Vermont's Local Banquet Magazine Winter 2015

vermont’s

local banquet winter 2015 | issue thirty-one

Farming and Parenting Permaculture The State of the Bees

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A TRULY LOCAL FEAST FOR THE HOLIDAYS! 2014 Winner of Six Daysies

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For a truly wonderful Holiday feast, SHOP LOCAL, BUY LOCAL and support our local farmers and producers.

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222 DORSET STREET, SOUTH BURLINGTON 802.863.2569 • HEALTHYLIVINGMARKET.COM

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We've spent 5 months rehabbing an old school house out back, which sat vacant since Tropical Storm Irene, into our new brewery. If you're reading this you should be able to stop in for small bites, pints + growler fills (tentatively planned for mid-November). You’re also invited to stop into the restaurant for a Pro Pig brew served fresh, umbilicalstyle, from our brewery bright tanks straight to our tap towers. Drink It Up!

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C ON T E N T S w

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Mr. G.W. Clarke coming to town to sell butter on a Saturday in the winter of 1939, Woodstock, Vermont.

6 Publishers’ Note

18 Farming and Parenting

8 Set the Table with…

20 Ode on a Glass Jar

Homemade Local Baby Food

11 Garden Pathways 12 Permaculture: Taking the Long View

22 Seeds for Change 29 Farmers’ Kitchen Jam with Character

14 Winter Farmers’ Markets

31 Calendar

16 The State of the Bees

34 Last Morsel

Publishers’ Note

Publisher Schreiber & Lucas, LLC Editor Caroline Abels

They’ve already started to arrive in the mailbox: seed catalogs, with their glorious photos and wonderful illustrations, calling to us, announcing the promise of a future garden—and of spring. We’re in!

Art Director

Meg Lucas

Ad Director

Barbi Schreiber

But at this time of year, we also like to look back and reflect on the lessons our garden was kind enough to let us in on. Here are just a few.

It will never cease to astound us that in every seed, no matter the size— from tiny arugula to seemingly giant beans—there is an entire biological instruction manual to produce an adult plant. And that if we tend to the seed’s needs, it will do its part—sometimes. This has taught us that there are so many things beyond our control, that our influence is limited.

We’ve learned that the vegetables we pick to eat look very different than the ones we let grow and from which we harvest seeds. We have learned respect for the food we grow and that wasting even a bit is unthinkable.

And we’ve learned that the promise of all those seed catalogs must be tempered with what is possible for our garden and for us. As Wendell Berry says, “We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time: How much is enough?” We’re learning to plan our garden to meet our needs. Most of all, we’ve learned that we’ll continue to keep learning, and that this powerful lure draws us back again and again.

Three stories in this issue also highlight the fact that, when we work land, and work with animals, we always continue to learn. On page 34, Katie Spring notices—during a day of processing chickens—that she has come to use the words harvest and process in place of slaughter, and she wonders how wise that really is. And on a lighter note, on page 11 Rose Paul learns firsthand about the delicacy that is fresh woodchuck, after she seeks to defend her backyard from this wiley garden predator. In this issue we also invite you to learn a bit about permaculture, about making jam, and about the state of bees in Vermont.

Another wonderful opportunity to learn and pick up skills comes at the Annual NOFA-VT Winter Conference that will be happening on February 14 and 15. At this two-day event there is something for everyone, from gardeners to seasoned farmers. We always look forward to seeing old friends, having good conversations, and sharing the time together.

Meg Lucas Barbi Schreiber

Proofreader

Marisa Crumb Contributors David Fried Sarah Galbraith Nancy J. Hayden Abigail Healy Taylor Mardis Katz Bonnie North Suzanne Podhaizer Rose Paul Katie Spring 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 www.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.

On the cover : Parsnips; photo by Meg Lucas.

Contents page : Photo by Marion Post Wolcott, 1939; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC.

Copyright (c) 2015. 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.

M E M B E R

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VERMONT BUSINESSES FOR S O C I A L RESPONSIBILTY

Together, Better Choices

…like partnerships with local food producers.

Greenfield Highland Beef,

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City Market is dedicated to strengthening the local food system. We’re grateful to our local farmers and food producers who provide our Co-op’s Members and customers with nourishing food all year long!

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

Sundays 11 am – 2 pm

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local banquet 7

Set the Table with…

Homemade Local Baby Food

by Sarah Galbraith Many of us spend the fall preserving the local flavors of the harvest season. Squash, apples, beets, carrots, and the year’s final greens are cellared, canned, and frozen. But the anticipated addition to our family of a new little one has me preserving these foods in a new way: as homemade baby food.

It may seem like extra fuss to make your own baby food at a time when extra effort is not needed in your life. The addition of a baby is a lot of work in itself, so why make it harder? Commercial baby food offers so much convenience: What can be easier than opening a jar and starting mealtime? But commercial baby food has some downsides, too: greater expense, additives, and high-sugar and low fiber content due to the use of concentrates.

Making your own baby food also comes with some downsides: It can take more time and it can be trickier to measure out the right amount of food for one feeding. But parents who make their own baby food appreciate knowing exactly what they’re feeding their baby, they are glad to be avoiding additives, and they enjoy feeding their baby the same fresh foods that the rest of the family eats.

As I considered making my own baby food, I reached out to friends who had done it. Jason and Jenna Plouffe of Waterbury Center started their baby, Berkley, on Vermont Village applesauce, but wanted to expand to include homemade food.

They talked to their pediatrician, who was all for it. Jason says he and his wife realized that “reading a label on some baby food can be scary, simply because the ingredients aren’t always food. And if you buy a carrot, steam it, and smash it up you will know your baby ate a carrot.”

Another set of parents, Johanna Straavaldsen and Per Tonn of Montpelier, whose son Elliot is fed homemade baby food, were drawn to making their own in order to get their son excited about flavors. Johanna says, “I wanted him to get to know food’s real flavors, rather than odd combinations or anything artificial.”

How to Get Started The Vermont Department of Health feeding guide says parents can begin feeding strained or puréed fruits and vegetables as soon as babies show the telltale signs that they are ready to eat, which usually happens at six months or so. These signs can include holding his or her head steady, sitting up with support, and reaching for objects.

Parents should start with sweet vegetables such as squashes, beets, carrots, and peas, as well as fruits such as apples and pears. These should be introduced one at a time, with several days in between to notice any allergies. The guide says that at roughly eight months parents can add protein

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foods such as meats, beans, egg yolks, and cottage cheese.

Parents should wait to offer cow’s milk, egg whites, and honey until after the baby is one year old.

All that’s needed to make your own baby food is a vegetable steamer, food processor or potato masher, ice cube trays, and freezer bags or containers. The ingredients should be cooked well so that they are very soft, and then processed into a smooth and slightly watery purée. Freezing the finished product in ice cube trays, then storing in freezer bags or containers, provides ideal serving sizes for little ones; when first introducing solid foods, a serving size is approximately one thawed ice cube, or roughly 2 tablespoons. As the baby grows, a serving size can become two to four thawed ice cubes (equal to ¼ and ½ cup, respectively).

Some ingredients should be avoided in homemade baby food, such as sugar, salt, and fats (oil or butter). Spices and herbs can be used lightly and may help develop a more adventurous palate in young children. Johanna Straavaldsen didn’t hesitate to add herbs and spices, and says of her son, “He still likes spicy food to this day.”

Johanna also has some advice for other parents making their own baby food: don’t stress. The main goal is to teach your children to enjoy food and our local Vermont flavors. She recommends that parents not overthink it or become so committed to a certain way of feeding that the process stops being fun for the parents and the child. “If you have one idea about feeding and it doesn’t work, it’s okay to switch to a different method,” she says.

Sarah Galbraith of Marshfield is a freelance writer who has worked on renewable energy and local food programs for 10 years.

As of this writing, she was expecting her first child in November.

Winter Squash (or substitute carrots, beets, or sweet potato) 1 lb. squash (or other sweet, hard winter vegetable) 2 tablespoons water, breast milk, or formula Cook the vegetables thoroughly, either by steaming, boiling, or roasting. If roasting, minimize the use of oil or butter. Once cooked and cooled, add the vegetable to the food processor along with 2 tablespoons of liquid, or more if needed, to make a smooth and light purée. Spoon the final purée mixture into ice cube trays and freeze. Once solid, remove the ice cubes from the tray and store in a freezer bag or container. Thaw the ice cubes as needed and serve.

Chicken or Turkey Purée (or substitute beef or pork) 1 cup cold, cooked boneless meat, chopped into 1-inch pieces ¼ cup cooking juices, water, breast milk, or formula Bring a pot of water to boil and add the chopped meat.

Cook thoroughly, drain, and let cool. Reserve the cooking juices, if using. Once cool, add the meat and ¼ cup liquid to a food processor. Process on high until a smooth purée is formed. Spoon the final purée mixture into ice cube trays and freeze. Once solid, remove the ice cubes from the tray and store in a freezer bag or container. Thaw the ice cubes as needed and serve.

Puréed Green Peas (or substitute green beans or broccoli)

Apples (or substitute pears) 2 lbs. apples (about 4 medium-sized), peeled, cored, and chopped to consistent size

2 cups shelled peas

water as needed

¼ cup reserved cooking liquid, water, breast milk, or formula

Steam or boil apples in water. If boiling, add just enough water to cover approximatley half the thickness of the apples and cook down until the apples thicken to the consistency of watery applesauce. Let cool. Add apples to a food processor and purée until smooth, adding a little liquid if needed to make a purée slightly on the watery side.

Spoon the final purée mixture into ice cube trays and freeze. Once solid, remove the ice cubes from the tray and store in a freezer bag or container. Thaw the ice cubes as needed and serve.

photos by Tristan Von Duntz

Place vegetables in a steamer and cook until bright green but not overdone. Let cool and reserve the cooking water, if using. Add peas to the food processor with some liquid, about ¼ cup or as needed to smooth out the purée. The purée should not be too thick. Spoon the final purée mixture into ice cube trays and freeze. Once solid, remove the ice cubes from the tray and store in a freezer bag or container. Thaw the ice cubes as needed and serve.

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local banquet 9

Big Picture Farm GOAT STORE.

invites you to come visit our farmstead goat milk caramels, goat cheese, goat hats, goat cutting boards, goat cards and more!

www.bigpicturefarm.com

open in december from 10-4, M-F at 109 Grafton Road, Townshend Vt t Farmers Mar k e

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10 AM ~2 ESundays vEry Sunday 10am - 2PM pm

J.K. adamS KitchEn StorE, rtE 30, dorSEt 35 regional producers bringing veggies and fruits, grass fed meats, award winning cheeses and wines, maple syrup and honey, freshly baked breads and pastries, specialty prepared foods, pottery, paintings, jewelry & more!

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Distillery Open For Tasting & Sales 10 am – 5 pm Every Day Quechee Gorge Village 5573 Woodstock Rd. (Rte. 4) Quechee, VT 05059 866-998-6352 VermontSpirits.com

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garden pathways

“Don’t Waste that Woodchuck…”

illustration wikimedia.org, Pearson Scott Foresman collection

by Rose Paul That’s what I told friends for two weeks after feasting on woodchuck stew. Don’t waste your pesky garden woodchuck—eat it!

I first set my sights on cooking a woodchuck early this summer. My husband had dispatched one with his rifle after it munched on kale and cabbage behind my formidable garden fence. Honestly, how do they get in? This one had taken up bachelor digs at the base of a stone wall not 20 feet from our back porch, and I could see it smiling—I really mean it. It looked happy to be alive and pleased to be making progress on its mental checklist. Home? Yup. Food? Yup. Next up: female, and after that, babies.

I felt bad about cutting short its young and promising life…what would I say to its mother? So I vowed to myself that the next woodchuck we’d take out would count for something.

An opportunity to make good on my promise ambled along in mid-August. This time it was a she, and she liked green beans and carrot tops. She was not to be wasted. As my husband got out the rifle I whispered, “Remember, we’re going to eat this one.” He nodded and aimed for the back of the skull.

(Tip number one in harvesting woodchuck for food: Don’t spoil the meat with a bullet.)

Foregoing the dinner I had just fixed, we set about fussing over the animal.

Which was our sharpest knife? Where would we skin it, on a sawhorse or on our stone bench? What to do first, take off the head or cut open the belly skin? (Second tip: Get the head outta there, it gets in the way.)

We successfully muddled our way through dressing out the carcass, relying on our past experience butchering our homegrown meat chickens. I’ll confess it took a while. The skin is tough to cut through, and unlike a chicken that gets plucked first thing, a woodchuck’s fur can get in the way. What’s more, this August woodchuck was fattening up for the fall, and I had to gently separate the skin and fat layer from her underlying meat. But with a small sharp knife that wasn’t too difficult, just slow going. (Third tip: You really need a sharp knife for this work. It will help you avoid the bumbling that can cause you to nick a scent gland.)

We gratefully appraised the final product stretched out before us: from forearms to back thighs, a long, lean carcass of red meat. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it: stick that sucker in my crockpot. Fortunately, the woodchuck fit nicely coiled up in said crockpot.

Crockpot cooking requires less water than the stovetop, so I used only half of a 15-oz. can of stewed tomatoes. I was completely out of three ingredients I might have used—bay leaves, onions, and red wine—but I threw in a few peppercorns, a little salt, and hoped for the best. Really, who shops ahead for woodchuck on the Wednesday night menu? I figured we’d start with the basics and, if we ever did it again, we could ratchet up the cordon bleu factor. I set the crockpot on low and left it running all night.

Well, that woodchuck fed my husband and me for three meals. We both like the drumsticks of chicken and turkey, so at that first meal we went for the choicest parts—the legs— alongside mashed potatoes and salad. They were tender and delicious. I know, you’re probably thinking, Tastes like chicken, right? No, woodchuck is red meat, but it tastes less robust than beef, with a hint of herbs. I wouldn’t say it was a gamey taste, just a pleasant suggestion of the garden vegetables that fed this chuck. I was glad I hadn’t added the bay leaf because it wasn’t needed.

That evening I deboned the rest of the meat and we had woodchuck stew for two more meals. We never weighed the meat, but I would guess the dressed-out woodchuck amounted to four pounds.

Would I do this again? You bet I would! Gladly, and with pleasure.

I won’t be hunting afield for my next woodchuck stew, but if the right woodchuck comes along and decides my backyard vegetables are on its bucket list of things to do, then all I can say is, “Bon appetit!”

If the thought of killing woodchucks is painful to you, the Humane Society of the United States has an excellent article on its website about how to humanely “evict and exclude” woodchucks. The article also helps you determine whether you’re harvesting a mother chuck that has young in the den (not recommended). Always kill woodchucks humanely and safely. And keep in mind that they can occasionally carry ticks, and even more infrequently, rabies; consult the Vermont Department of Health website for more information.

Rose Paul is an ecologist with the Vermont chapter of The Nature Conservancy. She intensively farms a quarter acre of land in Plainfield with her husband, George, and their four chickens.

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PERMACULTURE: Taking the Long View

by Bonnie North

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Devin Smith is growing paw paws in his experimental tree nurseries in Rockingham; Steve Crofter and Laurel Green in the well-stocked pantry at Singing River Farm; Mark Krawczyk’s berry and tree crop area; Singing River Farm in Rockingham.

In 1974, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren published Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human Settlements. The charismatic Mollison then threw himself into traveling and teaching Permaculture Design Certificate courses, known in the lingo as “The PDC,” while Holmgren and his partner, Su Dennett, dedicated decades of their lives to restoring the blackberry-covered wasteland on a one-hectare property in central Australia. The homestead they call “Melliodora,” after the eucalyptus that is native to the region, is now perhaps the world’s best-known model of small-scale intensive permaculture.

And today, within the span of a generation, permaculture has grown, mostly under the radar of both academia and politics, to become a global movement, with many hundreds of fresh PDC graduates assuming the mantle of “Permaculture

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Designer” with a nearly religious fervor. In Vermont, probably to no one’s surprise, permaculturists are well represented.

Design is at the core of permaculture. Every aspect of the landscape—contour, soil type, and drainage—and every aspect of the environment—seasonal rainfall patterns, prevailing winds, yearly sunlight cycles—are studied and mapped.

Over these maps the designer plots the zones of human activity; water flow; the best placement and selection of guilds of plants that complement each other’s needs; and the potential impacts of domestic animals foraging through the crops at various stages.

A permaculture design evolves over the course of years.

One of Vermont’s best-known permaculturists, Ben Falk of Whole Systems Design in the Mad River Valley, explains “We’re

photos by bonnie north

“You haven’t got an excess of slugs, you’ve got a duck deficiency!”

—Bill Mollison

frequent human activity; stacked inter-plantings of fruit trees not trying to race time…. Every season and every year that and berries on a nearby plateau; tree nurseries on the hillsides goes by there’s actually a greater level of value accumulating and being generated from the landscape…life just gets with swales created to hold and direct water low; a hedgericher and richer with every passing year.” Continually “closing row of 50 species along the main road for privacy; and the outthe fertility loop,” as Ben describes it, lying areas reserved for wild habiby returning surpluses to the land and tat and landscape regeneration. Permaculture calls this “zone five,” and reconsidering what we call waste, we Principles of Permaculture Mark insists upon its importance in reduce the need for outside inputs to his design. “Almost everything’s been build soil, an important consideration Observe and interact mowed here—since, like forever! So when coping with Vermont’s often Catch and store energy I find it valuable, for my own edurocky, clay earths.

Obtain a yield cation, to allow the forest to regenThe mountainous terrains Apply self-regulation and accept erate and express itself in a natural and short growing season present feedback way. Listen to the landscape. Educaother special challenges in Vermont.

Use and value renewable resources tion and information are also yields “Although some river bottom land and Produce no waste to be harvested.” floodplains offer good soils, our rough Design from patterns to details Harvesting information is the topography and short summers are Integrate rather than segregate goal of another Vermont permaculnot generally well suited for growing Use slow and small solutions turist, Devin Smith. On the Rockingannual crops.…” warns permaculturUse and value diversity ham homestead where he and his ist Connor Steadman, executive direcUse edges and value the marginal wife built an energy efficient timber tor of the Vermont Wilderness School.

Creatively use and respond to change framed home for their young fam“Yet the rocky hillsides can be good ily, Devin has devoted two acres of for grazing, and the climate is perfect cleared land to experimental tree for hardy fruits and other types of tree crops.” Because permaculture philosophy insists that “within the nurseries. He’s been working with paw paws, a little-known native of the eastern United States that yields a sweet fruit with problem lies the solution,” it’s not surprising that tree cropping a creamy, custard-like consistency, and an unusual type of perand the creation of “food forests” have captured the imaginasimmon that ripens in August. “Most persimmons don’t ripen tions of many permaculturists in Vermont. until November, which won’t work here,” he notes. uuu A lot of the labor for Devin has involved clearing and creMark Krawczyk, of Keyline Vermont, spent several years travating nursery beds on what was a forested hillside. “It’s a learneling and researching coppicing and pollarding for a forthing curve.…” he sighs, “but I’ve found that if you really clear coming book, Coppice Agroforestry, co-authored with Massaout the existing vegetation and all your organic matter is sudchusetts permaculturist David Jacke. These traditional methdenly available for only one plant, like that paw paw, they take ods of woodland management take advantage of species that off!

So now I’m tarping off the ground for several months to let re-grow from the stump, allowing continually harvested trees it solarize, trying to kill the established vegetation…digging to be kept alive for centuries. Coppiced wood, where the tree is out the rest of the roots, which are usually creeping brambles cut down near the roots, has many uses—basketry, fence posts, that last for a long time. ” Pointing out a new bed under tarps, firewood, tool handles, and more. Pollarding, or “topping,” is he explains that, “I’m thinking I’ll do a year of annual production done in pastured areas: The tree is cut above the reach of foraghere, and then just roll it over to perennials after harvest. Just ing animals, allowing sunlight to reach the grasses below while keep the train movin’—that’s the idea. ” creating summer coolness and winter fodder for the herd, all while building soil and avoiding the packed earth effects of uuu constant grazing. With their small crowns, coppiced and polDevin is a member of the Green Island Permaculture Group, larded trees have less chance of blowing over or being washed started by Daniel Hartigan and his wife, Kira Sawyer, who live in away in sudden floods, two challenges on Vermont’s steep hillWalpole, New Hampshire. Each month Daniel and Kira host a sides. “From a design standpoint, the constraints are often your meeting in Bellows Falls in a space donated by the Sustainable best tools,” Mark acknowledges.

Valley Group, a nonprofit working to bring sustainable indusEager to try his hand at forest gardening, in the spring of tries to the area. Folks share potlucks, informal permaculture 2013, Mark cashed in an IRA he’d been building since his colstudy, swap seeds, plants, and experiences, and are working on lege days and purchased 2,000 trees—knocking himself out in a permaculture design for the area surrounding the building. six weeks to get them all planted according to the long-range Two other members of Green Island Permaculture, Lauplans for the 50-plus-acre homestead he and his partner are cre- rel Green and Steve Crofter, have achieved remarkable success ating in New Haven. “My plan was that I’d have a GPS device after just two-and-a-half years implementing the early stages and log-in each tree with a 3-letter code. I never got there!” he of their permaculture design at Singing River Farm in Rockinglaughs. “But I did keep a notebook and now it’s on the computer.” ham. Laurel took an online PDC and worked up an elaborately Touring the property, Mark describes the zones he’s plotdetailed design for the property, which occupies 17 somewhat ted—chickens near the house in “zone one,” the area of most Continued on page 27

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Hardwick Elementary School Select Saturdays, 11am–2pm, December 20 Accepts EBT and debit cards www.hardwickfarmersmarketvt.com

Hartland Farmers’ Market Damon Hall, Routes 5 and 12, Hartland Three Corners Select Fridays, 4–7pm, December 19 Accepts EBT and debit cards hartlandfarmersmarket.com

West River Farmers’ Market Floodbrook Union School Cafeteria, Londonderry Saturdays, 10am–1pm, October to January 3 Accepts EBT and debit cards westriverfarmersmarket.com

Middlebury Farmers’ Market Mary Hogan Elementary School, 201 Mary Hogan Drive Select Saturdays, 9:30am–1pm December. 6, 13, 20, 27; March 7, 14, 21, 28; April 4, 11, 18, 25 Accepts EBT and debit cards middleburyfarmersmarket.org/

Capital City Farmers’ Market City Hall or Montpelier High School Cafeteria 1st and 3rd Saturdays, 10am–2pm City Hall: December 6, 20; January 3,17; and March 7 High school cafeteria: February 7, 21; March 21; and April 11, 25 Accepts EBT and debit cards montpelierfarmersmarket.com

Bellows Falls Farmers’ Market Train depot, Bellows Falls 3rd Friday, 4–6:30pm, December 19 Accepts EBT and debit cards bffarmersmarket.com

Bennington Farmers’ Market Baptist church on East Main Street, Bennington Select Saturdays, 10am–1pm except 10am–2pm on December 20 December 13 and 20; 1st and 3rd Saturdays January–April Accepts EBT and debit cards facebook.com/pages/Walloomsac–Farmers–Market/228071216080

Brattleboro Winter Farmers’ Market

Tracy Hall, 300 Main Street Norwich Select Saturdays, 10am–1pm December 6, 20; January 10, 24; February 14, 28; March 14, 28; April 11, 25 Accepts EBT and debit cards NorwichFarmersMarket.org

Burlington Farmers’ Market Memorial Auditorium, corner of Main Street and S. Union in downtown Burlington Select Saturdays, December 6, 13, 20; January 3, 17, 31; February 14, 28; March 14, 28; April 11 December 6, 13, 20; January 3, 17, 31; February 14, 28; March 14, 28; April 11 Accepts EBT and debit cards burlingtonfarmersmarket.org

Dorset Farmers’ Market J.K. Adams Kitchen Store and Factory on Route 30 in Dorset Every Sunday, 10am–2pm, October 19 to May 5 Accepts EBT and debit cards dorsetfarmersmarket.com

Groton Growers’ Market Gym at the Groton Community Building 3rd Saturday, 10am–1pm, October–May Accepts EBT and debit cards grotongrowers.org

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Norwich University’s Plumley Armory Select Sundays, 11am–2pm December 14, January 4, February 1, March 1 Does Not Accept EBT and debit cards northfieldfarmersmarketvt.com/

Norwich Farmers’ Market

153 Main Street, Brattleboro Every Saturday, 10am–2pm; November–March Holiday hours December 6, 13, 20, 10am–3pm Accepts EBT and debit cards facebook.com/BrattleboroWinterFarmersMarket

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Thanks to VTFMA, NOFA-VT, and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture for providing this list.

WINTER FARMERS’ MARKETS

Hardwick Farmers’ Market

—Advertorial—

Putney Farmers’ Market Green Mountain Orchards, 130 West Hill Road, Putney Select Sundays, 11am–2pm December 7, 14, 21 Accepts EBT and debit cards putneyfarmersmarket.org

Rutland Winter Farmers’ Market Vermont Food Center building, West Street Every Saturday, 10am–2pm, November 1–May 2 Accepts EBT and debit cards vtfarmersmarket.org

Champlain Islands Farmers’ Market–South Hero South Hero Congregational Church on South Street Select Saturdays, 10am–2pm December 6, 20 Accepts EBT and debit cards champlainislandsfarmersmarket.com

Caledonia Farmers’ Market–St. Johnsbury St. Johnsbury Welcome Center, Railroad Street 1st and 3rd Saturdays, 10am–1pm, November–April Accepts EBT and debit cards sites.google.com/site/caledoniafarmersmarket photos of the brattleboro winter farmers’market by sherry Maher

University of Vermont Medical Center Farmers’ Market Davis Concourse of the hospital Every Thursday 2:30–5pm, October 23 to May 7 No Market: December 25 / January 1 Accepts EBT and debit cards

Windsor Farmers’ Market Windsor Welcome Center 1st and 3rd Sunday s,11:30am–2:30pm, November 2–May 17 Accepts EBT and debit cards windsorfarmersmarket.blogspot.com

Getting Vermont Food Into our Local Stores and Markets To help reach the state’s Farm to Plate goals of increasing the amount of local food consumed by all Vermonters and making local food more available at all Vermont market outlets, Vermont-produced food needs to be sold where the majority of Vermonters purchase their food: at grocery stores, from larger chains to small country stores.

Independently owned grocery and retail stores are ideal places to sell local food because they are often locally owned by members of the community. Many are already selling local products. A recent Farm to Plate project was able to determine how Vermont can increase the availability of local food at these independent stores.

The most immediate opportunity is for local grocery and retail stores to increase their amounts of Vermont-produced dairy, coffee, bakery items, beer, and wine. Both consumer demand and competitive price points already exist, making this a simple way for Vermonters to have access to more local products.

As for other products, such as meat, produce, and prepared foods, the lack of consistent supply is the greatest barrier for larger stores.

Smaller stores reported that they need more consumer demand in order to stock more local products. What’s more, owners, managers, and buyers are very busy and strapped for time. Many do not have the human resources to procure local products directly from producers or to research local products offered by distributors. Many do not have the capacity to work with multiple local vendors, and business management skills vary among independent store owners.

Technical assistance with procurement, marketing, and methods for sharing best practices are necessary for independent grocery and retail stores to sell and promote more local foods. Similarly, resources are also needed for farmers and producers to better understand wholesale markets and business planning.

Farm to Plate is building a network of grocers and retailers, distributors and food hubs, and producers and regulators to build the relationships necessary to increase the amount of local food available at retail markets. For more information, go to VTFarmtoPlate.com.

Learn more at VTFarmtoPlate.com.

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The State of the Bees Author with frame of honey.

Winter is a great time to cozy up next to the wood stove with a mug of honey tea and read about bees. My own honeybees are snug in their beehives, but they’re probably not reading.

They’ve formed a tight, buzzing cluster that keeps the colony remarkably warm even during the coldest winter nights. Unlike the more than 270 native bees in Vermont (including 19 species of bumblebees), honeybees overwinter as a colony and eat and move all winter long. That’s why they store up so much honey and pollen in the hive and why we can’t take too much of their stores; they need it to get through the winter. (Bumblebees, on the other hand, live in colonies during the summer but don’t overwinter in colonies. Instead, the mated queens hibernate alone in nooks and crannies, while the other bees overwinter as larvae, pupae, or adults tucked away safe from predators and the cold.)

Bees are important pollinators for hundreds of fruit and vegetable crops throughout the world, especially here in Vermont. But as critical as they are to the production of our food and the health of our ecosystems, we don’t know much about most species. Nor have we been very good bee stewards in recent years. How are our Vermont bees doing? uuu

When most people think of bees, they only think of honeybees, or the pesky yellow jackets found at picnics (which aren’t even bees). Bees are distinguished from wasps and hornets by their hairy bodies and legs, which allow them to gather pollen—the protein source needed for bee brood. Bees are also vegetarians, while wasps and hornets are predators that prefer a juicy cat-

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erpillar (although they might visit flowers for a drink of sweet nectar).

The honeybee (Apis melifora), a nonnative species introduced into North America in the 1600s, is just one species of bee, although an important one for pollinating many food crops, and for the honey they provide. On a one-to-one basis, native bees are generally much better pollinators than honeybees, but with 30,000 to 50,000 honeybees in one hive, honeybees often win by sheer numbers. For example, bumblebees make the best pollinators for blueberries, tomatoes, and raspberries; mason bees are especially good at pollinating apples; and squash bees, as the name suggests, are excellent for squash, zucchini, and cucumbers.

Any discussion of bees these days inevitably turns to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the sudden death of honeybee colonies when the bees from the colony mysteriously vanish, with the occasional exception of the queen and a few attendants. It was first reported in 2006 by large commercial beekeeping operations that migrate around the country to provide pollinator services. Scientists now believe that various bee stressors, when combined, may be the cause of CCD. Bee stressors include such things as exposure to pesticides (including the neonicotinoids), diseases and pathogens, parasites such as varroa mites, lack of genetic diversity/resistance, and poor nutrition due to lack of quality forage or the feeding of sugar syrup to colonies instead of leaving them with sufficient honey stores. Ross Conrad, a longtime natural beekeeper and owner of Dancing Bee Gardens in Middlebury, calls these bee stress-

photo by John Hayden

by Nancy J. Hayden

ors the 5-Ps: Pests, Pathogens, Pesticides, Pedigree, and Poor nutrition. Beekeepers moving their beehives cross-country is another major stressor for those bees, as is the poor nutrition they get from foraging on monoculture crops such as almonds, blueberries, and apples. To make matters worse, these monoculture crops are often sprayed with pesticides while the honeybees are foraging.

The good news in Vermont is that we’ve had no confirmed CCD cases, although it’s possible that some beekeepers have experienced it and not reported it. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that stressors aren’t taking their toll on Vermont honeybee colonies. Winterkill of honeybee colonies (when bees die within their colonies, rather than vanish, as with CCD) is common in Vermont and elsewhere, especially with the kind of winter we had last year, when polar vortexes resulted in large temperature fluctuations. Many beekeepers reported much higher percentages of colony loss last winter than previous years.

Steve Parise, the state apiculturist, puts last winter’s average loss of honeybee hives in the 25- to 40-percent range.

Typical winter loss for colonies in Vermont before varroa mites were introduced was 10 to 15 percent. The varroa mite is an external parasite that weakens bees, bee larvae, and subsequently bee colonies, making them more susceptible to die-off during winter and early spring. Varroa was introduced into the U.S. in the late 1980s and quickly spread throughout the country. Mike Willard, current president of the Vermont Beekeepers Association and owner of Green Mountain Bee Farm in Fairfax, thinks that varroa mites and the related issues they cause is one of the major threats to honeybees in our state.

Currently, there aren’t exact details on the number of beekeepers and hives in Vermont, although Steve Parise estimates more than 1,000 hobby beekeepers and approximately 20 commercial beekeepers (defined as beekeepers with more than 50 hives). The Vermont Beekeepers Association states that beekeepers in their organization have a combined 9,000 hives and are producing about 700,000 pounds of honey per year. Beginning in 2015, Vermont will be requiring a mandatory annual registration fee of $10 per apiary location in order to record key information roughly honeybees. Collecting detailed data on honeybees and their beekeepers may prompt action for improving environmental stewardship that impacts pollinator species.

Photo by Nancy j. Hayden

uuu

While we have only estimates for honeybees, they indicate that honeybees and beekeepers in Vermont are holding steady.

When it comes to our native bees, however, we have very few details and little understanding of our 270 bee species, except for bumblebee data collected by the Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE) in 2012 and 2013. The VCE survey data suggest that several bumblebee species are in serious decline, if not extinct from Vermont. This is similar to nationwide trends, as well. Bumblebees and other native bees face the same stressors that affect honeybees—pesticide exposure, diseases, parasites, and loss of adequate forage—but there are no beekeepers taking care of them. In addition, native bees have to compete with large numbers of honeybees. Beekeepers may be putting

The fate of bees is intimately tied up with our own fate, not just because of the pollination services they provide but because of their overall impact on ecosystem health.

By improving conditions so that our pollinators thrive, we are taking better care of the earth, and ultimately, ourselves.

What you can do to help the bees • Don’t use pesticides and don’t buy products from those who use pesticides.

• Keep wild areas on your property, not only for the foraging flowers they provide but for the bee nesting and overwintering sites they offer.

• If you must mow, mow fields and pastures in late October, after the foraging season is over.

• Plant “bee friendly’”plants, shrubs, and trees. The Xerces Society provides pollinator plant lists.

• Incorporate bee-nesting boxes and overwintering sites on your property.

• Educate yourself and others about the importance of native bees and honeybees in our ecosystem and food systems.

• Support local and worldwide conservation groups, such as the Vermont Center for Ecostudies and the Xerces Society.

• Buy honey from local and natural beekeepers.

• Enjoy the wonder of the natural world in all its diversity and interconnectedness.

Continued on page 25

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Farming and Parenting: What happens when children enter the farming life?

by Abigail Healey

Farming isn’t a job—it’s a lifestyle. While most people have a job that is away from their home and family, farmers often don’t. Their farm is their home (ideally), and if they have kids, those kids are part of their work (often). One could argue that the busiest people in the world are farmers and parents. For those who are both, how do they manage?

Jennifer Blackwell of Elmer Farm in East Middlebury farms with her husband, Spencer, and their three children, Angus, 8, Ida, 5 ½, and Mabel, 1. While talking with me for this article, Jennifer canned 14 quarts of tomato sauce and nursed the baby; this is how farmers manage to do it all. They are experts at multitasking and efficiency, and the kids seem to develop those same skills. Farm kids grow up working because that’s what is happening around them all the time. Parents invest tremendously when the kids are too young to help out, and then later hope to reap the benefits when the children are truly able to be productive.

Angela Russell and her husband, Craig, run Brotherly Farm in Brookfield and Randolph Center, where they have an organic dairy herd, as well as turkeys, chickens, and pigs. Angela says of their three children: “They are simply always there helping

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in some way, sometimes by their desire and sometimes not.

The oldest [at 14] in the last two years has become a critical part of the cropping by driving tractors and being able to do all the things that an adult could do to help. When time is short or there is extra work that needs to be done (or they want to), they help with milking. Every day there are animal chores at the house and that is something they accept as a normal day.”

Farming offers children a set of life skills that most kids today just don’t get. “Farms are great places for children to learn and experience life, death, hardship, and joy—our children have already gained more than they realize from living on a farm,” says Christa Alexander of Jericho Settlers Farm in Jericho Center. Christa and her husband, Mark Fasching, grow organic vegetables and meat on the farm where Christa grew up. She says their youngest child, Hazel, 4, “loves to help and has been known to spend all day in the field with me on harvest days— helping pick up kale bunches, digging for worms, painting with mud, taking a nap in the car when she feels like it.”

But Christa adds, “The only downside [of farming with kids] is the huge time commitment the farm takes, which means less family time than we’d like. I am very aware that the farm can

Photo by Jennifer Blackwell

Spencer Blackwell of Elmer Farm in East Middlebury with his children Ida and Angus.

make us too tired or stressed to give them all the attention they need at certain times. But it has required them to become very independent and able to self-entertain, as we’re not always available to take care of every need for them.”

Work does become easier when you enjoy it. Lila Bennett of Tangletown Farm in West Glover says that she and her husband, David Robb, decided to focus their farming venture on livestock rather than vegetables because animal chores seemed easier to do with children. “What kid wants to weed all day?” Lila jokes. “Not many I can think of. But caring for baby piglets doesn’t seem to get old…. Just yesterday our middle child [at 9 years old] said, ‘Today is the greatest day! All my favorite animals arrived: piglets, chicks, and bunnies!’” Lila also says, “We try really hard to only expect just a teeny, tiny bit more than we think they [the children] can handle. It seems to work.”

Not only do farm kids get to develop their own work ethic and skills, they also have the opportunity to see their parents hard at work; most other kids watch their parents drive away to perform mysterious tasks at some mysterious place. That said, the work that farm kids observe is sometimes slowed down for their benefit, “We don’t farm at an adult pace very often,” says Lila. “We farm at a kid’s pace. Sometimes it takes a lot of deep breathing.”

Farm kids also see the direct connection between work and livelihood. They follow the journey of the butternut squash from a seed in a greenhouse in snowy March all the way to harvest in October, and then to market in November; when money changes hands for that squash, the children can understand where that money came from. “[Our children] get to see Spencer and I working hard and doing work that is really meaningful to us,” Jennifer says. “It feels good to role model that for them.”

is that is grown on their land. Large animals get sent away to the butcher, but the Russells slaughter poultry on-farm, which can have more of an impact on their children. “Generally, I try to process [the poultry] while the kids are away, just to spare them a little,” Angela says. “That being said, they have all been there on processing days and it does not seem to bother them.

I think this is probably because they have been exposed to it since they were young.”

She admits, however, that the situation is more difficult when they have to ship a dairy animal to the butcher for either health or overstock reasons. “They kids know that meat animals serve a purpose and only stay for a while,” she says. “The dairy animals also serve a purpose, but since it is a longer purpose, everyone seems to get attached to specific animals or animals’ families…. We have to let some animals go because we can’t just keep everything. This creates a bit of tension and unhappiness for a while, but we have yet to figure out a way around the problem. I think this is one of those life skills or coping things that farming teaches: We can’t always have everything.” uuu

At times, going from being a farming couple to being a farming family can require an adjustment. Jennifer and Spencer Blackwell started farming independently of each other at the Inter-

Photo by Jesse Kayan

uuu

Certainly one luxury of farming is eating well. For many children, trips to the grocery store do little to illuminate where food actually comes from and what needs to happen before we can eat it. But the more kids are involved in growing, harvesting, and cooking their vegetables, the more likely they are to eat them. “The kids will try most anything if they pick it themselves,” Jennifer says.

This idea—that the spirit of adventurous eating will be strengthened when kids observe food’s journey from soil to plate—is harder for most people to accept when we talk about meat. Farm families couldn’t spare their children the reality of slaughter even if they wanted to. In order to ease their children’s reaction to the death of the animals they’ve helped raise, Lila and Dave are clear with their children that some animals on the farm are pets while some are there for other purposes.

The children understand the difference, but Lila says that hasn’t always been the case.

“We made the mistake years ago with the first sow we ever got. Her name is Franny, and she is probably 600 pounds now and hasn’t had a litter in two years. But our kids love her and we can’t get rid of her; it would be a disaster. So we have a humongous, expensive pet.”

Angela Russell says her children—Alex, 14, Emily, 10, and Abigail, 8—easily take in stride the relationship they have with the food animals and appreciate how much better the meat

Caitlin Burlett of Wild Carrot Farm in Brattleboro with her daughter Selah in the greenhouse. vale Farm in Burlington, then joined forces when they started Elmer Farm in 2006. Jennifer says, “We were farming before [we had] kids, which in my experience was difficult since as a couple we had a rhythm of farming together and we shared many of the same tasks. I drove tractors, laid out pipe for irrigation, and took part in all aspects of production.” Jennifer and Spencer now have three children, for whom Jennifer has been the primary caregiver. Over the years they have had to figure out how to maintain her role as partner in the farm when she doesn’t do the same tasks that she did at the farm’s inception.

“Once my daughter was born, it was much more difficult to keep up with the demands of being a mother caring for a newborn and spirited toddler and farming alongside Continued on page 27

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Ode on a Glass Jar

photo montage by meg lucas

by Taylor Mardis Katz As a farmer, I’ve become a collector of vegetables. But as we all know, vegetables cannot last forever. That is, unless you put them in a jar with some salt, a sprinkling of peppercorns, and a few cloves of garlic. Pickling is an essential way for us to eat from our gardens while the plants sleep beneath snow. But for me, pickling’s greatest joy is this: It gives me an excuse to use my jars.

My jars have come from thrift stores, general stores, aunts, and uncles. My jars have been used to hold jams, ketchup, chutney, and kimchi. They’ve also been used as vases, gift wrapping, goblets, and toothbrush holders. For dinner parties, they hold tea lights and red wine. For birthdays, they’re filled with beach stones, pine cones, or tiny scrolls with poems on them.

My jars have held collected seeds, sacred acorns, and beads from a bracelet that came unraveled. As a lover of small things, I covet the tiny glass jars, which serve as single-stem flower vases, salad dressing containers for lunch on the go, or receptacles for chopped chives or cilantro. Some of the larger jars hold beans, pasta, rice, and oatmeal, while the rare and unique are reserved for winter bouquets of seedpods or the sourdough starter.

The apothecary side of the herb farm that I founded with my partner is run almost completely out of quart- and half gallon-size jars, which we use for steeping our herbs in alcohol to create tinctures. When we drove across the country after three years of living in San Diego, the bulk of our carload was a huge chest filled to the brim with, you guessed it: jars. The jars we’d found at tag sales and thrift stores around town were too heavy to ship but too precious to leave behind. Such as the vintage blue glass Ball jar we found in a dead corner of a yard sale.

Or the small blue jars from that antique store in Ocean Beach.

The beauty of glass jars is that once emptied, that same jar that held slivered radishes or yellow dilly beans can be a receptacle for wine, cider, kombucha, or whatever’s your pour. That jar may also hold flowers with honest elegance, proclaiming: The blooms are beautiful, but you may also see my stems.

Smaller jars have become especially useful to me. After scraping the last bit of jam from the bottom, the jar is washed, dried, de-labeled, and used as a container for yogurt, a holder of collected keys, or a place to gather up all my stray buttons and safety pins. To me, there’s no more delightful sight than a springtime nosegay of blue and white violets nestled in an old apothecary jar.

For me, all these jars garner appreciation for their rare combination of elegance and utility. Plus, they’re sturdy as all get-out: While wine glasses turn to dust in my possession, glass jars can handle a tumble from the countertop to the floor like a champ. As a result, each jar has so many lives, even within a

single year. Oftentimes jars of mine leave my home filled with canned goods, then return to me a year or two later, filled with the canned goods of a friend or relative.

The versatility of glass jars is likely part of what has led to their recent spike in popularity. Perhaps you’ve noticed that Ball jars are showing up all over wedding tables, on picnic tables as small LED lamps, and in your local craft beer spot in place of pint glasses. I’ve watched as glass jars have catapulted into the mainstream: they’re being painted, pinned to walls, and repurposed in all sorts of ways by crafty folks stretching their imaginations. The popularity of the Ball jar/Mason jar “look” (a trend likely related to the rising interest in farming, homesteading, and sustainable living) doesn’t make me love them any less.

In fact, when I came across the Kickstarter project of two guys who invented a tiny radio that can fit in the smallest Ball jar out there (the squat, adorable, 250ml size), my heart swelled: another glorious use for a small and sturdy jar.

Some jars in my life come and go; some are so precious I won’t let them out of my sight. And speaking of sight, much of the pleasure of glass jars derives from the transparent access to their insides. Last summer, working in a kitchen at an organic farm, I spent weeks putting delicious condiments into glass jars—arugula pesto, mint and cashew pesto, a paprika-heavy sauce called chermoula. On my first day, as I spooned pesto into a jar, I couldn’t help but exclaim, “I love putting things into jars!” My boss looked at me and rolled her eyes. “You won’t love it by the time fall comes around,” she replied.

She was wrong; although I did learn to loathe the oily sink of dishes that the preparation of these sauces resulted in, the delight of spooning the sauces into jars never faded for me.

Each jar, capped with its own golden top, stood there elegantly, filled and colorful and finished, ready to exit into the world, be emptied, washed, dried, and then repurposed in some new and unknown way.

For the most part, my jar acquisition days are over; I am the proud owner of enough jars to open a small café, host an intimate wedding, or begin a cottage-industry jam business. Now that the gathering period has ended, I move forward into the next phase of the glass-jar lifestyle: imagining up even more creative ways to integrate these sturdy, beautiful objects into my daily life.

Taylor Mardis Katz is a poet and farmer living in central Vermont. With her partner, she runs Free Verse Farm, a small herb farm specializing in homegrown tisanes and herbal remedies. Taylor holds an MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University and is currently working on her first book of poems. You can follow her online at panacheperhaps.com.

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seeds for change

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All Hands on Deck

Salvation Farms is counting on prison inmates to fill a gap in the local food system

photos courtesy of salvation farms

by Suzanne Podhaizer At some of Vermont’s correctional facilities, inmates are required to labor while serving time, so it’s not uncommon for those in the custody of the state to spend their days picking up trash on the side of the road or punching out Vermont license plates.

But at the Southeast State Correctional Facility in Windsor, some of the inmates are engaging in a different line of work: gathering, cleaning, and packing vegetables for food-insecure Vermonters.

Alongside Theresa Snow of Salvation Farms, low-risk offendors walk through fields and orchards in Wolcott and Randolph, collecting produce that farmers haven’t harvested. Back at the facility, higher-risk inmates—many of whom are sex offenders in treatment—wash and package potatoes, apples, winter squash, and onions that are destined for the Vermont Foodbank and other charity food distributors around the state.

Theresa founded, and now runs, Salvation Farms, a nonprofit with a mission to “build increased resilience in Vermont’s food system through agricultural surplus management.” Just how much farm-grown food is left in fields at the end of each harvest season? “It’s really inaccurate, but we say 2 million pounds. I think it’s a lowball figure,” Theresa says. “This year, with our partners at the Vermont Gleaning Collective, we’ve been able to capture about 80,000 pounds.”

The opportunity for inmates to get out into the fields and glean is still rare, but processing roots inside of the facility has become a regular gig. Since the pilot project began at the Windsor correctional facility in November of 2012, 171,500 pounds of produce have moved through the prison to their final destinations.

Currently, the food operation occurs in an insulated, unheated room, with infrastructure put together cooperatively by Salvation Farms, the Department of Corrections, and the Department of Building and General Services. But, Theresa says, “We don’t have the ability to store food, and we don’t have the ability to compost [at the facility]. Everything that comes in I need to ship out in boxes or bags, or drive out to be composted.”

If all goes as planned, by next fall Salvation Farms will have built a more robust processing facility at the Windsor location, which will include cold storage and the ability to wash produce prior to packing it. This will allow even more gleaned poundage to make its way into the kitchens of those who are served by the state’s food shelves. Future additions may include equipment that will allow for canning and dehydrating.

The upgrade, which comes at an estimated cost of $156,000—which Salvation Farms is currently fundraising for— “will be a game changer,” according to Theresa. uuu

Why operate at a prison? Firstl, the free labor is an important commodity, since the packaged food is given away. Second,

there’s the scale: “You can’t do this in a [food] venture center,” Theresa notes. Salvation Farms oversees a variety of projects in such facilities, including the Vermont Food Venture Center in Hardwick. But, while “those great little projects look good in the [news]paper, we’re not moving tons of food in and out,” she explains. In Windsor, “we can move tons of food.”

What is the end game? “I think we can create a surplus food system that opens the door for more local food...in schools, and nursing homes, and prisons, and potentially hospitals,” Theresa says. But, she cautions, it will require a great deal of work—and many collaborators —to replace the out-of-state commodity food that flows liberally into such institutions with gleaned items that would otherwise be rotting in the fields: “This sort of system for managing in-state food doesn’t exist elsewhere.”

That makes sense, given the number of factors that must be juggled to operate in a correctional environment. However, given Vermont’s caché as a food-systems leader, Theresa hopes that vital state partners, such as the Agency of Agriculture and the Agency of Commerce, will see the value in getting involved with building an in-state commodity system using prison space and the labor of those who are incarcerated.

But, until the spot in Windsor is operating at a greater capacity, Theresa is not ready to articulate a long-term vision.

Continued on page 26

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BEES Continued from page 17

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture tracks pesticide use by commercial users in the state but does not keep track of homeowner use or the amount of insecticide-treated corn and soybean seed planted in the state. Virtually all of the conventional corn and soybeans grown in Vermont start from seed treated with neonics. The dust from these seeds during planting often lands on nearby bee forage. There, it gets mixed in with the pollen the bees bring back to their hives. Since pollen is part of the food fed to bee larvae, this can have serious consequences for the health of the hive. Homeowners, too, are using neonics whenever they buy typical insecticides for their gardens, or weed and feed products for their lawns. The neonicotinoids kill grubs, but since they are systemic pesticides they get into the entire plant, so any dandelions and clover in the lawn produce bee-toxic nectar and pollen.

The fate of bees is intimately tied up with our own fate, not just because of the pollination services they provide but because of their overall impact on ecosystem health. By improving conditions so that our pollinators thrive, we are taking better care of the earth, and ultimately, ourselves.

Nancy J. Hayden and her husband own and operate The Farm Between (www.thefarmbetween.com), a diversified organic fruit farm, a 14-acre pollinator sanctuary, and an organic nursery specializing in fruit trees and bushes, and pollinator plants. They also keep honeybees. This February, they will lead an intensive daylong pollinator workshop at the NOFA-VT winter conference.

photo by John Hayden

extra stress on native bees when they increase their number of honeybee hives without considering the quality and quantity of the nearby foraging area throughout the entire foraging season.

A key stressor for native and honeybees is insecticides.

These chemicals are designed to kill insects, so it’s not surprising that they negatively impact bees. Sublethal effects on beneficial insects such as pollinators are rarely adequately studied before pesticides are put on the market and widely used.

One class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, or neonics for short, is of particular importance because of its pervasiveness, its systemic characteristics within the plant (meaning it gets into pollen and nectar even if not directly applied onto the flowers), and its toxicity to bees. While neonics were only introduced into the market in the 1990s, they now make up more than 25 percent of the insecticide market worldwide. Recently, several European countries have put restrictions on their use because of the impact on bees and other pollinators. In June 2013, more than 50,000 bumblebees died in Oregon because a landscaping company sprayed blooming linden trees with a neonic-based pesticide. Eugene, Oregon subsequently banned the use of neonics in their city. In 2014, the Vermont Law School became the first higher-education campus in the nation to ban neonicotinoid pesticides on their campus because of their impact on bee populations.

Author looking into phragmite nesting box.

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ALL HANDS Continued from page 23

“The seed [of the current project] hasn’t even germinated yet.

That would be like thinking of the harvest,” she says. Once the renovation is complete, though, “we will measure what it can possibly capture, and then what is still going to waste because we don’t have the infrastructure to capture it.” uuu

How did Theresa, 36, become the first person in Vermont to mix gleaning and corrections? In 2004, the Sterling College graduate was in her fourth year of employment at Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury. She’d begun to realize that something about her work wasn’t filling her need to participate in social change. “I was struggling with the course I felt our culture was on—that we’re very superficial, consumer[ist].”

Pete Johnson, the farm’s owner, noticed her tension, and asked her some questions about what she really wanted to be doing. “I said that I want to teach people about food...in a way that makes them feel more empowered and able to provide for their basic needs.” Pete mentioned that there were lots of extra greens that got left in the field; Theresa began gleaning them, and her food reclamation project was born. In 2005, she established Salvation Farms under the umbrella of NOFA-VT (the Vermont chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association). It became a federally incorporated nonprofit in 2012.

The search for a correctional facility interested in hosting a food-processing operation began in January 2009, when Theresa toured several prisons. “I knew that [the involvement of a correctional facility] would be vital if we were going to manage what we have in Vermont that is going to waste,” she explains.

Operating in Windsor made sense for many reasons, including the town’s proximity to Black River Produce, which operates the trucks that deliver the packaged food, and the presence of a friendly farm down the road that takes all of the compost the project generates.

In addition to working toward food sovereignty and feeding hungry Vermonters, Theresa is excited about the possibility

of changing lives through community engagement and food systems work. Although many of the inmates with whom she cleans potatoes were in the workforce prior to incarceration, Theresa believes that engaging with food offers them something out of the ordinary. Not only does farm-based and food-related labor “give [incarcerated people] an opportunity to build understanding and skills in a growing sector in our state,” it also allows them to “engage in their community in a way that most incarcerated individuals don’t. Some people say, ‘My family will probably get these [potatoes]. I’ll probably need this service when I get out,’” she explains.

Former workers have sent messages to Theresa letting her know about the impact of the experience. Some, she recalls, have said that the work made them feel like human beings and individuals again. Others have said that the work was “a positive experience during a really dark time.”

“Feeding people just has a different feeling,” she suggests.

“And managing something that otherwise would have gone to waste is different than raking leaves or picking up trash.”

Although Theresa has worked hard over the many years since she started Salvation Farms, taking steps toward food sovereignty—a process that she acknowledges is lengthy and slow moving—has proven to be one of the pieces that was missing in her life when she was engaged in more typical farm employment. “I come from an activist background,” she says, “and this is the most effective way that I can be an activist.”

In the end, what Salvation Farms is aiming to do is not simply to move a little bit more sustenance around the map. As Theresa explains, “We want this to be a correctional industry. It’s about creating a new segment of Vermont’s food system.”

Suzanne Podhaizer is the chef-owner of Salt Café in Montpelier, as well as a goose farmer, culinary consultant, and cooking teacher. She is the former food editor of Seven Days, loves to write whenever she can, and swears she’s going to publish a cookbook someday.

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FARMING AND PARENTING Continued from page 19

Spencer. It was clear we had to divide up tasks,” Jennifer says.

“We planted more that year and hired our first employee mid-summer. It was a blessing to have a worker to fill in for my absence but it also sent me into a deep depression. It was heartbreaking to see someone in my place.”

As the children and the farm grew, Jennifer began to find a niche on the farm, doing more office work, as well as managing the CSA membership and communication, and farm-to-school events. Jennifer and Spencer’s roles were becoming more and more divided. “We balanced each other well, as he loved being in the fields and I easily connected with our customers and

identity for a farm woman who is used to driving a tractor or managing a harvest. “That’s true with a lot of different aspects (of farming),” Caitlin says. “I feel left behind, almost.” uuu

Raising children on a farm is indeed an intense, all-encompass­ing experience, with many advantages, and also many challenges.

But what do the kids think?

Jennifer Blackwell tells the story of her son Angus. “This year Angus was working a sharing project for school. Part of this was a fill-in-the-blank worksheet. On the last line of this sheet he had to finish this sentence: ‘I am special because...’ and his answer was ‘I live on a farm.’”

Yes, farm kids and the farming parents who support them are definitely a special bunch.

Abigail Healey is a writer, gardener, and mother of two boys in Brattleboro. She has published essays about parenting and gardening in Hip Mama, Parent Express and at leviandfamily.com. This is her second story for Local Banquet.

PERMACULTURE Continued from page 13

photo by Caroline Abels

Lila Bennett and David Robb with their children in 2010. drew them into our business,” Jennifer says. This natural divergence of tasks came with a price though: Jennifer struggled with the loss of her identity as a farmer. “It took time for me to gain confidence in being a mother, and a much longer time to find balance between being a mother, a farmer, a business partner, and wife.”

Caitlin Burlett and Jesse Kayan of Wild Carrot Farm in Brattleboro raise vegetables and meat on 42 acres of land. They are also new parents; daughter Selah was born this past summer.

Caitlin talks about how she and Jesse recently started using horses on their farm and were learning that skill together. “I did a lot last year with the horses, and some this winter, but as I got more and more pregnant, it just didn’t make sense for me to be doing it,” she explains. “Jesse’s just taking off on his whole learning curve, so now, even when I could be doing it, he’ll be able to do it faster and better, so it will make more sense for him to do it.”

Given that soft skills on a farm, such as customer relations and website design, are easier to do from the house, or after hours when children are sleeping, they are tasks that can easily become the woman’s purview. This work is important to the running of a successful farm, but can require an adjustment in

sloping acres nestled in a meander of the Williams River. There were challenges and opportunities to consider: the contour of the land, several vernal pools on site, the nearby river, and the road that cuts through the property. Laurel’s design plots kitchen gardens and firewood storage surrounding the house in zone one. Directly across the road are the outbuildings, a specialty flower garden, an edible forest garden, and a pond.

Moving outward from zone one, a production garden of 21 raised beds, stands of fruiting trees, and a tree and plant nursery extend to the south boundary. To the west are berry fields leading to an area reserved for coppicing willows for Laurel’s basketry, and to the north a larger area is planned for mixed coppiced woods.

Water flow is always integral in a permaculture design. This year Singing River received a small grant from the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service to implement an inexpensive system that will utilize solar-powered pumps to lift water from the Williams River on the western boundary and store it in several ponds created up slope from the agricultural fields.

Because the biggest expense of solar is the batteries to store electricity, Steve and Laurel found a way around that cost by designing a system where, as Steve puts it, “The top pond functions as the ‘battery,’ storing the water for gray days when the pumps are still.”

This is the permaculture way: designing elements that perform multiple functions, and always taking the long view— working with, rather than against, nature’s innate tendencies.

Bonnie North received her PDC in 1997 in Oregon, studying with West Coast permaculturists Jude Hobbs, Rick Valley, and Tom Ward. She received a Permaculture Teachers’ Certification from New England permaculturist Dave Jacke in 2010.

She lives in southern Vermont.

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f a r m e r s ’

Jam with Character Do you ever wonder why fruit grown in Vermont—on your own trees, vines, and shrubs—tastes so amazing? The king and queen of Atlantis didn’t get anything close to this. Well, maybe.

There is something about homegrown. In Vermont, the plants have to make it through a long and cold winter.

Because they don’t have the easiest soils or the most accommodating climate, they have to work harder, and they end up coming out with more flavor. Like the people who live here. Vermonters have character.

A wise man told me that sometime in February, a fruit tree is about to give up, because it’s so cold. But then an angel whispers to it: ”Hold on, spring is coming.” The tree soon feels its sap, its life juices starting to flow again. Some trees start praying, not only to make it through the winter, but also to make the sweetest fruit. That’s why some apples taste so good and some just okay. I guess in Vermont our trees do a lot of praying.

At our certified organic farm and nursery, we’ve been testing what we can grow and harvest for 35 years. Since we’re up in Elmore, we are setting an example of what the possibilities are. The ones that make it, we learn how to make more of, so that everyone can have them in their yards. You might be surprised that pears, plums, grapes, and northern kiwis are some of the easiest fruits to grow—you just have to have the right selections. We also plant and harvest hazelnuts, black walnuts, and pine nuts. I have seen 43 below zero on the thermometer at our farm and all of these fruits and nuts thrive here anyway.

When I hiked the Long Trail in 1979, I lived off fruits along the way. I thought it would be awesome to surround myself with them at my own place, so over the years the Elmore Roots crew and I have followed the dream. Are you wondering which fruit I like best? It’s whichever one that is northern-Vermont-sun-ripened and in my hand right now.

In addition to selling fruit trees, berry plants, and flowering shrubs, we make jam from our fruit. A couple of years ago we grew ginger outdoors and combined it with our pears and apples. It came out as a really tasty jam. Here is our recipe.

David Fried is the dreamer-poet and founder of Elmore Roots Nursery in Elmore. He has a wife and two daughters, and roughly 50,000 young fruit and nut trees that he raised are now growing throughout Vermont.

Elmore Roots’ Pear-Apple-Ginger Jam

•

apples, both tame and wild

•

baby ginger and teenage ginger (the “roots” you find in stores)

•

•

•

pears

evaporated cane juice (natural sugar; using some wild apples can take the place of adding pectin) ginger to taste (in a pinch you can use powdered ginger, but you won’t get those nice chewy ginger morsels)

Cook the apples and the pears until soft. Puree and strain just to remove the seeds. Chop the ginger in a small food processor and add it in.

Heat again and stir in the sugar. Keep stirring until about 180 degrees or so and the consistency you like. Pour into jars with new lids and seal.

Important note: for any size batch, use the following ratio: apples, 1/3

pears, almost 1/3

sugar, 1/3 (the reason we usually use sugar and not any other sweetener is because we are very proud of the flavor of our own homegrown fruit and that’s what we want people to taste; sugar’s taste does not stand out)

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k i t c h e n

photo david fried by jay kennedy, catamount studios, elmore.

by David Fried Elmore Roots Nursery

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C A L E N D A R

Snow-covered trees and ski trail on top of Mount Mansfield, Smuggler’s Notch, near Stowe.

Saturday, December 6

Friday, January 16 and Saturday, January 17

Thursday, December 11

Tuesday, January 27 through Thursday, January 29

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC.

Culinary Adventure Colonial Cocktails 10am–1pm Learn about the early blends of rum, cider, spices and even eggs. Learn to make a favorite colonial light meal to go with colonial drinks—a shrub, switchel, and Stone-Fences with author Corin Hirsch. The Inn at Weathersfield, 1342 Route 106, Perkinsville. weathersfieldinn.com 802-263-9217 NEK Vermont Permaculture Group 6–7pm 2nd Thursday of each month. Short educational presentation (topics range from farming and gardening to ecological design, local and regional community building and water management) followed by Q and A, brainstorming, and/or networking. Come learn something new or add to the discussion. Skill/work shares are also scheduled separately and advertised in the monthly newsletter. Come share skills, resources, or lend a hand to your neighbors while learning through experience. All are welcome, free.

Craftsbury Public Library, 12 Church Lane, Craftsbury Common. facebook.com/nekvtpermaculture

Monday, December 15 through Wednesday, December 17

New England Vegetable and Fruit Conference More than 25 educational sessions over 3 days, covering major vegetable, berry, and tree fruit crops as well as various special topics. A Farmer to Farmer meeting after each morning and afternoon session will bring speakers and farmers together for informal, in-depth discussion on certain issues.

Radisson Hotel in Manchester, NH. newenglandvfc.org 860-875-3331

Wednesday, January 7

The History of Herbal Medicine in America 7pm Expert herbalist Rosemary Gladstar examines the early history of herbalism in America and how herbs play a role in healthcare today. Ilsley Public Library, Middlebury. ilsleypubliclibrary.org 802-388-4095

19th Annual VT Grazing and Livestock Conference Featuring keynote speaker Joe Orefice of Paul Smith's College, plus workshops and intensives on swine production, water quality, poultry economics, predator management, forages, animal behavior, and more.Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee. sustainable.agriculture@uvm.edu 802-656-5459 Vermont Farm Show 9am–4pm Vermont’s Premier Winter Show! Commercial and agricultural exhibitsions including farm machinery, annual meetings of several Vermont commodity groups, and new and improved farm product contest. Consumer Night on Wednesday—if you aren’t a farmer, come and see what we do! Champlain Valley Exposition, Essex Junction. vtfarmshow.com 802-461-8774

Wednesday, February 4

Intro to Ag Finance Class 1–4pm For all farmers interested in farm financial basics. Learn the basics of budgeting and skills to anticipate the financial needs of your operation. Participants will complete balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements.

More course information and registration materials available at website.

RAFFL Office, 67 Merchants Row 3rd floor, Rutland. uvm.edu/newfarmer/?Page=classes/financial_management. htmlandSM=classes/sub-menu.html

Saturday, February 14 and Sunday, February 15

33rd Annual NOFA-VT Winter Conference Join us for Vermont's largest agricultural conference! With more than 75 workshops, networking sessions, and roundtable discussions, plus inspiring speakers, great food, and lots of time for connection, the Winter Conference is the best way to energize yourself for the season ahead. University of Vermont, Burlington. nofavt.org 802-434-4122

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local banquet 3 3

Farmer Wordplay: Harvest vs. Slaughter

With both hands, I reach into the crate of chickens.

“I’m sorry!” I say to the chicken as it flaps in my less-thanconfident grasp. The butcher just showed me how to properly handle a bird: two hands on their legs, chest down, and pick up. They won’t flap this way. I put the bird’s chest on the ground until it calms and hand it to the butcher.

“No need to apologize to them for that,” he says, easily putting the bird upside-down into the cone and, with a sharp knife, cutting its head off in a blink.

“I hate picking up chickens,” I tell him. “I like eating and raising them, but I’m not good at this part.”

“Eating is the easy part.”

I take a deep breath. I’m a farmer—aren’t I? How many times have I raised chickens, how many birds have I moved from pasture to trailer? Still, I don’t like handling the birds. It’s the scaly-ness of chicken feet that make me squirm. That and their nails. Taken apart from their bodies, chicken feet look like relics from a prehistoric era, imparting a wildness to the birds that I cannot fully trust. Which makes chicken processing day all the more stressful.

The weeks leading up to this day are filled with advertising: Pasture-raised chicken for sale! 10 percent off when you buy 10 or more! We excitedly talk to our CSA members about the fresh chicken soon to be available, saying, “We’re harvesting chickens on Saturday,” or “The chickens will be processed this weekend.”

Harvest? Process? I can’t remember where I first heard this language, but in the last few years I’ve noticed farmers dropping the words slaughter and butcher in favor of harvest and process, and so we follow suit. I wonder, though, are these words really interchangeable?

Harvest. Process. Slaughter. Butcher. Words that simply mean: kill, clean, break apart. And yet they each hold a different weight. Look at the synonyms for slaughter: kill, murder, massacre; and the synonyms for harvest: crop, yield, produce.

As we talk about death in the open and search for a connection to the animals we eat, what kind of language are we prepared to hear? Have these words—harvest, process—appeared just to help farmers sell meat? Or are they here to better reflect the relationship we have with living animals? Does humanely raised meat ask for language that sounds more humane, or have we become so far removed from the realities of livestock farming that we are too squeamish to use the more literal words to describe the process?

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The dictionary tells us to use slaughter for killing livestock, and harvest for grain, vegetables, or wild meat. A former vegetarian, I myself once shuddered at the word slaughter, and perhaps some vestige of those meatless years comes out in my word choice. But since I’ve been farming, I’ve come to know slaughterers and butchers; I’ve brought sheep to a slaughterhouse, watched an itinerant slaughterer kill a pig for my wedding reception dinner, and handed chickens into a mobile-unit.

I’ve met people who hold respect for the animals and take pride in doing a clean and efficient job. Through these relationships, I’ve come to know that slaughter doesn’t have to invoke its synonyms, but can instead be grounded in the vital traditional skills that transfer food from pasture to plate; and I’ve come to know that whatever word choice you use, blood is involved.

I’m better at handling processed birds, or to be frank, dead birds. They come out of the mobile processing trailer and go into a large water-filled drum for a rinse, and from there we move the chickens into an ice-bath to cool for a few hours before bagging, weighing, and labeling. At this point the scaly legs are removed, and there are no flapping wings to test my resolve. On this particular slaughter day I’m exhausted, putting the last birds into the freezer at 9:00 p.m. We don’t eat chicken tonight; instead we eat ice cream and fall asleep. Tomorrow we’ll grill a chicken and get some of that energy back, and next week we’ll get the second round of chicks and start the cycle again.

When this day comes around again, what will I say? Harvest doesn’t make us stop the way slaughter does, and perhaps that’s why we use it—to take away the possibility of discomfort and talk more easily with customers about meat. But maybe we should stop. If it’s connection that localvores are looking for, we owe it to the chicken to pause and say thank you. The literal wins out for me, then, not just for the correct definition, but for the pause and connection it demands.

So. We slaughtered our chickens today.

Katie Spring is a farmer and writer in Worcester, where she and her husband run Good Heart Farmstead, a CSA farm with a mission to increase accessibility to local food for low-income Vermonters. She writes about farming, family, and growing a deep-rooted life at katiespring.com.

photo by barbi schreiber

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