VFVC Producer Spotlight: Yummy Yammy Sweet Potato Dips

Lisa Johnson of Yummy Yammy (far left) with our VFVC crew!

Vermont Food Venture Center Producer Spotlight

Lisa Johnson of Yummy Yammy, was one of the first clients we took on the Vermont Food Venture Center. Since her start, her fantastic energy and dedication have been an inspiration to all of us!

In our interview, she offers marketing tips, challenges and what it means to move forward. I hope you will enjoy the conversation as much as I did! Check out her product and website at http://www.yummyyammy.com

-Elena Gustavson, Program Director

CAE: I've read your FAQ on the website and love the idea you took a food that you enjoyed and brought it to the next level. Now, a few years later, tell us the truth...are you tired of sweet potatoes?

LJ: I know, it seems I should be, huh?  

I've calculated that since my first home-based recipe drafts, I (and Connor!) have cooked about 7000 pounds of sweet-potatoes. And I still love them. I'm roasting them for breakfast tomorrow morning -- my kids love them with feta cheese before school. Quick, easy, hot, really nourishing. 

CAE: I'm a fan of the Fiery Honey Lemon Dip, paired with crackers and slices of cheese. It's dinner! Which one is THE customer favorite?

LJ: I LOVE that combination too!
Retailers always want to know the 3 best sellers. I was a natural foods grocer myself for 12 years, and I always wanted to know this, too. My pie chart shows Medium Fiesta Dip with a slight lead, and all 4 of the others completely tied. I guess Medium is the best seller because it sounds safely in the middle. But really, it depends on whether you like heat or not, sweet or not (two have Vermont honey in them), whether you want chunky or smooth, whether you eat sandwiches/wraps/cheese and crackers, or nachos and burritos. And everyone's different! 

CAE: Your website is so much fun. One of the challenges of being a small business, is marketing your product. Any secrets you want to share?

LJ: I'm so glad you find it fun. That's one of my major goals. I decided early on, if I'm going to promote an orange food out of the ground, I'd better have a sense of humor. 

Two combined secrets: the taste of food is not an intellectual experience -- it's a sensory experience. And, under-promise and over-deliver. 

An example of this is, at tastings I ALWAYS offer samples. I can't stand talking about food without food there to eat. It's not a concept, it's a flavor, color, smell, and consistency experience that brings up memories and intrigues the senses. We all make such great foods, always get people to eat it; don't talk too much. So, at a tasting, I start with, "Everything's made of sweet potato." They taste it. Then, after people love it, I tell them there's no fat. That's a fact that gives them the feeling of over-delivering: they already found a dip they like the taste of, and now they're finding out it's also fat-free. Then I tell them there's also tons of nutrition, making it the "opposite of just about every dip in America". Again, over-delivered. Then, when they buy one from me, I give them a cute little refrigerator magnet "just for fun" = one more little delightful over-delivering.

Also, I think the biggest challenge of marketing, especially for folks like us who are putting our lives into that jar/bag/box/bottle of food... Marketing always works better when it's about how it's going to benefit the customer. Not about the great features I've put into it. For example, my current label says, 

"At Yummy Yammy we roast naturally nutritious, U.S. grown, orange sweet potatoes, then add delicious, wholesome ingredients to make the yummiest food anywhere." 

It's all about the features, all about what I am doing. Customers don't care. They just want to know what's in it for them, in their busy lives. 


Our next labels will say something like, "You will feel so good eating our new, fun sweet potato dips. Why? 'Cuz they're delicious and loaded with nutrition from America's favorite super-food: sweet potato. Yup, they're also naturally fat-free. Enjoy!" Totally different, all about benefit. Benefit to the customer. I'm constantly making sure I'm speaking to the customers' needs, not mine.

CAE: Now that you are three years in, what is your next step?


LJ: Sad as it feels at times, this means the VFVC has been super successful for me! Honestly, I would have shut down in July 2011 if the VFVC hadn't opened. I couldn't do one more summer day with 9 crock pots going at once in my kitchen! It is a great place to find out if your product has a future or not. I can't thank you all enough.

As hard as it is to imagine, I am beginning to plan our fledging from the Center. I keep reminding myself that this is the plan for an incubator: to give safe shelter to a start-up until it's strong enough to survive in the outside world, til it's getting big enough that the numbers will add up better outside. While I've been at the Center (YyYy was the 2nd company in the door, starting July 2011), the stability has allowed me to solidly establish pricing, good labeling, food safety plan, marketing, distribution (!), trade show planning, inventory sourcing and management, production needs, retail relationships, and effective acidified food production. 

Whew! Now it's getting to be time to stop peeling sweeties by hand, and move on to a profitable business model.

Yummy Yammy Sweet Potato Dips can be found online or at retail establishments throughout the Northeast, including:

Dan & Whits, Norwich, VT
Hanover Coop Foodstore, Hanover, NH
Whole Food Market, Hingham, MA
White River Coop, White River Junction, VT

and several other locations!

Sweet Heart

This short was created for the Green Mountain Film Festival by a few local high school students with their friends and families, and won the GM 48 Hour Film Slam 2012 . 

Enjoy!

 .

Vermont is Taking Big Steps in Cultivating Happiness!!

This two part post is written by Heather Davis, our Food Systems Monitoring and Evaluation Research Associate. Heather collects data for the Center for an Agricultural Economy and helps us understand whether we are achieving our goals when it comes to our programming and monitoring our results. 

Vermont is Taking Big Steps in Cultivating Happiness!! (part 1)

by Heather Davis

Happiness.  What does it really look like?  How do we achieve it?  How do we measure it?  Where does responsibility lie in achieving this state?  With us as individuals?  With the state to support policies that will enhance happiness and well-being?  Or both?  These are the questions that Vermonters are now asking themselves due to a new law passed this year, S.237, which calls for the State of Vermont to measure the well-being of its citizens.  The indicators and the associated data that are being developed for this state initiative will be a real asset in decision-making; for the state budget, for local businesses and organizations, in creating laws and policy, and for individuals in making decisions about their own lives.  This is exciting and progressive stuff!

On May 30^th, I spent the day at the University of Vermont attending the Measuring What Matters: Pathways to Sustainable Well-Being in Vermont conference, sponsored by the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, Gross National Happiness USA, and Common Good Vermont.  I am a data geek and I love measures, so the idea of measuring our well-being in a way that is more representative and accurate than the traditional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) method really appeals to me.  Monitoring progress toward goals is the only way we can really know if we are really making our way toward those goals – and what a more worthwhile goal than happiness!  This conference was really up my alley!

After some wonderful speakers, there was some great discussion in the break-out group I attended addressing the question of measuring well-being.  Some of the words that emerged to describe happiness and well-being include “Thriving,” “Community,” “Time balance,” “Resiliency,” “Work-life balance,” “Relationships,” “Access to nature,” and “Basic needs,” and “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” 

After coming up with the definition of happiness and well-being, the next step will be to develop ways to measure these things.  This can be the more difficult part of the process: it’s very important to find the right measures (indicators) – if you measure the wrong thing, you’ll get misleading results and/or the information will not be useful at all.  This problem can be seen in the over-emphasis of measuring GDP.  The U.S. and other countries have generally focused on this measure – which describes the total sum of all economic activity – and have used it to tell us how “well” a nation is doing.  This approach is very problematic for many reasons – not the least of which is that our well-being goes far beyond economics.  Yes, economics is an important part of well-being – to a point – but there are many more factors that we need to pay attention to, such as those mentioned above.  If one of these factors is languishing we need to do something to address it – both as individuals and collectively as a community, state, or nation.  This is why measuring the elements that contribute to happiness is so important – “What you measure affects what you do. If you don’t measure the right thing, you don’t do the right thing” -Nobel Prize winner, Joseph Stiglitz.

The idea of measuring well-being, beyond the traditional and problematic measure of GDP, began in Bhutan in 1972 when the new young king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, declared that his country would be measuring the Gross National Happiness of his people, which was a more well-rounded way to measure well-being.  It has taken some time (Bhutan was way ahead of the curve here), but the idea has caught on in recent years and several other countries, states, the UN have now begun the process of measuring well-being in a more holistic way.

Now, Vermont is part of this progressive group and will be measuring the well-being of its citizens.  This conference was the first step in this process.  Stay tuned for next week when I discuss the connection between happiness and our local food system! 

Local Words: "Spring = Crazy" on a Diversified Vermont Farm

Ah, it has been awhile since we've posted Local Words for you!

Spring is busy. Busy with us here at the Center for an Agricultural Economy as we wrap up spring and ramp up for summer and busy at the Vermont Food Venture as we continue to welcome new clients, plan new workshops and get ready for a busy summer of processing.

Spring is busy for farmers too...you could say "crazy busy".

This great post from Will Ameden, "The Flying Farmer" in Cabot, is a great example of what many small and diversified farms are like in Vermont this time of year. You can read more about his farm and flying business on his blog, Catamount Aviation and Under Orion Farm.

Enjoy the pictures and the post and then get outside for some of your own spring "crazy".

-Elena Gustavson
Program Director

Spring = Crazy

by Will Ameden in Cabot, Vermont

It has started.

Spring, with all of it’s craziness,  and never ending to-do lists, means late nights on top of  early mornings.

With the arrival of 17 Black Angus cows that I will be boarding for a local neighbor,  and the implementation of my Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) grazing plan, something I began in October 2010, I am spending hours managing our new “grass munchers”. This means moving lots of small, one acre paddocks, building loads of new fence, installing yards of waterline and lugging in 100-gallon water tubs. I have the Angus divided into 2 herds and they stay in each paddock for just a few days.

The grass is also in “crazy” mode, growing fast and long, which means haying season will start any day now. My neighbor and friend Nate Smith, a top notch welder, spent an afternoon repairing my hay elevator and other welding jobs around the farm.

Between the on-farm sawing jobs like clapboards for the Birdsalls as well as lumber for the new farm stand and lumber shed, the sawmill has been busy with off-farm custom sawing jobs as well.

Read More Here...

Local Words: Town Meeting

Another week and another post of Local Words!

Paige Wierikko, our Program Intern here at the Center for an Agricultural Economy, wrote a narrative earlier this month when she attended her first Town Meeting in Vermont.

Although Paige was there to observe the tradition of "direct democracy", her essay for us reflects on the community - the people, the conversations and the connections. It is refreshing to see the familiar world through the eyes of another.

-Elena Gustavson, Program Director

Town Meeting


by Paige Wierikko

As an outsider looking in, town meeting was as much educational as it was entertaining. I say “outsider” because I wasn’t a registered voter. Feeling slightly like Hester may have when I was made to stand and show all that I, Paige Wierikko am not allowed anywhere near the voting box, and if I were to get the itch to push my luck, I should be tackled on-spot. Okay, so the last part was not specified but if it had, people would have been talking about the 2012 town meeting indefinitely.

My outsider status also comes from my Wisconsin roots. I just moved to Vermont in July of 2011. But I must say that as I looked out into the crowd, I didn’t feel like a stranger. Walking into the Craftsbury Academy gym quite possibly for the last time before it’s torn down and rebuilt into a regulation size gym was slightly sad. My spirits were lifted immediately when I was greeted with a benevolent, “Paaaaige” at a very generous decibel level from Jay Wright. I picked a spot high up in the bleachers next to my buddy Ethan Morrison but only after I was embraced in a great big bear hug from Willie Ryan, shot a big smile at Bob Twiss, said a friendly hello to Pete Johnson, waved to all the Sterling students, and asked Harry Miller about his day.

I was in complete awe of how smoothly the meeting went. A very memorable moment that could have easily turned awkward happened when the vote for the Lamoille Solid Waste District Supervisor came up. Adrian Owens, the incumbent, stood and introduced himself. He then invited anyone who would like to take on this position to do so because it offered a limitless learning experience. The crowd got a nice chuckle but that laughter grew when the next person to raise her hand nominated Adrian again for that position. ..a second was quick to follow. In spite of his community throwing him under the bus, he good-naturedly sat back down and took one (well, more accurately, two years) for the team. This was the reigning attitude of the day, and surely dissolved potential for any greater conflict.

I skimmed the crowd and there sat Max and Nancy whom I met just a month ago while attending a Super Bowl party at Lou’s house. Sitting just behind them was Anne, an extremely compassionate lady who looks after Neil and Kristin Urie’s four amazing children. I spotted Princess, Annie, Tim, Bruce, Sarah, Adam, Joe, Elena, Jeremiah, another Annie, another Tim, another Joe, but not another Princess.

Eventually another paper vote comes up and I am able to stretch my legs and mingle with the people I have “I spied.” During a paper vote, everyone who would like to vote on the current article writes on a sheet of paper a “yes” or “no” and deposits it in a single box in the front of the gym. There is a last call and the ballots are counted. This process can take a while, but gives adequate time for socializing. I meet up with Tule, the Craftsbury Schools art teacher, who introduced me to the lady that makes Vermont Bee Balm, the lip balm I had put on my lips just minutes prior to our meeting. As I walked back to my spot on the bleachers I ran into Mansosoi and Kate Tagai. I am indebted to Kate for helping me find my first job milking sheep at Bonnieview when I first moved to Vermont. I also thank Mansosoi every day that he agrees to participate in the Sterling volleyball team that plays every Monday night at the IROC, the new recreational facility thirty minutes north in Newport. Now free for all Craftsbury youth 18 and younger, a motion the town was happy to support.

I not only got to see a gym full of all the memorable people I’ve come to know in Vermont since my move from Wisconsin, I also got to witness the purest form of democratic governing. Craftsbury taxpayers get the unique opportunity to voice their opinions and hear those of their neighbors, possibly louder than desired. In those few short hours, important decisions were made and citizens walked away feeling like they were an important voice and were able to personally represent their best interests. I am inspired to register to vote in the state of Vermont, not just because of the prideful “I voted” sticker whose absence on me seemed to emblazon a badge of humiliation across my chest, but because I want to be an active participant in the process that shapes the community I live in.

2012 Craftsbury Town Meeting in the school's gym
photo by Paige Wierikko

Local Words: A "Dating" Service for Food Producers

Annie Rowell is the Center for an Agricultural Economy's Farm-to-Institution Program Associate and began working for us last summer shortly after her graduation from Middlebury College. 


A multi-generation Vermonter, Annie has been the driving force behind our pilot Farm-to-Institution program at the Vermont Food Venture Center, funded by the John Merck Foundation and the Vermont Agricultural Innovation Center where in a typical work day, she goes from writing reports, researching and creating labels to donning a hair net and rubber boots to work the equipment in our kitchens, processing anything from applesauce for the local pantries to cubing root vegetables for a retail pack of winter vegetables.


In February, the VFVC hosted a group of forty or fifty enthusiastic specialty food producers and local farmers to network and make some local connections between value added production and locally grown food. What a success! Annie shares the story below. 


-Elena Gustavson, Program Director

Annie lugging squash from a local farm

In the White Room

By Annie Rowell

When passersby stop in to see what the big, new green building behind Aubuchon Hardware is all about, we talk about how we are an incubator, a resource for small food businesses, a new piece in the puzzle for the Vermont food system, but never about the Vermont Food Venture Center (VFVC) as a matchmaker – that is, until recently.  Turns out, the VFVC has become a bastion for collecting names and trading digits.  Thanks to our ever eager food producer clients, we witnessed our matchmaking potential on an evening in early February when fifty foodies congregated in the back corner of the VFVC.  

Since the launch of their businesses, two VFVC clients had struggled with their mission to source all or most of their product ingredients locally.  To Sumptuous Syrup’s Linda Fox, any words associating ginger, berries, and herbs (basil in particular, if you happen to know anyone) with local growers grab her attention faster than the word “fire.”  She and her business partner, Don Horrigon, never tire of finding new ways to find local ingredients for their cocktail syrups, which are perfect for anything from an evening tonic to a delicious ice cream drizzle.  For Michelle Guenard of Michelle’s Specialty Foods, she knew she wouldn’t be satisfied with her spicy kimchi until she knew the entire immediate family of the farmer she bought her raw ingredients from.  

After several months of run-ins and small talk in the warehouse, Linda and Michelle came to the conclusion that other area food producers must share their frustrations.  In the innovative spirit of true problem solvers, they took matters into their own hands.  Before we knew it, our staff were receiving emails of confirmed RSVPs for a matchmaker event between farmers and food producers to be held at the VFVC.  We were energized by the enthusiasm of our food production clients and hopped on the bandwagon to help out where we could.   For an event captained by two go-getters, we didn’t have to do much. 

In the potluck-y spirit of most Vermont gatherings, the VFVC doors opened after hours to area farmers and food producers on a Thursday evening in early February.  While I’ve always thought that the overhead panel lights in the office felt austere and institutional (hence my desk lamp), the spotlight brightness seemed to highlight a premier event as attendees trickled in.  I steered attendees along the warehouse cow-path that weaves around client storage racks, between the freezer units, and into the tucked away back corner.  The back corner (also known by its other very literal name: the “white room”) is the unfinished space in the warehouse; an empty 5,000 square foot room is quite the novelty in the Northeast Kingdom where gatherings generally occur in town halls and the occasional school gym. 

At Linda’s beckoning, we quieted our chatter and congregated in a large circle in the large empty space, a room where all who enter will soon be required to don hairnets and sanitized foot wear once it is finally fit-up for food processing. 

“I’m a new vegetable farmer and will grow whatever you need.”
  
This common one-liner proved to be the best pick-up line of the night.  Food producers, ranging from current VFVC clients in production to those on the treasure hunt for the magical million dollar recipe, scribbled contact names and zealously confirmed phone numbers as introductions traveled  around the circle.  Before Linda called “break” for the real one-on-one networking to begin, I couldn’t help but notice the collective focus in the room.  No clatter, whispers, or fidgeting in the crowd.  Everyone present was exactly that – present, thinking deeply on the goal of the intimate gathering and calculating how he or she could best contribute to the conversation.  While to an observer we may have looked slightly hunky dory (we had a rather high percentage of hand knit sweaters, clogs, various Carhartt items, and creative casserole dishes as part of the potluck spread), there was certainly a lot going on upstairs, so to speak.


Matchmaking is a tricky business, but with the right combination of persistence, spunk, and perhaps a stellar shepherd’s pie, the VFVC community looks forward to setting you up.  

The "sharing circle"

Local Words: Farming and Writing in Vermont

Julia Shipley, a writer and farmer, has been the co-organizer of our Local Author Reads event for the past two years. Julia is a 2010-2011 recipient of the Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant and is completing a "manuscript of braided essays about small scale agriculture". 


Her essay below, originally appeared in the Fall 2011 issue of Local Banquet. Samples of her work as well as information about her writing retreats and classes, can be found on her website, Writing on the Farm.


Having Both Lives: Farming and Writing in Vermont before 1972
by Julia Shipley


“Why anybody would want to be either a farmer or a poet when there were spools turning in factories was beyond the grasp of the old man. That his grandson should desire to be both was almost enough to bring on a stroke.”


According to the grandson’s biographer, “Determined in his course, Robert laid the whole matter before his grandfather. He would have a farm, live on it, produce his food with his own labor, and write poetry.” 


And although the grandfather eventually purchased a farm for his grandson, he turned it over to the young Robert Frost with no real encouragement. “You’ve made a failure out of everything else you’ve tried. Now go up to the farm and die there.” 


As we know, Frost exceeded his grandfather’s expectations. And many more have succeeded in this stroke-inducing thing—being both farmer and writer—and particularly here, in Vermont. And because of these dual efforts, we have a cultural harvest of literature. All of the farmer-writers mentioned in this article had firmly established their books and crops by the time I came into the world in 1972 (hence the title of this article), and all of them have inspired me since I moved to Vermont in 1997 with foolishness and feistiness, endeavoring to cultivate a farming and writing life of my own. 


Five years prior to this move, I had accosted a farmer-writer, Scott Chaskey, at a sustainable agriculture conference. He had just retrieved a notebook from his car and was heading back inside when I ran up to him and asked the author of This Common Ground: Seasons on an Organic Farm and head farmer of Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, New York, my burning question: “Which comes first, which are you more of—a writer or a farmer?” He sighed and gazed across the lot, then back at me, and said, “Well, I’m a writer. I’m a writer first.” 

READ MORE HERE... Originally published in Local Banquet, Fall 2011

Fall 2011

Local Words: Living and Working in the NEK

Here's a blog post by a young lady who moved to the area last year, after working both in NYC and on small, northeast farms. A fine cook, a good farmer and an excellent writer, Annie Myers shares her love for food and soil on her blog, Thoughts On the Table. 


This story is an affectionate reflection on the people she's met this past year, while working at Pete's Greens and living in Craftsbury. Enjoy!


More People Than You Know
June 26, 2011

The other night I was introduced to a poetry professor from MIT and a photographer from NPR, after working all day with a 60-year-old woman who is stronger than many men half her age, and a 30-year-old man whose obsession with old Volkswagens leads him to sell the vegetables from our farm like a good car salesman sells lemons.

The next night I had dinner on the porch of the lodge in the next town over, with a mother of three beautiful children, who lives on the same street as her ex-husband’s mother and brother and sister-in-law. We ate together with a collared-shirt-wearing boy in his late 20s, who is building a house in the Common where he hopes to live forever, and a friend of his, who is deaf, who communicates wonderfully with hand motions and scribbled scraps of paper that pile up on the tables where we’ve spent time.

Every day, I’m surrounded by the people on the farm, who have their own stories. There’s the 80-year-old man who has helped build the new facility, who I see eating out by himself in Hardwick. There’s the guy who fixes all the equipment, and does much of the tractor work in the fields, who lives down the road with his family, and sugars every early spring. He’s been married since he was nineteen to a girl he’d met three weeks before he proposed. There’s a couple in their 30s – he runs the construction of the new facility, she helps with crop planning and farm regulations- who spent the last two years in the Peace Corps in Panama. He grew up here, and his parents and sisters live nearby, while her family visits occasionally from Virginia, where she (incidentally) went to high school with the Volkswagen vegetable man. There’s the woman who used to work for Phish, and the boy who got hit by lightning (or so I hear), and the man who once crashed Pete’s truck and gave up his motorcycle in exchange. There are all the previous men and women, girlfriends, boyfriends, sisters, brothers, neighbors, friends, who worked on the farm in the past, whose presence remains in stories and habits referred to every day.

Read the rest of Annie's post, "More People Than You Know" on her blog, Thoughts On the Table.

photo from Thoughts on the Table

Pies for People, Soup for Supper- One door closes, but another one opens

Hardwick, VT, November 15, 2011 -With just hours left before our first of two bake nights for our annual Pies for People/Soup for Supper event, I find myself with a rare and quiet hour to reflect. Not on recipes, nor logistics or even hunger, but to reflect on kitchens.

Since its inception in 2009, when Julia Shipley organized the first pie bake, the kitchen at Sterling College, with its u-shaped counter sitting squarely beneath the hanging pot racks, has welcomed a cadre of volunteers to roll dough, simmer soup and bake pies. The ancient stoves and ovens never failed to fire up, every imaginable pot and gadget was within arm’s reach and we blasted the music from the beat up speakers that sat high above the stainless steel sinks. This year, sadly, is our last year to bake in this wonderful little kitchen on the Common.

The hours of work, coordination and stress that lead up to this event - the dozens of phone calls and emails, juggling requests and schedules, checking list after list and then checking again – fade away the moment I walk into this kitchen that I once thought of as my own. Years after leaving, I still feel at home in this space, everything familiar and welcoming. Even under the fluorescent lighting, there is something warm and comforting, about this “institutional” kitchen.

Next year, we will be moving this event to the newly built Vermont Food Venture Center in Hardwick, where we can take this event to the next level within our Food Access Program at the CAE. In a state of the art facility, with efficient, professional equipment, a large space and easily accessed storage, our goal is to produce enough food for the local pantries to stock their freezers for months. It is exciting to imagine the possibilities and deeply gratifying to know that our work will continue to not only feed our community, but to bring a new awareness to hunger and need in our State.

According to the USDA, 14.6% of our population was food insecure in 2008. That represents over 49 million people, of whom 16 million are children. Those are staggering numbers.

On a local level, we directly impact hundreds of people when they eat the pies or soup at community dinners, school lunch, as a snack at one of the senior centers or as a client of the local Food Pantries. On a regional level, we hope to inspire others to work with food security organizations towards a solution for hunger from a local perspective using fresh, healthy ingredients. Neighbors helping neighbors. A community feeding their community.

We know that we cannot end hunger with a slice of pie or a bowl of soup, but if our Pies for People, Soup for Supper event gets people talking, involved and working towards a solution, then we are supporting those who take on hunger every day. That said, I will work with joy tonight and tomorrow, savoring the last few hours I will spend in this wonderfully funky kitchen that embraces community in every aspect of its internal architecture. When I turn out the lights and lock the doors tomorrow night though, it will be bittersweet.

Elena Gustavson
Program Director
Education and Outreach
Center for an Agricultural Economy, Hardwick, Vermont

It's Been a Week

Seven days and seven hours ago, I was sitting in the warm office of my friend, neighbor and former employer, Pete Johnson. I joined a group of other friends, neighbors, the Johnson family, and his farm crew. We ate cookies and muffins, drank coffee, answered the phone, talked to each other and sometimes just sat quietly...all the while watching our volunteer fire department put out the smoldering remains of what was the heart of the farm.

An early morning fire swiftly took the old dairy barn at Pete's Greens, a diversified vegetable farm in the historic village of Craftsbury, Vermont. This barn, with it's gambrel roof and yellow plank siding,  was much more than a barn. Its three floors housed the processing facility, two tractors, supplies, coolers, freezers, equipment, tools, storage crops and meat. On the north side, a 4,000 square foot addition was being closed in where more storage, offices and employee space was to be added. Over $750,000 of property, food and construction - not to mention years of work - was lost in a matter of an hour...maybe two.

Although it's been a few years since I worked for the farm, my visits are frequent and familiar, and my memories are recent. The smell of wet cardboard and fresh dirt in the washhouse; mounds of bright greens heaped up on tables, the sound of  lighthearted "trash talk" while the crew raced to bag vegetables with dead-on accuracy; the feel of cold on my cheeks every time I tugged open the cooler doors; the roar of the tractor being pulled out by Pete, wearing his bright yellow protective ear phones with the embedded radio. My memories of the barn are visceral; tightly linked to the farm itself, the people who work there and the place that launched my own journey into small agriculture, community and food.

Now, as I walk up the road from my old, drafty farmhouse and round the corner to Pete's old, drafty farmhouse, scratching the ears of Squirt (the farm dog) who wiggles with joy in anticipation of a walk or car ride,  I am met with nothing but open sky where there once stood a big, old, yellow barn. 

But there is opportunity within the ashes. A new and better facility will be built in time. The equipment will be found and purchased. The fields will yield their fruit and the hands of the crew will once again be busy. The time to reflect on the past is short, as the present is relentless in its demand for attention, and the future is urgent in its need.

But today, just today, I'll indulge myself and wish that it had never happened. Today, I'll miss the smells, sights and sounds of an energetic, progressive farm. Today, I'll feel a little sad for what was lost.

-Elena Gustavson
Program Director, Education and Outreach for CAE

2008- Before the barn was yellow

CAE Staff Note:

Our region has had four devastating farm fires in the less than 24 months. The Betzs of High Ledge Farm in Woodbury lost their house and barn in April of 2009; The McAllisters of Hardwick lost their herd and barn in November 2009; The Michauds of Walden also lost their entire herd when their barn burned in May 2010; Pete's Greens barn fire last week.

Like many small businesses, the profits in farming, if there are any, are pinched and scratched from the margins, often resulting in forgoing anything that isn't presently necessary ...like new equipment, health insurance, even enough coverage  for the farm. Pete's Greens, for all its success in farming, was no different.

Employing 11 people full time (20 during the growing season that starts in April), running a thriving and innovative CSA that helps support other local producers, and supplying grocers and restaurants across New England, Boston and New York, the loss that Pete's Greens suffers is a loss that both our immediate community and our agricultural community suffers as well. Fundraising and financing efforts are in full force to get the farm up and running in time for spring.

Jan. 12, 2011-Pete's Greens

Pete's Greens- For updates to the rebuild effort and to contribute to the farm's rebuild fund, you may make a donation directly to the farm at their website. http://petesgreens.com/Fire.html


NOFA-VT- Since 1997, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont makes available emergency funds for farmers who incur financially devastating losses. To contribute a tax-deductible donation to their Farmer Emergency Fund, please visit them at http://nofavt.org/programs/farm-financial-resources/farmer-emergency-fund

Center for an Agricultural Economy- Our newly formed Farmer Emergency Fund is specific to Hardwick and the towns that touch its borders. To make a tax deductible donation, please specifiy Farmer Emergency Fund and donate here: http://hardwickagriculture.org/join.html

Thank you,


The Staff at CAE

Why Local?

This post was originally written and published a few months ago in response to my personal exploration about the importance of locally based action. - Elena Gustavson

Why Local?

I'm a local.

Well, not that kind of  "local". That type of local would entail several generations of living in the same town, often on the same land, with a surname that is likely to grace any number of street signs and local businesses. A local knows your place not by the street address, but by the family that lived there before you. A local has a harmless chuckle when I naively quote Henry Ford about chopping wood and then ask where I can get a good price on a few cords. Yes, I'm one of those transplants that came from away and bought a house in the village. I'll never be considered a local, nor will my children or my children's children...but that's okay.

I'm a "local" because I believe in putting my energy toward local matters. Local food, yes, but more than that. Local schools, local economies, local government and more. I believe that to live in a place means caring about it too. I volunteer and involve myself in my local schools. I know the teachers, staff and administration. I purchase from my local shops and know the people who run them. I know many of my local farmers, mechanics, landscapers, carpenters, plumbers and mail carriers. I know my Select Board and School Board. I know the kids and their parents. I know when Town Meeting is, and I attend, lending my voice and my vote. I've adopted my community, not just by living here, but by really LIVING here.

So why does local matter? Honestly, I'm not sure if it matters at all. I read about global warming, declining bio-diversity, stock market crashes, crushing poverty and famine. I read about wars in countries I know nothing about and the frightening economics of world powers that are not the United States. I read about a soldier, lost to war and the family that mourns him. I read about the end of days.

Yet, when I wake up in the morning, the cold light of fall filtering through my window, I am home. I hear the delivery trucks which will soon give way to snow plows. I hear the geese as they head south and the whipping of wind through the cedar and maples by my barn. I hear children talking as they walk to school. I see the hills behind my house alive with color and I watch the clouds form a myriad of shapes on the horizon, endlessly fascinating to me. I see the stand of weeds that I once had a vegetable garden in and fret about how tall the grass has become in less than a week. I smell the musty odor of my basement when I head down to rummage in the freezer and note that the rest of the wood  needs to be brought in soon. I smell the coming of rain.

What else can I do but participate right here and right now? I am incapable of taking on matters that have national, let alone global consequences. I am too easily overcome with heartache when I read about the trials of the world. Yet, I can invest the power of my dollar into my community and reap the rewards. I can add my voice, whether out loud or in print, in support of my community. I can lend myself to my community by volunteering and engaging and helping out a neighbor.

In this small way, with these small victories, I find hope in humanity and in the world. In this small way, my being a "local" has larger consequences. In this small way, I am affecting change.

Green-Aid Seedbomb Vending Machine

Below is a post by our VFVC intern, Michelle Skolnik, who has recently moved to the Northeast Kingdom. She shares her perspective about keeping our spaces green and cared for, no matter where you live.

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Green-Aid Seedbomb Vending Machine
by Michelle Skolnik

A friend recently shared a project with me, that was created by Common Studio, a California-based design practice. She sent me a video that the designers made about their Green-Aid Seedbomb Dispensers, which you can watch here:



A “seed-bomb” is a ball made of clay, compost, and seeds which can be placed just about anywhere with water and sunshine and the seeds will grow right out of the ball. Common Studio recognizes that seed-bombs have been around for a while—which they trace back to New York City in the early seventies. Though the popular term may have been coined in the seventies, the idea seems to have been around since the 1930s. I could not find a credible resource to reference, but a basic Google search suggests that “aerial reforestation” (dropping seeds from flying airplanes) started in the 1930s and has since been tried by many organizations across the world.

Common Studio’s Seedbomb Vending Machine is “an interactive public awareness campaign, a lucrative fundraising tool, and a beacon for small scale grass roots action that engages directly yet casually with local residents” about a common urban issue: the lack of greenspaces and care for the urban environment.

Though the seed-bombs can’t transform a concrete lot into a garden, they can serve as a visual trigger to remind people that transformation can occur, and I see this Seedbomb Vending project as a great conversation starter and as a clever awareness campaign. However, I don’t think this project needs to be limited to cities. A lot of recent attention has been brought to “reclaiming” and transforming urban spaces into green spaces worth caring for. And though I certainly support that idea, I think it is equally as important to encourage people who already live in beautiful greenspaces to take responsibility for them. Here in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, we are fortunate to be surrounded by beautiful mountains, foliage, woods, and agricultural land. For the most part, people seem to care a great deal about them—especially the numerous family farms that exist because of their immaculate care of their personal environments. However, people who live outside of cities are still prone to what many consider to be “urban problems,” like being careless of personal impact on the environment, littering, being wasteful, and lacking access to good, healthy food. Maybe we don’t need to be tossing seed-bombs around to remind us that the place we live can be beautiful, but we might replace seed-bombs for plastic toys in supermarket vending machines to help ease us off desiring 25 cent trinkets that will end up as landfill. Instead of treating our kids to a gumball that they will chew and collect sugar from, why not treat them to a seed-ball that they can drop anywhere and watch grow? Maybe these little vending machines could get people excited about using their yards to grow food or about volunteer to maintain walking trails.

I don’t expect these Seedbomb Vending Machines to accomplish that much in the way of social change, but it is nice to see what kind of innovative ideas people have to engage their communities with important issues. Creativity is one of the most useful tools we have, and I feel that the more of these sorts of projects we are exposed to the better for our own brainstorming. For more information about Common Studio and their GreenAid Machines, you can visit their website at: http://thecommonstudio.com/.

Be a Changemaker

Last week, while touring a farm with a small group of first year college students, we discussed the frustration of being away from home for the first time, only to be thrust in what feels like a system that doesn't allow for change and growth. The particular target of this frustration was school food. Not one of them liked it and felt helpless to do anything about it.

Picking our way around the jutting rocks on the farm's back road, I felt compelled to assure them that they did have a voice.They had such untapped power, they had only to wield it! But how? How do you stand up for yourself? How do you stand up for your beliefs? Your community? It's more than just making noise and dumping your opinions...How do you make change?

As a part of an organization that treasures the value in collaboration, education, and community building, I've had a front row seat in the figurative classroom of "how to make change". Over the years, involved in a movement that is intent on being a part of the solution rather than the problem, you find that change can be a slow, plodding process or it can be so quick --and forgive my surfer reference-- that you feel you've been through the rinse cycle of a big wave, paddling in the direction that you hope is the surface.

So how do we go about change that is effective? How do we move forward and towards the surface?

1. Question authority, then question yourself. Be a skeptic.
2. Understand your opinion by understanding the differing opinions of others. Practice critical thinking.
3. Offer solutions, not just "constructive critisicm". Self righteousness should be avoided.
4. Be thoughtful. Be organized. Be respectful. Do not waste another person's time.
5. Allow others to speak and then listen actively.
6. Read and understand the issues. Talk to people you trust and then talk to those you don't.
7. Vote.

We are all Changemakers. Your age, your gender, your socio-economic status, your ethnicity...it doesn't matter. You have a voice. Speak up as an individual or speak up as a group, but speak up.

Students Cook, Community Eats

Youth cooking for the community. How nice is that? Last week, students from Craftsbury Academy and Sterling College, teamed up to provide "the goods" for United Church of Craftbury Common's monthly Community Supper, which happens the 3rd Wednesday of every month--this year, falling on October 20th.

Kindergartners and 1st graders came together to make pies, while 4th graders tried their hands at kneading breads and high school students will be pressing cider. Sterling students are putting their hands and minds to work in making the meal itself which will consist of beef stew and lentil soup.
I, Eliza, CAE intern, had the joyous opportunity this morning to go over to the elementary school and witness the high-energy, "organic" process of 4th graders reveling in the processes of yeast, the feel and taste of dough, and the muscle required for kneading. Andy Messinger, Sterling senior, started off the class very appropriately with a mini-lesson on the anatomy of the grain kernel and the difference between whole wheat and white flour. Noise, color and the energy were abundant as the group dutifully washed their hands and then broke into randomly assigned groups of 3. Each group was given warm water and chance to scoop out 4 teaspoons of yeast into the water. The whole class was entranced by the yeast, and comments ranged from "it smells like eggs" to "look at them growing!". They then worked together very equitably to mix in the white and wheat flour whilst stirring the mixture all together. Add a dash of salt and then the real fun began as they all rolled up their sleeves and had a blast kneading the dough. Judging by the glowing faces and enthusiastic remarks, there was no doubt that fun was had.

I learned that the pie making with the kindergartners was an equally delightful experience, and feel sure that fun will be had by the older students as well. I hope many of you made it to the meal last Wednesday and tasted the labor of love, fun, laughter and learning that went into this month's community meal. 

Eliza Mutino
Sterling College, 1st Year
CAE Intern/Work Learning Program

A Wwoofing Tale

To introduce myself, I’m Eliza, an intern at the Center for an Agricultural Economy (CAE) and a new student at Sterling College and to the Northeast Kingdom. I’d like to take some time to describe what an awesome experience wwoofing can be and to share a bit about the experience I had this summer working on two organic farms in southern Italy for two weeks. Despite its brevity, I came away from the experience with a appreciation for what it takes to truly live both lightly on the land and earn a living off of the land.

The program that helped facilitate my visit is World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), in which participants work on farms across the world. Wwoofing is defined as an exchange of volunteer work on the farm for which one receives food, accommodation and the opportunity to learn about other organic growing methods and livelihoods. Many countries maintain their own agricultural databases which farmers opt into and which anyone who pays a small fee can have access to for one year. The list contains a brief description of the farm as well as information about logistics of the hosting process, expectations, location, and contact information.

And so, list in hand, butterflies in stomach, I picked up the phone and dialed Italy. I chose to call two farms, one in Cilento National Forest in the Campania province of Italy, home of a intentionally "peasant" farmer and the other a family farm in the Lazio province, to the northeast of Rome. I was nervous to be diving into such a big adventure, making plans to live and work and play with total strangers and all using my improvised hybridization of intermediate-level Spanish with a smattering of Italian vocabulary. Fortunately, both conversations went over well and the hosts welcomed me warmly to their farms.

So, one month later, there I was, saying goodbye to my parents with whom I had just spent time visiting Italian relatives and saying hello to bright-eyed Albino. His farm comprised of 3 hectares of fruit orchards integrated with gardens, a small vineyard, chickens, and olive trees. The majority of what he ate came from his land, and the rest was bartered for or bought with money from the odd jobs he worked on the weekends. This system of bartering combined with his abundant charisma led to a wide-reaching network of friends throughout the neighboring hillsides. I was lucky enough to meet many of them. An example of a typical exchange might be freshly picked fragolini (wild strawberries) from his farm for the children of family friends in exchange for (equally) freshly made bread using an ancient wheat grown and milled on the friends' farm. Or a delicious lunch and some tomato plants in exchange for porcini mushrooms foraged on the way over for a visit. And they weren’t just ordinary tomato plants, but plants grown from seeds received at Terra Madre from Vandana Shiva. Planting them was a magical experience, especially with the knowledge that as I planted, my good friend was interning at Navdanya, Shiva’s organization, all the way in India. Talk about a global movement. I left the area with happy memories of the beautiful waterfall in town, mouth watering fragolini (now I know where food chemists get their inspiration!), mountain views, fresh spring water, and the good humor of the people. I was invited back to see the tomatoes in full swing in late August. I laughed, thanked Albino, and said I didn’t think I’d be able to be back that soon.

A full day of travel to Lazio brought crashing down on me a 180° turn of values and work ethics. No longer was 3 hectares supporting 1 man, but 5 hectares were supporting 2 adults and 3 children ages 6-10. The farm was much more production oriented and run as a Bed & Breakfast for supplementary income. Guise, the mother, had her PhD in botany and was great with raising herbs while Filippo applied his skills to marketing. The children filled the farm with joy as they played games and vied for their parents’ ever-adoring attention. No longer were mid-day strolls into town for gelato or hikes just to see the area the norm. I experienced a new type of joy, one that was much less vacation-like. I worked sun-up to sun-down, weeding and transplanting strawberry patches, potting herbs, harvesting herbs (aromatic herbs were their mainstay), watering the garden, helping at market, and installing a drip irrigation system. Meals brought infinite content as they were so simple, so fresh and so well-earned. Leaving, after a full week of hard work, I felt like I had made a really strong connection with this family. They were extremely grateful of all my work and invited me back anytime, including to babysit the farm at times when they were away at conferences.

 I left Italy wishing I could have neighbors wherever I went that were as beautifully kind and who lived as close to land as those I met wwoofing. Already, in coming back to my home in New York state and here for school, I’ve realized that such people exist in many parts of my own country, including in Orleans county, as locally as Bonnieview Farm. The WWOOF network in the United States boasts opportunities as limitless as those abroad and it’s heartening to know they’re there and increasing in numbers for whenever you’re in the mood to brush up on or learn from scratch about everything from the relative leisure of a bachelor’s homestead to the intensive cultivation of a tight-knit family scrambled with abundant aromatic herbs.