Stony Loam Farm: dreamers and doers, a happy thought
Charlotte is blessed with dreamers and doers on the land. A visit to Stony Loam Farm on a cold dark evening confirms this.
Grasscattle Company: honoring the past, moving into the future
To meet Steve Schubart at the Grasscattle Company is to see our future and celebrate out past. A man with a mission and huge energy, an unstoppable combination.
Charlotte is blessed with dreamers and doers on the land
In season, Stony Loam Farm offers a bountiful community supported agriculture (CSA) of fresh veggies and flowers. The name of the farm comes from the agricultural designation for the type of soil on the farm. A bit complicated, but it is a mixture of clay, sand and shells.
Kids cook for their community
KidsCookVT had fun cooking calzones and cookies together last week. Calzones and salads were brought to a grateful staff at The Janet S. Must Family Room and to the New American Mothers and their children during a family playgroup. The cookies will be delivered later this week to the Charlotte Food Shelf.
Act 143 and the Future of Farming in Charlotte
The Town of Charlotte has a long history supporting agriculture and attracting residents who value a working landscape. Throughout our state, farms provide numerous services in their communities: fresh food, jobs, diverse small businesses and open landscapes, as well as a range of ecosystem services from water quality to wildlife habitat, healthy soils and the mitigation of climate change. And yet, farming in Vermont is endangered: The state has lost approximately 10 percent of its farms every year for the last five years.
Becoming acquainted with mushrooms
Mushrooms? It seems that I’ve cooked with the little button mushrooms found in most grocery stores forever and enjoyed them raw in tossed salads. About 12 years ago, I was introduced to the Portobello mushroom by my son-in-law, David, who cooked them on his charcoal grill. They were delicious!
Charlotte Berry Farm keeps the weekends going with pumpkins, mead, and creemees
A visit to the Charlotte Berry Farm will only make you feel happy and warm despite the cold. Located on Route 7 across from Higbee Road, it is now open on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.
Charlotte Crossing at a crossroads
The deal for a new restaurant in the almost-completed Charlotte Crossing building fell through in September, but hopes for a sit-down eatery in town are not completely dashed. The commercial building, which is located at the site of the former Vermont Wildflower Farm on Route 7, is on track to house office and retail spaces as planned, but the restaurant plans are up in the air for now.
Unity Farm: Unifying farm work, animals, people and nature
To meet Cathy Wells at Unity Farm on Higbee Road is to enter the world of a true dynamo. Ordinary multitaskers would be put to shame.
Hemp: Charlotte farmers’ open secret
CBD is all the rage these days—you can’t swing a hoe in the grocery store without hitting ice cream, pet treats or body lotion with cannabidiol oil in it. All that CDB has to come from somewhere, and those with the hoes are making it happen in Charlotte.
Kids Cook VT show off their skills to the community July 12
On Friday, July 12, campers will serve a pop-up lunch in the vestry at the Charlotte Congregational Church, welcoming community members with a meal featuring sandwiches, deviled eggs, potato salad, watermelon pops, and their special switchel recipe. Proceeds from the “pay what you wish” donation lunch will be used toward food and supply costs for the camp.
Farming for four generations: Charlotte’s Titus family
It was Bob Titus’s grandfather who came to Vermont from upstate New York to farm. “He brought all of his cattle over on the ferry … he had a kind of wanderlust,” is the way Bob’s wife, Bernice, tells the story.
A restaurant in town, finally
When Debbie Kassabian and her husband, Michael Dunbar, first moved to Charlotte, Kassabian said they woke up in the morning and said, “Let’s go out to breakfast,” and there wasn’t a restaurant in town to go to breakfast…or lunch…or dinner.
Baked Mac n Cheese
With the winter solstice nearly a week away and the ever-present buzz of the holiday season lingering in the…
Turkey day game plan
For the past 20 years, my sister Mary, her husband and three sons (as they came along) were hosted for Thanksgiving by our aunt Kay and Uncle Jim or Mary’s in-laws, alternating every other year. This year was their year to head to Mary’s in-laws. On a whim, she invited them to come spend Thanksgiving with her family in their new home.
A simple fall dinner for one (or two)
I can still visit the Middlebury farmers market on a Saturday morning in early October and get nearly everything I need for an easy roast chicken dinner on Sunday. Truth is, I make this dinner throughout the year—but, in my opinion, it tastes best and is most satisfying in the fall and winter months.
Revisiting ‘Chopped Junior’
It all started with my mom saying, “You should look on the Food Network website and see if there are any casting calls for cooking shows.” I thought about it for a little while then I decided to go for it. What harm could it do? The odds of me getting in were so slim I thought it would just be a fun experience. I thought wrong.
The fickle face of farming
Saturday I came back to the farm after the farmers market feeling pretty whooped. It had been unexpectedly hot, and standing behind a grill for four hours had made it even more so. It’s been a hot stretch of weather (hottest July on record, in fact), and rain has been hard to come by. August had started off similarly. And while the forecast has been regularly calling for rain, we have regularly been left high and dry.
Cooking with Coco – Fish for breakfast
On a brisk morning recently I was able to experience what truly fresh fish tastes like.
Charlotters open new restaurant in beloved old location
Johnny Helzer took the circuitous route to Peg and Ter’s, the restaurant he and his wife, Tina, recently opened in Shelburne. “I grew up in Charlotte, went to CVU and UVM, spent some time working in the medical field in California, then lived in