Vermont's Local Banquet Magazine

23/03/2020

There are so many great options for ordering local food online, ordering food from restaurants that partner with local farmers, taking virtual farm tours, connecting with local food WITHOUT coming within 6 feet of other humans (also, wash your hands). Unfortunately we're not posting about them because LB is being run by somebody with a day job in health care policy, and in particular telehealth policy, and that means there are zero minutes available in the day right now. If you want a website tracking telehealth developments, I've totally got you covered - otherwise I'm afraid LB is silent for the moment! But don't take the silence as a sign that there aren't great options for continuing to connect with local food even as we all stay apart. Go ahead and post anything you have particularly enjoyed in the comments. Thank you!

19/03/2020

Food Safety and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

13/03/2020

Maple Open House Weekend 2020 is Cancelled

We've made the decision to cancel Maple Open House Weekend this year to help prevent the further spread of COVID-19, or the Coronavirus. Our goal is to ensure that we're not creating an opportunity for further spread of the virus, and keeping prevention in the forefront of our decisions.

There are so many ways to celebrate maple, even in a year without Maple Open House Weekend! We've been hearing from sugar makers across the state that their season is off to a great start! North in Derby and further south in Shaftsbury, we're hearing stories of great flows of maple sap into sugar houses.

Call your favorite sugar maker and see if they're open to guests. Support your Vermont sugar makers by purchasing their syrup and other maple products - some have robust online sites and you can find those on our website. Others might be willing to mail you just what you're looking for, so reach out and ask. There's no time like the present for maple lovers to stock up on a gallon or two of syrup or some specialty products!

Beyond Maple Open House Weekend, we have plans in the works (in partnership with Vermont's Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets) to create a new fall Maple Celebration, just at the time when our state is showing off much of her natural beauty. We haven't worked out all of the specifics yet, but be ready to enjoy this year's Vermont Maple crop right into the fall!

It's shaping up to be a great season, with lots of sap currently running, and plenty of ways to enjoy the bounty of the season. Celebrate Vermont Maple and visit our recipes page for some new ideas!

https://vermontmaple.org/buy-pure-maple/

08/03/2020

A sampling of local, state, and national policy stories - plus a shout out to a favorite newsletter, "Future Perfect" from Vox (speaking of newsletters, don't forget to sign up for ours at www.localbanquet.org)

A news round up with a local, state, and national policy items, plus bee-washing.

08/03/2020

This toolkit focuses on improving food access through municipal and regional plans. Plans alone won’t solve hunger, but the planning process can raise awareness and build broad public support for food access initiatives. There are a wide variety of ways …

05/03/2020

A lot of food and agriculture companies raise this question - how to tell if corporations are genuine about fighting climate change?

https://ensia.com/features/corporations-climate-change/

02/03/2020

Registration open for farms participating in Open Farm Week - and this makes it a relevant time to link from the archives our story on the 5th Annual Open Farm Week last summer: https://localbanquet.org/stories/fifth-annual-open-farm-week

Hello Farmers!We have begun planning for our 6th annual Vermont Open Farm Week! This year’s Open Farm Week will take place August 10 - 16, 2020 - please save the date! Farms all over the state will be hosting special events during this week, some just for one day and others for several days or all...

02/03/2020

We've got some new stories on paying for ecosystem services in the works, in the meantime - this latest episode from Gastropod made for a good listen over the weekend: https://gastropod.com/to-fight-climate-change-bank-on-soil/

Banking just a tiny bit more carbon beneath our fields would help remove billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.

02/03/2020

Monthly newsletter with agriculture stories from Vermont and beyond. Sign up to get original features, creative perspective pieces, and round-ups of important ag news from Vermont's Local Banquet. https://mailchi.mp/f7fe2300df16/local-banquet-february-newsletter

29/02/2020

Slightly delayed by technical difficulties, good thing we got an extra day this year to get our February Newsletter published in the month of February - https://mailchi.mp/f7fe2300df16/local-banquet-february-newsletter

28/02/2020

Notes from the news this week, cannabis tax and regulate got a bit more controversial as the agricultural community opposed passage of S.54 out of concerns that it did not support local growers in the ma*****na market.

https://localbanquet.org/stories/notes-from-the-news-s54

Stories on Vermont’s S.54, which legalizes ma*****na sales but which ran into opposition from the agricultural community this week for failing to protect local cannabis production.

25/02/2020

This post from the archives seems appropriate to our local greenery in winter series - a commentary on the question "What is 'fresh'?" https://localbanquet.org/stories/what-is-fresh

This commentary by Local Banquet contributor Helen Labun asks what we really mean when we say that local food tastes “fresh”.

24/02/2020

This post from Chelsea Green Publishing is a good companion to our series on local greens in winter (the last article of which is up now at www.localbanquet.org)

Around this time of year, when "seasonal produce" is just a synonym for root vegetables, many of us begin to dream about fresh greens and colorful salads. Without a greenhouse or expensive e

21/02/2020

More in our local greenery year-round series, from Sarah Galbraith with Ceres Greens Hartshorn's Certified Organic Farm Pete's Greens

The options for fresh local greens for winter salads in Vermont have expanded a lot in recent years, as Sarah Galbraith reports.

17/02/2020

Winter slows things down. It muffles sound with a quilt of snow and mutes the landscape into a soft palette of white, gray and brown....

16/02/2020

Barre farmer Andrew Neddo won the Nikon "Follow Your Passion" video contest with this short video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY-1or2ByAc

This video is about my passion for farming and was made for the Nikon "Follow Your Passion" Video contest. I used the Nikon Z6 with the 24-70 f4 kit lens to ...

15/02/2020

Notes from the News - Vermont's progress in managing water pollution, plus the Apis Fund gives its first bee-related grants and puberty leads to mood swings in cows. https://localbanquet.org/stories/notes-from-the-news-3

This week’s notes from the news features the debate over how to manage water pollution and the role of farms, plus the Apis Fund grants and puberty for cows.

13/02/2020

A vignette on fresh greenery in a Vermont winter from Good Heart Farmstead L3C, a nice thing to read ahead of the descending arctic front: https://localbanquet.org/stories/fresh-tacos-all-winter

Kate Spring, from Good Heart Farmstead, reflects local fresh, local greens in a Vermont winter.

12/02/2020

This time of year we always seem to get a hint of spring in the air for a moment, whether it's the snow storms starting to taper off or a glimpse of grass in your yard. The lure of sweetness call

11/02/2020

A long piece in Vice about what small dairying means for Vermont identity. Something that VPR reported over 90% of Vermonters consider important to "Vermont's sense of itself" (https://www.vpr.org/post/surveyed-vermonters-see-dairy-key-states-identity-farmers-say-its-struggle /0)

Not much says "America" more than the small dairy farm, and Vermont has spent decades selling that image. Increasingly, it's a relic of a bygone era.

11/02/2020

Charlie Nardozzi on Valentine's Flowers via VPR https://www.vpr.org/post/more-informed-choices-about-valentines-roses

Each week, Charlie Nardozzi joins VPR’s Weekend Edition host Mary Engisch for a conversation about gardening, and to answer your questions about what you

10/02/2020

We take a look at one item being discussed in the Vermont state house - a plan to build "A system in which farmers are hired to use their ingenuity and know-how in caring for the land to rebuild Vermont’s natural capital."

https://localbanquet.org/stories/payment-for-ecosystem-services

07/02/2020

When Rodney Graham sells his small herd of Holsteins and Jerseys in the coming weeks, it will mark more than the end of his family's...

04/02/2020

And if you need a little inspiration, check out this LB article on a farming & writing panel from last winter's NOFA-VT conference https://localbanquet.org/stories/writers-panel-at-nofa-vt-winter-conference

Calling all you who are also writers, poets, painters, photographers, or illustrators 📣 Submit your work to the next edition of the New Farmers Almanac! Submissions are being accepted through March 1st. Check out story for the link.
📗
And did you know that the New Farmers Almanac is available through ? All Young Farmers members receive 35% off! Become a member today to enjoy this perk and many more: youngfarmers.org/join
(Reposted from )

03/02/2020

Great set of resources from Center for Sustainable Agriculture - UVM Extension on farming and climate change in their latest newsletter.

https://mailchi.mp/uvm/emerging-resources-for-farming-in-a-changing-climate?e=778d98cfb8

What do farmers do when they want to know what their peers are doing to contend with changing conditions?   And where to Extension personnel and other agricultural support professionals turn to keep on top of current knowledge to meet farmers' needs?

30/01/2020

Capital Cook-Off contestants share their story.

Team Agriculture (Champions): Sweet- Vibrant maple custard, maple sugar whipped cream with maple cinnamon shortbread.
Savory- Local veggie vegan VT taco and a BTV Northender steak taco.

House:
Sweet- Maple toffee crumble with a maple cocoa mousse.
Savory- Seared pork loin with a black currant & maple gastrique and maple sage glazed veggies.

Senate:
Sweet- Maple glazed sweet potatoes.

Savory- sage smoked maple glazed chicken with red onions and apple using local ingredients and recipes from The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook.

26/01/2020

Our weekly notes on the news with some articles you might have missed, good reading with a mug of something warm on a Sunday afternoon. https://localbanquet.org/stories/notes-from-the-news-1

A quick round up of interesting news, including legal food hubs, the ag-gag law in Kansas, and the latest in the often-headline-grabbing world of fake meat. Plus milk.

24/01/2020

Working on a story about the payment for ecosystem services report that came out last week - seems like a good time to link this from the archives: https://localbanquet.org/stories/payments-for-ecosystem-services-a-primer

An overview of the policy framework behind ecosystem system service payments for farmers, look for future articles exploring different aspects of this tool for supporting Vermont farmers who are helping our environment.

23/01/2020

Vermont's Legal Food Hub from Vermont Law School (via VT Farm Bureau)

Read more about the, "Vermont Legal Food Hub," at https://www.vtfb.org/vermont-farm-bureau-news.php

23/01/2020

The details on the drinking milk on the Senate floor story. . . although a more interesting question is why the Washington Post assumes all Americans think drinking milk in the Senate Chamber is a terrible idea. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2020/01/22/dont-have-a-cow-senators-dont-actually-drink-milk-in-the-chamber/

Even though a senator or two has requested and consumed milk on the floor in the past, current practices allow only water into the chamber.

23/01/2020

The VT Grass Farmers Association finished up their conference this past weekend, here's the sign up for Vermont Fresh Network (VFN) next week, soon after that it's the NOFA-VT winter conference - things are busy even when the ground is frozen in Vermont.

Registration is filling up for our Annual Meeting coming up on Tuesday, January 28th. Don’t miss out, reserve your spot today! Click here: http://ow.ly/iepc50xzDlS.

22/01/2020

From the Seven Days wellness issue, an herbalist recipe for "fire cider" (plus interesting links to information on Rosemary Gladstar and the trademarking of "fire cider" (two different topics, to be clear))

Herbal remedies are the stuff of grandmothers and pyramid schemes, right? If you buy into their concoction, they tell you — the grandmothers sometimes more...

19/01/2020

Looking for some end of week reading? Here's a few news headlines that caught our eye: https://localbanquet.org/stories/notes-from-the-news

For your end-of-week reading, here are some recent articles that caught our eye. First, school meals were in the news: Study Finds Reduced Fat Milk More Associated with Obesity than Whole Milk - Modern Farmer - The USDA’s resistance to encouraging whole milk in schools while it embraces suga

17/01/2020

Yup, it's cold outside - but all weather is good weather to think about gardening. Here's a new story from Steven Fellows on taking the Master Gardener course in Vermont and also New Mexico UVM Extension Master Gardener https://localbanquet.org/stories/master-gardening

Steven Fellows, from Fourth Corner Foundation, writes abut his experience taking Master Gardener courses in Vermont and New Mexico.

14/01/2020

Writers Panels, Bees, Biking . . . our first newsletter of 2020 - https://mailchi.mp/f7d506be5104/jan-newsletter-2020