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Congratulations to Ellen Kahler of Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund & Farm to Plate on being recognized as an Ag Innovator at this year's Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame. Ellen's innovative work through the Farm to Plate program has had positive impacts on Vermont's food system, making local food more widely available & sustainable, while supporting & raising awareness about viable career opportunities in the food system. Her leadership, openness for idea sharing, & creative mind for driving strategic long-term impacts have been a cornerstone leading to the success of ten years supporting the VT Grocers Project, as farm & food businesses often rely on sales through regional retail market channels. Spearheading a regional approach with New England Food System Planners Partnership & its New England Feeding New England program, she has made significant strides for regional economic sustainability. Thank you, Ellen, this recognition is so damn well-deserved.

This Is Good!

Actually, It's Great!

Fifty years ago, Gail & Mark Horne took a drive through the Champlain Islands & fell in love with South Hero, where they decided to buy a “little” grocery store & raise their family. Wendy, born three years later, took an interest in the store after college & is now a co-owner of the family business.

Over the years, Keeler’s Bay Variety Store has earned the designation, “The Heart of the Island”, where customer service & community matter. KBV is like a general country store, only bigger with the largest 802 Spirits liquor store in the Champlain Islands. There is a grocery, deli, meat department with an instore butcher, bakery, beer cave & gas pumps—where one can find everything from hand-cut steaks to fishing licenses!

As stated by U.S. Senator Peter Welch, “Independent, family-run grocers like Keeler’s Bay Variety Store are the cornerstones of rural communities, & it’s wonderful to celebrate 50 years of dedication to the Green Mountain State. Vermont values always come back to the mission of neighbors helping neighbors, & that’s what makes a milestone like this so meaningful.”

As with all our rural stores, they are the heart & the pulse of our communities. Again, congratulations to the Horne family & its community celebrating 50 years together. Join in September 21st for the store's fun & festivities.

This is Special!

Northern Sun Mercantile on Route 30 in So Londonderry, is about as #Vermonting as it gets! This farm market is truly unique with a focus on their farm-raised pastured chicken & small-flock eggs. 'Never-frozen' their chicken is truly the best of the best as the meat birds are moved daily for fresh grazing & a new batch of delectable insects. Want to know more? Check out the farm video & subscribe for their farm updates.

Locals & travelers are drawn in as the birds are visible from the road & the store is easily accessible. They offer fair pricing for the highest quality, on-farm processed chicken & eggs. As noted in the video, clearly the birds are well loved. Attention to detail also shows inside the store with a well-stocked meat cooler, creatively merchandised products, & engaging & passionate owners. Heather & Dan have a created a line of farm-based products well supported by a wide range of items from across the state purchased through distributors including Lesser in Waitsfield & Food Connects in Brattleboro. 

Finding the Good

We know each year is unique because we see it visually in our store Produce Departments. Updates through the Extension listserv among farmers reveal how many microclimates & terroir are impacted by conditions.

Here is a taste of 'conditional relevance' direct from growers that provides insights to future produce sales at stores:

2024 has been okay overall. One problem is some crops maturing too early – the sweet corn season, for instance, may end earlier than would be helpful.

Another problem is some storage crops maturing early. A few standard cabbage varieties weren’t available & of the different ones we tried, some did well. But we are harvesting now instead of waiting until October.

Winter squash is ready ahead of time, too, which is good because it removes the frost threat. With luck, it will also hold up well in storage, unlike last year when it rotted on some farms.

By getting a fair amount of winter crops harvested early, some farms expect to send most temporary H2A workers home earlier than usual.

We have been non-stop harvesting & patching a crew together. Two-thirds of winter squash is in the barn or tunnel for curing. Seed garlic is all cured & selling well wholesale to stores. Sweet onions did well, tomatoes are petering out.

Lettuce & kale are steady. After several weeks of poor lettuce, the crop is looking better with the cooler weather. Late blight on tunnel tomatoes, will decrease sales.

Short on colored peppers & eggplant as both dropped flowers in the heat of July. Carrots look good with the first of four plantings binned up in the cooler. Beets did very well as well, & ready for winter sales. Pumpkins & hard squash seem very disease free & though the set is modest, quality looks fine.

There you have a bit of insight direct from farmers themselves. Remember there are parts of the state that had catastrophic flooding which will have a ripple effect across the retail environment, not only in VT but the NE region. 

We Like This

Using your store data matters. Rutland Area Food Coop has been shouting out their data sets to showcase how operational decisions have benefitted the store. This aligns with their mission for livable wages, inclusivity, & supporting the local economy’s multiplier effect.

Data can act as both a signpost to where you are, & a road map for where you want your business to evolve. Collecting data then sharing it in promos & annual reports through various graphics, brings to life the daily decisions of running a retail food store with clear info by departments. Who would have ever known Goat Milk Caramels would be a top seller by units sold in Grocery!

Well done Rutland Area Food Coop! We like what you are doing, how you are presenting the data, while increasing your multiplier effect

Store & Farm Stand Technical Support Services

Through grant funding, the Farm to Plate Grocers Project offers a suite of services & technical assistance for independent stores & coops.

We provide an opportunity to up-train new staff in the nuances of retail food sales that support local economies, their communities, & expand fresh-food offerings. Services are formatted to help meet the needs of individual stores with TA offered online & in person.

The Morrisville Food Coop is participating with in-person merchandising exercises & analysis of operations in their Produce Department. By taking a strategic approach they are actively bridging the changing season with new displays to promote the oncoming apples, squash, & root crops that make their autumn appearance.

Good News TA $$ For

Stores & NGOs!

HFFI supports food supply chain resiliency, improve access to healthy foods in underserved areas, create & preserve quality jobs. It revitalizes low-income communities by providing financial & technical assistance, either directly or through other partners & intermediaries, to eligible fresh, healthy food retailers & enterprises to overcome the higher costs & initial barriers to entry in underserved areas. 

Reinvestment Fund is inviting applications for the 2024-2025 round of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative Food Access & Retail Expansion (HFFI FARE Fund). Over the next five years, the Fund will provide $60 million in flexible loans, grants, & technical assistance to eligible food retail & food enterprises working to improve access to healthy foods in underserved areas.  

Grant funds will be distributed through three rounds of funding. Technical assistance & loans will be distributed on a rolling basis. 

Get more info here! And some great resources here. 

Vermont Specialty Food Association's Annual Meeting is September 11th.

Returning to the idyllic Vermont setting of the Mountain Top Inn in Chittenden, the event is a powerhouse of specialty food producers, TA support organizations, stores, & supply chain support businesses.

Registration is open to VSFA members as well as non-members. Details & registration are on the VSFA website, including an agenda of the day's events & list of presenters & speakers.

The Wheel is Turning! Cheese Week

September 7-15 is a statewide celebration of all things cheese, including our 34 winners! Goat, sheep, cow cheese will be featured for the entire week. There are tastings & pairings, farm visits, & cheese camps. Vermont Cheese Council: Be in the know

Defining VT Local

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:



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).  

Blue Ledge Farm Cheese is local by Vermont definition: headquartered here, incorporating milk from goats raised on land in Salisbury.

This is What

We're Talkin' About!

We love good promotions. It matters at the farm level as much as the retail. And when they connect, well, we love that multiplier effect.

Maple Wind Farm, in Richmond, Vermont a pasture-based poultry meat & egg operation warmed my heart. I opened the egg carton I purchased at a farmstand. Inside the carton, a well created flier announced on-farm activities. It was designed to be used over a 3-month period helping its customers join them at the farm for fried chicken dinners, burger nights, pasture walks & inviting folks for insights to their soil-based, regenerative farm & its crackerjack retail farm store loaded with a full range of Vermont & regional products.

This low-budget insert makes for great visibility. It reminds me of cases of produce way back in the early 1990's & into the 2000’s when T&D Willey Farm near Fresno, California built an east coast alliance with Coop produce departments. They did this with low-cost inserts in their produce boxes. It often included farm pictures, New Yorker cartoons, jokes, quotes, & poems from the likes of Marty Strange & Wendell Berry along with the finest quality produce shipped East. It was designed to build relationships with store receivers & Produce stockers. The relationship building is similar to what MWF has done with their direct-to-consumer engagement. Well done Maple Wind!

Walkin' The Walk

 We Like This!

It is not every day, or every farm that is going to host a Dirtbag Drag show, but leave it to Hillside Farm to do just that!

Dirtbag Drag is an amateur drag contest. It is the perfect place to try new things, allow creativity to flow, & stretch those drag legs amongst friends. All performers will be invited to gather, rehearse, & workshop together, to build a community. The theme to this show will be Rural Queer. Judges will include experienced local drag performers & beloved community members on October 5th at the Hillside Farm in Albany & near Glover, a mere catwalk to the home of the Bread & Puppet family of creatives!

Another thing, we appreciate that Hillside produces pasture raised poultry selling direct to consumer at Montpelier Farmers Market & at their farm store. Another YAY , they also ship their small seasonal batch cider through Green Mountain Farm Direct using Farm Connex's logistics network to get it to stores & farmstands. 

Celebrations Are In Order!

Center for an Agricultural Economy celebrates its 20th year! Founded in 2004, CAE is a nonprofit that supports food access, farm viability & our working landscapes. It will be holding a celebration on Saturday, Oct. 5, at its three Hardwick locations: Atkins Field, Vermont Food Venture Center & the Food Hub. Read more abut the local food economy from our friends at Times Argus

Good News

USDA Designates Vermont as Natural Disaster Area for July 2024 Flooding

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has approved Governor Phil Scott’s request for a Secretarial Disaster Designation for six Vermont counties in response to this July’s rain & flooding events. Caledonia, Essex, Orange, Chittenden, Lamoille & Washington counties were recognized as part of the declaration. Farmers lot an estimated $5 Million in the July floods.

Good Farmers As Good Retailers

There is nothing like September at our farmstands & farm stores. The high summer flavors & crops are still rolling in: watermelon, summer squash, corn, & tomatoes while garlic has joined the mix along with winter squash, late strawberries, & all types of root crops.

Of course, the last days of August are the unofficial start of apple & cider donut season! Early varieties with a truncated seasonality & PYO apples drive sales at our orchards stores where "dreamees & creemees" reign supreme. Foliage seekers are just as happy catching the scents & flavors of our orchards as they are tooling around looking at our changing & colorful hills & valleys.

One of our vibrant farm stops is the Allen Brothers Farm Store on Route 5 in Westminster. It is 60 years young cranking out everything you need for a #Vermonting experience. As the seasons change, so does the product mix, from their farm offerings, local apple orchards, & local distributors. Their branded line of jams & jellies are perfect additions to their farm grown & local product mix. 

We Like This Sign Of The Times

Across the state bins are ready for harvesting or storage. Clifford Lumber in Starksboro is a key manufacturer producing bins, crates, & display boxes for our working lands businesses. Apples, winter squash, & sweet potatoes are harvested or stored in them. With wood from our forests, Clifford is an intermediary supply chain link from our forests to our farms, & our retail food stores.

It is apple season in every

corner of 802!

Networks Matter:

Good Organizations To Know

Farm to Plate Annual Gathering at Killington's Grand Resort is

November 20 & 21. It is two days of collaborative problem solving, skill building, & innovation in Vermont’s food system. This year it is centered around the theme Transformative Action. Registration is scheduled to open in late September, but mark your calendar now!

Center for Agriculture & Food Systems at VT Law has excellent resources for farmers. Emma Scott, associate professor is the new director of the Food & Agriculture Clinic. Emma’s work focuses on food system workers & policy at federal, state, and local levels. Explore the many CAFS resources across our broad ag sectors.

Civil Eats is a nonprofit, reader-supported publication devoted to covering every aspect of the U.S. food system, from government policy to food justice to the supply chains that get our groceries to the store. They have just recently removed the paywall making their info more accessible.

With a donation your business can help support journalism covering food justice, sustainability, policy, & overall food education. Find their most recent news here!

Harvest of the Month, a project that originated at at Green Mountain Farm Direct in Newport. It is now housed at Food Connects offering excellent resources for stores, farmstands, Farmacy & charitable food programs. The promotional & education tools help drive sales, provide critical cooking & recipes while adding luster to social media postings.

This should be considered by marketing departments for line staff to become better acquainted with seasonal foods. Created in Vermont, the tools can be utilized across the country. Check it out, sign the pledge & support this mission driven work.

Be In The Know

VHCB has a fantastic slate of resources. Sign up for their e-news & gain access to grants, workshops, loans, TA services, emergency funds, & so much more!

The Institute for Local Self Reliance is building local power while fighting corporate control.

They recognize the biggest challenges in the U.S. today are corporate control & diminishing community power which undermines the strength of our democracy & local economies. Local self-reliance is the best answer to these challenges.

If you aren't yet familiar, sign up now.

Another Good Thing



Edible Vermont, supports the intricate network among farmers & foodies. It provides nutritional value to readers while supporting food security throughout Vermont. 

This independently owned, community-based publication promotes the local food culture & economy in Vermont with editorial integrity, authenticity, & exceptional photography. Vermont businesses, organizations & Individuals are welcome to partner as advertisers, story tellers, & as distribution partners. Contact Marcia for info!

Heck Yeah!

New England Feeding

New England

Expanding a regional food system as we are in New England takes leadership, vision, & grit. Under Ellen Kahler's leadership the six NE states a are building alliances among organizations which in turn help drive more connectivity with producers, distributors, stores, & end-users.

Having a strategic plan that is revisited acts as a signpost & a roadmap.

A distributor working across state lines with a mission to support local farms & food manufacturers reach more NE markets, Myers Produce has expanded its capacity to purchase, store, deliver, cross-dock & freight ship. It also engages in targeted promotions to alert customers of companies they might not otherwise be familiar with. "Vendor Highlights" include regional producers, most recently including Blue Ledge Farm. These are one of the strategic decisions to help drive sales of NE products, within NE & down into the NYC metro area.

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

Calling All Legislators

As a reader of Small Bites, you can share news of your constituents & their farm, food, or retail store updates. Email a pic, a link, a short tale, etc. With your help, we can spread the word of businesses in your jurisdiction.

smallbites802@gmail.com

Let's share the good things!

We cover food production, delivery, sales, & global supply chain variables to support viable regional food systems. We are definitely Vermont focused, but this info is widely applicable for stores & farmstands to increase local food sales. 

Special Thanks: Catherine Cusack, Green Mountain Farm Direct;

Erica Campbell, InCommon Group; Karen Cioffi VT Specialty Food Association;

Lesser Distribution, Jake Claro, Joe Dickson & the road tripping along Route 30

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