CHRIS GRANSTROM LEADS a wagon ride through his New Haven vineyard last Thursday after a presentation by USDA Rural Development. Four Vermont agricultural businesses, including Granstrom’s Lincoln Peak Vineyard, received grants from the USDA to expand production of value-added food products.
Independent photo/Trent Campbell
October 1, 2007
By CYRUS LEVESQUE
NEW HAVEN — Chris and Michaela Granstrom have grown grapes at Lincoln Peak Vineyard in New Haven for about five years and sold them to a winery to turn into a retail product. But thanks to a $116,550 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant bestowed last week, the Granstroms are expanding the winery they built last year and will be producing and selling wine of their own.
Chris Granstrom said that a $22,250 planning grant awarded last year revealed that producing their own wine will probably be much more profitable than selling grapes wholesale, so the choice was an easy one.
“It seemed like a great time to jump in,” he said.
October 1, 2007
By JOHN FLOWERS
MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury may soon become home to not only the world’s largest coffeehouse company — Starbucks — but also to the globe’s biggest office retail chain, Staples Inc.
October 1, 2007
By MEGAN JAMES
ADDISON COUNTY — As the second annual Localvore Challenge came to a close late last week, many area farmers are saying they’ve seen an increase in local sales. Some believe the Addison County Relocalization Network’s challenge, which signed up area residents to commit to eating only foods grown within a 100-mile radius of their homes during the month of September, was a driving factor in their success.
Ben Gleason, who runs Gleason Grains in Bridport, said September’s numbers spoke for themselves. He estimated he sold about 7,500 pounds of flour and wheat berries during the month, compared with the 4,500 pounds he usually sells. He also harvested 700 pounds of black beans, a crop he has never grown before, and sold them all in two weeks.
“It kind of began right at the beginning of September and it still hasn’t ended,” he said of the hot streak.
