Sunday, July 25, 2010

Mountain Foot Farm


The Special
This week we are pleased to feature organically grown kohlrabi, French filet beans, lettuce, zucchini, summer squash and brown trout from Mountain Foot Farm of South Wheelock, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Mountain Foot Farm products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farm
Mountain Foot Farm is an organic farm in South Wheelock, located just outside of Lyndonville in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They have a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables to around 10 local members and they attend weekly farmer’s markets in St. Johnsbury (Saturdays from 9am-1pm), and Danville (9am-1pm). They also provide produce to several local fine restaurants.

www.mtnfootfarm.net

Mountain Foot Farm

Do you know the Vermont Recycling Motto?

Use it up,
Wear it out,
Make do,
Or do without.

Curtis Sjolander of Mountain Foot Farm is familiar with the motto, and he credits much of his success as a small trout, vegetable and flower farmer in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom to its principles of thrift and ingenuity. “I drive old cars,” he says, “and I have a small mortgage.” He plans to expand his brown trout production into three new tanks this year, which he will construct out of an old grain silo he was given. “Creative Answers to Interesting Questions” might be a good motto for Mountain Foot Farm.

Curt was born in Massachusetts but has lived in Vermont for most of his life. His parents moved to St. Johnsbury where they still live, and he attended high school at St. Johnsbury Academy. Curt obtained his degree in computer science in Troy, New York, where he met his wife Joan, who is a nurse. They built their house on South Wheelock Road in 1984 and began to make a real go at farming in 1989. They have been regulars at the Caledonia Farmer’s Markets in St. Johnsbury and Danville for over twenty years. During the few months of the year when there is not much to do on the farm besides feeding and processing the trout, Curt works part time as a freelance software engineer.

The Sjolanders own a total of about 30 acres of land in two parcels. One parcel in the town of Wheelock, about 10 acres, contains their home, attached greenhouse, barn with trout rearing tanks, maple sugarbush and woodlot. The other parcel, about 20 acres in the town of Lyndon, has the main gardens, hoop houses, storage sheds, pasture, softwoods and undeveloped land. A third parcel is on Curt’s parents' land in St. Johnsbury where there are garden plots.


Why trout farming? When they bought the property and built their house at the foot of Ide, Wheelock, and Stannard Mountains, the Sjolanders discovered that the land had a particularly good spring that produced more water than was needed by the house alone, and they could think of no better way to use the excess cold, clean water than to install gravity fed trout tanks. Why vegetables? Curt has learned that diversifying his production is a good safeguard against the inevitable small and large disasters that farmers face every season (lost crops, personal or financial difficulties, etc.), and he also likes to keep life interesting by learning to raise new, unusual crops. Why farming at all, for a person who could make a steady living as a freelance software engineer? “I like to be out and about,” Curt says simply. “Who wants to sit at a computer all of the time?”

While not certified organic, Mountain Foot Farm does follow organic principles. Curtis practices long distance rotation of crops on his three parcels of land, which keeps pest populations under control by interrupting their generational life cycles. Another organic practice: cats, a perfectly natural and effective method of pest control. Throughout the interview, barn cats wind around our legs and keep watch for rodents. Mountain Foot Farm's fish are kept healthy without the use of medications, which Curt achieves by keeping a low density of fish in each tank and feeding them only once a day to promote slow growth and optimal health. The trout thrive in gravity-fed tanks filled with fresh spring water, which ranges in temperature from 46-52 degrees Farenheit. They are around 10–12 inches long and about 3-4 years old when they are sold.


Last year, which was one of his best for the trout business, Curt sold between three and four thousand trout to local restaurants and still was not able to keep up with demand. Curt has watched interest in local foods increase during his years at the Caledonia farmers’ markets, and in particular there are more requests than ever from local chefs for his fish. Unfortunately, this year has not been a good one for his trout because of heavy mink predation on their tanks this winter. His tanks normally produce 200 fish a week, but this summer Curt has only 200 total fish to ration to his customers over the next few months. This is the type of annual farming disaster that is predictably unpredictable, and a good example of why the Sjolanders are so diversified in their farming.

One of the unusual vegetables that Curtis raises is kohlrabi, a leafy vegetable in the cabbage and broccoli family. He recites for me the regular spiel he gives to his farmer’s market customers on how to prepare it: “There are three ways you can do it. Peel it, cube it up or slice it up thin, and boil it. Or you can thin slice and stir-fry. Your other option is to thin slice it and eat it raw in a salad.” The trout his eats is prepared simply. Most days Joan breads the fish and throws into the frying pan, but on special occasions she likes to bread it lightly, stuff the cavity with herbs, sprinkle it with a bit of white wine, and bake it in the oven. At Mountain Foot Farm, a delicious answer to a tasty question.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Joe's Brook Farm


The Special
This week we are pleased to feature organically grown tomatoes, broccoli, basil, cucumbers, summer squash, green beans and peppers from Joe’s Brook Farm of Barnet, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Joe’s Brook Farm products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farm
Joe’s Brook Farm is an organic vegetable farm in Barnet, located south of St. Johnsbury in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, eggs and specialty items to 10 local members and they attend weekly farmer’s markets in Lyndonville (Fridays from 3-7pm), St. Johnsbury (Saturdays from 9am-1pm), and Danville (Wednesday mornings). They also provide produce to several local fine restaurants.

www.joesbrookfarm.com


Joe's Brook Farm

It is good to know and be friendly with your neighbors. The connections you make with the people in your community have a real impact on the quality of daily life, especially when you live in a sparsely populated area like the NEK (Northeast Kingdom). The most important connection you can make when you are trying to be a “localvore” – one who eats only or mostly food that is produced locally - is the one you make with your local farmer. So it is good to have neighbors like Mary Houde-Skovsted and her husband Eric of Joe’s Brook Farm, because they provide members of their community with beautiful, organic vegetables, and keep their land healthy, active, and undeveloped in the tradition of the small family farm. As it turns, out, I am technically a neighbor-once-removed of Mary and Eric, who attended Middlebury college with my real life next-door neighbor. It is a typical kind of connection in this NEK of the woods.

I am visiting Joe’s Brook Farm in Barnet, about 8 miles past St. Johnsbury on Route 5. It is a muggy July morning during this third week of uncharacteristically hot weather here in the Kingdom. At the famous red round barn in Barnet, I make a right on Joe’s Brook Road, pass Brook Hill Road and pull into to the 19th century farmhouse on the left. Across the street sits the barn, sagging back slightly from the road. Eventually the barn will become a farm stand with help from a historic restoration grant from the state. The land drops off sharply behind the barn to the fertile floodplain of Joe’s Brook.


I meet Mary at the farmhouse and we walk behind the barn to the rows of lush vegetables below, discussing our mutual friend and the small world we live in. Mary points out her portable greenhouse, which moves along a rail system that allows it to house cold weather crops like spinach until they can survive outdoors, then moves to shelter warmer weather crops like tomatoes. One of Mary’s neighbors and the former owner of the farm, Stewart Hoyt, stops by looking for plant starters. Stewart is a carpenter and artist, and created the beautiful statue of the man that overlooks Mary’s garden (could this be Joe of Joe’s Brook?). The main greenhouses where Mary grows her tomatoes are on a plot of land that includes the home, sugarhouse and garden of the late Airie Lindsay, one of the founders of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA). Airie’s daughter and son-in-law now lease the land to Mary and Eric and also donated their tractor and farm truck to the fledgling farmers. It's all about connections.


I am setting up the camera for our interview when Mary comments that these farm visits I’m doing must be starting to blur into each other. I have to admit that in certain ways, yes, they are. Whether they raise animals, vegetables, or make syrup there seem to be only a few reasons why people choose to be natural and organic farmers in northern Vermont: they love the area, they feel strongly about protecting the environment, and they are passionate about good, fresh food and want to share it with others. But how did they get to where they are now? That part of the story is always unique and interesting.

We interrupt this article for a brief Northeast Kingdom moment:
Mary and I are talking and walking through the garden when the frantic barking of her huge dog Maddy brings our attention to the large bull moose who has just arrived in the next field over.

Okay, now we can move on.

Mary is from Barnet and grew up about 2 miles away on a dairy farm, the eleventh of twelve siblings. She met Eric in college. The couple moved to the Northeast Kingdom in 2007 and bought their farm. This year is their first doing a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, eggs, and specialty items like maple syrup to 10 local members, and they attend weekly farmer’s markets in Lyndonville, St. Johnsbury, and Danville. Growing up, Mary did not want the life of a dairy farmer, but vegetables had their appeal. “I grew up down the road and my mom always had a big garden, and we always ate out of the garden,” she says. Her early exposure to homegrown food influenced her shopping habits in college and ultimately her views on our national food system and choice of career. “I think everyone should have the chance to buy fresh local food and see what it tastes like, because to me, that’s real food,” she explains.

Since purchasing the farm, Mary has devoted herself full time to the endeavor and has witnessed a surge in the demand for local, organic foods. She is excited to be a part of a community of farmers who are working together to promote the local foods movement. “There are a lot of opportunities for more education,” Mary says. “I think we all realize that we’re not in competition with each other, we’re in competition with Price Chopper and California, the bigger guys, and if we can all just be on the same page, and be friends, and share our techniques, then we can get much further standing together.” Mary is also appreciative of work that the state is doing to promote small vegetable farms. The Vermont NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) is an organization that traditionally provides aid to dairy farms, and they recently began offering an opportunity for local vegetable growers to obtain free large greenhouses. The program stipulates that the greenhouses cannot have heat or electricity, but the structures alone will allow farmers to grow cold weather crops far later in the season.

Joe’s Brook Farm currently grows everything from spinach, broccoli and tomatoes to pak choi, fennel and ground cherries. They will soon offer strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, and will have maple syrup in the spring. I ask Mary how she is eating her vegetables at the moment. “I like tomatoes raw, with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil,” she says. “You can’t underestimate good olive oil because that adds a lot to any dish. I’ve been eating a lot of gazpacho in this heat.” Good idea. I drive away with plans to jump in Joe’s Brook, make gazpacho, and visit my nextdoor neighbor to tell her about the new connection I’ve made.


Monday, July 12, 2010

Chandler Pond Farm, July 12-17


The Special

This week we are pleased to feature chicken and seasonal vegetables from Chandler Pond Farm of South Wheelock, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use locally-grown organic Chandler Pond Farm veggies and meat in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Chandler Pond Farm Special!


The Farm

Chandler Pond Farm is a certified organic vegetable farm in South Wheelock, located just outside of Lyndonville in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, meat and eggs to around 30 local members, are regulars at the Lyndonville and St. Johnsbury Farmers’ Markets (Fridays from 3-7pm and Saturdays from 9am-1pm respectively), provide meat and produce to several fine Vermont restaurants, and have a farm stand not far from the Wildflower Inn.


As we have now gotten to know Chandler Pond I thought it would be nice to get to know some of their partners. The movement for sustainable farming practices is a grassroots endeavor, requiring a lot of help from local and national organizations, as well as our community. Sustainability is self reliance but no farm is an island.
  • You can also find Chandler Pond Farm at our two local Farmer's Markets...

    Lyndon Farmer's Market
    Every Friday from mid-May to mid-October, 3-7 at Bandstand Park in downtown Lyndonville.
    Lyndon Winter Market
    Second Saturday of every month, November to May, 10-2 at the Breslin Center on Main Street in Lyndonville.
    St. Johnsbury Farmers Market
    Every Saturday from May to October, 9am-1pm in the parking lot behind Anthony's Diner in downtown St. Johnsbury.
    St. Johnsbury Winter Market
    First Saturday of every Month, November to April, 10-1 and is held at the St. Johnsbury Welcome Center.

Contact Information:
Chandler Pond Farm
528 Burroughs Rd.
South Wheelock, VT 05851
www.chandlerpondfarm.com
info@chandlerpondfarm.com
802-626-9460

On a glorious Wednesday morning in late May, Chandler Pond Farm in South Wheelock is gearing up for what looks to be a great summer season. Orderly rows of radishes and assorted greens bask in the spring sunshine, and Rob and Tamara Martin direct their summer interns in a variety of projects. It’s their third year as organic farmers in the Northeast Kingdom, and they have big plans in the works - new blueberry and asparagus patches overlook the pond, the farm stand is almost ready, and expectant Devon cows are due to calve any day.

The Martins lease 200 acres in South Wheelock and have about five acres in crop rotation, producing tomatoes, strawberries, sweet corn and a variety of other vegetables. They also raise one thousand chickens for meat each year, have a small flock of laying hens, several pigs, and a small herd of Devon and Jersey cows from which they get raw milk and meat. They plan to make maple syrup in the spring and they host visitors for oxen rides and tours of the farm.

It’s a huge amount of work for the Martins, who have three children under five years old, even with the help of their four farm interns and a retired neighbor, but there is no doubt it is a labor of love. “With all the things we do, Rob says sometimes he feels like the conductor of an orchestra,” Tamara says. They are certainly making beautiful music. The farm is orderly, productive and serene. A walk up the road to the property’s second farmhouse reveals a lovely view of Chandler Pond, where the family and their helpers enjoy canoeing, fishing and swimming. Their days are filled with hard work and the enjoyment of good food, family, and the natural splendor of the Northeast Kingdom.

Rob Martin is a fifth generation Vermont farmer from Bradford, Vermont. An avid sailor, Rob met Tamara in her hometown of Cordova, Alaska, famous for its salmon fishing, where he was stationed as a member of the Coast Guard. After a wonderful year of sailing around the Bahamas together and four years working on an organic farm in southern Vermont, Rob and Tamara settled their family in the Northeast Kingdom and began making their dream of building an organic family farm together a reality.

Tamara says that growing up she knew a lot about salmon and not a thing about farming, but she has taken to it like a fish to water. She is excited about the future of small-scale organic agriculture and local food systems, and she sees great potential in Vermont for the production of staple crops as well as specialty food items. As a mother of three, the well-being of her children drives her commitment to farming. “The more I learn about the food system,” she says, “the more I’m convinced that small-scale agriculture is necessary. A big reason we decided to farm and do so in a sustainable and chemical-free way was for the health of our children. I want my kids to be able to eat the dirt – and they do!”

They love visitors at Chandler Pond Farm and host several public events throughout the year, including an Open Farm evening on Wednesday June 16th from 3-6pm, a Farm Play Group for kids of all ages on the first and third Thursdays of the month from 10am to noon during June through August, and a Harvest Potluck on Saturday, October 9th at 3pm. Starting this June, CSA shareholders will be able to pick up their shares from the farm stand for around $18 a week, $345 for the entire season. The Chandler Pond Farm website, www.chandlerpondfarm.com, keeps customers updated on what’s happening at the farm and has several links to organizations that promote sustainable farming practices.

This spring, the Martins are enjoying eating their greens and radishes in salads – “It’s salad season!” beams Tamara – and also in some unconventional ways: cut into slices, Tamara lightly fries or roasts radishes in peanut or olive oil and sprinkles them with soy sauce and toasted sesame seeds. Mmm, simple, fresh, delicious. That’s how to eat like a local.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Butterworks Farm


The Special

This week we are pleased to feature yogurt and cheese from Butterworks Farm of Westfield, Vermont and chicken and seasonal vegetables from Chandler Pond Farm of South Wheelock, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use certified organic Butterworks Farm and Chandler Pond Farm products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, salads and desserts. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farms

Butterworks Farm is a family owned and operated certified organic farm located in the town of Westfield in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. They produce an array of exceptional quality yogurts, heavy cream and cheeses widely available throughout Vermont and many of the Eastern states.

Chandler Pond Farm is a certified organic vegetable farm in South Wheelock, located just outside of Lyndonville in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, meat and eggs to around 30 local members and have a farm stand not far from the Wildflower Inn.



Butterworks Farm

It is no easy task to interview a farmer. They rarely have time to sit still for even fifteen or twenty minutes, so as an interviewer it is essential to cultivate an ability to walk, talk, and sometimes be of a little help. But though you must learn to juggle camera, notebook, pencil, recorder and the occasional fencepost, it is in these unrehearsed moments that you witness a farmer’s genuine commitment to and love for his work.

It is a windy, overcast day as I follow dairy farmer Jack Lazor on his chores. Jack is co-owner of Butterworks Farm in Westfield, Vermont, which he operates with his wife Anne, his daughter Christine and her family and a small army of farm hands. He is moving fence for his herd of Jersey cows, who follow a system of rotational grazing in which they are moved onto new grass or forage every twelve hours. It is so windy that Jack’s soft voice is often whipped away as I jog along behind him. Butterworks Farm’s signature windmill is working overtime where it sits atop this high plateau just east of Vermont’s Green Mountains. The windmill produces roughly one third of the farm’s power, most of it during the winter months, so a gusty summer day like this is an unexpected boon for the Lazors, though it does not help the quality of my sound recording.

Butterworks is a producer of fine quality yogurts, heavy cream and cheeses widely available throughout Vermont and many of the Eastern states. All of the products except for the cheeses are processed and packaged right here on the farm. Jack attributes his products’ excellent quality and flavor to the protein-rich milk of his Jersey cows. The animals, all born and raised on the farm since 1982, are kept healthy without the use of antibiotics or hormones, and the closed nature of the herd prevents the importation of foreign bacteria and germs. The Lazors chose Jerseys for the high butter-fat content of their milk and their ability to produce milk on a diet composed of at least 80% forage. The remainder of their diet is a mixture of corn, oats, barley, peas and soybeans that are grown organically on the farm and stored in a beautiful new grain silo. The cows spend the winter bedded down in deep clean straw in a large solar barn.


This industrious farm is a “Back to the Land fantasy” come true for the Lazors. Jack is originally from Springfield, Massachusetts. He met his wife Anne at Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts when he was visiting on spring break from the University of Wisconsin. The couple moved to Irasburg, Vermont in 1973 as part of the “Back to the Land” movement of young people from urban to rural areas that was a hallmark of the 1970s. In 1976 they bought the farm just over Lowell Mountain in Westfield. The idea was to farm in a way that was good for the health their animals, the environment, themselves and their customers. Jack and Anne chose to relocate to Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom because of its natural beauty and its unique cultural character. They enjoy their proximity to Quebec and the mixture of QuebeƧois and transplanted (moved to Vermont from out-of-state) farmers.

According to Jack, Butterworks is the oldest organic dairy farm in the United States, certified organic since 1984. The farm has been influential in the food economy of the Northeast Kingdom for decades now - many local farmers, including Laini Fondillier of Lazy Lady Farm who we will feature in future weeks, got their start working for the Lazors. Jack is also very active in several local agricultural organizations, including acting as vice president of the Northern Green Growers Association. “Agriculture is not an easy way to make a living, but there’s something wonderful about it,” says Jack. “I think that right now Vermont is so much better than anywhere else in having support for alternative, diversified small business.” He also sees the state as a place where the “independent mindedness” of local farmers and local consumer demand for high quality, socially responsible food is creating a model for small sustainable food economies all over the country. “I see Vermont leading the nation as producers of high quality, organic, value-added food,” he says.


Butterworks Farm’s products have been featured in a number of regional and national publications, including in Martha Stewart Living in 2006. Martha used their yogurt, cream, butter, and cheese in a variety of gourmet desserts and savory dishes. I can tell you from first hand experience that Butterworks Farm's products are of exceptional quality and flavor. Raw milk directly from the bulk tank is smooth, creamy, and lightly flavored. I also sample a slice of their smoked cheddar, and I think it is on par with the best that Cabot, Vermont and the entire state of Wisconsin have to offer. I ask Jack how he uses Butterworks cheddar in his cooking, and the answer is, of course, “What doesn’t taste better with cheddar?”