Our Member Deals Spotlight this week is Klinger’s Bread Company, a Burlington-based bakery known for its traditional European-style artisan loaves. From March 18–24, Co-op member-owners receive 20% off Klinger’s full line of fresh-baked breads.
Founded in 1993 by the Klingebiel family, Klinger’s has been producing hearth-baked breads in Vermont for more than three decades. Their loaves are made using time-honored techniques: slow-developed starters, long fermentation, and careful hand shaping before baking in a French brick oven. The result is bread with real structure and flavor — crusty on the outside, tender and chewy within.
Klinger’s breads are made with simple, high-quality ingredients and the patience that good bread requires. It’s the kind of loaf that turns a simple meal into something memorable — and a reminder that great bread doesn’t need to be complicated to be exceptional.
We invite you to check out this month’s featured Co-op Connection Business — Middlebury Fitness! Flash your Co-op member-owner card and you’ll receive 50% off your enrollment fee! Read on to learn more about what this community wellness center has to offer:
Middlebury Fitness is a community health and wellness center founded in 1997 that puts its members’ needs first. Their facility features a wide variety of the most current strength and cardio equipment by the leading brands in the industry. Is group fitness your thing? They offer a variety of live and remote programs and group fitness classes to meet the diverse and ever-changing needs of their member base, ranging from ages 13 to 93. Click here for their class calendar and descriptions. Other services and amenities include personal training, sport-specific athletic performance training, nutrition consultations with Registered Dietician Amy Rice of Champlain Nutrition Solutions, and more!
The crew at Middlebury Fitness is incredibly proud to be so active in this great community and annually receives recognition and awards for various initiatives. For the past four consecutive years, they have received the United Way of Addison County’s “Partner Award” for an annual event that has raised $60,000 for our local friends and families in need since 2014. Wow!! They were also the 2018 recipients of the prestigious BOB (Best of Business) award in the Health Club category by Vermont Business Magazine.
At Middlebury Fitness they understand that you have options when it comes to your health and fitness needs. They aim to meet and exceed their members’ expectations every day and believe they have some of the most attentive, caring, professional, and knowledgeable instructors, personal trainers, and staff you will find. Their ultimate goal at Midd Fit is to ensure that each of their members achieves their personal fitness goals while experiencing exceptional customer service in a supportive atmosphere of fun and camaraderie.
If you are a current member, they’d like to extend a sincere THANK YOU for being a part of the Midd Fit family! If you are not yet a member, please visit and let Middlebury Fitness guide you through your fitness journey today! And don’t forget to mention that you’re a Co-op member-owner!
Just in time for Valentine’s day, this month we’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on a local favorite – Lake Champlain Chocolates!All of their mouth-watering chocolates are 20% off for member-owners from February 4-10. Read on to learn more about this local confectionery that has called Vermont home for 40 years.
History:
The story of Lake Champlain Chocolates began in 1983, when founder Jim Lampman dared the pastry chef at Burlington’s Ice House Restaurant to create a better truffle than the ones he had been buying as holiday gifts for his staff. Together, they began making hand-rolled, creamy truffles that quickly stood apart—and the rest, as they say, is history.
Sourcing Matters:
From the very beginning—long before “eating local” was a common refrain—Lake Champlain Chocolates has been committed to sourcing Vermont-grown ingredients whenever possible. They understood early on that using high-quality Vermont honey, maple syrup, and fresh dairy from local farmers and producers would lead to better chocolate, plain and simple.
The goal has always been to bring you their best: chocolate that amazes with exquisite flavor and creates a moment of pure joy. That commitment is why they’ve never added preservatives, extenders, or unnecessary additives, and why they’ve worked diligently to remove GMOs from all of their chocolates while using organic and Fairtrade-certified ingredients whenever possible. With each new product, the goal remains the same—to create something special and offer the best possible experience.
Eric Lampman in the Dominican Republic
A Family Affair:
Lake Champlain Chocolates is a second-generation, family-owned business—much like the Vermont family farms that supply them with butter, cream, maple syrup, and honey. The same is true of the generations of cacao farmers in places like the Dominican Republic and Guatemala, with whom they maintain direct partnerships.
Today, Jim’s son and daughter, Eric and Ellen, are shaping the future of Lake Champlain Chocolates by developing award-winning organic products and leading sustainable sourcing initiatives. Along the way, they continue to follow the Lampman family principles: dare to do better, always do it with passion, and do it your way.
The Lampman Family
Fairtrade:
Making great-tasting chocolate is hard work, and the team at Lake Champlain Chocolates believes that everyone involved in the process deserves to be treated and compensated fairly—and that their work should have a positive impact on both local and global communities.
When you purchase Fairtrade-certified chocolate, more money goes directly back to farmers, helping them lift themselves out of poverty and build better lives for their families. Fairtrade certification also provides additional premiums for community development, prohibits forced and child labor, and supports environmentally sustainable farming practices. You can indulge your sweet tooth knowing that 100% of the chocolate used by Lake Champlain Chocolates is Fairtrade certified.
Why Buy Fairtrade Certified Chocolate?
Farmers and workers are justly compensated and provided safe working conditions, including protections against forced and child labor.
Farmers are empowered to build sustainable businesses that strengthen their communities.
Cocoa farmers and cooperatives receive additional Fairtrade premiums to invest in community development.
Farming communities gain skills to better participate in—and benefit from—the free market.
Farming villages become stronger stewards of the environment by using sustainable practices that protect habitats and increase biodiversity.
B Corp Certification:
Lake Champlain Chocolates joined a growing global community of more than 2,500 certified B Corporations united by a shared goal: redefining what success in business looks like. Rather than focusing solely on profit, certified B Corporations are part of a worldwide movement using business as a force for good. They meet rigorous standards for social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability, and commit to using the power of business to help address social and environmental challenges.
Unlike certifications that focus on individual products, B Corporation certification evaluates the entire business—assessing annual impact across the environment, workers, customers, community, and governance. This purpose-driven model is designed to create benefits for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.
For Lake Champlain Chocolates, these performance standards offer a meaningful third-party measure, assuring customers and suppliers that their business practices meet the highest standards. “Achieving B Corp Certification is the next step toward fulfilling our vision of becoming the gold standard of chocolate companies in the United States—a respected leader other companies aspire to be,” says Eric Lampman, President of Lake Champlain Chocolates. “For more than 35 years, our practices have been guided by one core value: everything must measure up to the chocolate. That includes making a positive impact on our local and global communities by respecting our employees, building long-term partnerships with our suppliers, and practicing environmental responsibility.”
Are you craving the warmth and comfort of a nourishing, home-cooked soup but find yourself short on time? That’s where Joe’s Kitchen soups come in! This week, we’re excited to feature Joe’s Kitchen in our Member Deals Spotlight, with all their locally made, from-scratch soups available at 20% off for Member-Owners from January 21st to 27th.
From Grandma’s Kitchen to Culinary Excellence
Joe Buley’s journey to founding Joe’s Kitchen at Screamin’ Ridge Farm began in his grandmother’s home in East Randolph, Vermont. He recalls her kitchen as a warm, bustling hub filled with family, friends, and the enticing aroma of a soup pot simmering on the stove. His grandmother’s cooking philosophy balanced flavor and economy, often using whatever ingredients were on hand to create hearty, delicious soups. The key to her creations? The fresh vegetables and herbs she harvested straight from her garden.
Joe’s mother carried on this tradition, teaching him the art of making great-tasting food with fresh, home-grown ingredients. These early lessons shaped Joe’s passion for cooking and laid the foundation for his future career.
Chef-Owner Joe Buley
A Culinary Journey
Joe’s culinary career took him far and wide. He trained at the prestigious École Supérieure de Cuisine Française in Paris (also known as École Ferrandi), where he was the only U.S. citizen in his class. After graduating, Joe honed his skills in culinary hotspots like Brooklyn, San Francisco, San Diego, and Austin before returning with his family to Vermont in 1999. Back home, he served as a chef-instructor at the New England Culinary Institute for nearly a decade.
During this time, Joe began growing his own food, inspired by memories of his grandmother’s garden. What started as a small operation with a single greenhouse and a walk-behind tractor evolved into Screamin’ Ridge Farm—a thriving business known for its winter spinach and a wide variety of summer crops. The farm’s produce was sold at the Montpelier Farmers Market and through seasonal CSA programs.
Bridging the Gap Between Farm and Table
As Joe connected with customers at farmers markets and through the CSA, he noticed a common challenge: people wanted to eat healthy meals but often lacked the time or inspiration to cook from scratch. This realization sparked the idea for Joe’s Kitchen at Screamin’ Ridge Farm, where he could combine his passion for growing ingredients and cooking them into flavorful, ready-to-eat foods.
Joe’s soups are crafted with integrity and a commitment to using local ingredients. When sourcing items not grown on his own farm, Joe partners with neighboring small farms in the Montpelier area. This approach not only supports Vermont’s working landscape but also ensures that his soups have the authentic, fresh flavors reminiscent of his grandmother’s cooking—all without the need for added sugars or excessive salt.
Joe’s crew hard at work at their production kitchen in Montpelier, VT
A Co-op Favorite
At the Co-op, we’re proud to offer a rotating selection of Joe’s Kitchen soups, showcasing the best of Vermont’s seasonal produce. From hearty stews to creamy bisques, there’s a flavor for everyone. Which one will you try next?
Rooted in the family traditions passed down from his grandmother’s kitchen, and combining locally sourced ingredients with time-honored cooking methods, Joe’s Kitchen soups bring together the quality and essence of home-cooked meals with the convenience that busy lives demand.
Co-op Member-Owners, don’t miss your chance to stock up and save 20% on Joe’s Kitchen soups from January 21st to 27th!
If you’re a lover of Vermont artisan cheese, then you’re likely no stranger to the producer basking in the glow of this week’s Member Deals Spotlight — Jasper Hill Farm. And we think you’ll be thrilled to hear that from December 24th – 30th, Co-op member-owners can enjoy a 20% discount on their full lineup of award-winning local cheeses – just in time to put together a crowd-pleasing holiday cheese board! Read on to learn more about the brothers behind this epic operation, their innovative approach to cheesemaking, and the legendary underground cellars where they age cheeses to ripe perfection:
Deep in the heart of the dairy country of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is a dairy farm like no other. A glimpse of the main barn, painted deep-space blue with cows in astronaut attire and a moon made of cheese, provides the first hint that you’ve landed somewhere unique. Brothers Andy and Mateo, along with their wives, Victoria and Angie, knew they needed to do something different when they purchased this derelict dairy farm in 1998 — the same year that one-third of the neighboring dairy farms in the community sold their cows under intense financial pressures. Small-scale farms like this were becoming more difficult to keep up and running – a 50-cow farm like theirs would have to compete with average herd sizes of about 900 cows out west, as all of that milk is priced by the same commodity market. But the brothers were eager to find meaningful work in the place that they loved and wanted to demonstrate the ability to make a good living milking 45 grass-fed Ayrshire cows on a rocky hillside in Vermont.
Brothers Andy & Mateo Kehler. Image by Colin Clark.
Over the next 5 years, they worked hard to patch up the barn, build up their herd, improve their pastures, construct a creamery, and carve out a cave that would provide the ideal conditions for aging European-style natural rind cheeses. By 2003, they were ready to sell their very first cheeses and quickly amassed a strong following in the burgeoning American artisan cheese market. An interesting call from neighboring Cabot Creamery would change the course of their plans and set them down a path that involved creating opportunities for other local cheesemakers to get their product to peak potential. Like most cheesemakers, Cabot lacked a space dedicated to cultivating natural rinds. In fact, their warehouses were focused on keeping surface mold away from cheese. The Kehlers were nearby, hungry to grow their business, and most importantly, had a temperature and humidity-controlled space designed to grow natural rinds. The result was Cabot Clothbound Cheddar and the awards and accolades soon followed, as one of the first batches took home Best of Show at the 2006 American Cheese Society Conference. Andy & Mateo recognized the potential in these kinds of collaborations and drew up plans for an expanded aging facility beneath one of the pastures of Jasper Hill Farm.
The Cellars at Jasper Hill
Two years later, they formally opened the Cellars at Jasper Hill — a 22,000-square-foot aging facility featuring seven vaults specifically calibrated for various cheese types. This allowed them to partner with a network of other local cheesemakers and reduce the barriers to entry for those interested in value-added production. According to their website, “ripening work for natural-rind cheeses takes up more than 70% of the labor for a batch of cheese, over its lifetime. By pooling these efforts, farmstead producers could spend more time focusing on the true drivers of cheese quality: milk production and cheesemaking. Instead of sending hundreds of small boxes through the post, refrigerated trucks now pick up pallets of cheese destined for regional and national distributors. The Cellars is now the final stop for cheeses coming from six different creameries. Its mission is to be the standard-bearer for quality and innovation in the artisan cheese industry.”
The award-winning Harbison. Image by Bob Montgomery
Andy & Mateo have a knack for distilling the local landscape into their cheeses. They took this approach to new heights in 2013 when they opened a state-of-the-art laboratory on their farm, complete with a staff of food microbiology experts. The idea for this new endeavor was sparked by their partnership with Harvard scientist Dr. Rachel Dutton in 2010, who was using cheese as a model to research how small microbial communities interact. One of the profound discoveries of Dr. Dutton’s work was the notion that the environment (cows, cheese caves, pastures) and methods (washing, salting, managing acidity) were as important to the development of cheese rinds, if not more so, than the ingredients. Microbes, including yeast and bacteria, are critical partners in the cheesemaking process, turning milk into solids, and those solids into cheeses with distinctive aromas, flavors, and textures. American cheesemakers have very limited options when sourcing the cultures for their cheeses, as there are only three domestic suppliers of these critical microbes, all of which are multinational chemical corporations, including DuPont and Cargill. This significantly limits the number of available cultures and stifles the individualism that artisanal cheesemakers crave.
The happy grass-fed cows of Jasper Hill Farm. Image by Blake Noyes.
With strong science to support Dr. Dutton’s findings, a new lab, and a team of microbiologists lending their expertise, Jasper Hill Farm has been able to experiment with creating their own microbial cultures, which are sourced directly from the milk produced by the cows on their farm. They have also found that their raw milk cheeses, like Winnimere, contain all of the microbes needed to produce a fantastic cheese, thus avoiding the need to add microbial cultures. While this all may sound very high-tech for something as rudimentary farmstead cheese, Andy and Mateo are quick to point out that a cheese will never be better than the milk that it’s made from, you can’t make good milk without healthy animals, and you can’t have healthy animals without a healthy landscape filled with nutrient-dense forage. The microbial ecology of raw milk is the sum of these practices on a farm.
The proof of success lies in the supreme quality of the cheeses coming out of the Cellars at Jasper Hill. Their cheeses have garnered a long list of awards including ‘Best American Cheese’ at the World Cheese Awards and ‘Best in Show’ at the American Cheese Society for Harbison; an American Cheese Society ‘Best in Class’ for Bayley Hazen Blue, and two Top 20 nods at the 2020 World Championship Cheese Contest for Highlander and Lait Bloomer. Bayley Hazen Blue was even featured in a White House dinner when the Obamas held a State Dinner in honor of the French President. If you’re worried it might all be going to their heads, a quick trip to their YouTube channel will reassure you that they’re not taking themselves too seriously. The documentation of a recent escape attempt by a wheel of Cabot Clothbound will also be sure to leave a smile on your face, the music video parodies are a must-see, and you won’t want to miss this clip of their Bayley Hazen Blue being shot into Earth’s outer atmosphere with the help of a weather balloon, an HD camera, and GPS tracking software. The cheese was successfully lofted 100,000 feet up and then retrieved where it parachuted down a couple of towns to the west of the Greensboro, VT launch site. Talk about stellar cheese!!
The Bayley Hazen Blue Moon launch. Image by Ryan Nolan.
We’re casting our Member Deals Spotlight on a local organic creamery that produces delicious award-winning cheeses just a few short miles from the Co-op. Champlain Valley Creamery uses traditional techniques and small-batch pasteurization to produce their cheese entirely by hand in a net-zero solar-powered facility in Middlebury. Member owners can enjoy a 20% discount on Champlain Valley Creamery’s fantastic lineup of cheeses from December 10 – 16 – just in time for those holiday parties!
Champlain Valley Creamery was first established in 2003 by founder and owner Carleton Yoder. With a graduate degree in food science and a background in wine and hard cider making, Yoder was eager to run his own food business. With Vermont’s abundance of amazing local milk, small-scale cheesemaking just made sense. Yoder began his adventures in cheesemaking in a facility in Vergennes, where he focused on two products: Organic Champlain Triple and Old Fashioned Organic Cream Cheese. Both have been awarded well-deserved honors from the prestigious American Cheese Society.
Carleton Yoder
Over the years, the creamery has continued to grow and expand its offerings, eventually moving into a net-zero solar-powered facility on Middlebury’s Exchange Street in 2012. Yoder and his small crew now produce an expanded lineup of cheeses including Queso Fresco (available in original, house-smoked, and pepper varieties), Maple Cream Cheese, a pyramid-shaped triple cream with a layer of ash known as Pyramid Scheme, and, most recently, they began importing Italian truffles to produce the Champlain Truffle Triple.
The Creamery also made a switch last year to using 100% grass-fed organic milk from the Severy Farm in Cornwall. The milk only travels a few short miles from the farm to the creamery, where the cheesemaking begins within hours of arrival. The use of grass-fed milk results in a richer, creamier cheese that displays subtle seasonal changes reflective of the changing diet of the cows as the seasons progress. It’s truly the terroir of Addison County in each decadent bite of cheese.
Yoder is supported by a small crew that is just as dedicated to the craft as he is. They use traditional techniques and small-batch pasteurization to produce their cheeses entirely by hand. A recent visit to their facility found the crew in constant motion, measuring, stirring, monitoring temperatures, and generally putting every bit of the day’s fresh batch of milk to good use. The bulk of the cream and whole milk is used to produce the Organic Champlain Triple, Champlain Truffle Triple, and the two varieties of cream cheese. The part-skim milk is then transformed into each of the three varieties of Queso Fresco, and the whey is drained off to create hand-dipped, basket-strained ricotta that is only available to a few select restaurants in the area. The only remaining by-product is a small amount of whey, which is sent to feed the happy pigs at Hinesburg’s Full Moon Farm, resulting in an operation that is hyper-local with very minimal waste.
According to Yoder, “cheesemaking is hard work but we strive to let the milk, cream, culture, salt, and mold shine through with their amazing flavors.” It’s this minimalist approach and the desire to honor the high-quality local ingredients that make Champlain Valley Creamery’s cheeses stand out – on our shelves and at retailers across the country.
Picture hanging above Yoder’s desk made by his son, Nate
If you’re searching for thoughtfully crafted, eco-friendly toys for the kids on your holiday list, look no further than Maple Landmark, our featured Co-op Connection Business. Based right here in Middlebury, Vermont, Maple Landmark has been making sustainable wooden toys, games, and gifts for over 40 years. Visit their factory store on Exchange Street and show them your Co-op membership card to enjoy 10% off your purchase all year long!
A Vermont Legacy of Craftsmanship
Maple Landmark began humbly in 1979 in founder Mike Rainville’s parents’ basement. Today, the company operates out of a 28,000-square-foot facility, producing nearly all of the items they sell. With a team of over 40 dedicated employees, they supply toys and gifts to stores and catalogs nationwide, while maintaining a delightful factory store for local shoppers. They take great pride in being a local business that supports other local businesses, while operating with sustainability at their core.
Three generations of the Rainville family
A Family Business
Maple Landmark is run by three generations of the Rainville family. Founder Michael Rainville serves as president and CEO, overseeing daily operations. His wife, Jill, manages the office, and his sister, Barbara, leads marketing and helps in the finish room. Their sons, Adam and Andrew, have joined the team as project and communications managers, respectively, contributing to product innovation and outreach efforts. Even Michael’s parents pitch in, with his mother, Pat, supervising finishing and hand-painting, and his father, Claude, helping with packing and lawn care in his spare time. Together, they embody a multigenerational dedication to quality and community.
Sustainably Sourced Materials
The wood Maple Landmark uses is primarily native to Vermont, including rock maple, pine, and cherry—ideal for wooden toys and gifts. By focusing on making smaller items, they are able to utilize downgraded lumber by cutting around defects, and make use of smaller “cast-off” cuts. They are also careful to work exclusively with local suppliers who are thoughtful about how the wood is harvested.
Click here to learn more about the use of lumber for Maple Landmark products.
A Commitment to Zero Waste
An honest concern for preserving our limited natural resources mixed with good old-fashioned Yankee frugality ensure that sustainability is more than a buzzword at Maple Landmark. Instead of sending their residual waste to the landfill, scrap wood becomes free kindling for local families, and wood shavings are donated to area farmers, who use it for cattle bedding. Over-packaging of products is another major source of waste, so Maple Landmark nixes plastic, and ships their products in reused and upcycled packing. Click here to learn more about their extensive and thoughtful recycling and conservation practices.
How It’s Made
Support Local, Shop Thoughtfully
Maple Landmark is more than just a toy company—they’re a pillar of our community, creating beautiful products while protecting the environment. This holiday season, we invite you to visit their factory store located at 1297 Exchange Street in Middlebury, and discover the magic of Vermont-made craftsmanship.
Santa is coming to town!
Santa and his elves will visit Maple Landmark on Saturday, December 14th. Tickets are limited – click here to reserve your spot!
We’re shining this week’s Co-op Spotlight on Elmer Farm — a 90-acre certified organic farm right here in East Middlebury. Member-owners can take 20% off their organic vegetables from November 12–18.
Elmer Farm has deep roots in this community. The land has been farmed since the early 1800s, and today, the team continues that legacy by growing a wide variety of organic vegetables, flowers, and herbs. They farm about eight acres in crops and keep the rest in rotating cover crop to support long-term soil health — a practice that protects the land for future generations.
If you’ve ever driven along Route 116, you’ve probably noticed the farmhouse and flower beds marking the entrance to the farm. What you don’t see from the road are the fields tucked just beyond — fertile sandy loam soils left by glacier retreat, now home to more than 35 types of vegetables and hundreds of seed varieties, including many heirlooms. Everything is grown organically and inspected annually by Vermont Organic Farmers.
Beyond feeding their CSA members and supplying local stores (including us!), Elmer Farm is an important partner in increasing food access in our community. Years back, they joined HOPE, local farmers, ACORN, Middlebury College, and local businesses to build a program connecting surplus farm produce with the HOPE food shelf. What started as an idea around a table has grown into a system that brings thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables to neighbors who need them — while reducing food waste.
At the Co-op, you’ll find Elmer Farm’s organic cabbage (red, green, and napa), kale, onions, squash (butternut and delicata), baby bok choy, radishes, leeks, chard, garlic, turnips, rutabagas, beets, parsnips — and, of course, their standout carrots.Stop by, stock up, and support a farm that helps keep our local food system strong.
Winter weather is just around the corner, so it’s a great time to start thinking about winter tires. We invite you to check out our Co-op Connection Business of the Month – County Tire!Not only can they fix you up with new tires, but they also offer a wide range of automotive services and they have a special deal for Co-op member-owners! Present your member card to receive 10% off parts and 5% off tires! Read on to learn more about the oldest locally-owned tire shop in Addison County:
If you need tire or automotive care, trust County Tire Center, Inc! Located at 33 Seymour Street Middlebury, VT 05753, County Tire Center, Inc. is your trusted source for all of your automotive and tire needs. Owners Steve and Lisa are there to ensure that your visit to County Tire Center, Inc. will not only solve all of your automotive needs but will be one that you will be sure to share with others. They take pride in quality service and the ability to meet customers’ needs in a timely manner.
Servicing customers in the greater Champlain Valley of Vermont and New York, County Tire Center, Inc. has the automotive expertise and friendly, reliable service you need to get you back on the road fast! From tire sales and batteries to shocks, struts, brake, and transmission services, they can handle all of your vehicle needs to keep you running in top shape.
With their years of experience, they offer quality parts and services at the best prices possible. They take pride in their work and strive for great customer satisfaction on each visit. Their goal is to keep your vehicle running in the best possible condition and they will not settle for “good enough.” They went into business in order to bring a higher quality to automotive work in the Middlebury area and intend to have each customer leave happy while offering the most competitive prices in the area.
With their excellent selection of Bridgestone, Firestone, and Nokian tires, they can fit any vehicle make and model. They strive to ensure customer satisfaction and vehicle safety and will do whatever it takes to make sure that you and your vehicle only receive top-quality tires and equipment. They understand that your vehicle is a large investment and they welcome your business in protecting that investment.
If you need general automotive services, computerized tire balancing, general tire service, oil changes, brake service, custom auto detailing or performance tires, consider County Tire Center, Inc. Do you have an electric or hybrid vehicle? County Tire Center, Inc. is an authorized Hybrid/EV repair center offering a wide range of services to keep your hybrid or electric vehicle in top condition. Please feel free to contact them at 802-388-7620 or online to discuss the many options and services offered.
How do they stay small and sell big? It’s simple: years of experience. County Tire Center, Inc. has been in business since 1982. Their mission is to offer you the latest in parts and products, at the best prices with unparalleled service. They pledge their best efforts to make your experience both beneficial and enjoyable. Once you try County Tire, we’re sure you’ll be back for more!
As our Eat Local Challenge rolls on, we’re shining a bright Member Deals Spotlight on our friends at Old Road Farm! All of their glorious organic produce is 20% off for member-owners from September 10st – 16th! Read on to learn more about these VT farmers, the diverse experience they bring to this challenging profession, and their commitment to real organic farming:
Meet the Farmers
A transplant from New York, Gabby Tuite came to Vermont to attend the University of Vermont where she received a bachelor’s in Community Development and Applied Economics. While studying at UVM, she took an internship at the Shelburne Farms’ Market Garden where she first got her hands dirty and fell in love with farming. After UVM, Gabby worked at River Berry Farm for two seasons. Here she learned how to grow on a larger scale, taking note of the efficiencies required to run a profitable farm. Between growing seasons, Gabby has worked at the City Market Onion River-Coop as a Produce Buyer and Team Leader giving her insight into marketing and merchandising, supervising employees as well as the local food chain from a buyer’s perspective.
Gabby Tuite and Henry Webb
Henry Webb grew up with large vegetable gardens and has fond early memories of visiting his father working at the UVM dairy barn. Starting in his teens he spent eight seasons working for Last Resort Farm, a Certified Organic vegetable, berry, and hay farm. He learned to maintain and work on the farm’s equipment and infrastructure as well as organic vegetable farming practices. Henry also spent two years at New Village Farm where he worked with a small herd of Normandie cattle producing raw milk and beef. At New Village, he was given the opportunity to manage and expand the farm’s market garden and gained experience producing for a small CSA, a farm stand, and the Shelburne Farmers Market.
About the Farm
Gabby and Henry shared a dream of owning their own farm and first began their adventure in the Fall of 2015 on a quarter-acre plot in the old field below Henry’s childhood home in Monkton, Vermont, mostly growing vegetables for a few area farmer’s markets. In the Fall of 2019, they were able to secure their dream “forever farm” with the help of the Vermont Land Trust. This gorgeous farm is nestled in the fertile river valley of Granville, Vermont, surrounded by National Forest land.
They specialize in growing fresh, high-quality salad greens and seasonal vegetables for local markets with a deep commitment to the highest standards of ecologically sound, regenerative, and innovative vegetable production. Their produce is Certified Organic by VOF and they are also certified by the Real Organic Project, a grassroots, farmer-led movement created to distinguish soil-grown and pasture-raised products under USDA organic. Gabby and Henry share that they choose to be certified by the Real Organic Project (ROP) because their farming practices are inherently tied to the land and the soil that they farm.
Gabby shares that “In Vermont, we are really fortunate to have the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) and its certifying body, Vermont Organic Farmers (VOF), who share that commitment, but on a national level, we agree with the ROP that industrialization has in some ways diluted the intent of the organic label. We really don’t like to be critical of anyone’s farming practices, but there are currently things allowed under national standards that we don’t think fit people’s perception of what an organic farm is and we think that consumers have a right to an informed decision about what they are buying. We see our farm, our land, as not just a medium for production but a deeply complex living system that we ultimately bear the responsibility to steward. ROP is an advocate for that view.”
Here at the Co-op, you can find an abundant array of Old Road Farm’s produce, including spinach, chard, salad mix, arugula, collards, sweet peppers, cauliflower, radishes, patty pan squash, broccolini, watermelon, and scallions, each in their respective seasons. If you find yourself traveling Vermont’s iconic Route 100 through Granville, be sure to stop for a visit at their farmstand, where you can find a colorful mix of all the produce grown at their farm, which includes the usual lineup of goodies you can find at the Co-op, along with eggplant, tomatoes, squash, celery, and more!
