Rutland Area Food Co-op

Addison County Farm & Food Bike Tour Returns for Third Year
Advance Registration Now Open

Take advantage of early bird rates by registering for what’s becoming one of late summer’s hottest events today! The third annual Tour de Farms will take place rain or shine on Sunday, September 19th, starting and ending at the Shoreham Green in Addison County, Vermont. Join bicyclists from all over Vermont and beyond in hitting the roads to take in one of three scenic routes highlighting the agricultural landscape of the Champlain Valley, while stopping and sampling the freshest foods at farms along the way. Registration forms can be found at www.ruralvermont.org or by calling Rural Vermont at (802) 223-7222.

Cyclists who take advantage of the advance registration pricing will save $10 for adults and $5 for kids. Advance registration for adult riders is $20 and $10 for kids 12 and under. All kids in bikeseats or trailers ride free. The deadline for advance registration is Monday, September 13th (sorry – no exceptions!). Those who miss the advance registration deadline are welcome to come and ride at the higher day-of registration fee. Day-of registration fees will increase to $30 for adults and $15 for kids 12 and under. All Tour de Farms proceeds benefit the Addison Country Relocalization Network (ACORN), Vermont Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition, and Rural Vermont.

This year’s event will again feature a 30, 25, and 10 mile route, with start times of 10:30 am, 11 am, and 11:30 am, respectively. Many of the farms featured on the routes in previous years will be back for year number 3! Doolittle Farm, Golden Russet Farm, Eagle’s Flight Farm, Champlain Orchards, Douglas Orchards, Shoreham Winery, Crescent Orchards, Millborne Farm, Singing Cedars Farmstead, Stonewood Farm, North Branch Farm & Gardens, and Vermont Cookie Love are just some of the farms and food producers to expect, plus many new additions are in the works!

New to this year’s Tour will be special event tee shirts and a Ploughman’s Lunch (apple, cheese, chutney, and bread), both available for purchase in advance or on the day of the event. The Tour de Farms is sponsored by Earl’s Cyclery in South Burlington and Sovernet Communications.

The Shoreham Apple Fest, hosted by the Platt Memorial Library, is back by popular demand and will again be happening on the Shoreham Green following the Tour de Farms. Plan to stay and play – enjoy live music, prepared foods, a farm & craft market, and more! Apple Fest proceeds benefit the Platt Memorial Library Building Fund.

For complete details about the Tour de Farms and to register in advance, visit www.ruralvermont.org, or call (802) 223-7222.

ACORN (Addison County Relocalization Network) is a community response to an energy-constrained future. The mission is to revitalize our local food economy and to build the prosperity and sustainability of our farms. For more info, visit www.acornvt.org.

The nonprofit Vermont Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition promotes bicycling and walking safety via education and advocacy to make Vermont bicycle- and pedestrian friendly for residents and visitors alike. For more info, call (802) 225-8904 or visit www.vtbikeped.org.

Rural Vermont is a nonprofit advocacy group founded by farmers in 1985 that advocates, activates, and educates for living soils, thriving farms, and healthy communities. For more info, call (802) 223-7222 or visit www.ruralvermont.org.

New farmers in the Rutland Region are invited to a series of training workshops at area farms this summer. These workshops are geared towards beginning farmers that are still “learning the ropes” to succeeding in agriculture – whether they are still interning, just beginning their farm business, or are a full or part-time farmers with less than 10 years of experience. The workshops cover a range of skills that often challenge new farmers. Those attending the workshops will learn about marketing and business strategies, building healthy soils, farm equipment safety and maintenance, crop planning and pest and disease management.

The workshops are sponsored by the Rutland Area Farm and Food Link (RAFFL) and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) and will be held every other Wednesday starting in July on farms around the Rutland Region.

The first workshop in the series, Marketing Strategies for the Small Farm, will be held on the Kilpatrick Family Farm in Granville New York. The workshop is scheduled for Wednesday July 14 from 6:30 to 8:30pm. Michael Kilpatrick, a new farmer himself, will give an overview of different marketing tools, emphasizing those which are a good fit for small farms. He will cover marketing strategies that have worked for their farm, focusing on their extensive use of relationship marketing. Kilpatrick Family Farm grows a wide variety of Certified Naturally Grown vegetables, marketing them year ’round through farmers’ markets and a CSA.

Other workshops in the series include:
• July 28th – Building Soils: Soil Testing, Composting and Amendments at Dutchess Farm in Poultney, VT
• August 11th – Business Strategies and Cheese at Blue Ledge Farm in Leicester, VT
• August 25th – Farm Equipment Primer: Safety and Types of Equipment for Small Farms at the Larson Farm in Wells, VT ***New Farmer Mixer and Nofavore Celebration afterwards***
• September 8th – Crop Planning: Succession Planting and Diversification Choices at Cerridwen Farm on GMC ” on September 8th and “Organic Pest and Disease Management” on September 22.

Visit www.rutlandfarmandfood.org/upcoming_events.html for complete workshop schedule, details, directions and information on the host farms. Be sure to check the details on those workshops you are most interested in – some require pre-registration!

After the August 25th workshop, make plans to stay late and join RAFFL for our Summer New Farmer Mixer and NOFAvore Celebration. NOFA’s mobile pizza oven will be cranking out pizzas made with local ingredients. All new and aspiring farmers are invited to come mix, mingle, and meet new farming friends.

The Rutland Area Farm and Food Link is a non-profit supporting the growth of a thriving agricultural system that connects local farms with the communities and consumers of the Rutland Region. The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont is a nonprofit association of farmers, gardeners, and consumers working to promote an economically viable and ecologically sound Vermont food system for the benefit of current and future generations.

Hope to see all the Region’s new farmers at the workshop series!

Workshop reminders (and follow up pics and video) will be posted on our new farmer blog, What’s Growin’ On, throughout the summer. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any of the fun!

India Burnett Farmer
Program Director
Rutland Area Farm and Food Link
www.rutlandfarmandfood.org

Ushering in the season with a less-than-summerlike opening day on May 8, the Downtown Farmers Market returned to their outside location for the spring and summer.  Please be sure to visit them downtown at Depot Park (corner of Merchants Row & Evelyn St), visit them on the web at www.vtfarmersmarket.org and www.rutlandcountyfarmersmarket.org, &  mark your calendars for the rest of the summer:

Saturdays 9am to 2pm

Tuesdays 3pm to 6pm

Susan Farrow, Board of Directors

It sits in the palm of my hand, the last clove of the last bulb of last summer’s garlic. Surrounded by its pearly white skin, a green sprout pokes out. What amazes me is that the clove in my hand and those in the ground know spring is coming. In the dark under a thick layer of earth then mulch then snow, they know to point towards the sky and start to grow long before any light has reached them.

If I were to trace the genealogy of this clove, it would go directly back to Dutchess Farm and then into the history of the world. Opening our front door, walking or bicycling across the wide main street in Castleton and under the pine trees, we would get to their old barn behind their house that has provided so many of us with perfect vegetables. It was 1997 when they first offered their farm shares at their new home and my husband and I bought one. It was a gift to ourselves that kept on giving. At the end of each season we would order our winter vegetables and the highlight of this time was ordering an extraordinary amount of garlic. My husband thought of it as a food until, because of health, he no longer could, but he continued to love it no matter the quantity he could eat. I would say it was his tonic, his personal healer, and his contact with mother earth.

In the fall of 2008 I decided to plant some of Steve’s cloves in the cool of the fall, just before the snowflakes arrived. My husband, who had never had much interest in planting, asked to do it with me. We planted it deep, covering it with earth and mulch and we wished it a good winter’s sleep. Early last spring, as the sun grew warmer, we decided to peek. Just under the mulch green shoots were pointing upward. It was for us one of those mini miracles of life.

But a few months before we could harvest our first crop my husband died. So it was with great ceremony and love that I cared for it into the summer. With guidance from Adam Stevenson of Old Gates Farm, I was told when to clip and eat the garlic scapes and finally, when the leaves were brown enough, to dig the bulbs. So I harvested it and tied it to dry from my husband’s kayak hanging in our shed. I cooked it as he had and shared it with our friends and family, saving enough for fall planting and winter eating. Our daughter who lives in Rutland also planted some of the cloves last fall. The bounty multiplies.

But as I write this, the very last clove that we planted together sits in my hand and I am going to chop it, gently brown it in olive oil, put it on hearty bread and eat it. When the bulbs are ready in seven months I am going to harvest our second crop. And so it goes: life, death, the planting, the growing, and the eating of food. It is what we have been given, what nurtures us, what we share with each other and all have in common.

So what does this have to do with our food co-op? It is why I joined the Board of Directors. Take my garlic clove and multiply it by a thousand…that is our food co-op. It is about the gift of food, the celebration of locale, and the nurturing of community. We are all in this together and I am glad to be part of it.

Photo by kfisto via Creative Commons.

The Management Team

Co-op Community,

You’ve likely noticed that the people working here are amazing. The Co-op continues to attract talented, dedicated, professional staff, and they are generating continuous improvements throughout the co-op. From product selection and ordering, to stocking and inventory, front end cashiers and customer service, maintenance and facility upgrades, food service and kitchen work, office administration and membership records—our staff do so much. They don’t do it alone, of course—we’re also grateful for the important work of our dedicated and talented member-workers. If you think the store (and in fact, this newsletter, too) looks full and bright, that’s a result of staff and member-workers cooperating!

The department managers are the core of the staff, and here is an update about this key group. After doing a fantastic job in Produce, Nancy handed over management of that department and has trained Cian to succeed her in that role. Cian is applying his hands-on knowledge of veggies as he continues the good work of offering fresh, local and organic fruits and vegetables to customers and members, and providing a market for local growers.

That transition allowed Nancy to ably shift gears (yet again!), taking on the Health and Body Care Department. She has worked hard, and her efforts facilitated an excellent transition.  She is continually improving our selection, while responding to the many customer requests and questions in that area, and the department looks great. Nancy is doing a wonderful job, but alas, we are hoping to give her even more responsibility and put her administrative talents to their fullest use! So, she is managing this department temporarily, while we seek a permanent replacement (if you might be the person we’re looking for, please see the separate ad in this newsletter).

In the bulk department, Laura is doing a great job keeping up with the growing demand for bulk foods, expanding our selection, seeking affordable prices, and sourcing locally whenever possible.

Patricia continues to make remarkable improvements in the cooler and freezer areas, focusing most recently on our selection of local and other cheeses.

And Becca’s continued efforts in her departments continue to set the tone for all our staff, always improving our ability to provide affordable access to natural and whole products, and provide a market for local and regional producers.

This group provides leadership and knowledge for our whole team, and I thank them.

We’re fortunate to welcome three excellent new members of that team, as well.  Bess Lewis, Chris Hoyt, and Michael Manfredi have recently joined us, and they’re doing a terrific job.  They join many other wonderful people in sharing the work of the Co-op.

And it’s an exciting time to be doing that work. Spring (or at least a spring-like March!), and the resurgence of energy in downtown Rutland, give us reason for hope—even cheer. That doesn’t mean we’re oblivious to the stark reality of these times, but still: there’s lots of positive activity happening in and around the Co-op, and I hope you enjoy reading about it in this newsletter.

Thank you all, for all you do to make the Co-op possible.

-Mike

RAFC now carries bags of Dean’s Beans‘ Cooperatives Supporting Cooperatives (“CSC”) Coffee. Each bag of single origin, organic, fair trade coffee sports a description of the kind of coffee and the cooperative projects for that area.   $.25 of each pound of coffee sold is added to the People Centered Development Fund and at the end of the year we, as a Co-op, get to vote on which project the money we raised will support. The CSC coffee can be found next to the coffee grinder in the bulk section.

Photo by JcOlivera.com via Creative Commons.

Co-ops have been key players in local economics for the past 40 years, and now more than ever their influence is powerful and empowering. In these challenging times there is huge opportunity for us to continue to lead the way, joining with RAFFL, the farmers markets, and other community groups to promote homegrown regional prosperity.

Quoting Terry Appleby, manager of the nearby Hanover, N.H. Consumer Cooperative Society, “We serve as a center of activity and education around food”. Ken Meter, in his article Tipping the Scales for Local Foods, goes on to say that, “Creating such a space for democracy to flourish is key to the growth of any community-based foods vision. The Hanover Co-op joined with 16 other co-ops in New England [including our Rutland Co-op] to form the Neighboring Food Cooperative Association (NFCA), which boasts a total of $161 million in sales, and hires a combined 1,240 staff. The association points out that its Vermont co-ops, counted as a unit, rank among the top 25 employers in that state.”

Further afield, consider the Oneota Co-op in Decorah, Iowa. Four years ago many the regions’ 2450 farmers were on the brink of bankruptcy. A “Locally Grown” movement, centered at this Co-op, is turning this alarming trend around, and the store itself has tripled in size.

Such new vitality has deep roots. Ken Meter adds, “In the 1970s, co-ops (and Amish communities) developed new technologies for handling bulk foods and built infrastructure for sourcing local foods from quality producers. They created local distribution businesses when private firms could not respond to consumer demand. In the 1990s, co-ops helped major chains rediscover the importance of medium-sized stores, at the very time experts said only supersized store formats could be profitable. Indeed, had it not been for the co-op’s pioneering work, the major chains might never have adopted these techniques.”

Annie Gaillard of Buffalo Mountain Co-op in Hardwick, VT, states that “Co-ops should not be just food stores. They are about creating community and strengthening cooperation.” Meter goes on to elaborate, “Member-run, they can be more responsive to community needs than a privately held firm since they can bring more voices to the table and mobilize more people.”

Because the whole Co-op movement has its roots in local ownership and community-based resources, it weaves a web of extensive democratic relationships. Three cheers for Co-ops, and for the Rutland Area Food Co-op in particular!

Adapted by Annabelle Westing-Williams from an article by Ken Meter from the Cooperative Grocer.

Photo by _Teb via Creative Commons

Another of Peter’s perfect recipes!

Ingredients

• 6 large organic carrots, peeled and grated
• 2 cups chopped organic walnuts
• 1 large bunch organic Italian parsley, washed and chopped (curly parsley may be substituted).
• 1 orange, squeezed
• 2 lemons, squeezed
• ½ cup olive oil (half cup)
• 4 Tbsp sherry wine vinegar
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• Kosher salt to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Step 1.

Make vinaigrette by combining orange and lemon juices, vinegar, mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Step 2.

Whisk with fork or wire whisk.

Step 3.

Toss carrots, walnuts, and parsley with vinaigrette.

Step 4.

Let stand at room temperature for at least one hour before serving.

Peter recommends serving this healthy, delicious and simple salad along with any meal, or by itself. Keeps for several days tightly covered in refrigerator.

Photo by llsimon53 via Creative Commons.