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"Vermont is made up of so many tiny towns, but as a whole, we are one big community. Vermonters have taken care of each other for as long as we can remember." -Morrisville Food Coop

As the announcements about the first anniversary of the flood of '23 were being written celebrating our Vermont fortitude & resiliency, the rain came again. The storm crossed the state in a swatch that inundated our many small creeks with a force that hit some of the same areas as last year. It also drenched other towns & watersheds. Our major rivers crested high, but most below extreme flood stage. Parts of the state had no direct impact. That said, enough damage was done to our farms in the flood plains from Lewis Creek to the potatoes fields of Sparrow Arc Farm in Guildhall on the Connecticut River.

In his voice, Matthew Linnehan, of Sparrow Arc:

“Well, exactly a year later, and we’re flooded again. But worse. Water is several feet higher, and we’ve got 19 acres of potatoes underwater.” The potato fields looked like a lake, and Linehan canoed his fields, as shown in the photos (below). The farm saw nearly 40% of its potato crop destroyed, on the heels of losing 20% to the flood in 2023. This loss will be felt well beyond the borders of their farm. Sparrow Arc provides 200,000 pounds of potatoes each spring to CAE’s Just Cut program which feeds diners at colleges, universities, and hospitals across the state. read more

In our forward-thinking farm & food space, infrastructure, & middle of the supply chain are terms that have been gaining visibility. The focus has leaned to production & processing to get food to various market channels. Now we must look further at the actual infrastructure of roads & gullies so that the damage to getting food sold through the system can sustain this new level of disruption.

The July 10-11 storm of '24 is only the first of the hurricanes in a year that scientists predict will be robust with the Gulf of Mexico reaching new high temperatures. Not only do we expect more rain, we expect continued deterioration of our roads, erosion of farmland, & the mental health wear & tear of climate resiliency.

Since Irene in 2011, we have collectively worked on various organized high-level community response. However, the stress of being a helper, as well as being helped are real & impacting. Our federal legislators have posted resource summaries for farmers & overviews of compliance for support services. Becca Balint reminds us all that the Disaster Distress Helpline (800) 985-5990 or the National Mental Health Crisis Line at 9-8-8 are available to all.

With this storm, Peacham is one of our most devastated towns, shown in this video. There is a town fund to support its community members hardest hit. This issue is in remembrance of Dylan Kempton who lost his life tending to tasks the night of the flood. He is well remembered & well regarded by his peers in the farming and Peacham community.

Stores can consider emergency "round-up" or "rally for change" to assist the farms & organizations supporting farms. Reach out to us if you would like names of organizations working with farmers

Despite the tough week here in Vermont, there is a sweet spot. Our cheesemakers took home 34 first, second and third place awards at the American Cheese Society's national competition. Catch the list of winners here! Other bright spots folks are coming together, community events continue, helping in the wellbeing for those directly impacted but also as a gift for those giving of their time & resources to help those in need. Farmers have donated & trucked numerous seedlings to farms impacted. UVM Extension is conducting free soil testing for effected farms. Exhaustion & uncertainty are daunting, yet we remain committed to being good stewards of & for each other.

This issue has a flooding focus with a gap in some of the usual content, but of course there is sweet info on products & insights for moving along our continuum highlighting everyday togetherness.

Promote Values & Mission

In towns not hard hit by this storm, communities continue to celebrate the grand & glorious connections associated with our farm & food businesses.

The South Royalton Market, a 23 year old community coop in the heart of the town marks its annual celebration with music, some of Vermont's finest vendors selling food, bevies, arts. There is even an annual meeting! It is events such as these across the state that act like a balm soothing & celebrating people to people engagement.

The store makes great use of the town common decking it out with all things fun. It is a veritable love fest for locals & summer folks popping in to support the mission of local economies & their multiplier effect.

Here's Something New

Stellar is a mobile app designed to reimagine home cooking by eliminating the need to ever look up a recipe again, & to empower home cooks to understand & utilize different ingredients in their everyday meals. Check out this intro video from Rocket at Eat Vermont

With a goal to make eating at home easy, warm, & nostalgic again, it has a place for stores to encourage its use too. The app can help folks do mighty "refrigerator cleanout meal planning" reducing food waste while amplifying the use of sale products when shopping.

Here's how people can utilize Stellar:

• ask the Stellar Chef any culinary questions or for inspiration
• design custom recipes exactly to user needs
• explore a recipe database curated around user taste preferences
• stores & farmstands can suggest the use of Stellar in their marketing & promos as a way to promote new & seasonal items

What's in Store?

New Packaging

Vermont Cheeseless is a gluten & dairy free frozen dessert made in small batches at the Center for an Agricultural Economy in Hardwick.

The marketing team of Vermont Cheeseless actively samples at stores- once you taste it's hard to believe it is dairy free. They have recently released a line of the "mini" a selection of flavors sold in glass jars & easily enjoyed with a spoon. In addition to retail, they fill custom orders for special events too. Morrisville Coop is one of the stores selling the jars of 'Cheeselss'

Wilcox Dairy is the primary distributor reaching independent natural food stores & coops in Vermont & the region. They ship BOL for local food manufacturers & they also make cream & plan-based novelties for summer sales at stores & farmstands. 

Defining Local Products: Navigating Assumptions

In prior Small Bites, you have seen the clues about what is "local" to Vermont per ACT 129. Here is an example of a complying business:



Wilcox Ice Cream & their plant based products align with Vermont definition of local processed food. 

Processed foods are broken into two subgroups. A product is considered a ‘processed food’ whenever it is not a raw agricultural product, but processed foods also include raw agricultural products that have been subject to processing, such as canning, cooking, dehydrating, milling, or the addition of other ingredients. 

Processed foods include dairy, meat, maple products, beverages, fruit, or vegetables that have been subject to processing, baked, or modified into a value-added or unique food product. 

Processed foods are “local” and/or “Vermont” food if:

• The majority of ingredients (meaning more than 50 percent of all product ingredients by volume, excluding water) are raw agricultural products that are “local” to Vermont;

• The product was either processed in Vermont or the food manufacturer is headquartered in Vermont (or both are true).  

Networks Matter &

Farmers Helping Farmers

Honeyfield Farm will be raising money for NOFA’s Farmer Emergency Fund that will aid family farms impacted by the flooding at their booth @norwich.farmers.market

You can donate directly to farms who are in need, like their friends at @joesbrookfarm in Barnet, VT, or contribute relief funds through @nofavermont & @vermontfarmfund

NAGA Bakehouse & NOFA hosted a pizza night & gristmill celebration. NOFA's pizza oven consistently lifts the spirit of our farming community as a place to gather, converse, & engage in a multitude of fun, and explore topics of interest.

For the remainder of July, Myers Produce is donating donating $3 per delivery to the NOFA-VT Farmer Emergency Fund in the wake of last week’s flooding. They are committed to helping VT farmers.

Red Cross Emergency Supplies are being distributed to communities highly impacted by the flood. Find the list of towns & dates there!

Rural Stores Matter

At the end of June stakeholders from over 30 states convened at a summit in Montgomery, AL, to connect & strengthen rural grocery. Attendees deepened their knowledge & discovered innovative strategies for improving food access in their communities. Topics were expansive touching on the consolidation across the entire food production, distribution, & retail sector requires addressing the challenges to rural stores. At the summit, a restoration of spirits & building new relationships will last for years ahead.

It's a Hard Rain

When roads get flooded it has a multiplier effect on food delivery & of course all types of support & rescue services.

Some roads are quickly cleared with limited access while as we know, others take years to be fully replaced with improved infrastructure. For towns with the ubiquitous roads labeled "Brook", "River ", "Gulch", "Basin", "Creek", "Notch" these are proving to be high-risk areas in our new relationship to our waterways.

In areas highly damaged our distributors are reworking their schedules as roads continue to reopen. Both small & large companies have to navigate services which trickle down to 'purchase order gaps' from manufacturers unable to make their products for 'just in time" deliveries that inhibits the ability to get products to a warehouse. At warehouses there can be an issue of "over inventory" because stores may not have roads open for deliveries or it may be limited by the distributor's logistics.

For stores & farmstands or even food manufacturers impacted by roads disruption, due diligence in informing folks of delays etc is needed. This is true for businesses with long term upheaval as customers can forget or don't think how long recovery can take.

In The Crosshairs, It Was Bad

Many farms experienced full devastation as the "flashy" rains flooded sleepy creeks & drainages. Though not as wide spread as last year, locations that got the bulk of 4-7 inches of rain in less than 10 hours are reeling. The near or total losses of crops, impacts to feed, destroyed housing, barns, & roads is taking tis toll. Above, Matthew Linnehan of Sparrow Arc Farm in Guildhall looks again at his crop losses. Farmers & community folks joined together on July 18th to hand weed acreage that was not flooded.

“We’re going to see significant damage. We don’t know the full extent of it right now,” Anson Tebbetts, secretary of the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, told VTDigger. 

The agency is thinking about farmers in three categories, Tebbetts said. There are those who were not hit by last summer’s floods but experienced flooding this week, those who have been flooded twice, and those whose farms flooded last summer but were spared this time. Read more from VTDigger.

Farm Direct Update:

Joe's Brook Farm

"On July 11, 2024, our farm was almost completely flooded when the rains from Hurricane Beryl worked their way up the east coast. With exceptionally high water levels in the Passumpsic River and Joe’s Brook that border our farm, we lost around 90% of our crop.

Fortunately, we were able to harvest a lot of produce before the water levels got too high. Additionally, most of our tomatoes are at another property up on a hill, and they stayed high and dry. Our farm stand is open (currently accessible via Route 2 to Joe’s Brook Road) and we have plenty of produce (harvested pre-flood), a fresh shipment of Strafford Organic Creamery ice cream, and a freezer stocked with Badger Brook Meats.

Donate to the Go Fund Me page that was started by our friend and CSA member. These funds will help us continue to pay our crew, three of whom are from Jamaica and just had severe damage to their own homes from the same hurricane. They’ll also help us repair and respond to damage on our farm."

The drone footage video of the flooding is heartbreaking

Floodwaters can be extremely damaging to farms. Flooded fields can render the food unsellable per USDA safety regulations or even kill the plants altogether, grazing animals need to be evacuated from flooding pastures, expensive infrastructure is vulnerable to damage, and impassable roadways limit access for farmers to get their products to market and force the cancellation of sales. -NOFA VT"

Bone Mountain Farm in Bolton was hard hit. A volunteer brigade is being organized for July 20th. The tangled mess of equipment & debris requires as many hands on deck as can carpool to the farm There is also a Gofundme to help offset the costs of recovery & to pay employees.

Farmer as Retailer

In the above picture taken at Harlow Farm which was not directly impacted by flooding, they provided Lettuce, kale, & other transplants headed up to the Intervale Community Farm in Burlington, hard hit once again by flooding.

Harlow Farm, Walker Farm, & High Meadows Farm are donating seedlings for replanting. If you are a farm that would like to help others contact Vern at VVBGA.

Good Heart Farmstead was open & bustling as noted in the last issue. However due to road damage to the farm they are no longer able to offer visitors for summer CSA & PYO. They will be offering produce to community meal sites as able & as it is needed.

UVM Extension has a brand new, easy to navigate PYO website showcasing what is in season, where to pick, with search capacities by crop, farm hours of operation, & location. The site is maintained by the farmers & can be used by stores to help encourage farm direct sales for farmers offering PYO at this time.

Please note: some PYO farms experienced direct or indirect flood damage & the site may not be updated.

Store Support & Training Services

Over the years the Grocers Project has worked with independent & coop stores to enhance merchandising & seek to optimize operational efficiencies for profitability. Each store has unique variables from leadership to new employee training that onboards with an eye for the store's mission. The on-site & online training seek to motivate teams to reach high levels of staff engagement as well as high levels of customer service.

Having attended the recent Farm & Warehouse Tour & the Small, Yet Mighty day long seminar in November of 2023, the Morrisville Coop is taking advantage of the our in store services.

The Produce Department will engage in trainings that support sales of our local produce & we will evaluate operations in the department. By having a well-run department the store is able to successfully support local farms. Now with the impact of the storm on area roads, decisions will have to be made both by farms regarding what crops might be available but also what market channel is best. At the store level Produce departments will do all they can to support the sale of local produce. Of course in these trying times it means evaluating so any decisions that might result in having to switch up suppliers.

Not familiar with ROP? Check out the podcast series (seriously!) it will help you in your differentiation by learning the intricacies & financing of the organic 'industry'. Or perhaps you want to hear the Politics of Farming for Climate Farming. The podcasts help us all to understand the challenges of family run businesses across consolidated market channels.

Eat the Good News!

Plan ahead for September 7-15 a statewide celebration of all things cheese, including our 34 winners! Goat, sheep, cow cheese will be featured for the entire week.

More info to follow but click the dates for details to promote through your business.

Looking for Local?



Farm Connex 

VT Roots

ACORN Food Hub 

Upper Valley Produce 

Monument Farms 

Food Connects

Lesser Distribution 

Pumpkin Village Foods

Killam Sales 

Myers Produce

 Wilcox

Special thanks: NOFA-VT, VVBGA, & to everyone who has contributed conversations

& content this issue

Dylan Kempton Photo Credit: Tristan Spinski for the NY Times

Small Bites comes to you via grants & is created for farmers, food manufacturers, distributors, & grocers to increase VT food sales. We support the New England State Food System Planners Partnership effort to strengthen the regional food economy

Contact: Annie Harlow

smallbites802@gmail.com

All info is subject to change.

Created with support from the Canaday Family Charitable Trust