultivated and wild varieties once I got them into my kitchen, I still wasn’t sold on shelling out for the cultivated variety.

So I called Colin McCaffrey of Hermit’s Gold Wild Edibles in East Montpelier to check on these flavor claims. Colin confirmed that the bitter dandelion flavor stays constant from wild to cultivated. However, he cautioned that even though the plants generally have the same flavor, the taste of a particular dandelion (or chicory) depends on its growing conditions.

It doesn’t take a lot to make a dandelion happy. Given decent soil, a modest amount of water, and little competition from other plants, dandelions will send up tender leaves for cutting throughout the spring, summer, and even early fall. But dandelions in the wild don’t get these advantages. Poor soil, drought, and other stressors can increase the bitterness of their greens. Also, if you haven’t been monitoring and consistently picking the leaves of wild dandelions at their youngest stage, they become tough. Collecting wild greens from along roadways or lawns treated with chemicals also introduces the danger of eating toxins that the plants have picked up from their environment. In practice, then, cultivated dandelions can have a much more appealing flavor.

“Dandelions are pretty easy to grow,” Charlie Nardozzi had told me, encouragingly. He’s recently made them a regular in his garden. “I planted a small patch [last year] and had more greens than I knew what to do with.”

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Farmers find dandelion yields encouraging, too. Angus Baldwin of Three Crows Farm in Jeffersonville says, “It’s kind of like growing lettuce, but it keeps growing back…. Even in [one] terrible year I got five to six cuttings.” These resilient plants with multiple harvests are an attractive choice for his small farm, which offers less than an acre of growing space.

I was going from turning my nose up at cultivated dandelion greens to considering planting a patch in my own backyard. 

Dandelion greens inhabit a peculiar double world of wild and cultivated foods. Trace any crop back far enough and you’ll find wild ancestors. Often the ancestors bear little resemblance to their modern incarnations—like the small, hard, sour fruits that eventually became our juicy tomatoes, or the tough teosinte grass seeds that became sweet corn. On the other side of the equation, we can find enjoyable wild plants that haven’t gone through domestication, such as the ramps and fiddleheads that eaters and sellers gather but almost never grow commercially. Dandelions are a crop that’s easy to grow commercially, but one that has a character substantially the same as the wild version. It’s like having your cake and eating it, too.

The downside of this equation is that the character of dandelion greens is unabashedly bitter—and bitter can be hard to sell. When Angus at Three Crows first added dandelion greens to his CSA, most people threw them out or gave them away.

He’s trying again this year, but for every current producer of dandelion greens I found to talk to, I found just as many former producers.

Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury recently entered the “former producer” category. As Melissa Jacobs, farmstand manager at Pete’s, explained to me, there’s a limited number of bitter greens the farm can sell. She pointed out what a dandelion is up against when it fights for a place in the rotation.

“Think about if you have a beautiful, fresh harvested head of radicchio—it’s not a tight, small head like in the supermarket; it has the outer green leaves that are open, and people buy it because it’s so beautiful, even if they don’t know what they’re going to do with it.” The inner radicchio swirls with eye-catching purple, while even the prettiest dandelion greens still look like they hail from roadside weeds.

That said, dandelion greens could one day gain popularity here in Vermont. Strong flavors, including those from wild greens, already sneak into some standard local food offerings.

Salad mixes, for example, might include both intentionally planted greens and tasty volunteer plants such as chickweed that find their way into the fields from uncultivated border areas. Dandelion greens can be an economical way to add a new dimension to a salad mix’s flavor that’s no more intrusive than a handful of herbs. This addition is particularly welcome early in the season, when fewer vegetables are available and producers get creative to introduce variety.

Interest in dandelions might also accompany the growing interest in food from other countries, where bitter greens are often incorporated into dishes. In Italy, France, and Greece, for example, there is the classic preparation of parsley salad— parsley with oil, lemon, salt, and sometimes tomato. A salad of all-dandelion works in the same way. As Colin McCaffrey points out, “ The wild stuff [like dandelion, burdock, mustards, marsh marigold] is really strong; to eat an entire American size salad would be pretty heavy duty.” But in a petite side it might be just the trick to start a meal.

A few bites of strong, bitter salad can also provide something that a giant bowl of spinach may not: better digestion.

The taste “bitter” tells your body that there’s some food about to come down for digestion and it ought to get ready. Again, we see this use of bitter flavors in other eating traditions, such as with Italy’s Amaro or Campari aperitifs sipped before a meal (or as a digestif afterward). If eating bitter food makes people feel better, perhaps we’ll eat more of it.

Photo by Julian Rodier



Many Vermonters may be perplexed by dandelion, but not all of them are. Melissa Jacobs notes that, “My mother always talked about how her dad loved [dandelion] greens and made salads from them.” Angus Baldwin, who had those CSA members who tossed the greens, found that a few customers swore by them. And Richard Wiswall of Cate Farm in Plainfield, another former producer of dandelion greens (the Taraxacum officinale version, not the chicory), saw interest in the greens from older generations and people more accustomed to European food traditions.

This small, dedicated band of dandelion enthusiasts won’t necessarily catapult dandelions into widespread popularity.

However, when I spoke to Jeff Carpenter of Zack Woods Herb Farm in Hyde Park, he mentioned a way that somebody else is making inroads.

Zack Woods Herb Farm sells herbs for medicinal, not culinary, purposes, and all their dandelion roots go to one buyer.

Every fall they dig up rows of Taraxacum officinale dandelion root for Urban Moonshine—a Burlington-based bitters company—to use, along with dandelion leaves, in their signature

Simple Spring Pasta with Dandelion Greens 1 large bunch dandelion greens chopped (about 3 cups) 1 large red onion diced 4 Tbs. butter 3 Tbs. white wine Parmesan or other hard grating cheese fresh mint (optional) ¾ pound fresh pasta or dried tagliatelle salt & pepper to taste Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. In a large skillet, cook red onion in 2 Tbs. of the butter until it begins to brown. While onion cooks, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and add immediately to the onion the remaining 2 Tbs. butter, dandelion, and wine. Cook until greens have just started to wilt—it only takes a moment. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with cheese and freshly chopped mint.

bitters blend. Not every company uses dandelion as a primary bittering agent, but Urban Moonshine welcomes a local source of bitter that is easy to grow. I may tend to walk past wild dandelions, but I rarely walk past Urban Moonshine; I checked my cabinets and, sure enough, saw that I have dandelion-containing bitters in with the teas, and in the liquor cabinet, and in the form of Orleans Bitter from Eden Ice Cider. My kitchen was a dandelion treasure trove.

Jovial King, founder of Urban Moonshine, confirmed that the demand for her bitters is growing quickly. The 15-person company already distributes its product nationally, and when we spoke, Whole Foods had just finished adding these bitters to every store in their Northeast region.

Jovial says Urban Moonshine intends to be “in the forefront of bringing bitter back into the American palate.” Her interest lies primarily with bitters’ medicinal benefits, but she also wants to break down the separation between food and medicine.

A market for her bitters already exists in bars and restaurants looking for high-quality, locally sourced cocktail ingredients.

Urban Moonshine’s “Cocktail Apothecary” line supports this happy marriage of good taste and good health.

If Urban Moonshine succeeds in bringing “bitter” back to the American palate, dandelion greens may have their day in the sun. Bitter aperitifs can lead to bitter green salads can lead to bitter dandelion greens gracing pizza, pasta, and other dishes all across Vermont. While we’re waiting, I, for one, plan to get out ahead of the curve and buy dandelions for my table this growing season.

Helen Labun Jordan writes on a variety of topics from her home in Montpelier. You can read more of her food writing on her website, discoveringflavor.com, and hear her commentaries on Vermont Public Radio.

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local banquet 9

Think Globally, Dine Locally Vermont restaurants use nearby ingredients to create far-from-home dishes

Last year I was excited when the Burlingtonbased weekly Seven Days published an insert featuring restaurants participating in Vermont Restaurant Week. I couldn’t wait to sample dishes from some of the highly touted localvore eateries I’d read about since moving to Vermont three years earlier.

When I opened up the insert, however, the number of advertisements featuring photos of hamburgers and fries surprised me.

While I love a great burger as much as the next person, I was disappointed. I’d been looking forward to sampling cuisines featuring local products served in many different ways.

With the variety of local foods available, was a burger really what people wanted most? It got me thinking: Is it possible for global cuisines to thrive in Vermont using mostly local ingredients? If so, do Vermonters even want this?

I decided to answer these questions by seeking out Vermont restaurants that are doing just that: using local products to create innovative menus with flavors inspired by cuisines from all over the globe. My quest took me to three very different restaurants: the Asian-influenced Downstreet Eats, a vegetarian restaurant called MINT, and El Cortijo, which serves Mexican fare. 

At Downstreet Eats: pork buns, kimbap, dak bulgogi, and banh mi.

10 local banquet

My journey began at the recently opened Downstreet Eats in Cabot. Chef and proprietor Elena Gustavson has made it her mission to create “regional new American cooking using local and seasonal ingredients, with global influences”—just what I was looking for. Raised in California to a Korean mother and American father, Elena finds Asian food just as normal to her as mac and cheese may be to others. With the restaurant, she hopes to introduce food that is comfortable, affordable, and as local as possible, which has led to an eclectic menu mixing Vietnamese, Chinese, and (of course) Korean influences with classic American favorites. Elena’s main thought when creating her menu was to ask herself, Would I want to eat it?

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Downstreet Eats is certainly a surprising find in such a quintessentially Vermont town like Cabot. Elena is aware of this potential predicament. “I’m making some dishes that are very different from what people in the area may be used to,” she says, “so I’ve renamed them in a very straightforward manner, listing the ingredients instead of their traditional names—something locals seem to appreciate.” Case in point: bibimbap, a staple of Korean food. At Downstreet Eats it’s presented as “grilled chicken with kimchi, root veggies, brown rice, and topped with an egg.” Her use of root vegetables such as parsnips and carrots, available to her locally, makes the dish authentically Vermont.

The night I visited Downstreet Eats they were out of spring rolls. Elena’s provider didn’t have bean sprouts available, showcasing a difficulty with cooking Asian food locally: accessibility of traditional ingredients. (Because the climate here, and people’s tastes, make finding traditional Korean ingredients impracticable, Elena uses what’s accessible to her locally, such as Swiss chard or kale, to make her kimchi.) Instead we had baked leek and garlic cream soup and a caramelized onion dip; while they were not quite the Asian inspiration I’d expected, they were delicious, nonetheless.

For the main course, along with the bibimbop, my partner and I tried the spiced shredded pork, steamed buns, and garlicky kale with onion jam and root vegetables in orange vinaigrette. All the dishes were wonderful and highly inventive. For dessert, we were served figs in vanilla wine syrup with crème fraîche.

The restaurant is in a comfortable setting, feeling almost like someone’s home, with cozy rooms, charmingly mismatched chairs and tables, and a fireplace. Numerous built-in drawers contain games and toys, which create a wonderful child-friendly environment. In fact, it was Elena’s goal to make Downstreet Eats as much a local hangout as a dining experience.

The restaurant proved delightful and lived up to its credo of globally influenced local cooking.

photos courtesy of Downstreet Eats

By MK Bateman

photos courtesy of MINT



The next restaurant I visited was a vegetarian restaurant called MINT, located on Waitsfield’s historic Bridge Street.

Chef Iliyan Deskov and partner Savitri Bhadavati, originally from Bulgaria and Hungary respectively, have clearly incorporated their experiences into their cuisine. Before settling in the Mad River Valley, they owned a restaurant in southern California for many years and have brought their extensive travels through Europe and their love of Indian, Mexican, and Middle Eastern cuisines to Vermont.

I sat down with the pair before eating to explain the purpose of my article. They responded, “And you had to pick December to write this article?”

They made a really good point: in a state with a winter as long as Vermont’s, finding a wide assortment of local produce in the dead of winter can be challenging, especially for a restaurant where vegetables reign supreme. Iliyan and Savitri have overcome this issue by purchasing organic produce outsourced from other parts of the country when local produce isn’t readily available.

A good solution, no doubt, and their results are imaginative and quite delicious.

Like Downstreet Eats, MINT seeks to introduce new taste combinations into the local palate. “We want our guests to try things they wouldn’t otherwise be introduced to,” Iliyan says. They’ve created a menu as varied as their backgrounds, designing dishes according to regions of the world. The result is a diverse mix of vegetarian and vegan meals that draw inspiration from European, Middle Eastern, Latin, and Asian cuisines. And the overall design of MINT’s interior is as globally focused as its food, with Indian- and Moroccan-inspired décor, world music, and wooden tables that create a warm and intimate environment for patrons.

Our meal that day was like a culinary world tour. We began by sampling grilled polenta with mascarpone, chive cream, and onion relish, as well as chard rolls stuffed with rice, lentils, cranberries, mint, onions, herbs, and crème fraîche. For our main courses, we went traditionally vegan with the Asian-influenced curly kale and broccoli braised in tamari (a type of gluten-free soy sauce), garlic, orange juice, fruit juice-sweetened cranberries, brown rice, and black turtle beans, topped with a delectable sauce made with tofu, tamari, lemon, basil, parsley, and kelp. Our second dish was a German staple: baked sauerkraut with vegan sausage, tomato, rice, parsley, and summer savory. It was served with smashed potatoes and crème fraîche. (For those seeking a fully vegan meal, MINT can make many of its menu items vegan upon request.)

While the restaurant’s location lends itself to a large tourist base (roughly 75 percent of its clientele), over the past several years MINT has developed a devoted local following. “It took a little time, but we now have a core of loyal locals who come to our restaurant on a weekly basis,” Iliyan says. While some Vermonters may be slow to come around to more exotic taste combinations, MINT proves that great food is the most important thing to customers.

Continued on page 12

At MINT: Thai curry with puffed rice noodles, polenta with forest mushrooms, and winter rolls—a wintery take on the classic spring rolls with shredded Brussels sprouts, carrots, red peppers, basil, mint, ginger and a grapefruit-hoisin dipping sauce.

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local banquet 11

DINE LOCALLY Continued from page 11 

My final destination was Burlington’s El Cortijo. Brought to you by the people behind the impressive and highly successful Farmhouse Tap and Grill a few blocks away, El Cortijo is located in a converted railroad car just off Church Street. At first glace, it evokes more of the quintessential feel of a Brooklyn-style diner than a Mexican restaurant. But the Mexican tiles adorning the walls and the charming stringed lights made from converted cans of El Pato tomato sauce give you a sense that you’re getting something much more authentically Mexican. The restaurant certainly delivers on that promise.

El Cortijo emerged from the success of the Farmhouse Tap and Grill’s “Taco Tuesdays.” Phillip Clayton, chef-partner for The Farmhouse Group and a native of North Carolina, grew up in an area where Mexican food and culture were prevalent, leading to a lifelong love of the cuisine. Taco Tuesdays gave him an opportunity to showcase something he’d been making at home for years.

“Tacos are a great vehicle for sourcing Vermont’s foods, especially its meats,” he says. When El Cortijo’s current space became available, a Mexican restaurant seemed the ideal choice. Since opening, it has quickly filled a void in Burlington’s food scene.

My meal was as wonderful as it was local. Although authentic Mexican food must rely on long-distance products such as avocadoes that can only be supplied by distribution services, this doesn’t take away from the restaurant’s core belief in local first. As Phillip puts it, “We built our menu around what we can get locally and source the rest. Our philosophy is that food is created out in the field.”

For starters, I had escabeche, an assortment of pickled jalapeño, onions, carrots and garlic, and house-made nachos with chorizo sausage, queso fundito, Vermont Bean Crafters’ black beans, olives, scallions, pickled jalapeños, salsa, and sour cream.

For my main dish, I couldn’t resist trying the taco combination. I had three tacos: the carnitas, which featured seasoned local pork and charred pineapple salsa; the lengua, with braised beef tongue, salsa verde, and shaved radishes; and the legumbres, which included local vegetables in the form of roasted corn salsa, pickled onions, and salsa fresca. El Cortijo proved that authentic world cuisine, made with local produce whenever possible, could be successfully prepared.

MK Bateman is a freelance writer and recovering New Yorker based in central Vermont.

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At El Cortijo: Neil’s Nachos, the restaurant bar, and counter, El Cortijo taco plate.

photos by Jessica Anderson

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As for my initial questions—whether global cuisines can thrive in our local food landscape, and whether Vermonters want to eat them—I will say that while pub food continues to dominate many local food restaurants, global foods are certainly on the rise. Each of the three restaurants I visited used localvore products as much as they feasibly could to create innovative world cuisines that were both delicious and affordable, not to mention quite popular with their customers. I can’t speak for all Vermonters, but I know I will definitely seek out more of these innovative local flavors.

To find Vermont restaurants that use a significant amount of local food, visit the website of the Vermont Fresh Network: vermontfresh.net.

Fired Up on Local in Starksboro, Honest to Goodness apple cider vinegar from South Washington, pure maple sugar from Palmer Lane Maple in Jeffersonville, and organic cilantro from Cate Farm in Plainfield. He says the fact that the sauce is made with fresh vegetables and local (often organic) ingredients sets him apart in the marketplace.

“If you walk into a co-op and you look at most hot sauce on the shelf, the ingredients are not locally sourced ,” he says. “And they use ambiguous terms like xanthan gum, sodium benzoate, or pepper mash. I need to offer the highest level of quality and transparency, otherwise I could not be the face of this product.”

He adds with a laugh, “Maybe it’s a Sicilian guilt thing.”

Ben lives in Montpelier but “sauces” out of a tiny commercial kitchen in Winooski. You can find Benito’s year-round at the Burlington farmers’ market and other select events throughout the state. In 2013, Ben handcrafted more than 20,000 bottles of hot sauce, and the Benito’s brand is found in more than 100 stores in Vermont and 40 stores in 12 other states and Canada.

Safe to say, he’s on fire.

—Caroline Abels

PHOTO COURTESY OF BENiTO’S HOT SAUCE

Local hot sauces are popping up around Vermont faster than it takes a 300,000 Scoville-unit pepper to sear your tongue.

(Those are the units by which the heat of spicy food is measured.)

We’re seeing hot sauces in restaurants, such as The Mad Taco in Montpelier, where a blackboard enlightens (and warns) you about the latest homemade concoctions. And we’re seeing them at farmers’ markets, such as the Capital City Farmers’ Market, where you can pay in advance for a “hot sauce CSA” run by Claire Fitts Georges of Butterfly Bakery of Vermont and pick up a new flavor of hot sauce at every market.

Given that chile peppers—the main ingredient in hot sauce—are relatively easy to grow in Vermont, it’s possible to make hot sauce a highly localvore product. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Ben Maniscalco, who launched Benito’s Hot Sauce in 2009, goes out of his way to source ingredients from local farms.

His hot sauces that include habanero, jalapeño, fatali, rocotillo, Chinese paper lantern and chipotle peppers incorporate 50 to 75 percent local organic ingredients (lime, ginger, and mangoes being hard to find around here), while his certified organic chipotle-infused and habanero-infused maple syrups are 100 percent local (made with organic maple syrup from the Davis family in Underhill). All his hot sauces make use of local peppers, except for his seasonal Carolina Reaper sauce, as the Carolina Reaper has a 150-day growing season. He also runs into shortages when attempting to locally source the infamous Indian bhut jolokia “ghost pepper,” another longer season variety.

For local peppers, Ben turns to a handful of Vermont organic farms, including Deep Meadow Farm in Ascutney (200 lbs. of jalapeños a year) and Foote Brook Farm in Johnson (200 lbs. of habaneros a year). He obtains cayenne peppers from Maple Wind Farm in Huntington, Chinese paper lantern chiles from Littlewood Farm in Plainfield, and rocotillo and fatali peppers from Half Pint Farm in Burlington. His dedication to buying local currently makes Ben the largest value-added purchaser of Vermont-grown chile peppers.

Some of his sauces are quite novel, reflecting the creativity of many small-scale hot sauce bottlers in Vermont. He incorporates butternut squash and onions from Rockville Market Farm

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local banquet 13

Flourishing in the Fields

by Jaimie Scanlon for Kurn Hattin Homes for Children Tucked into a scenic hillside just off of Route 5 in Westminster is Kurn Hattin Homes for Children.

Founded 120 years ago, Kurn Hattin is a charitable year-round home for boys and girls from around the Northeast whose families—for whatever reason—are unable to care for them.

And tucked into Kurn Hattin’s 280-acre campus is a working farm, which functions both as a therapeutic venue and an outdoor classroom where hands-on learning builds practical skills and relates to everyday life. Throughout the year, children have the opportunity to experience raising pigs, caring for and riding horses, planting, tending, and harvesting organic veggies, cultivating apples and pressing cider, and maple sugaring.

Children who come to Kurn Hattin may be victims of tragedy, poverty, homelessness, abuse, or neglect. As the school’s co-executive director, Connie Sanderson, says, “There are 105 children here and 105 reasons why they’re here.” For many of these children, especially those who come from urban areas, Kurn Hattin is a whole new world. And for most of these kids, it offers their first exposure to agricultural pursuits.

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photos courtesy of Kurn Hattin

Kurn Hattin’s farm manager, Pat Barry (affectionately known by students as “Mr. Pat”), oversees operations on the 123acre farm. He says students gain an in-depth understanding of the full cycle of food production when they take part in every aspect of the growing process from seed to table.

“It’s a real eye-opener for a lot of these kids,” he says, “to learn about where their food really comes from, as opposed to thinking of it as something that comes from a supermarket.”

Last year, Kurn Hattin students helped turn out 80 gallons of maple syrup, 150 gallons of cider, numerous varieties of herbs and wildflowers, and a wide array of vegetables, including tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, peppers, garlic, onions, and several varieties of squash and greens, not to mention six pigs.

Roughly 90 percent of the produce from the farm is consumed by students and staff, either in the residential cottages where students live, or in the school’s cafeteria, where waste is composted or saved for the pigs. The remainder is given away as gifts to friends and donors who support the school, or donated to the Our Place food pantry in Bellows Falls.

Food service manager Richard Johnson says that roughly a quarter of the produce used by the cafeteria comes from the Kurn Hattin farm, with a good portion of the rest coming from local farms such as Johnson Farm in Westminster and Pete’s Stand in Walpole, NH. But for the students at Kurn Hattin, the farm is about much more than just growing food. Being able to see, taste, and share the fruits of their labor gives them a sense of accomplishment and pride that many of them have never felt. For those from urban backgrounds, just getting outdoors and connecting to nature may be a novel experience, one that is especially important in the age of so-called “nature deficit disorder.” In addition, giving kids the responsibility to work independently on jobs around the farm goes a long way toward empowering them and helping them feel competent and confident.

Eighth-grader Jesse Waite says that when she and her fellow residents are on the farm, “We have to listen and follow instructions carefully, so we can do things right and be safe.

When Mr. Pat gives us a job, he trusts us to do it ourselves.”

“Mr. Pat” collaborates with science and math faculty on the curriculum for the school’s farm science program, which combines classroom learning with experiences out on the farm. The goal is to help students connect and apply what they’re learning in the classroom to the real world, and to give them a sense of responsibility and stewardship for the natural resources around them. Students learn about chemical compounds and reactions, explore simple machines, measure plant height and rate of growth, analyze the number of pounds of garbage saved through composting, explore ratios, fractions, and units of measurement, and more. “There are so many more ways to integrate the farm into academics than we have time for in a year,” Pat says.

Chris Deitz, a seventh-grader from Westminster West, started as a day student at Kurn Hattin last fall and has quickly become one of the farm’s superstars. Asked what he thinks about working on the farm, Chris says, “It’s hard work, but it’s fun.”

“Chris has really flourished in this environment,” says Principal Scott Tabachnick. “Many of our students respond better to a more hands-on approach to learning. We’ve found that, often, combining classroom time with time out on the farm during the day, where students can get outdoors, get moving, and apply what they have been studying in class in a very practical way, can really help them put things together and can be really motivating.”

Another integral part of the Kurn Hattin farm is its therapeutic horsemanship program. Developed by riding instructor Sara Stine, the program is designed to help students build empathy, compassion, and leadership skills. Sara says the process of bonding with the horses helps some children break through defensive barriers and be able to build positive connections with people.

“They need to watch, listen, understand, and be present with the horses,” she says. “They have to be patient and learn to work with the animal.” The experience helps students develop essential interpersonal skills that help them interact successfully with others.

Jesse Waite also takes part in the horsemanship program and shares Chris Deitz’s sentiments. “Taking care of the horses is really hard work, but I love it because it’s fun.”

Pat Barry says the children help remind him to focus on the “fun” aspects of his work too. “Farming’s not the easiest line of work, and I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it, but like everybody, you might get tired or take things for granted sometimes.

When I’m out here with the kids, and I see them get so excited and they tell me how much they love doing this or they want to keep doing it in the future, it’s a good reminder to me of how great this work is.”

Jaimie Scanlon is a Brattleboro-based writer and editor. She works as the content specialist at Rapt Creative Marketing and Design, where she promotes all things Kurn Hattin.

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Horticultural Therapy

by Abigail Healey

Constance Wallin (above) at the garden at Holton Home in Brattleboro. Designed with the elderly in mind, the garden sparks memories and offers “something to be responsible for,” in the words of one resident.

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The day is warm and clear. I am in my work uniform, which consists of shorts and a tank top; this is all I can stand to put on, for the heat of early summer is strong upon us. My supervisor, an elderly woman who needs the assistance of a walker to get around, is wearing a light sweater and long pants. “Aren’t you cold?” she asks suspiciously, as she watches me turn the soil in a bed designated for the season’s heirloom tomatoes.

Another set of supervisors sits in the weatherproof chairs that have been set out for their use. They are a group of women in their 70s and 80s who often sit together; today they soak in the sun and reminisce about their parents’ and grandparents’ gardens as I pull up small spring carrots for them to eat as they sit.

The characters that populate my working world are not really supervisors in that they write my checks and have the power to fire me; they are supervisors in that they take their landscape seriously, and watch carefully to make sure I do, too, for I have the privilege of gardening where they live. I work at Holton Home, an assisted-living facility in Brattleboro, Vermont, where I plant and harvest, tend to the perennial gardens, and care for the houseplants.

I also plan and carry out garden-related activities for the seniors, which means that the garden is not an object of passive observation for Holton Home’s seniors; there are many opportunities for participation. This year we have made sauerkraut, infused vodka with raspberries from our patch, crafted skin-healing salve from the comfrey and calendula that grow abundantly in and among our flowerbeds, repotted houseplants, and forced lilac and forsythia blooms from cuttings on our land. For some residents, participation in the garden means a daily walk-through and supervision of my work, with occasional updates (“Did you notice that the butterfly bush is starting to bloom?” or “Don’t you think it might be time to bring in the geraniums? Frost coming tonight.”) Others are able to get down on the ground and help weed, or make sure that the cherry tomatoes are picked before they fall from the vine. And some are observers, content to simply sit and enjoy the sunshine as the work goes on around them.

Whatever the case, an active and vibrant garden allows the residents to remain current with the seasons, remember years gone by, exercise their muscles as they mix soil, weed, or deadhead perennials, create connections with other residents as they work together on a shared task, assume responsibility for a living thing, and so much more. At Holton Home, we find that gardening is an amazingly therapeutic part of the residents’ lives.

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concrete pavers would extend all the way around the raised beds, so that people could reach them from all sides. Other areas of the garden would be planted in “high” foods, such as high-bush blueberries, pole beans, and cherry tomatoes, so that people would be able to harvest while standing safely on the walkways.

We knew that our garden plan would sacrifice space for accessibility. We were losing tillable, sunny land to concrete pavers, so as we changed the design of the garden, we also had to change the purpose of the garden. Originally, the garden’s purpose was to supply the kitchen with fresh vegetables, but it was an awkward and difficult relationship. The garden was not big enough or sunny enough to supply a kitchen that needed to feed 40 people at each meal. As the garden shrank to accommodate people’s needs, we decided to repurpose the smaller growing space as a “snacking” garden. Residents would have first dibs for eating in the garden, and we would be sure to plant fruits and vegetables that could be eaten or enjoyed right out of the ground. Cucumbers, green beans, cherry tomatoes, carrots, radishes, raspberries, strawberries, and high-bush blueberries dominated our list; the kitchen could use whatever remained. 

Gardens are being crafted into the landscapes of schools, hospitals, and nursing homes everywhere because they encourage healthy participation in life and act as a powerful tool for learning new skills and creating relationships. I remember the time we had just planted a raised bed full of richly colored annuals; the bed was a tabletop style, which allowed for easy Continued on page 27

photos by abigail Healey

The garden at Holton Home is a work in progress. When I started gardening there, the garden was lovely to look at but challenging for residents to get into. The vegetable patch was set directly into the ground, with merely a grass strip running down the middle. During gardening activities with residents, I often had to turn people away for lack of anything they could reasonably and safely do, especially if they were unable to get down on the ground to weed, or bend over to hoe. I watched one woman with Parkinson’s fall as she was trying to harvest tomatoes; she wasn’t hurt, but she took out two tomato plants as she fell. Another resident fell squarely in a bed of green beans. I realized that we needed a change if we wanted the garden to work for everyone. I went to the director of the home and pled my case; the garden was so important to the residents and to the home, but we weren’t supporting them in their desire to be involved. Furthermore, it was getting dangerous. She agreed, and set in motion a campaign to redesign the garden with accessibility in mind.

We decided our garden needed two basic changes to accommodate residents’ limited mobility: a smooth surface for traveling on and raised garden beds for ease of harvesting, weeding, and planting. We envisioned a walkway through the middle of the garden that would be a continuation of the walking path that went through the rest of the property. Concrete pavers would create a smooth surface that walkers and wheelchairs could safely navigate. Family and friends could donate to the project by purchasing special memorial stones. We would build several large raised beds tall enough to accommodate those who could not bend over and those in wheelchairs; the

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local banquet 17

Fields, with Geese In an email sent just before our first date, in February of 2013, Wesley Bascom posed a multiple-choice question. “Are you interested in serving goose...?” he asked. The choices he provided for my response were: a) “Totally down to pluck!” b) “Maybe. I will take a gander at it.” c) “Foie gras? More like foie naw.” As a restaurateur (at Salt Café in Montpelier), I was intrigued by the idea of pasture-raised local goose—also by the prospective gooseherd—and enthusiastically responded that I was “totally down to pluck.” I didn’t mean it literally.

On a frigid, late evening that December, inside an uninsulated room at our farm in Cabot, I recalled this lighthearted exchange as I cupped my left hand around the inside of a goose’s body cavity to loosen its organs, being careful not to rupture the bile gland and taint the meat with a spill of forestgreen liquid. In the corner, a scalder billowed feather-scented steam into the air. It was our final slaughter of the season, and the last 60 members of our 130-bird herd were migrating from their home into vacuum-sealed freezer bags. There were six of us. Our toes were frozen and our clothes greasy with schmaltz.

But after nearly 12 hours of scalding, plucking, eviscerating, and bagging, the day’s grim work was drawing to a close. 

The time-consuming arduousness of tugging a waterfowl’s oily, clinging feathers from its resistant flesh is one of the main reasons that very few people engage in the commercial production of goose meat. Chickens and turkeys, with their drier, softer plumage, are pieces of cake by comparison. But Wesley— who grew up on a farm and makes the majority of his living as a design-build contractor—felt an affinity with geese from a young age. “Geese were mysterious birds glimpsed through the scrub at the edge of Metcalf’s Pond,” he recalls. “They were fierce and independent, but would join up in the fall to make the migratory journey together.”

In addition to a personal fondness for avians of all stripes, Wesley had a vision for a “goose project” that would fit his vision of a resilient, diversified farm. When considering ways to

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improve the land on which he lives—a 160-acre property that was already home to a vegetable farm, a wood-fired pizza business, a team of oxen and some pigs, and an heirloom apple orchard—Wesley and housemate David Huck considered ways to create additional farm systems fueled primarily by grass. With several areas of marginal, damp pasture available, and no existing flock of meat birds on the property, they realized that geese could be a valuable addition.

This is partly because geese, unlike most other domesticated fowl, can convert juices from the plants that grow in pastures into a majority of their sustenance. In fact, if the mix of grass, clover, and other tender greens is rich and diverse enough, they can spend their days ranging and feeding themselves, with little or no need for supplemental grain. Pastured geese are smaller than their grain-fed counterparts—all of that wandering burns calories—but their meat is more flavorful, and they are less expensive to raise. Their droppings are rich in phosphorus and nitrogen, which improve the soil. And because geese are adapted to water and marshlands, with their leathery feet and relatively light bodies, they can hang out on ground that is too swampy for ruminants or other farm animals.

“They’re hardy,” Wesley notes. “They were once kept on small farms throughout Europe and the U.S.…Perhaps they will again find a secure niche in our diversified farming practices.”

In April 2013, Wesley and David purchased 96 fluffy, yellow, Embden goslings. Then, in June, excited by the progress of the initial batch, they added a second one. The young birds charmed us with their cuteness, their babbling peeps and chirps, and the way they waddled over to nibble on our jeans.

As they grew older, putting on layers of thick, white feathers, their noises changed, becoming more insistent and less sweet.

“Do geese ever sleep?” I wondered—noise is one reason the birds fell out of favor. I eventually grew used to the sounds they made while striding around after dark, but in the wee hours, I would wake up sweating during moments of strident honking, fearful of lurking coyotes and foxes.

photos of geese and Wesley by Suzanne podhaizer

by Suzanne Podhaizer

But for every drawback, we discovered another reason why geese are useful farm animals. For instance, their herding instinct keeps members of the flock from wandering too far afield, rendering them safer from predators. And Wesley’s whistle was all it took to get the goslings to follow him blithely around the farm, toward new pastures filled with timothy, buttercups, and vetch. As they grew older, the Pied Piper’s tunes lost their power, and we had to shoo them, calculate exactly how far behind to walk, and know when to start encouraging them to turn corners. We learned that they dislike patches of tall grass, narrow passageways, and walking beneath things.

One evening, as the sun began to dip down over the mountains and the trees glowed in the light, we walked up to the field intending to coax the birds into their pen, only to find that they’d herded themselves back home, and were ready to be tucked in for the night with some grain and ample water.

They did so for most of the remainder of their lives. 

No matter how amused he was by the antics of his flock, Wesley was aware that for a commercial farming enterprise, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Luckily, meat from our birds proved entirely delicious. The flesh is richly dark in color, with a thick layer of fat beneath the skin, and even more piled just inside the opening of the rear cavity. Pulled out, chopped up, and rendered over the lowest possible flame, these gobs delivered decadent cracklings and cups of golden grease, perfect for frying potatoes or for making goose confit (in which the legs are seasoned, then cooked slowly in fat until the meat is melting off the bone).

Once we had sampled enough of the meat to be confident of its quality—whether seared, roasted, or turned into goose prosciutto—we began hawking the goods, hoping to find a market for our unusual product. After dubbing the business Gozzard City—from an old-fashioned variant of the word gooseherd—we sold birds ranging in weight from 8 to 15 pounds to Claire’s in Hardwick, Pistou and Juniper in Burlington, and Cafe Shelburne. By the end of January, between restaurants and those hungry for Christmas geese, only a handful of birds were left. This year, we plan to expand the operation and raise 300 or so.

For the several months when we had goose on Salt’s menu, it was our best seller. Customers were curious, asking many questions. “Aren’t geese mean?” was a common one.

“They hardly hissed until after we began slaughtering them,” I would respond, noting that the Embden is a calmer breed than the notorious Toulouse. Certain diners recalled their mother or grandmother roasting hefty birds back in the homeland. As I served plates of goose braised with sauerkraut and prunes, or bowls of crispy French fries topped with goose gravy and cheese curds, I took great pride in talking about the role I’d grown into at the farm. “This dish took me seven months to make,” I would jest.

But my joke had more than a grain of truth. Over the course of the season, Wesley, David, and I moved electric fences, cut brush, built shelters, swung scythes, and piled grain sacks on our shoulders and carried them around the farm.

Before this year, I thought I was incapable of killing animals.

I argued that there are plenty of farmers out there willing to ethically raise and kill the meat that I buy, so why would I need to do it, too? Doesn’t specialization create economic viability?

But when I saw my partner preparing to slaughter creatures that he loved, I knew I couldn’t justifiably hang out in the background. I stood next to Wesley, both of us marked with blood, and I didn’t allow myself to look away as he taught me what needed to be done. We shared the work, and the sadness, and later, we also shared bites of sautéed goose liver.

From then on, my participation in slaughter was a foregone conclusion.

As the farming season ended, we pulled together a group of friends to help slaughter. Standing with my comrades, our hands cramped from plucking, utterly drained, we surveyed the pile of neatly packaged geese. Birds that a mere day before had been squonking and flapping by the snowy creek were now ready to be rubbed with rosemary, popped into the oven, and roasted to a deep golden brown. As I looked, feeling my toes numb in my farm boots, I reflected that my life had changed, simply because I had said that I was “down to pluck.” And unbeknownst even to me, I’d meant it.

Suzanne Podhaizer owns Salt Café in Montpelier and is the former food editor of Seven Days.

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local banquet 19

From Nano to Micro

One small-scale brewer capitalizes on Vermont’s beer trend

By Jeffrey Gangemi The day I went out to visit Bret Hamilton’s new microbrewery, Stone Corral, on idyllic Taft Road in Huntington, the 32-degree weather felt downright balmy. It was early January, and we’d just had one of the coldest snaps I’d ever felt in Vermont—wind chills down in the 30-below range.

But as the rest of Vermont was hibernating, Bret was expanding. He was eager to show me the two new fermenters he’d just installed with the help of his friend and neighbor, Gene Bouffard. With the installation, Stone Corral was officially moving from nano-scale to micro-scale.

Bret is a relatively unknown brewer compared to Vermont’s contemporary legends: Lawson’s, Hill Farmstead, The Alchemist, and the like. But he’s a longtime home brewer who’s jumping into the local beer scene by starting small and growing from there. Aware of Vermont’s nationally recognized breweries, Bret says he knew the time was right to make the leap.

Anne Duany White of Vermont Homebrew Supply in Winooski says she’s seeing more home brewers setting up “nanobreweries” and looking for local distribution on a relatively small scale. “You’re seeing more people jump,” she says. “If enough people tell you that you’re good at something and they take pleasure from it, and you have a passion for doing it, I can’t imagine you wouldn’t be thinking to yourself, There are other people who get money for doing this. Why not me?’

Anne points to a number of successful operations that started out quite small, such as 14th Star Brewing Company in St. Albans and Switchback in Burlington. And today, there are a number of new small breweries hot on Bret’s heels, including Queen City Brewery in Burlington, Burlington Beer Company in Williston, and Four Quarters Brewing in Winooski, among others.

Bret was a home brewer for 22 years before he started selling his beer last August from his home and at the Waitsfield farmers’ market. But with the addition of the two new fermenters, Bret’s production was about to expand five-fold when I

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visited him, with production capacity of 125 gallons at a time.

He was looking at very limited distribution for the foreseeable future, though. That would mean more selling from home and the farmers’ market, and maybe gracing a tap or two around the north-central part of the state.

“The people around Vermont have been more receptive and accepting than I’d ever imagined,” he said.

Sharing Underrepresented Brews Bret’s ales, stouts, and wheat beers are a departure from many of the hop-heavy brews now coming out of Vermont. But this is intentional; Bret wants to sell beers that are underrepresented in the current market. The explicit focus of Stone Corral is on brewing ales that pair well with food, through one key element: “Balance,” says Bret.

Stone Corral may be part of an emerging trend, says Anne Duany White, noting that the pendulum is swinging back toward what she calls “sessionable” beers—the kinds that won’t knock you out with bitterness or high alcohol content after one glass.

“I think he’s onto something,” Anne says. “I think what people want to drink is something that tastes good, that you don’t have to pour in a snifter, or spend $20 a bottle on. You just want good, everyday kind of beer. I think there will be a good response to that. I hope so.”

If his initial success is any indication—Bret recalls a day after Thanksgiving when 75 people stood outside his tiny tasting room—the market is hungry for food-friendly brews. His most popular creation, Stone Corral Black Beer, is a balanced, velvety, German-inspired black ale porter cross.

To meet demand, Bret and his wife (and business partner) Melissa plan on expanding their brewing space and tasting room this spring. Bret’s current brewery, a repurposed tool shed 50 feet or so out his front door, had been doubling as a tasting room, but it was so small that when they got any more than

photos by jeffrey gangemi

four visitors at a time, it was shoulder to shoulder. The overflow would occasionally migrate into Melissa’s tack room in their reclaimed barn, which houses their nine horses. (Stone Corral shares an address with Willow Creek Horse Farm, where Melissa raises horses for trail riding.)

Getting the full experience of Stone Corral demands a visit to the brewery. It’s set right between Hinesburg’s town forest and Camel’s Hump, and neighbors are just as likely to visit by horse or snowmobile as by car. “Folks seem to like our quiet and beautiful mountain setting,” Bret says.

an original style he calls Mourbon Bash. He’s secured an oak cask from Vermont Spirits in Quechee and is brewing with Early Riser Cornmeal from the Northeast Kingdom. “It’s a style of strong, dark ale from England” that flips the traditional bourbon mash recipe ratios.

“I’m always coming up with ideas, and I’ve been talking for years about opening a brewery, mostly in jest,” says Bret, who has owned Shelter Analytics, an energy-efficiency company, since 2010. Before that, he worked for Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC) for some 10 years.

A Close Connection to Food

Catering to Vermont Supporters

In addition to its taste, Bret’s beer maintains yet another close connection with food: he uses local products in the beer whenever he can. Last fall, he brewed a butternut squash brown ale with squash from Burnt Rock Farm in Huntington and T-Cascade hops from Square Nail Hop Farm in Vergennes.

He says he’s enjoying watching the burgeoning Vermont hop industry, particularly as it’s caught the attention of the UVM Extension, which now holds an entire conference on hops and offers support and resources for Vermont hops growers.

He’s also used maple syrup from Taft Farm in Huntington to brew up a batch of Double Chocolate Maple Porter, a light porter. And he brews with Gleason Grains barley out of Bridport.

Still, it’s not like Bret is alone in using local ingredients in his beer; it’s a quintessentially Vermont thing to do. “I think Vermont has a pretty strong tradition of making things from scratch, wanting to do things for yourself,” Anne Duany White says. “This is a conversation we have all the time here at the store—about how to incorporate fruit, berries, nuts, maple.

It becomes a very personal product when you start putting those kinds of things into it.”

True to his promise to brew underrepresented beers, Bret also plans to brew stouts, dark and light wheat beers, reds, and

With all the excitement around Vermont beers (which can sometimes cause shortages), the Hamiltons are making sure their wares are available to their loyal followers and neighbors through the Stone Corral Brew Club. Members get access to all the latest and freshest brews, as well as all limited releases for 10 months. For between $250 and $975, fans can support Stone Corral, pre-paying to help the Hamiltons upgrade their space.

They also plan to host some events for local supporters in the coming months.

“Vermont beer is in a very special place right now,” says Anne Duany White. “No one is selling out. Everyone is passionate. And it’s not just one producer; it’s a lot of producers making a lot of great stuff.”

With a brewery like Stone Corral now in the mix, beer lovers can get local food products in a beer that’s brewed to pair well with the growing list of world-class Vermont foods. Chalk it up as just the latest mind-bending victory for the Vermont localvore movement.

Jeffrey Gangemi is a writer and marketing leader working to advance sustainability and creativity in business. He lives in Shelburne with his wife and 15-month-old baby, Maya Beatrice.

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local banquet 21

seeds for change

The Thorny Issue of Farmer Pay

by Mari Omland Green Mountain Girls Farm 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, and poultry had been moved. She said, “I’ve gotten to the point I think I should pay a toll to pass your place!” I joked, “In order for us to survive it might come to that!” The conversation awkwardly fell off. But it has preoccupied me since.

Later that same week, as I drove my 96-year-old dad to the doctor, he said, “I miss seeing farm animals on these hills.” I shouted to overcome his World War II deafness: “Small farms are coming back!” I repeated myself, unsure if he heard me, but also needing to bolster my own resolve.

Five years into our farm’s startup journey, my partner Laura and I are pleased with our progress and all that we’ve learned.

We’ve restored long-neglected agricultural land to balance, woven our local offerings into the lives of our neighbors, mentored staff, and inspired hundreds of visitors. We’ve grown the farm’s gross annual income to $100,000 and see the potential to double that.

However, we have invested long, arduous days and our substantial mid-career resources. (I regret that with each pound of turkey sold, I may be sending off some change I earned decades ago from waitressing.) And in spite of successes, we are struggling to make our small farm profitable—which often leads to increased stress and a sense of failure. We’re grateful that we’ve been able to finance our startup ourselves, but we recognize that most of our farmer colleagues don’t have such reserves.

If we were the only farm struggling with profitability we would return to desk jobs in the nonprofit sector where both Laura and I found productivity, joy, and fulfillment. But as we gain entry into more intimate conversations with fellow farmers, I am increasingly concerned that profitability problems appear to be the norm. Especially distressing is the apparent lack of public awareness that this is so and the associated symptoms of long-term exhaustion, even burnout, evident among farmers. 

Scale, efficiency, and a myriad of other factors influence profitability. But scaling up does not match well with our small, undulating acreage, nor would it enable us to meet the ecological and social mandates we’ve set for our farm’s complex bottom line. Instead, we are experimenting with scoping up, offering a tight weave of interconnected niche products (food, events, experiences, farm stays), collectively producing alchemy and value. We know we aren’t perfect, but we are very much trying to be at the leading edge, investing in appropriate technologies, honing best practices, yet finding that it is still not enough.

“You’re getting in at the right time,” has been the refrain of our savvier friends and relatives, who are aware of the new 22 local banquet

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wave of national interest in local food. And there is an unending chorus of “Good for you—you’re living the life!” These are the moments when I ponder the disconnect between public understanding and the real situation. People are picturing the known satisfaction that comes with time outdoors and facilitating growth. Or they may simply envy the short commutes (like a walk from the house to the barn) or being your own boss. But many are unaware of the low wages and associated concerns such as retirement savings for farmers.

We farmers, broadly speaking, have not been clear enough about our struggle around profitability, neither with each other nor our customers. I’ve had the occasional buzz-killing moments when random people yell at us for our prices.

This isn’t new news. A June 2010 article in The American Prospect highlighted a Hudson Valley farmer who made just $7 an hour, even though he is well respected in farming and culinary circles and praised in the pages of Gourmet and by the likes of Alice Waters. The article went on to say that the same farmer “sells eggs for $14 per dozen.” And it concluded, “Most local, unconventional and organic growers don’t come close to earning a living wage from being farmers.” A harder truth is that this is a recurring pattern. The New York Times recently documented a meeting of “elders” within the organic farming community who discussed critical concerns about their own retirement.

The sobering reality of farmers’ wages is offset by certain factors such as tax breaks, value added to one’s land, the ability to grow one’s own food, and so on. But we farmers, broadly speaking, have not been clear enough about our struggle around profitability, neither with each other nor our customers.

I’ve had the occasional buzz-killing moments when random people yell at us for our prices. “YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU’RE CHARGING $5 A POUND FOR TURKEY!?” I swallow hard, blush, and babble about organic grain costing more than double that of conventional grain.

Yet I resent being ashamed of the high prices of local food because I know it is costly to grow all food. Directing attention to why conventional, industrial food is so cheap seems helpful. Although obscured by distance and tied up in a complex weave of subsidies, the outsourced environmental and social costs of industrial food are significant and worthy of more dialogue and attention. As we know, the true cost of this food simply isn’t reflected in its price. I wonder if the high price of local

food is really the problem or if it’s simply expectations of low prices for food in general.

cartoon by Anna Svagzdys



At Green Mountain Girls Farm, our free-choice, full-diet, yearround farm share has been a focal point in the community for more than 230 weeks. Laura and I also embraced agri-tourism partly because it suits our personalities and because our infrastructure begs for this potential to be tapped. But we did it in large part because food grown at the small scale using environmentally and socially responsible practices produces small profit margins at best. Our initial success is promising. We host guests from near and far who share earnest interest in small farms and in growing food sustainably.

Together with colleagues in the Floating Bridge Food and Farms Cooperative, we see widespread hunger for hands-on farm experiences as well as food. And we are inviting Vermonters to access the working landscape and help move it from the background of tourists’ pictures to the foreground of our lives.

In doing so, we reinvigorate and intensify Vermonters’ rural identity and, for that matter, the Vermont brand. This is a way to get significant dollars high into the hills.

The actual cost of local food may be too steep for many of us to afford, given the low wages earned by so many. If so, we need to shift government subsidies toward small farms. But this isn’t a handout; this is an investment in building soils and fertility into the land, increasing resilience in an era of climate change, mitigating the impacts of flooding, building connectedness and community, and guaranteeing that small farmers have the financial resources to do all of the above well into the future.

Additionally, farmers need a safe and transparent dialogue with each other about profitability—and a dialogue with their customers and communities. What if customers’ potential to contribute to the viability of small farms is under realized simply because they have never been asked to step up to the next level? Farmers need to ask themselves, “Are our prices lower than they need to be if we want to pay ourselves and our staff a living wage?”



Here is the good news. We can continue to support local food by enjoying it! To invest in this asset, simply shop more from farmers—even, as author Barbara Kingsolver notes, when it is raining! Understand the practices of the farms from whom you source food. Make your preferences known.

Keep celebrating the resurgence of small-scale farming, too. Even if profitability is problematic, we are cultivating wealth in soil richness, sparking community connections, assembling appropriate technology, and building skill and knowledge in a new generation. Know that it is possible but hard to raise food well. Know that farm-fresh food is of a different caliber in its nutrition and leaves a lighter footprint on the planet—and let’s continue to quantify that difference.

Beyond all this, remember that food draws people together and farms connect people with the cycle of life. People are as hungry for this connection as they are for nutritious food. Believe that farmers will thrive into the future and talk with them about that future. When there is grit on your veggies, like difficulty in your conversations, it means they are real.

That realness builds connection, which we humans universally seek.

We need to actively co-create a marketplace that holds all our interests fairly and is therefore sustainable. Feel this push, advance anew, and let’s achieve the improbable together.

Mari Omland grew up in the hills around Rutland. In 2007, she returned to Vermont with her partner, Laura Olsen, to establish Green Mountain Girls Farm in Northfield. They seek to provide authentic, hands-on Vermont farm experiences (tours, classes, overnight stays, meetings, and events) and mindfully grow delicious food. Learn more at eatstayfarm.com.

Anna Svagzdys, cartoonist, is studying mechanical engineering at the University of Vermont. She lives in Montpelier and has spent the last few summers working and learning at Green Mountain Girls Farm.

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Eat out ... and stay out!

Tavern Opens at 4 pm · Restaurant Opens at 5 pm.

Open Tuesday through Saturday with exceptions during holidays.

2594 Depot St/Rte11-30 Manchester, VT (802) 362-2817 www.PerfectWife.com

Growers of Familiar and Unusual Spring Plants for Your Garden Perennials, Annuals and Certified ORGANIC Herb and Veggie Starts Visit our website for info about our Summer Share CSA Program

ORGANIC GREEN HOUSES

Vegetable and flower packs • Field-proven varieties herbs, hanging baskets, compost, and seeds

802-897-7031 • 1329 Lapham Bay Rd, Shoreham, VT

www.goldenrussetfarm.com

Opening late April for Plants and June for Produce Rt. 7A Shaftsbury

Alpaca Meat

visit

Farmers’ Markets

for fabulous locally produced food and crafts!

Manchester Farmers Market

Dorset Farmers Market

In April, every Sunday, 10am–2pm J.K. Adams Kitchen Store 1430 Route 30, Dorset Beginning May 4, every Sunday, 10am–2pm H.N. Williams Store 2732 Route 30, Dorset dorsetfarmersmarket.com

Bennington Farmers’ Market

In April, 1st and 3rd Saturday, 10am–1pm First Baptist Church 600 East Main Street, Bennington Beginning May 4, every Saturday, 10am–1pm River Walk Park, Depot and River Streets, Bennington www.benningtonfarmersmarket.org

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Grass Fed, Lean, and Delicious!

Cas-Cad-Nac Farm LLC Ian & Jennifer Lutz 490 Wheeler Camp Perkinsville, VT 05151 info@cas-cad-nacfarm.com www.CCNFAlpaca.com (802) 263-5740

Beginning May 29, Thursdays 3pm–6pm Adams Park, Route 7A Downtown Manchester Center www.manchesterfarmers.org

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802–442–4273 clearbrookfarm.com

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Vermont Cheesemakers

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G 1 Blue Ledge Farm G

2001 Old Jerusalem Road, Salisbury Please call ahead for appointment. blueledgefarm.com | 802.247.0095

2 Blythedale Farm C

No retail sales from the farm 802.439.6575

3 Bonnieview Farm S

2228 South Albany Road, Craftsbury Common Please call ahead for appointment. bonnieview.org | 802.755.6878

4 Boston Post Creamery G

15 Green Mountain Blue Cheese C 2183 Gore Road, Highgate Center Open daily. boucherfamilyfarm.blogspot.com | 802.868.4193

19 Lakes End Cheeses C & G

7 Cobb Hill Cheese C

Please call ahead for appointment. cobbhillcheese.com | 802.436.4360

8 Consider Bardwell Farm C & G

1333 VT Route 153, West Pawlet Self-serve farm store is open year round. The farm is open to visitors on weekends. considerbardwellfarm.com | 802.645.9928

9 Crawford Family Farm C

= I

No tours or retail sales from the farm. cellarsatjasperhill.com | 802.533.2566

5 Cabot Creamery Cooperative C

Please call ahead for appointment. cvcream.com | 802.877.2950

Q

Please call ahead for appointment.

802.295.5333 212 West Shore Road, Alburg Open daily mid-June through Labor Day. lakesendcheeses.com | 802.796.3730

20 Lazy Lady Farm C & G

21 Maplebrook Farm C

30 Shelburne Farms C

No tours or retail sales mountainmozzarella.com | 802.440.9950

22 Mt. Mansfield Creamery C

Please call ahead for appointment. mtmansfieldcreamery.com | 802.888.7686

23 Neighborly Farms of Vermont C 1362 Curtis Road, Randolph Center Open Monday–Friday.

802.728.4700

1611 Harbor Road, Shelburne Open to the public.

802.985.8686

31 Southwind Farm C 3783 VT Route 30, Pawlet Open daily.

802.325.3584

32 Spring Brook Farm C

Please call several days ahead of time to make an appointment for a farm tour and/ or visit to the cheese house.

802.484.1236

25 Peaked Mountain Farm C & S

33 Taylor Farm C

26 Ploughgate Creamery C

34 Thistle Hill Farm C

12 Fat Toad Farm G

787 Kibbee Road, Brookfield Open daily. fattoadfarm.com | 802.279.0098

13 Franklin Foods C No tours or retail sales.

802.933.4338

14 Grafton Village Cheese C

533 Townshend Road, Grafton and Route 30, Brattleboro Both locations open daily. graftonvillagecheese.com | 800.472.3866

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No tours or retail sales from the farm. lazyladyfarm.com | 802.744.6365

10 Crowley Cheese C

No retail sales from the farm. doesleap.com | 802.827.3046

b O Z h

V

C cow G goat S sheep

24 Orb Weaver Farm C

11 Does’ Leap G

m j

165 Sawyer-Needham Road, Whiting Please call ahead for appointment.

802.623.6600 14 Crowley Lane, Healdville Generally open, please call ahead. crowleycheese.com | 802.259.2340

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1005 Hildene Road, Manchester Open daily. hildene.org | 802.362.1788

18 Jericho Hill Farm C

6 Champlain Valley Creamery C

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Cheese C & G

17 Jasper Hill Farm C

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16 Hildene Farm Signature

2061 Sampsonville Road, Enosburg Falls Open to the public. bostonpostdairy.com | 802.933.2749 2878 Main Street, Cabot Open to the public. cabotcheese.coop.comt | 800.837.4261 Also Waterbury 802.244.6334 and Quechee 802.295.1180

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f

No tours or retail sales from the farm.

802.877.3755 Please call ahead for appointment.

802.365.4502

No tours or retail sales from the farm.

802.755.6155

27 Plymouth Artisan Cheese C 106 Messer Hill Road, Plymouth Notch Open to the public.

802.672.3650

28 Sage Farm Goat Dairy G 2248 West Hill Road, Stowe Open Monday & Saturday.

802.253.2876

29 Scholten Family Farm C

No tours or retail sales from the farm.

802.545.2522

825 Route 11, Londonderry Open daily.

802.824.5690 Please call ahead for appointment.

802.457.9349

35 Turkey Hill Farm C

55 Turkey Hill Road, Randolph Center Farm store is open daily.

802.728.7064

36 Twig Farm C & G

No tours or retail sales from the farm.

802.462.3363

37 Vermont Creamery C & G 40 Pitman Road, Websterville Open Monday–Friday.

802.479.9371

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38 Vermont Farmstead Cheese Co. C Please call for information.

802.457.9992

39 Vermont Shepherd S 281 Patch Farm Road, Putney Farm Store is open year round.

802.387.4473

40 von Trapp Farmstead C Please call ahead for appointment.

802.496.6100

41 West River Creamery C

Please call ahead for appointment.; self-serve retail open daily.

802.824.6900

42 Willow Hill Farm S & C

313 Hardscrabble Road, Milton Farm store and viewing room open daily.

802.893.2963

43 Willow Moon G

Please call ahead for appointment.

802.454.9916

44 Woodcock Farm S & C

Please call ahead for appointment.

802.824.6538 Production facility only, no tours or retail sales.

Farm visits by appointment only; please call ahead.

Open to the public., please call for hours.

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Elmore Roots Nursery "if it grows in elmore, it will grow where you are"

Vermonters have a local organic source for fruit trees and berry plants

elmoreroots.com

802.888.3305

The Putney School

Summer Programs Putney, Vermont

offering workshops for teens & adults

Farm Culinary Arts Performing & Visual Arts Creative Writing

802.387.6297

summer.putneyschool.org

A Wood-Fired Artisan Bakery In Alstead, NH Available in Stores & Farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Markets Throughout the Region

www.orchardhillbreadworks.com 32 The Square, Bellows Falls, Vermont Between Exits 5 & 6 on I 91

(802) 463-9404 Open 7 days a week Full service locally-owned independent bookstore Books for all ages, Gifts & Toys

WWW.VILLAGESQUAREBOOKS.COM

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Order Books & KOBO e-Books 24/7

THERAPY Continued from page 17

access for those with walkers and wheelchairs, as they could get their legs underneath the bed if need be. After traveling to the nursery down the road to select the plants and then working together to plant the bed, the residents were delighted to have some real ownership over a part of the garden. When we finished with the task at hand, one man lingered over his handiwork for another half an hour, gently running a hand tool through the freshly mixed soil around his newly planted flowers. That simple act, with the accompanying sensory delights of warm sun and richly scented soil, was full of memory and happiness for him.

Another time, I worked alongside a resident who had a hard time getting up and down, but with my help she was able to get down to ground level and move along, pulling weeds and chatting. She was early in her battle with dementia, and often could not remember the events of the last few hours, but that day she vividly and joyfully recounted stories of her dog and young children in her own garden 50 years earlier. For her, the garden offered a context in which her memories were fresh and present, and created a stage from which she could be a storyteller about her past.

It is so important to all of us that we are needed, and important. Gardens at eldercare facilities or other institutional care settings can help foster this sense of being needed and responsible for something outside of oneself. Mary Dauphinais, a resident at Holton Home, has taken a lot of responsibility for the houseplants and perennials through watering, planting bulbs, and making decisions about new perennials to purchase. She is always ready to use her plant reference books to research which kind of plant a mystery newcomer is, or what it might need if it is ailing.

“Taking care of the plants…[and having] something that I would make it my duty to do—it takes up a lot of time, and you have something to be responsible for,” she says. Of last year’s garden, she recalls, “It helped keep me going. I could get into the plants.”

For elders living in a care facility where, sadly, much of what was once familiar has been stripped away, a garden is an essential part of staying connected to life. For me, this job has been essential to my own staying connected to reality; for in my work, I am not permitted to forget the elderly, and their special needs and concerns, as I have been throughout much of my life. In their world, death is all around, especially when they live among other elders. The garden is a special place, then, where life abounds and the spring will always come again. I am in a unique position where I get to bring this life and this newness to a group that is hungry for that kind of positivity. Having the opportunity to engage with both worlds—the vivacity of the growing plants and the quiet reflection of age— is at once humbling and sublime.

Abigail Healey is a writer and gardener in Brattleboro. She believes that every school, prison, mental health hospital, and nursing home deserves a garden (or several). She has published essays about parenting and gardening in Hip Mama, Parent Express, and at leviandfamily.com.

VT Local Banquet ad spring 2014 pig 3.5 x 4.5_3.5 x 4.5 ad 1/16/14 4:47 PM Pa

proud pig naturally cured Humanely raised on family farms & fed a vegetarian diet.

No antibiotics or added hormones.

No added nitrates/nitrites.

Brattleboro & Manchester, VT • Keene, NH worksbakerycafe.com

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Together, Better Choices ...like cooperative partnerships with community organizations.

City Market is proud to partner with the Boys & Girls Club to inspire and enable community youth. Together we can help kids realize their full potential as productive, healthy, responsible and caring citizens.

Learn more at www.bandgclub.org.

82 S. Winooski Ave. Burlington, VT 05401 Open 7 days a week, 7 a.m. - 11 p.m. (802) 861-9700 www.citymarket.coop

We s t R i v e r Fa m i l y D e n t a l Jared V Rediske DDS · Jeffrey W Wallace DDS

74 Grafton Road Townshend, VT 802-365-4313

Now with Two Locations

36 Park Place Brattleboro, VT 802-254-8322

Life is the flower for which love is the honey. ~Victor Hugo

The Book Nook — proudly feeding the mind since 2006.

136 Main Street, Ludlow VT 05149 • 802–228–3238 thebooknookvt@hotmail.com • thebooknookvt.com

Contributing Local Farms

Full menu available with daily food and drink specials.

More than 35 beers to choose from.

Extensive wine list.

Harlow’s Farm Old Athens Farm LMC Ranch Hope Roots Farm Pete’s Stand

WEDNESDAY KARAOKE THURSDAY OPEN MIC 8 PM LIVE MUSIC FRIDAY & SATURDAY MON –FRI • 4 PM till 11PM SAT • 2PM till 11PM SUN • 2PM till CLOSE FULL MENU EVERYDAY AT 5 PM SEVEN DAYS A WEEK

802– 869 – 4602 16 MAIN STREET SAXTONS RIVER

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10% discount if you mention this ad

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Committed to Local Food Education

Share the harvest and the knowledge.

Look for garden workshops and farm tours this growing season! www.uppervalleyfood.coop

UVFC ~ 193 North Main St, WRJ, VT ~ (802) 295-5804

f a r m e r s ’

Planet Pollinators 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 if I bundle up to brave the elements, go outside, and put my ear against the side of one of the hives, I can hear the low rumble of my bees.

They survive Vermont’s brutal winter by clustering into a ball with the queen in the middle. As the temperature drops, the ball gets tighter. Bees on the outside eat a dollop of stored honey and slowly migrate to the inside, where they detach their wings from their wing muscles, exercise those muscles, and in the process, generate enough heat to keep the center, where the queen is, a toasty 70 degrees.

Honeybees are incredible creatures. They are the most efficient pollinators on the planet and help us produce a lot of the food we eat, including fruits, berries, melons, vegetables, nuts, coffee, and chocolate. They pollinate the clover and alfalfa on which our dairy cows graze. And, of course, they produce real honey. If there were no honeybees, our diets would be pretty bland.

Unfortunately, bee populations throughout the United States are declining. Loss of habitat, widespread pesticide use, diseases, and mites are all taking a toll. When I started beekeeping, yearly losses were pretty manageable. Now they average roughly 33% every year. My wife, Marda Donner, and I make up losses by buying new bees or splitting the colonies that survived the winter. Sometimes we catch bees that have swarmed—in other words, have split off from their original hive.

We have somewhere between 15 and 25 hives spread out on 7 farms in Brookfield and Randolph Center, including our own. Usually, we can count on 600 to 700 pounds of honey from our bees over the course of a summer. However, the weather can play havoc with that number, and 2013 was particularly difficult for us. The wet May and June meant that the bees stayed holed up in their hives. Pollen and nectar sources were routinely washed off flowers by the rain, and the overcrowded hives had a tendency to swarm. As a result, in 2013 we harvested only a bit more than 100 pounds of honey. Although it was a low honey production year, the bees did a fantastic job on the apples, and we made more than 200 gallons of cider in October.

Looking outside today it is hard to imagine that within 90 days the bees will start venturing out to find sources of pollen and nectar. Maples provide one of the earliest sources of food and allow colonies to build up populations for the big feast— dandelion. After that, there is the apple bloom, clover, squash, and other fruits and vegetables, followed by goldenrod and asters in the fall. Then once again, the bees cluster up, and the cycle starts over.

Dan Childs and Marda Donner own and operate their farm, Brookfield Bees, on Kibbee Road in Brookfield. In addition to honey, they produce soap, candles, apple cider, boiled cider, and maple syrup, all for sale at their farm or the Floating Bridge farmers’ market in Brookfield.

BAKLAVA Here is a recipe for baklava, a very sweet Middle Eastern treat that has the sweetness of honey, the tang of citrus, the taste and texture of walnuts, and the crunch of filo pastry.

The combination is irresistible.

1 lb. filo pastry 1 lb. butter FILLING 2 cups finely chopped walnuts ½ to ¾ cup sugar 1 tsp. cinnamon grated orange peel from one orange SYRUP ½ cup sugar 1 cup water 1 ½ cups vermont honey Thaw filo pastry in refrigerator (if frozen).

Preheat oven to 325 °F. Mix walnuts, sugar, cinnamon, and orange peel.

Prepare syrup by simmering honey, sugar and water for 10 minutes. Cool.

Layer filo: paint the bottom of a pan with butter, and layer four filo sheets, buttering each sheet as you lay it in the pan. After the four sheets, spread ¼ of the filling over the top sheet. Repeat so that there are five layers of filo (of four sheets per layer) and four layers of filling. Cut into diamonds and bake at 325 °F for 1 hour or until golden. Pour syrup over pastry. Let sit 1 hour, then refrigerate.

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k i t c h e n

photo of Dan and Marda’s daughter, Abby, courtesy of brookfield bees

by Dan Childs Brookfield Bees

1939

Temple Chiropractic Supporting the health care needs of the community for the past 35 years Specialist in the treatment of non-surgical back & neck pain DR. VERNON R. TEMPLE Chiropractic Physician

RTE 9 WEST BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT (802)254-8399 WWW.CHELSEAROYALDINER.COM OPEN DAILY 5:30AM—9PM

Welcome Spring!

Celebrating our 24th year!

Famed for our Local Grass-fed Burgers, Micro Brews & Fish-Fry Fridays!

Ice Cream Window Opens in April, featuring First of the Season pure VT Maple Cream!

102 Saxtons River Road Bellows Falls, VT 05101 802–463–9522

Your Farm, Your Food,

Our Kitchens... www.hardwickagriculture.org

SHARE A TASTE OF VERMONT Savor the experience of farm to table dining featuring inspired American cuisine, led by Chef Martin Schuelke.

Enjoy the candlelit ambiance of The Old Tavern Restaurant (open nightly), or choose the Phelps Barn Pub for casual dining (Wednesday - Sunday).

92 Main Street, Grafton, VT 05146

GraftonInnVermont.com

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800-843-1801

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Sunday, March 9

Season Sweet: Bird Songs and Maple Syrup 1pm–5pm Celebrating maple sugaring and birds through storytelling and music with performer Michael Caduto. Justin Morrill Homestead, 214 Justin Morrill Highway, Strafford. morrillhomestead.org 765-4288

Thursday, March 13

10th Annual Grain Growers Conference 9:30am–5pm This year’s theme is Grow it Here. Vermont grain grower extraordinaire Jack Lazor will be our keynote speaker. Learn about small-scale malting from Andrea Stanley of Valley Malt in Hadley, Massachusetts and Bruno Vachon of Malterie Frontenac, Inc. in Thetford Mines, Québec. Explore the opportunity of growing malt grains with Tate McPherson from Aroostook County Maine.

Join the session on adding value to grains with Vermont Bean Crafters and Caledonia Spirits. $45 includes lunch ($40 for NGGA members). Essex Resort, 70 Essex Way, Essex. uvm.edu/extension/grainconference 524-6501

Saturday, March 15

Organic Beekeeping Workshop with Ross Conrad 9am–5pm During this daylong workshop, Ross Conrad will offer practical information on everything that ambitious beekeepers need to know—from beekeeping equipment to the basics of bee biology, Varroa mite and disease control to overwintering hives. This intermediate to advanced workshop will provide a comprehensive survey of natural beekeeping appropriate for small-scale commercial apiculturists as well as hobbyists. This workshop is presented by The Nature Museum at Grafton. Please bring a brown bag lunch. Register by March 5, to receive the early bird price of $40 for this eight-hour workshop.

After March 5, the price will be $45. Please pre-register online or call. Event location NewsBank Conference Center, 352 Main Street, Chester. nature-museum.org 843-2111

Photo: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Saturday, March 15

Pruning & Grafting Workshop with Zeke Goodband 9am–12pm Scott Farm will host a pruning and grafting workshop for back yard fruit growers. Participants will receive instruction while pruning a variety of old and young fruit trees from 9–11 and practice grafting apple trees from 11– 12. This class will discuss caring for their trees, the proper tools to use, and will give participants the knowledge, confidence and skills needed to work on their own fruit trees at home. The fee is $40 and reservations are necessary. Scott Farm, 707 Kipling Road, Dummerston. scottfarm.com 254-6868

Tuesday March 19

Hemp Happening, 6–9pm In light of Congress passing the federal Farm Bill that included a section which allows hemp cultivation by higher educational institutions, and Vermont’s passage of trans-formative hemp legislation last year, Rural Vermont, Full Sun Company of Middlebury, VT, and Vote Hemp will be hosting a hemp networking gathering and special screening of the hemp documentary, Bring it Home. The event is intended for all those interested in cultivating hemp, and networking with other Vermont farmers, processors and advocates. The event will be held on, at the Ilseley Public Library in Middlebury. robb@ruralvermont.org 223-7222 Friday, March 14

Saturday, March 22

Maple Open House Weekend 2014 More than 80 Vermont sugarmakers invite you to visit their farms and sugarhouses. See for yourself how maple syrup is made. Because no two sugarhouses are the same, plan on visiting more than one! See website for locations throughout the state. Admission is free. vermontmaple.org 800-837-6668

Sunday, March 23

Extending the Season Workshop, Part I The Food Security Collaborative will host Guilford farmer, Lisa Holderness who will offer Part I of a two-part workshop on Extending the Season. This workshop will include a slide discussion, handouts, and a hands-on demonstration of a mini-hoop and her very low-tech seeding and lighting system hoop houses. Lisa will share important concepts of solar growing and hoop house design. This workshop is free, but due to limited space, registration is required. United Church of Bellows Falls, 20 School Street, Bellows Falls. postoilsolutions.org 869-2142

Thursday, March 27

Extreme Home Composting Seminar 7pm Are you curious about composting? Do you participate in a composting program at work or school, and want to take that habit home? Then join us, for an “Extreme Home Composting” webinar. Learn about what compost is; what the best composting system is for you; how to start your compost system; and how to manage that system effectively. These webinars are free and open to all. See website for more information or to register online. highfieldscomposting.org/start-composting/extreme-home-composting-webinars

Tuesday, April 1

Addison County Farm Animal Homeopathy Study Group 11:30 am–1:30 pm Open to all levels. Great peer support: learn how other farmers are applying homeopathy to their herds or flocks. A relaxed discussion that usually includes an in-depth look of at least one remedy, some theory, and a case analysis. Bring your resources, if you have them, and a current or past case that you would like to discuss. Taconic End Farm, Leicester. foxclag@gmavt.net 247-3979

Sunday, April 6

Extending the Season Workshop, Part II Having completed Part I, participants are invited to come to Lisa Holderness’s farm in Guilford, where they can bend their own pipes and cut plastic, see small and large hoop house set ups, and get deeper into season extension/ greenhouse principals for energy efficiency applicable to home and small farm/neighborhood growing co-ops. While the workshop is free, there will be a materials fee (TBA). Deer Ridge Farm, 4057 Hinesburg Road, Guilford. postoilsolutions.org­­ 869-2142

Saturday, April 12

The New Horse-Powered Farm: Tools and Systems for the Small-Scale, Sustainable Market Grower 6:30–8pm A look at the history and current state of draft horse farming with a focus on all the old and new tools that contemporary horse farmers are utilizing for whole farm management and in the market garden. We will cover selection, care, and training of workhorses to primary tillage, cultivation, and bringing in the harvest. The economics and environmental impact of draft horse farming will also be discussed. Free. Shelburne Farms, Shelburne. shelburnefarms.org

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C A L E N D A R

“Hired man of Frank H. Shurtleff gathering sap from sugar trees for making maple syrup. Sugaring is a social event and is enjoyed by all the young people and children in the neighborhood. The Shurtleff farm has about 400 acres and was originally purchased by grandfather in 1840. He raises sheep; cows; cuts lumber and has been making maple syrup for about thirty-five years. Sugaring brings in about one thousand dollars annually.

Because of the deep snow this year he only tapped 1000 of his 2000 trees. He expects to make about 300 to 500 gallons this year. North Bridgewater; Vermont” —Photo circa 1940

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by Kim Peavey I’m a farmer, and my favorite place in Vermont is a farm—one that has a surprise at its core. The surprise isn’t the lovely old farmhouse on the property or the 11 acres of organically farmed vegetables, but the fact that the farm and its bounty are part and parcel of my doctor’s office: Sojourns Community Health Clinic in Westminster.

Mountains, farm fields, towering pines and maples, and herb and flower gardens frame the clinic, located in the 1800s farmhouse. Inside, the waiting room is not a waiting room, but an invitation. The walls are a light-saturated deep orange. There are live plants. There is beautiful music. There are windows, with beautiful views. There are armchairs. There is hot herbal tea if I’d like it. On the ground floor is the apothecary, well supplied with supplements, minerals, vitamins, tinctures, and teas. An infrared sauna is available. Local and regional art is showcased on the upper level. Peace cranes of all colors descend from ceiling to floor near the stairwell.

And just beyond the farmhouse, there’s the farm. It is farmed organically by the Harlow family, who own Harlow Farm, also in Westminster. Paul Harlow grows a variety of vegetables on the Sojourns land, including Swiss chard, lettuce, cabbage, sweet corn, green beans, and potatoes, and sells the produce through a farm stand, CSA shares, and wholesale. The Harlows farm the land with the agreement that some of the crops are donated to local food shelves and schools, and the fields are gleaned as part of the Vermont Food Bank gleaning project. (Sojourns practitioners are also welcome to glean there for personal use.)

This relationship to local, sustainable agriculture was written into the founding documents of Sojourns. It is “part of the vision of who we are and what we do,” according to naturopathic physician Clif Steinberg. Founded in 2000 by Dr. Linda Haltinner, a chiropractic physician, Sojourns is an interdisciplinary medical clinic, offering primary care, biological medicine, women’s care, wellness support, and extensive health education to both clients and the local community. Today it is home to more than 20 practitioners who combine standard allopathic health care with the best of alternative treatments.

“Good health care is intrinsically connected to the land, and to good food practices,” Clif says. “In order to be healthy individuals, we need a healthy local economy and environment.”

The local economy and environment are definite priorities in the clinic’s apothecary, impressively stocked with a wealth of local products: supplements from DaVinci Lab, a Vermont34 local banquet

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based company; body balms and butters from Stones of Wisdom of West Brattleboro; insect repellent from Skeeter Scatter, also of Brattleboro; healing salves from Jill Kiel of Putney; herbal extracts and tinctures from plants gathered in Vermont and Massachusetts by clinic herbalist Bonnie Bloom of Blue Crow Botanicals; locally harvested chaga mushrooms for tea and mushroom extracts for year-round immune support from Mission Mushroom in Guilford; and unheated raw honey from Dick Brigham’s in Shrewsbury.

And of course, there are the clinic’s own medicinal herb gardens, inaugurated in 2012 on Climate Action Day and Cinco de Mayo. The gardens are maintained by volunteers and staff practitioners, and already provide calendula, nettles, and hops for the clinic’s apothecary.

At Sojourns, there are MDs, NDs, RNs, PTs, OTs, chiropractors, and nutritionists. There are options for primary care, preventative and family medicine, women’s health, and biological medicine. But that’s not all. The nurse practitioner is also a licensed acupuncturist. The executive director is also a homeopath. The physical therapist also offers craniosacral therapy.

And one of the massage therapists also has a little three-legged pooch with big eyes and a waggy tail, named Miss Bee. Miss Bee is a registered therapy dog.

Sojourns is a new model in medicine, a holistic model, one that recognizes that people are just that—people, with concerns of the mind, body, and spirit, and not merely diseases to be dissected or problems to be solved. As a biodynamic farmer, I like to view my own farm in a similar way, as a whole organism, worthy of care and attention on manifold levels. From the front desk to the practitioners’ rooms to the billing office, the Sojourns clinic—no, the people at the clinic—have always treated me as a whole person, and that in itself promotes well-being.

Sojourns showcases some of the best aspects of Vermont life with its focus on what is local, human, sustainable, compassionate, and agricultural. And this focus rises organically from the very ground where it grows and thrives.

Kim Peavey farms and writes in southwestern New Hampshire, where she and her family—along with two teams of draft horses—grow vegetables biodynamically for 100 local families through a CSA program. See hillsidespringsfarm.com for more information on the horse- and hand-powered farm, the CSA, or Kim’s writing.

photos courtesy of sojourns community health clinic

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