ACORN's mission is to promote the health and growth of local food and agriculture in Vermont's Champlain Valley.
It's that time of year again for getting your wood pellets in place! Order yours through the ACORN Energy Coop! Thinking about ways to save money? Look into the cold climate heat pumps the Energy Coop offers
It's that time of year again!
stop in at one of our renown apple orchards and enjoy the bounty of the county. Purchase great food, enjoy local music and hay wagons, donuts and of course fresh apples and ciders!
Our Local Food Guide is a great tool to find orchards (and farm stands!)
Local producers benefited from the largest amount of food purchased at any Tour de Farms. YAY for everyone who savored the flavor of Addison County!
Agritourism Resources for Success Summer is essentially over. Now is the season where people come out to visit farms, orchards and farm stands. Are your ready? While the sky is the limit when it comes to the type of events offered on a farm, one cornerstone of agritourism is education. Well thought out resources to guide you towards creating authentic educational on-farm experiences to enrich visitors and your farm are available free. Check out the comprehensive information to be ready for heavy foot traffic on your farm.
Farmers Take Note!
If you welcome farm visitors and wish you had some signs to help manage the flow or safety concerns, check out the FREE signs available through UVM Extension but contact Lisa Chase by September 7th please email Lisa Chase
Middlebury Community Climate Economy Initiative, will hold a kick-off event and FREE dinner on Monday, September 18. This event will launch a process for residents to identify and advance priorities that strengthen the community in the face of climate change, including measures to improve economic opportunity. ACORN will be attending the Food Agriculture and Health workshop. Find the schedule and seminar info here.
Celebrate & share your food stories with Vermont's new campaign!
Thank you Jonathan for your vision!
Co-founder and executive director Jonathan Corcoran has given vast amounts of time and brain power to creating and sustaining ACORN's mission over the past twelve years.
Under his leadership and vision, he created the Tour de Farms our annual fundraiser, the Guide to Local Food & Farms a handy reference booklet, embarked on farm to school initiatives including the Stone Soup Summit and brought together the finance and food industries in the unique Financing the Working Landscape conferences. His energy and commitment to building our local economy and local networks has allowed ACORN to stay relevant and engaged with a wide range of community partners in Addison County and statewide.
The leadership baton has been passed to Lynn Coale who recently retired as superintendent of the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center. Under this new visionary leader, ACORN will continue to build our network to further engage economic viability for our food, farm and forest producers, manufacturers and sellers.
Tour de Farms:
Everything we could hope for!
Perfect biking weather for our early August event. We had a fantastic tour with locals and folks from out of state too. A huge shout out to
our key organizer Sarah Vecchi, all our enthusiastic volunteers, generous farmers who hosted stops, critical sponsors and of course all the faithful riders. Our annual fundraiser is a fun and creative way to support our on going work.
MANY THANKS TO ALL WHO
JOINED IN OUR SUCCESS!
Harvest of the Month:
Chard the Queen of Greens
Harvest of the Month..Chard in a rainbow of colors! A member of the spinach family, get to know this vegetable with its nuanced flavor; lighter than kale and not as chewy. It is truly a wonderful autumn vegie!
Check out the fabulous recipes and other info to help promote seasonal eating! Harvest of the Month is all about seasonal eating for EVERYBODY!
Looking for Pick Your Own Orchards?
Keep our Local Food Guide handy
Pick one up at local businesses for day trips centered around local foods. Or click the picture for a quick reference. Post Instagram or Facebook pics of your stops with the #Rooted in Vermont
We encourage you to stop at our advertisers and support their businesses.
Farm to Institution New England announces
a new blog series for the food system geek covering metrics and tracking purchases to distribution efficiency- they have it all!
ACORN is a proud member of Vermont's Farm to Plate Network. We strive to network the network and our e-news links are meant to show the array of Vermont-based resources.
Thanks to all of you for sharing links and information. Keep me posted of things of interest to r
elocalization, Addison County and the Champlain Valley.
