In honor of our September Eat Local Challenge, we wanted to share a recipe for a Localvore Lasagna that will knock your socks off! It features a lineup of fantastic local ingredients, many of which are featured in our weekly sale from September 15th – 21st, so it’s a great time to give it a try!
Are you enjoying Eat Local Month as much as we are? The abundance of beautiful local produce this time of year makes us feel so lucky to live where we do. But, eating local isn’t just about fruits & veggies. Where would we be without our local meat producers? This week, we’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on Stonewood Farm of Orwell, VT. They provide big, beautiful turkeys for our Thanksgiving tables, and keep us stocked in ground turkey and turkey breasts year-round. Their products are featured on our Member Deals program this week and will be 20% off for member-owners. Read on to learn about this fantastic farm that is all about raising turkeys the natural way:
Established in 1976 by Paul & Francis Stone, Stonewood Farm has been a family owned and operated farm ever since and is now run by Peter Stone & Siegrid Mertens. Here are the rules of raising natural turkeys at their farm:
Be sure to visit us on the web for recipes!
As we continue to celebrate Eat Local Month, we’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on a local, organic farm that has been part of our Co-op family for over 30 years – Golden Russet Farm! We acquire more produce from their farm than from any other farm in Vermont! Member-owners can enjoy 20% their abundant array of local, organic veggies and their glorious fresh-cut bouquets this week! Read on to learn more about this wonderful farm and the fine folks who work tirelessly to make it such a special place:
Farm owners Will and Judy Stevens have been growing organic vegetables commercially since 1981, having started on a small plot of rented land in Monkton, VT. After growing their business and refining their techniques, all the while learning from other pioneers in the Vermont organic farming community, they determined it was time to expand their operation. In 1984 they purchased a former dairy farm with good soils in the agriculturally-rich town of Shoreham, VT, in the southwestern corner of Addison County—home to Golden Russet Farm.
The Stevens have always used exclusively organic production practices on their vegetable and greenhouse operations and became certified organic by Vermont Organic Farmers in 1987. Among other things, this means they use crop rotation, cover crops, biological and naturally-derived pest controls, compost, animal manure, and naturally-derived fertilizers as standard management practices.
Golden Russet Farm starts off the season with vegetable and flower plant sales in the greenhouses and the Farm-to-Kitchen Connection CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. In addition to raising vegetables for market, Judy also grows flowers for cutting, which adds color to the fields and creates habitat for beneficial insects. You’ll find these beautiful bouquets for sale throughout the summer months at the Co-op.
Since 2003, the farm’s focus has been on “hyper-local,” meaning that approximately 90% of their produce has been consumed within 20 miles of the farm. Their produce is available at the farm stand, their CSA, at food markets in Middlebury and Burlington, and at Addison County restaurants.
In April of 2013 the Stevens put up five free-standing solar panels which provide them with all of their farm and personal electrical energy needs.
Judy is a fourth-generation Vermonter from southern Vermont. Her family ran a successful Christmas tree business in the Londonderry area for many years. This experience helped her and Will create a successful mail order wreath business that they ran from the farm until about 2000. Will moved to Vermont from the Ticonderoga, NY area in 1977 to finish his college education at the University of Vermont, which is where he and Judy met. He graduated in 1980 with a BA in studio art, with a specialty in blacksmithing.
After spending the summer of 1980 at Shelburne Museum (Judy as a weaver, and Will in the Blacksmith’s Shop), they were serendipitously presented with the opportunity to ramp up their homestead gardening interest to a commercial scale, and in the first several years everything they grew was sold exclusively at the Burlington Farmers’ Market. From the beginning, their mission has been to provide good quality food to people at reasonable prices.
Shortly after they moved to an old dairy farm in Shoreham, VT, in November 1984, they began to raise a family–Freeman was born in 1986, Pauline in 1989, and Anna came along in 1991. The kids had a sand pile in front of the shed, which, as the greenhouse plant business grew over the years, became a magnet for customers’ children. At some point, the pile was moved to its present location at the corner of the flower garden, which makes it much easier for shopping parents to keep an eye on their children!
Between 1989 and 1992, Will served as President of Vermont Organic Farmers, which then was NOFA-VT’s certification committee. This was an exciting time in the world of organic agriculture. The sudden interest in the link between food safety and production practices was inspired by Meryl Streep’s CBS appearance on 60 Minutes in the fall of 1989 when she railed against a particular spray used on apples. “Mothers and Others for Pesticide Limits” was formed, bringing public awareness to the benefits of organic agriculture. Suddenly, a fringe movement that had been based on back-to-the-land ideals found itself moving toward the mainstream. Some would say that this was the beginning of the localvore movement.
Judy served for 3 years on the board of the Vermont Fresh Network. VFN strives to foster meaningful, mutually profitable relationships between Vermont food producers and chefs and was one of the earliest formal “Farm to Table” initiatives in the nation.
Judy and Will have been actively involved in Town affairs through various organizations and boards. Judy served on the Rescue Squad through much of the eighties and has played an important role in the expansion and promotion of Shoreham’s Platt Memorial Library over the last twenty years. Will was elected to the Town Planning Commission in the mid-nineties, and eventually chaired it for several years. He has since served on the Select and Zoning Boards, and has been elected Town Moderator every year since 2004.
In November 2006 Will was elected to the Vermont Legislature (as an Independent, representing the Towns of Benson, Orwell, Shoreham, and Whiting) for the first of four two-year terms. He was on the House Agriculture and Forest Products Committee all eight years and served the last four as ranking member. He is especially proud of two programs that came out of his committee during that time: the Farm to Plate and Working Lands Initiatives.
As we kick off our month-long Eat Local Challenge, we’re shining our Co-op Spotlight on Gringo Jack’s! Member-owners can enjoy 20% off Gringo Jack’s full line of delicious local tortilla chips, salsas, and sauces this week, so it’s a great time to plan a localvore fiesta! Read on to learn more about Gringo Jack’s, their commitment to sourcing quality local ingredients, and their recently launched Chip In campaign.
At Gringo Jack’s, we’re dedicated to producing handcrafted, flaky tortilla chips along with natural, vegetarian sauces and salsas – always successfully pre-tested in our own restaurant kitchen. We promise to always prepare each recipe in small batches, with only quality ingredients – no fillers or preservatives – giving the consumer the means to create a healthy, gourmet WOW without the extra work. We stand for taste, quality, and uniqueness, always.
We’re just a bunch of gringos that found ourselves in Vermont. But we’re doing our flaky chips, sauces, and salsas better than anyone. Our spices, textures, and flavors will knock your socks off. And we’re doing it the all-natural way, without preservatives or ingredients you can’t pronounce. Just fresh and authentic ingredients for a fresh and authentic taste. Our Co-Founders are Jack Gilbert and Michele Kropp. Jack is an artist and restauranteur and it’s his belief that real flavor comes only from authentic, quality ingredients. Michelle is daughter and wife to two wonderful chefs, and good food is her true passion. Her commitment to real, minimally processed food ensures that Gringo Jack’s products are the very best!
How are we unique from the other wonderful, healthy products out there? First, we use local ingredients whenever possible. Here’s a list of some of the local farmers and producers from which our ingredients are sourced:
In addition to sourcing the best local ingredients whenever possible, we also make our products from scratch. Our BBQ sauces do not contain ketchup – rather, we make our own ketchup. Our chips are so unique with a light, flaky crunch and a hand dusting of spices. We also make all products in small batches to ensure quality in every bag and jar. Bottom line – it doesn’t get better or tastier than Gringo Jack’s!
Calling all Vermonters! We know you already support local and buy local, now you can invest local! CHIP IN is an investment campaign by Gringo Jack’s to expand our line of locally produced and sourced specialty food products. It is an opportunity for Vermonters to help grow local business and invest in the economy here at home.
The CHIP IN Campaign will raise capital to expand our product lines and distribution networks. It will also allow us to build new partnerships with local farms, producers and retail establishments, in addition to building a regional food system and more jobs in Vermont.
CHIP IN provides not only the potential for a return on investment, it also allows Vermonters to make a social investment that will help support and grow the local economy.
CHIP IN is made possible by the Vermont Small Business Offering (VSBO). VSBO is a new program that allows Vermonters to make small investments in local businesses and help grow the Vermont economy.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
We need your help to make CHIP IN successful! Milk Money is the crowd-funding portal for CHIP IN and VSBO. Click here to learn more and INVEST LOCALLY.
Perhaps you’ve been wondering why we have a gigantic wooden ear of corn at the store entry? We call it the Big Corn and it comes out every September during our Eat Local Challenge to help us track the amount of money paid to local farmers and producers throughout the month. Last year, thanks to your purchases of local products, we were able to pay over $346,000 to our local farmers and producers! Help us shatter that record this year by purchasing Vermont products all month long. You can track the progress on the Big Corn and help us reach our goal of $365,000 this year!
1. Local Food Supports Local Farm Families.
Farmers are a vanishing breed, and it’s no surprise given that commodity prices are at historic lows, often below the cost of production. The farmer now gets less than 10 cents of the retail food dollar. When you purchase local produce from the Co-op, the farmer gets a larger share, which means farm families can afford to stay on the farm, doing the work they love.
2. Local Food Supports our Local Economy.
Over 60,000 Vermonters are directly employed in Vermont’s food system. Nearly 12,000 businesses are part of Vermont’s food system. When measured by employment and gross state product, food manufacturing is the second-largest manufacturing industry in Vermont. Milk from Vermont’s dairy farms typically accounts for upwards of 70% of the state’s agricultural products sales, generating $2.2 billion in economic activity annually. A wide range of nondairy farms of all sizes also produce fruits and vegetables, livestock, hay, maple products, and specialty crops for local and regional markets. Vermont’s dynamic and evolving food system is also made up of entrepreneurs creating a variety of value-added products (e.g., cured meats, baked goods, beer, chocolate); thousands of market outlets; sophisticated distribution networks; and dozens of organizations, programs, and volunteer-driven activities that provide business planning, technical assistance, education, and outreach activities.
3. Local Food Builds Community.
When you buy local produce, you are re-establishing a time-honored connection between the eater and the grower. Knowing the farmers gives you insight into the seasons and the miracle of raising food. In many cases, it gives you access to a farm where your children and grandchildren can go to learn about nature and agriculture. Relationships built on understanding and trust can thrive.
4. Local Food Preserves Open Space.
As the value of direct-marketed fruits and vegetables increases, selling farmland for development becomes less likely. You have probably enjoyed driving out into the country and appreciated the lush fields of crops, the meadows of wildflowers, the picturesque red barns. That landscape will survive only as long as farms are financially viable. When you buy locally grown food, you’re doing something proactive about preserving the agrarian landscape.
5. Local Food Keeps Your Taxes In Check.
Farms contribute more in taxes than they require in services, whereas suburban development costs more than it generates in taxes. On average, for every $1 in
revenue raised by residential development, governments must spend $1.17 on services, thus requiring higher taxes of all taxpayers. For each dollar of revenue
raised by farm, forest, or open space, governments spend only 34 cents on services.
6. Local Food Supports a Clean Environment and Benefits Wildlife.
A well-managed family farm is a place where the resources of fertile soil and clean water are valued. Good stewards of the land grow cover crops to prevent erosion and replace nutrients used by their crops. Cover crops also capture carbon emissions and help combat global warming. According to some estimates, farmers who practice conservation tillage could sequester 12-14% of the carbon emitted by vehicles and industry. In addition, the habitat of a farm – the patchwork of fields, meadows, woods, ponds, and buildings – is the perfect environment for many beloved species of wildlife, including bluebirds, killdeer, herons, bats, and rabbits.
7. Local Food Preserves Genetic Diversity.
In the modern industrial agricultural system, varieties are chosen for their ability to ripen simultaneously and withstand harvesting equipment; for a tough skin that can survive packing and shipping; and for an ability to have a long shelf life in the store. Only a handful of hybrid varieties of each fruit and vegetable meet those rigorous demands, so there is little genetic diversity in the plants grown. Local farms, in contrast, tend to opt for more variety to provide a long season of harvest, an array of eye-catching colors, and the best flavors. Many varieties are heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation because they taste good and are regionally adapted to our unique growing conditions here in Vermont. These heirloom varieties contain genetic material from hundreds or even thousands of years of human selection; they may someday provide the genes needed to create varieties that will thrive in a changing climate.
8. Locally grown food tastes better.
Food grown in your own community was probably picked within the past day or two. It’s crisp, sweet and loaded with flavor. Produce flown or trucked in from
California, Florida, Chile, or Holland is, quite understandably, much older. Several studies have shown that the average distance food travels from farm to plate is 1,500 miles. In a week-long (or more) delay from harvest to dinner table, sugars turn to starches, plant cells shrink, and produce loses its vitality.
9. Local Produce is Better For You.
Studies show that fresh produce loses nutrients quickly. Food that is frozen or canned soon after harvest is actually more nutritious than some ‘fresh’ produce that has been on the truck or supermarket shelf for a week. Locally grown food, purchased soon after harvest, retains its nutrients.
10. Local Food Is About The Future.
By supporting local farmers today, you can help ensure that there will be farms in your community tomorrow and that future generations will have access to nourishing, flavorful, and abundant food.
We’re casting our Spotlight on a farm that has been a part of our Co-op family since 1981 – Orb Weaver Farm. While we shed some light on this local 100-acre gem this week, member-owners can enjoy 20% off their full line of glorious cheeses and organic produce. Read on to learn more about Orb Weaver Farm, the fabulous female farmers responsible for it, and the wonderful bounty of products they bring to our Co-op:
Orb Weaver Farm sits on one hundred acres in the Champlain Valley, the rocky top of Camel’s Hump Mountain visible towards the east. Patchwork fields bordered by hedgerows, dotted with Jersey cows, bales of hay waiting to be picked up, a green tractor tilling the earth. Straight garden rows planted with lettuce, swiss chard, tomatoes, peppers, flowers. Our 200-year-old farmhouse, and across the yard the weathered barn, the cheese cave carved into a hillside, fronted by huge stone slabs. The seasons dictate our chores for the day, but the rhythm of the seasons is blissfully the same, year after year, as it has always been for those who work the land. The life of a farmer is both simple and vastly complex, dependent not only on planning and muscle but also on what falls from the sky and what pushes up from the earth. This is Orb Weaver Farm, the farm we have built with our hands for over thirty years, our small piece of the beautiful Vermont earth.
We’ve been practicing sustainable farming since we began. We cultivate our organic gardens and sell the produce to local restaurants and markets. We compost all our culled vegetables, cow manure, and whey (a byproduct of making cheese) and eventually return their nutrients to the gardens and pastures.
Orb Weaver Farm was founded in 1981 by Marjorie Susman and Marian Pollack. They are the driving force behind the farm, with help from farmhand extraordinaire, Lauren Slayton.
At the Co-op, you’ll find a gorgeous array of organic produce from Orb Weaver, including plum tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, and big, beautiful shallots, each in their own season. You’ll also find two of our most popular cheeses: Farmhouse and Cave-Aged. Here’s what Marjorie & Marian have to say about these delicious cheeses and the cows that make it possible:
When farmers use milk exclusively from their own cows to make cheese, it’s called “farmhouse cheese.” That’s what we’ ve been doing at Orb Weaver Farm since 1982. We milk our Jersey cows to make rich, raw milk cheese with a slightly tangy, full-bodied flavor. More moist than cheddar, our Farmhouse Cheese has a natural buttery color and smooth, creamy texture. It is delicious with wine, melts beautifully to complement any recipe, brings grilled cheese sandwiches to new heights, and distinctively tops nachos and pizza. Our two-pound waxed and cave aged wheels also make elegant gifts that are easy to mail.
In 2001, we took a new step into an age-old tradition and began making cave-aged cheese. Using stones from neighboring Panton, VT, we built a cave in a small hillside on our farm to replicate as closely as possible the aging process used for centuries before refrigeration. Cave conditions are warmer and more humid than those for our standard farmhouse cheese, and the aging cycle is longer – up to a year for a 10-pound wheel. We don’t wax cave-aged cheese, but instead turn and brush the wheels every other day for several months, creating a natural rind. The end result is heaven for cheese lovers: a robust, complex array of nutty, earthy flavors and a firm, slightly drier texture that makes our cave-aged cheese a true delicacy. Cave-aged cheese may require more time and TLC, but we think you’ll agree the results are more than worth it.
We make our cheeses simply, in the European tradition. We stir, form, and date-stamp each wheel by hand – we don’t use mechanical stirrers or hydraulic presses. Our wheels age from 6 to 12 months and, since we do everything ourselves, quantities are limited. We make cheese from November through May. We give our cows, and ourselves, a break every summer while we tend our organic gardens.
In our experience, Jerseys give the highest quality milk for cheesemaking, with more butterfat, protein, and vitamins than milk from other breeds. Because we care for our own Jerseys, we know we’re always using the purest, most nutritious milk possible for fine-quality farmhouse and cave-aged cheeses.
We feed our cows sweet-tasting, sweet-smelling grain and organic hay to produce the most savory milk. That’s one of the reasons we won an award for the best-tasting milk in Vermont. For cheese, we milk a small family of seven Jerseys. Happy cows make the best milk, and so our Jerseys enjoy the sounds of classical music whenever they’re not rotationally grazing 30 acres of clover pasture.
We love our farm in Vermont’s beautiful Champlain Valley. During an era when family farms are quickly disappearing, we feel blessed that our small farm is thriving.
We’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on Vermont Smoke & Cure this week to shed a little light on their recent qualification for B Corps certification. This designation is granted to companies that use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. Vermont Smoke & Cure received the certification thanks to their sustainable and socially conscious business practices such as sourcing meats raised humanely and without the use of antibiotics, using ingredients from local farms, offering commercial meat processing services to family-scale farmers, and utilizing solar power. The company also fosters an ownership culture by granting employee stock options to each of its employees. Their full line of smoked and cured meat products are 20% off for member-owners this week, so it’s a perfect time to stock up and save! Read on to learn about their rich history and commitment to small batch meats proudly made in Vermont:
At Vermont Smoke & Cure, we’ve been consciously crafting delicious smoked meats and meat snacks since 1962. We use humanely raised meats whenever possible, and simple local ingredients like Vermont maple syrup and apple cider, combined with the highest quality spices and herbs. Our flavors grew from the heritage of our founder, Roland LeFebvre, who started the smokehouse as “Roland’s” in South Barre, Vermont. At that time, South Barre was a small town made up of many recent immigrants drawn by the granite quarrying and carving industry. Roland based his now-famous recipes on traditional methods and ingredients. After all, the sausages had to pass muster for the large Italian population in Barre, who had come to work in the granite industry.
For the next 50 years, we operated in a farmhouse and then in the back of a gas station, until April of 2012 when we moved 50 miles to Hinesburg, Vermont, renovating a portion of a former cheesemaking facility into a world-class smokehouse. While we still use many of the same methods and recipes, Chris Bailey, our CEO, is expanding on Roland’s vision by sharing Vermont values with a larger market.
Chris has the same driving passion that inspired Roland over 50 years ago: to create great tasting meats that make customers smile. Chris is a former professional cyclist and farmer and loves to cook. He has a deep reverence for our land and an intricate understanding of our food industry. A former vegetarian turned conscious meat-eater, Chris is committed to making livestock farming more humane and sustainable while making the food we eat more healthy and delicious.
At Vermont Smoke & Cure, we believe you should feel good about where your meat comes from. We buy all of the certified humanely raised meats we can, and we have transparent sourcing for all of our meats. Along with our customers, we’re helping the meat industry move to a future that is humane, transparent and environmentally friendly.
Our work in Hinesburg, VT has earned us a fine reputation that we aim to uphold. Thank you for being part of our history and for supporting local & sustainable meat!
With local harvest season in full swing, we’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on a wonderful organic farm that not only provides our Co-op with a bounty of organic vegetables, but also allows us to offer a stunning variety of locally-grown veggie and herb starts for gardeners in the spring! New Leaf Organics is featured in our Member Deals program this week, and member-owners can enjoy 20% off their glorious produce! Read on to learn more about this fantastic local, organic farm hailing from Bristol, VT:
New Leaf Organics is a working vegetable and flower farm established in 2001 by Jill Kopel and Skimmer Hellier. Our farm is located on the town line between Bristol and Monkton, and has been certified organic from the start. Our fields range from heavy clay to fine sandy soils, allowing us to grow a wide variety of edible and ornamental crops throughout the season.
We primarily grow food and plants for people in nearby communities through our on site farm stand, our CSA program, farmers markets, and our wholesale accounts. We also
raise organic specialty flowers and design artistic floral arrangements for weddings and events. Why choose locally grown, organic flowers for your event? Read all about it here.
In the Spring, you can find a wide range of organically-grown veggie and herb starts at the Co-op. Check out this blog post to learn why it’s so important to source your garden plants from an organic, local grower like New Leaf Organics.
On your next trip through Bristol, stop by their farmstand for a visit! They’re open weekdays from 11 am – 6 pm and on weekends from 10 am – 4 pm!
Top four reasons you’ll love this simple summer salad:
There are certain fruits and vegetables that seem to announce the changing of the seasons, and for us here at the Co-op, the day we received our first delivery of local, organic tomatoes and strawberries from Wood’s Market Garden, we knew that summer was finally here! We’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on Wood’s Market Garden this week to highlight their magnificent 150-acre organic farm in Brandon, VT. Member-owners can enjoy 20% off all of their glorious local, organic fruits and veggies this week, including heirloom tomatoes, succulent strawberries, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers (the first of the season!), shell peas, sugar snap peas, broccoli, and cauliflower! Oh, and don’t forget the offerings from the bulk department – dried organic black beans and pinto beans! Read on to learn more about the family that makes it possible for us to offer such a beautiful bounty:
Wood’s Market Garden is a fruit, vegetable & flower farm and seasonal market nestled in the quaint town of Brandon, Vermont. Our fields have been producing fresh food for the greater Brandon community for over 100 years. Jon Satz purchased the farm 16 years ago from Bob and Sally Wood. With his passion for growing and sustainable farming practices, the farm and market have blossomed into a destination for beautiful organic vegetables, quality bedding plants and some of the sweetest strawberries around! Jon, his wife Courtney, and their 2 young sons make their home on the farm and enjoy the continued legacy of farming the land that the Wood family started generations ago.
The farm consists of 150 acres of Vermont farmland and woods. Known far and wide for our delicious sweet corn and plump, sweet strawberries, we also grow over 50 kinds of vegetables and fruits on 60 acres of sandy loam soils. Our produce and vegetable plants are certified organic, and along with our field production, we also have 7 greenhouses for raising bedding plants, ornamentals, vegetable starts and the tastiest early tomatoes in the state! Our unique varieties of plants and our passion for quality crops keeps people coming back year after year.
We grow all of our produce organically here on the farm. It’s a labor of love for everyone involved from seeding to harvesting to washing and selling. We’re really proud to be able to provide such a bounty of farm fresh, organic fruits and vegetables to our community year after year. It’s what feeds our own families here on the farm and beyond and you should feel good knowing we grow it all with love, care and a commitment to good organic practices.
Aside from growing an abundant array of fruits and vegetables for retailers like the Middlebury Co-op, we also offer a CSA and have a seasonal farm stand open daily in the summer from 9 am – 6 pm. Outside, it’s a paradise of plants, hanging baskets, creeping vines, and gardens to wander. We’re on the banks of Jones Mill Pond on Route 7, which during the warm summer months is covered with those famous pink water lilies. Inside the market, the shelves and baskets are filled with gorgeous fresh produce from our farm and bouquets of fresh-cut flowers. Depending on what’s in season, you’ll find everything from fresh spinach to strawberries to squash. We grow over 50 different kinds of produce on our farm, just yards from the farm stand. In addition to produce, we have an unbelievable variety of artisanal cheese, organic milk, and other local dairy products, local meat and poultry, fresh baked goods, maple syrup, raw honey, homemade pickles, jam and more! If you’re looking to stock your own garden, you can browse our selection of farm-grown organic veggie and herb starts, and a stunning variety of annuals, and perennials! We hope you’ll stop in and see us on your next trip through Brandon.
