Upcoming Working Bees
Join the brigade!
April 28, 2024: New Leaf Organics in Monkton. Join Jill Kopel for a day of planting onions! Lunch will be provided. 10AM - 2PM. Sign up here.
May 5, 2024: Stone’s Throw Farmstead in Shrewsbury. Join Jess and Connor for planting a diversity of cut flowers, sheep shearing, and wool skirting! A taco lunch will be provided. 10AM - 2PM. Sign up here.
May 19, 2024: Frog Hollow Farmstead in Hubbardton. Join Janis and Jason for high tunnel prep! This includes moving topsoil, spreading compost, and preparing rows. 10AM-3PM. Sign up here.
If you have additional working bee ideas, please email Lilah.
Previous Events
Working Bee at Singing Cedars Farmstead
Saturday, March 30, 2024, 10am-2pm
We learned how tomatoes are grown in high tunnels to extend our very short growing season. We transplanted tomatoes, tied up tomatoes, staked tomatoes, and ate tomato soup!
Working Bee at Boundbrook Farm
Sunday, February 11, 2024, 10 am - 3pm
Boundbrook Farm is experimenting with methods to separate soybeans from the dried plants. Participants assisted in tasks such as threshing, filtering, and bagging, as well as clean up. A delicious local rice lunch was provided by the farm!
Read the Addison Independent article here.
Nightmare on Exchange Street
Thursday, October 26, 2023, 5-8pm
ACORN Food Hub, 616 Exchange Street, Warehouse 5, Middlebury, VT
Food producers, farmers and farmworkers from across the Champlain Valley are invited to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the ACORN Food Hub and the kick off of the Champlain Valley Farmer Climate Network. Please join us to eat tacos, share stories, get massaged, and more!
You’re invited to bring the following:
Food item to share - taco filling or side dish (we’ll provide the basics, be creative! Share your harvest!)
Working Bee Ideas (ACORN is planning to host 4-6 working bees in the winter where groups of growers/producers/volunteers will rotate around farms to help with one half or full day project)
Mason jar + any dried flowers/herbs/essential oils for making bath salt blends
Stories, jokes, anecdotes, poems about farming during this spooky time
Books to exchange for winter reading
Favorite dance songs for the evening’s playlist
Cooperatively Healing our Watershed Homes
Thursday, November 9, 2023, 6-8pm
Bicentennial Hall Room 220, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op and ACORN are excited to host Abe Collins of The Land Care Cooperative at Middlebury College’s Bicentennial Hall Room 220. Mercy Larson of Larson Farm will be joining as a special guest speaker. This is the perfect opportunity for our community to come together to educate and organize ourselves as we begin a new chapter of cooperation with our farming neighbors to engage in the work of growing topsoil, increasing biodiversity, increasing the water-holding capacity of our soils, increasing groundwater recharge, practicing economic democracy, and beginning the long journey of effectively healing our watershed homes.
Meatballs from Lucas Family Farm and other light snacks will be provided.
The event is free and open to the public.
Please RSVP as space is limited.
VFN in the News
The Addison Independent, October 19, 2023: New Network Helps Farmers Connect, Talk Climate Change
VCRD Press Release, December 5, 2023: VCRD’s Climate Catalyst Innovation Fund Supports 25 Local Projects
The Addison Independent, February 22, 2024: ‘Working bees’ tackle projects on local farms
About the Farmer Climate Network
According to CEAC’s 2020 Greenhouse Gas Inventory, one of the top three greenhouse gas emitters in Addison County is agriculture. Organic and regenerative farming releases fewer greenhouse gasses, protects natural resources, is more resilient to extreme weather events and stores carbon. By creating opportunities for farmer-to-farmer learning, on-farm demonstrations, and sharing resources through farmer working bees, we can catalyze the creation of a network that will focus on climate and adaptation techniques, educational efforts, and political advocacy. Not only will healthier soils, cleaner water and lower greenhouse gas emissions bring Vermont closer to its renewable energy goals, they will also provide a more resilient local food community.
The Champlain Valley is one of the largest agricultural regions of the state and has been identified by Food Solutions New England as one of the two most important future agricultural regions in the northeast; their vision shows that the majority of the projected “highly cultivated” agriculture areas in the Northeast is split roughly equally between the Champlain Valley and a slice of Aroostook County in Maine. This means more intensive agriculture along Lake Champlain than currently practiced. At the same time, there’s a need to deal with worsening water quality issues in the lake.
As the climate crisis continues to worsen, food producers will be looking for mitigation and adaptation techniques. Creating a community of climate-aware farmers across all sectors has yet to be been done in the Champlain Valley.
CEAC’s Climate Action Plan for Addison County identified the following goals for the agricultural sector. ACORN’s Farmer Climate Network can support the goals highlighted in bold.
Increase the share of farms using high feed efficiency practices
Reduce GHG emissions from manure management
Support and increase the number of farms who focus on diversified kinds of agricultural products
Shift to low GHG and renewable energy in agricultural operations
Increase adoption of carbon positive soil and crop management practices
Respect and learn from Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), such as that from the Abenaki peoples.
The Farmer Climate Network will focus on these goals, and build upon the work ACORN is doing to build a Food Hub that increases food access across the community. ACORN’s long term goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by building a Food Hub that increases sales for small and medium scale producers, is powered by renewable energy and supported by EV delivery vehicles.
This work is made possible thanks to the Vermont Council on Rural Development’s Climate Catalyst Fund.
