Welcome to the Local Food & Farm Guide 2022

Recently, during a Farm to School meeting, the term “Sense of Place” was mentioned a few times. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that term, but a question kept echoing in my mind. What does it mean for one to have a Sense of Place?

A multi-faceted collective now occupying the former Nordic Farm dairy property in Charlotte demands the attention of three communities interested in the future of foods and farms in Vermont:

The term “supply chain” has been tossed around a lot this year as an explanation for empty grocery store shelves and disruptions to everyday life.

I am skeptical that those of us trained in western science should make claims about regeneration of the land or water.

Agroforestry practitioner Meghan Giroux is in a hurry to get as many trees planted on farms as possible, to help build resilience to climate change.

For someone whose business is literally planted in a small patch of Vermont soil, Camila Carrillo has connections all around the world.

2020 was a year of shock and trauma. COVID-19 forced us to confront our worst fears as the world we once knew fell away. Everything came to a hard stop, disrupting lives, dreams, and routines. The pace of life slowed down to a walk. We cocooned.I locked d … (read more)

When Ramsay and Caroline Mellish moved their farming business from Newport Center to 380 acres of rolling pasture and fields off South Bingham Street in Cornwall five years ago they started to diversify from organic dairy into raising beef cattle under th … (read more)

“Regenerative agriculture” may be the latest term to describe a system of sustainable farming that has become popular with the environmentally conscious consumer, but for some farmers, it’s simply the most obvious path.Will and Judy Stevens established Go … (read more)

Mark Krawczyk thinks about soil on several different levels.“From a wide point of view, rebuilding and regenerating soils is one of the most valuable legacies we could leave for future generations,” he told the Addison Independent.Krawczyk and his wife, A … (read more)

The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic dislocations made the problems that some Vermonters have with food insecurity all to obvious. Thankfully, a variety of local efforts have sprung up in the past year to address food insecurity in Addison … (read more)

The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic dislocations made the problems that some Vermonters have with food insecurity all too obvious. As is outlined in the accompanying story (see Page 52), some creative alternative avenues for distributing f … (read more)

June 21-27 is national pollinator week and it could not arrive too soon. Vermont’s honeybee population and native pollinator populations are challenged.According to researchers, many native pollinators are in decline, or are apparently no longer present i … (read more)

Since the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, farms have had to pivot their businesses as markets closed and new pandemic restrictions were imposed. The shift from selling wholesale to direct to consumer inspired many local producers to create farm stands to … (read more)

For this article, long-time ACORN Board member and food grower Susan Smiley sat down with Scott Greene, who joined ACORN’s Board in 2020. Scott and Becky Maden run Singing Cedars Farmstead, a certified organic farm, in Orwell.Scott Greene came to Orwell t … (read more)