Berry Creek Farm

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature fresh organic strawberries and assorted seasonal vegetables from Berry Creek Farm of Westfield, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use certified organic Berry Creek produce in main dishes, appetizers, soups, salads and desserts. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Berry Creek Farm Special!

The Farm
Berry Creek Farm is a family owned and operated certified organic farm located in the town of Westfield in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. They are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, chicken, and Vermont specialty products to around 60 local members, and they have a farm stand in Westfield. Berry Creek Farm is dedicated to pursuing sustainable organic agricultural enterprises by linking local food to the community.

www.berrycreekfarmvt.com

Berry Creek Farm

To visitors and locals alike, I highly recommend taking a road tour of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Cruise down Routes 5, 5A, 14, 16, 58, 105, 100 or 122 in your car, or better yet on your bike, and take in the wide open vistas and rolling hills. If you take Route 100 north from Lowell to Troy, slow down just before the village of Westfield when you see the big, peach colored house with attached barns. The sign outside proclaims “Berry Creek Farm, Organic Strawberries, Vegetables” and “Buy Local,” and I suggest you take its advice. Turn left into the driveway, park in front of the garage, and get out your shopping basket. You are about to visit one of the sweetest little farm stands in the Kingdom.



This is my plan on an overcast Thursday in June. I have been visiting several farms in Westfield today for the Northeast Kingdom Farm to Table Project. I am coming from Butterworks Farm, the oldest certified organic dairy farm in the country, and my next stop is Lazy Lady Goat Farm, makers of delicious natural goat cheeses and naturally raised pork. Shuttleworth Farm, which has been our featured farm at Juniper’s Restaurant for the past two weeks, is just up the road. Already I feel like I am in foodie heaven, and it is about to get better.

I am greeted at the farm stand by owners Gerard and Rosemary Croizet. The couple has been farming organically here since 1993 with help from their two sons and a few part-time assistants. Gerard and Rosemary met on the farm several years ago when it was owned by Rosemary’s parents. Gerard is originally from France and was visiting the Northeast Kingdom on a recommendation from a friend. He had no intention to settle here permanently until he met Rosemary. Gerard’s interest in farming came from his travels as a young man. He was drawn to organic farming because it was “much more interesting, more challenging, and more sustainable in the long term” than conventional farming. Rosemary grew up on the farm but never planned on staying. “Both my parents were quite surprised when I chose to do this,” Rosemary says. “I was teaching before I did this, elementary school and French.”

The Croizets may not have planned to own and operate a small organic family farm in northern Vermont, but they are certainly good at it. Berry Creek Farm is locally famous for its delicious strawberries and beautiful perennial and annual plants. The farm also produces a large variety of vegetables, many of them heirloom varieties, as well as chickens for the 60 members of their CSA. The Croizets are committed members of the local food economy, and their produce travels as only far as the farmer’s markets in Craftsbury and Newport, Vermont. The farm stand is filled with wonderful looking vegetables, locally produced specialty foods, and even homemade honey and beeswax candles.


Berry Creek is also notable for their commitment to education. The walls of the farm stand chronicle their work with NOFA, the Northern Organic Farming Association, whom they partner with to do workshops for local school children. A poster behind the cash register informs customers of the farm’s use of IPM, the Integrated Pest Management system that allows the Croizets to grow their strawberries and vegetables without the use of pesticides.

It is always fun to ask farmers how they like to use their products in their own meals. Mostly they tend to prepare things simply and allow the fresh flavor to shine through. The Croizet’s answer is no exception. Their favorite product is strawberries, straight from the garden. “In strawberry season we eat a quart a day,” says Gerard. On my way home after visiting Lazy Lady Goat Farm, I purchase a quart of strawberries at Berry Creek and eat them straight from the box. I have no fear that I am also consuming pesticides or other chemicals. The berries are perfectly complimented by one of Lazy Lady’s delicious bries spread on whole grain crackers. The sun is starting to peek out from behind the clouds, and I couldn’t be happier to be eating like a local.

Berry Creek Farm’s “WHY CSA?” Philosophy

Know where your food is grown! As a NOFA-VT farm we do not use any genetically engineered seeds, harmful pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides that damage your health and the environment.

Reduce packaging, distribution and transportation waste! Lessen your carbon footprint!

Broaden your food horizons by sampling some unusual varieties with recipes which we gladly share, and increase your dinning enjoyment.

Support a local family farm that, in turn, supports other local businesses and labor, while practicing healthy land stewardship and ensuring clean green space in Vermont.

Learn about how your food is grown by visiting the farm and build a healthy new link to your community.

Support the Jay Area Food Shelf and the Troy Area Senior Meal Site through the Vermont Farm Share Program - fresh, local, organic food for those who need it most! Ask us about this program.

“WHY ORGANIC?”

Protect Future Generations

Build Soil
Save Energy
Reduce Health Risks
Protect Farm Workers
Help Family Farms
Support a "True" Economy
Promote Bio-diversity
Great Taste

www.berrycreekfarmvt.com

Local Foods

Dear Readers,

I hope you have been enjoying reading the Northeast Kingdom Farm to Table Blog. This project has been a wonderful opportunity for me to become more familiar with the local food scene. It is exciting to learn about so many good people working so hard to provide high quality, healthy food for their neighbors.

Here are links to all of the farms we’ve featured so far:
Pete’s Greens, Craftsbury VT
www.petesgreens.com
Chandler Pond Farm, South Wheelock VT
www.chandlerpondfarm.com
Deep Mountain Maple, West Glover VT
www.deepmountainmaple.com
Shuttleworth Farm, Westfield, VT
www.shuttleworthfarm.com

And to the Vermont Fresh Network, a program that links farms and restaurants across the state of Vermont: www.vermontfresh.net.

This week we are once again featuring meat from Shuttleworth Farm, and I’d like to take this opportunity to familiarize you more with the concept of “farm to table” or “local foods.” I’ve taken the following information selectively from the Wikipedia article on local foods. There are links at the end to some excellent online articles to read about the movement, as well as recommendations for books and movies to check out.
full article
“The Farm to Table, or Local Foods Movement is a collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place” and is considered to be a part of the broader sustainability movement. It is part of the concept of local purchasing and local economies, a preference to buy locally produced goods and services. Those who prefer to eat locally grown/produced food sometimes call themselves locavores or localvores.

The concept is often related to the slogan "Think globally, act locally'', common in green politics. Those supporting development of a local food economy consider that since food is needed by everyone, everywhere, every day, a small change in the way it is produced and marketed will have a great effect on individual's health, the ecosystem and preservation of cultural diversity. Activists in the movement claim that shopping decisions favoring local food consumption directly affects the well-being of people, improve local economies and may be more ecologically sound.

Critics of the movement often say that local food tends to be more expensive to the consumer than food bought without regard to provenance and could never provide the variety currently available (such as having summer vegetables available in winter, or having kinds of food available which can not be locally produced due to soil, climate or labor conditions. The actual cost of local food versus non-local food is still being debated, since costs can vary depending on the region. Generally there is a consensus that local food can be more expensive, though community-supported agriculture (CSA) can make eating local food more affordable and accessible to the local community.

Local food proponents point out that the lower price of commodified food (which is sometimes called cheap food) is often due to a variety of governmental subsidies, including direct subsidies such as price supports, direct payments or tax breaks, and indirect approaches such as subsidies for trucking via road infrastructure investment, and often does not take into account the true cost of the product. As a result, organic and sustainably grown food will continue to cost more until policy changes are made. Some suggest that it is acceptable to favor local foods when available, rather than limit oneself to strictly local foods."

Well said, Wikipedia.

Thanks for reading, check back next week when we’ll be featuring Berry Creek Farm of Westfield!

Recommended Books
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan’s
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver

Recommended Movies:
The Future of Food
Food Inc.

Online Articles:
“Food That Travels Well.” The New York Times, August 6, 2007
"A Locally Grown Diet With Fuss but No Muss." The New York Times. July 22, 2008
“The Lure of the 100-Mile Diet.” Time Magazine. Sunday June 11, 2006.
“Eating Better Than Organic.” Tim Magazine. March 2, 2007.
“The Cost of Eating Green.” MSN Money.

Deep Mountain Maple

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature blueberry, raspberry, hot pepper and ginger maple syrup from from Deep Mountain Maple of West Glover, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use locally-produced, wood-fired Deep Mountain Maple Syrup in main dishes, appetizers, salads, deserts, and drinks.

The Farm
Deep Mountain Maple are maple syrup producers in West Glover, Vermont, about 20 miles north of the Wildflower Inn in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They produce pure Vermont maple syrup of many flavors as well as a variety of maple candies and sundries. Deep Mountain Maple sells their products almost exclusively at the Green Market in New York City and their syrups are featured in fine restaurants in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Their syrups can be found in Vermont at the Lake Parker Country Store in West Glover and now at the Wildflower Inn!


Deep Mountain Maple
Howie and Stephan Cantor have been producing maple syrup in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom for over 25 years. Though born out of state, Stephan in Georgia and Howie in New York City, they are at home in the Vermont woods. Their farm, Deep Mountain Maple, lies three miles outside of tiny West Glover village, about 20 miles south of the Canadian border.

Here is what the Cantors say about their work:

“They say there is no activity that ties a person to the whims of nature as much as sugaring, and therein lies the attraction and the addiction. Sap flows in maple trees when the winter first starts to thaw into spring. Cold nights and warm days are generally what is needed, but you can never predict exactly what the trees will do or when they will do it. At Deep Mountain we honor the traditional, inherent sustainability of maple sugaring. The production of maple syrup can be a beautifully complete agricultural circle, and maple trees, properly managed, can remain productive for one hundred years or more.

We are committed to maintaining their sugarbush and creating a product in ways that are pure and sustainable. Deep Mountain Maple Syrup is wood-fired. Large stands of sugar maples occur naturally in the forests of New England. These “sugarbushes” are interspersed with many other native species of trees and shrubs. Each year, in order to create optimal conditions in the forest ecosystem both for the growth of the sugar maples and for sap production, some trees must be cut down and removed from the forest in a process known as “thinning.” In any orchard, the growth of excess vegetation must be controlled; a maple agroecosystem is no different. But in this case, the wood that is cut from the sugarbush provides the necessary fuel for the process of boiling maple sap down into pure and delicious maple syrup. Supplemented with waste wood from a local sawmill, our own maple forest is our main source for locally abundant, renewable fuel. While many maple producers have embraced the use of oil-fired sugaring operations in order to eliminate the need to cut firewood and to make boiling easier and faster, we remain firmly committed to a responsible, sustainable cycle of maple syrup production.

A sugar maple tree must be 30 to 40 years old before it is big enough to tap. Once the tree has attained at least 12 inches in diameter, a small “spout” is inserted into a hole that has been drilled into the tree. This activity is called “tapping,” and each hole with its accompanying spout is a “tap.” Each tap is a small hole drilled into the tree. The sweet, clear sap flows from the taphole to tanks in the sugarhouse. Each tap is a small hole drilled into the tree. The sweet, clear sap flows from the taphole to tanks in the sugarhouse.

We manage our maple trees using a “one-tap” policy; that is, only a select few of our oldest and largest trees receive more than one tap in a given season. Done responsibly, tapping does not harm the trees at all. A tap hole naturally dries up after a few weeks of sap production, as the small puncture in the tree begins to heal. Also, because of new technologies that move sap from the trees to the sugarhouse more efficiently, today’s maple spouts are much smaller than in the past. They require a smaller hole in the tree, which heals even faster.

Deep Mountain maple syrup is made without pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers of any kind. Our maple trees are healthy due to constant, generous rain and snowfall throughout the year; deep, long winters that slowly lose their grip to the warm, bright sun of early spring; and, above all, the rich and rocky soil that sugar maples love; these characteristic elements of the rugged heart of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom combine to produce maple syrup that is absolutely unsurpassed in flavor and quality. We bottle their syrup on the farm, in our own canning facility.

In all that we do, we seek to manage the forest in a way that sustains it, and our future as sugarmakers.”

www.deepmountainmaple.com