Woodchuck Cider

July 1 — July 7

How did you decide to start your cider business?
A long time ago, way back in 1990, there was a little winery in the town of Proctorsville, Vermont.

Back then, we made our living producing a variety of apple wines, something not many wineries do. We also made a little cider called Vermont Old-Fashioned Hard Cider.

We set out to create a truly American hard cider – a feat that hadn’t really been accomplished in the last 200+ years. The crafting process started with the Vermont Old-Fashioned Hard Cider we already had on hand. Countless changes were made, not the least of which was taking the alcohol content down from 12% to 5%. After three months of testing, a new cider was born: Woodchuck Draft Cider.

How does cider become alcoholic?
Cider becomes alcoholic when fresh apple juice is fermented. This process occurs when juice is transferred into temperature controlled tanks and the hard cider is built by added champagne yeast and other natural ingredients. The yeast eats the natural sugars and alcohol and carbonation forms. This process takes several weeks.

Once fermentation is complete the hard cider is sent through a Crossflow filter, a state-of-the-art technology that cuts our disposable waste by 75%. The hard cider is cold filtered for a crisp taste and then put into a blending tank — the finishing stage and where the art takes place. The master cider makers will add natural ingredients in order to craft their unique cider style. Finished hard cider is stored, bottled and kegged at 35° - 40° to preserve freshness. The end result is our award winning line of Woodchuck Draft Ciders!

The Long Trail Story
The Long Trail Brewing Company began its mission to brew high quality craft beer in November 1989. A humble beginning in the basement of the old Bridgewater Woolen Mill along the Ottauquechee River in the Green Mountains of Vermont was soon outgrown. In 1995 the brewery packed up and “Hit the Trail” up the road to a riverside hay field where they now reside in a stateof- art, environmentally-friendly brewery. Now, thousands of visitors every year experience Long Trail’s hospitality and unique country ambience while enjoying great food, fresh brews and an intimate view of the brewing process at the brewery’s Visitor Center.

Where do you get your apples?
We partner with local apple companies such as Champlain Orchards and Cold Hollow Cider Mill, and we’re committed to working with Vermont apple growers and cideries. Our Granny Smith style is 100% Granny Smith apples from Yakima Valley, WA. As the number one selling hard cider in the country which is distributed nationwide, Woodchuck Draft Cider works with apple producers across the Northeast and beyond.

How would you describe the flavor of hard cider?
The taste of drinking a Woodchuck Draft Cider can be compared to the same experience as biting into a freshly picked apple. Each style has its own unique flavor, but all are delicious and refreshing. See below for more detailed tasting notes on each of our styles:

Amber: Crisp and refreshing with a nice golden hue. Expertly crafted with a medium body and clean apple finish.
Granny Smith: Tart, refreshing and made from 100% Granny Smith apples, tree ripened in the Yakima Valley of Washington State.
Dark & Dry 802: Crisp with a clean finish and tawny brown in color from caramelized sugar added to each small batch.
Pear: Aged in small batches producing a light color, with cool crisp taste. Deliciously flavored with a pear finish.

What kind of impact has the Co-op had on your business?
Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op has been an advocate in supporting local Vermont producers, which is essential for the local economy and for businesses like Woodchuck Draft Cider. The Co-op has not only been a great business partner, but a great resource in educating the good folks of Middlebury about Woodchuck.

http://www.woodchuck.com/

Rockville Market Farm

July 8 — July 14

Please describe your business.
The Rockville Market Farm is located on 108 acres of beautiful land in Starksboro, Vermont. We raise twenty-five acres of certified organic vegetables, as well as organic greenhouse tomatoes and bedding plants. We have expanded and diversified considerably over the last couple of years. In addition to vegetables, we raise all natural pork, chickens and eggs. You can read more about these projects by visiting us on line at www.rockvillemarketfarm.net

How has your relationship with Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op impacted your business?
We have had a long and profitable relationship with the Middlebury Co-op. We continue to grow and expand our offerings, and the Co-op has been one of our largest customers.

What are the greatest challenges you have faced in your business?
Production continues to be the largest challenge we face as Vermont growers. The weather over the last two seasons has been incredibly challenging. It's certainly frustrating to us that interest in local buying is so high, yet we can't meet the demand due to the weather. Despite this we feel that the future looks bright.

What do you think farming in Vermont will look like in 10 years?
We believe and hope that the agricultural landscape will be robust in ten years. Ideally cows, pigs, sheep, etc. will live outdoors the way nature intended. Probably more and more crops will be grown indoors, much as they are in Europe.

What is the single best thing that could happen to benefit your business?
We could win the lottery, there's never enough money to expand and grow the way we'd like.

http://www.rockvillemarketfarm.net

Lower Notch Berry Farm

July 22 — July 28

How many acres of berries do you farm?
3 acres.

How long have you been farming?
Since 1991.

What are your growing practices?
All natural--sawdust and hardwood chips for mulch; no chemicals or sprays whatsoever.

What are the obstacles to getting your farm organically certified?
Cost, lack of knowledge about how to go about it. We don't want to make our berries unaffordable. Everyone should be able to have fresh locally grown berries.

What's your favorite dish to cook with blueberries?
Blueberry Buckle, Pie, Cobbler, Muffins… hard to choose; probably Blueberry Buckle.

Blue Moon Sorbet

July 29 — August 4

How did you get started in the sorbet business?
I was the pastry chef at the Prince and Pauper Restaurant in Woodstock, Vermont, from 1985 to 1995, and my wife Pamela was the bar manager. I made ice creams and sorbets all the time for the restaurant. One day in 1994, I was at my local supermarket looking for a pint of sorbet to take home. The selection was dismal and I thought, "someone should start a sorbet company that makes high quality sorbet with interesting flavor combinations like I make at the restaurant". Then I thought "Hey, I could do that!" I went home and told Pamela that we should start a sorbet company. She thought I was crazy but somehow I talked her into it and a year later we made our first batch.

Where did you get the idea for your name?
The idea for the name came about because we thought of a Blue Moon as something special, something rare, just like our sorbets. So Blue Moon Sorbet was born.

Can you tell us the difference between ice cream, sherbet, gelato and sorbet?
I'm not an expert on ice cream and gelato but gelato is just the Italian version of ice cream, it usually has less butterfat and is more dense. Sorbet is just the French word for Sherbet.

Where do most of your ingredients come from?
Sherbet is usually made with milk and fruit flavoring and/or fruit and sugar. Traditional French Sorbet like we make is made with only fruit, water and sugar. Most of our fruit comes from France. We use local fruit whenever possible. Our Apple Cider Sorbet (seasonal) is made with Vermont Apple Cider. Our Wild Blueberry Sorbet is made with Wild Maine Blueberries. Our Cranberry Orange Sorbet (seasonal) is made with Cranberries from Massachusetts.

What's your favorite flavor?
Our favorite flavor is Mango Passion because it is just the perfect sorbet, dense, rich in flavor, great color, also a scrumptious combination of flavors, the tart and bright passion fruit just compliments the softer delicate mango to make the perfect sorbet flavor.

http://www.bluemoonsorbet.com/

Golden Russet Farm

August 12 — August 18

How did you all get started farming?
We actively owned and managed several acres of mature apple trees in Monkton, and in the winter of 1980 we met the manager of the Burlington Farmers’ Market at a potluck in Richmond, and asked her about possibly selling apples there for the upcoming season. She suggested that we grow some vegetables to offer at the summer markets in order to cultivate customers for our fall apple sales. Serendipitously, several weeks later, a neighbor offered us land to grow a large garden on – and thus we began, in 1981, our careers as organic vegetable farmers.

How many years have you been farming?
2010 represents our 29th year of raising organic vegetables commercially, the last 26 of which have been at Golden Russet Farm in Shoreham.

How did you get started selling to the Co-op, and how has that impacted your business?
In 1984, Judy Campbell, then the store manager of MNFC, stopped by our farm stand on Silver Street and asked us if we’d consider selling vegetables to the Co-op at wholesale. Since by that time we were growing more than we could easily sell at the Farmers’ Market, we began selling a few items to the Co-op that summer.

Even when we belonged to the Deep Root Organic Truck Grower’s Co-operative in the late ‘80’s, (and nearly everything we grew went down country), we maintained a great working relationship with the co-op. Since that time it has become far and away our largest wholesale account, and sales continue to grow!

What's your favorite thing to grow?
Judy loves being in the greenhouse in the spring, and all the aspects of nurturing seeds into plants as the days get longer in March and April. Will’s passion is in managing the fields, and his favorite crops are onions and their allies (garlic and shallots), with which he claims to have a lover’s quarrel.

What do you grow the most of, and why?
In terms of acreage, it’s a toss up between potatoes, cucurbits (cukes, melons, winter & summer squash, etc.), and brassicas (broccoli, kale, cauliflower, turnips, etc.). In terms of gross value, potatoes nudge out the garlic crop, but it really varies from year to year depending on the season and the weather.

When you guys finally retire (not any time too soon, we hope!), do you have a succession plan in mind?
If by succession you mean “success,” the most important measure would be to have the land continue to be actively farmed. It’s fair to say that we would like to have a relationship with someone in the next generation who is willing to work with us for several seasons with the goal of eventually easing into the management and eventual takeover of the farm, while bringing their own skills, interests, and talents to make it their own. Their success would be enhanced by the investment of time spent on the farm learning from our experiences with the soils, micro-environments, quality standards, and markets.

If by succession you mean “passing on knowledge,” a number of the approximately 200 employees over our 29 years of farming have gone on to have their own farms and/or personal gardens. It’s safe to say that nearly all of them have a deeper appreciation for where their food comes from, and are better consumers because of their farm experience.

If by succession you mean “retirement,” we’ll probably keep doing what we’re doing on a smaller scale, for personal rewards. Frankly, we haven’t found much time to think about life “after” farming!

http://www.goldenrussetfarm.com/

Orb Weaver Farm

August 19 — August 25

How long have you been farming?
We've been on our farm since March of '81. But, we became interested in farming when we lived in Western Massachusetts in the 1970's. We started making cheese in our kitchen, growing all our veggies, and learning all we could about farming. Since 1981, when we began here at Orb Weaver Farm, we have farmed exclusively, learning and fine tuning as we went along.

How did you come to the decision to be full time farmers?
It's all we ever wanted to do. We wanted to work in agriculture and be our own bosses. And... we love feeding people.

I understand you had some financing help from your college days— can you tell us about this loan program?
When we decided to become farmers, Marjorie enrolled in the Stockbridge School of Agriculture. It's a 2 year land grant college at Umass, Amherst. There we became eligible for a wonderful loan from the Lotta Crabtree Trusts. Lotta Crabtree was an actress in the 1860's and upon her death she left money to establish several trust funds, one of which was for new farmers graduating from Stockbridge. It is a 10 year no interest loan, and truly, we would not be here if it were not for her. Our first cows were all named after trees in her honor!

How are you cow's lives different from cows on large scale, conventional dairy farms?
First of all our cows are milked for 7 months instead of the usual 10 months. They spend the summer grazing the pastures, and during the winter months, go outside daily. They have names instead of numbers. But probably the most important difference is their diet. They eat a small amount of grain, and lots of high quality second and third cut hay. Not eating any silage, they have a much more natural diet. And because we make a value added product, we don't have to push them for production. All this leads to a long and happy life. We love our cows! We've probably had 15 generations of cows born here on our farm.

What's your favorite thing to grow?
We only grow six vegetables for market. They are: lettuce, shallots, field grown tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and fall broccoli. Although we grow commercially, we strive to have an aesthetically pleasing garden. So, we set out our lettuce in alternating color blocks. I'd say our favorite crop to grow are cherry tomatoes. They are trellised , meaning they are trained to grow up twine and reach a height of over 6 feet. They are truly a thing of beauty. And, we love how many you guys [at Middlebury Co-op] can sell... mixing red and yellow varieties has been a fun way of marketing them. Also we really enjoy using cover crops as a green manure. They are beautiful as they are growing, and serve to feed the soil as well.

Some day you all will retire, though we hope not any time soon! Do you have a succession plan in mind?
Phew. That’s a big one. Yes we will retire in the not too distant future. Recently we have dabbled in raising beef, which is one idea we have thought of... that way we would still have cows around, but don’t have to milk them. To answer the question, no, we have no succession plan, but we do think about our retirement, and are waiting to see how it unfolds.

http://www.orbweaverfarm.com/

Contact: info@middleburycoop.com


	Woodchuck Cider July 1 — July 7 How did you decide to start your cider business? A long time ago, way back in 1990, there was a little winery in the town of Proctorsville, Vermont. Back then, we made our living producing a variety of apple wines, something not many wineries do. We also made a little cider called Vermont Old-Fashioned Hard Cider. We set out to create a truly American hard cider – a feat that hadn’t really been accomplished in the last 200+ years. The crafting process started with the Vermont Old-Fashioned Hard Cider we already had on hand. Countless changes were made, not the least of which was taking the alcohol content down from 12% to 5%. After three months of testing, a new cider was born: Woodchuck Draft Cider. How does cider become alcoholic? Cider becomes alcoholic when fresh apple juice is fermented. This process occurs when juice is transferred into temperature controlled tanks and the hard cider is built by added champagne yeast and other natural ingredients. The yeast eats the natural sugars and alcohol and carbonation forms. This process takes several weeks. Once fermentation is complete the hard cider is sent through a Crossflow filter, a state-of-the-art technology that cuts our disposable waste by 75%. The hard cider is cold filtered for a crisp taste and then put into a blending tank — the finishing stage and where the art takes place. The master cider makers will add natural ingredients in order to craft their unique cider style. Finished hard cider is stored, bottled and kegged at 35° - 40° to preserve freshness. The end result is our award winning line of Woodchuck Draft Ciders! The Long Trail Story The Long Trail Brewing Company began its mission to brew high quality craft beer in November 1989. A humble beginning in the basement of the old Bridgewater Woolen Mill along the Ottauquechee River in the Green Mountains of Vermont was soon outgrown. In 1995 the brewery packed up and “Hit the Trail” up the road to a riverside hay field where they now reside in a stateof- art, environmentally-friendly brewery. Now, thousands of visitors every year experience Long Trail’s hospitality and unique country ambience while enjoying great food, fresh brews and an intimate view of the brewing process at the brewery’s Visitor Center. Where do you get your apples? We partner with local apple companies such as Champlain Orchards and Cold Hollow Cider Mill, and we’re committed to working with Vermont apple growers and cideries. Our Granny Smith style is 100% Granny Smith apples from Yakima Valley, WA. As the number one selling hard cider in the country which is distributed nationwide, Woodchuck Draft Cider works with apple producers across the Northeast and beyond. How would you describe the flavor of hard cider? The taste of drinking a Woodchuck Draft Cider can be compared to the same experience as biting into a freshly picked apple. Each style has its own unique flavor, but all are delicious and refreshing. See below for more detailed tasting notes on each of our styles: Amber: Crisp and refreshing with a nice golden hue. Expertly crafted with a medium body and clean apple finish. Granny Smith: Tart, refreshing and made from 100% Granny Smith apples, tree ripened in the Yakima Valley of Washington State. Dark & Dry 802: Crisp with a clean finish and tawny brown in color from caramelized sugar added to each small batch. Pear: Aged in small batches producing a light color, with cool crisp taste. Deliciously flavored with a pear finish. What kind of impact has the Co-op had on your business? Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op has been an advocate in supporting local Vermont producers, which is essential for the local economy and for businesses like Woodchuck Draft Cider. The Co-op has not only been a great business partner, but a great resource in educating the good folks of Middlebury about Woodchuck. http://www.woodchuck.com/ Rockville Market Farm July 8 — July 14 Please describe your business. The Rockville Market Farm is located on 108 acres of beautiful land in Starksboro, Vermont. We raise twenty-five acres of certified organic vegetables, as well as organic greenhouse tomatoes and bedding plants. We have expanded and diversified considerably over the last couple of years. In addition to vegetables, we raise all natural pork, chickens and eggs. You can read more about these projects by visiting us on line at www.rockvillemarketfarm.net How has your relationship with Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op impacted your business? We have had a long and profitable relationship with the Middlebury Co-op. We continue to grow and expand our offerings, and the Co-op has been one of our largest customers. What are the greatest challenges you have faced in your business? Production continues to be the largest challenge we face as Vermont growers. The weather over the last two seasons has been incredibly challenging. It's certainly frustrating to us that interest in local buying is so high, yet we can't meet the demand due to the weather. Despite this we feel that the future looks bright. What do you think farming in Vermont will look like in 10 years? We believe and hope that the agricultural landscape will be robust in ten years. Ideally cows, pigs, sheep, etc. will live outdoors the way nature intended. Probably more and more crops will be grown indoors, much as they are in Europe. What is the single best thing that could happen to benefit your business? We could win the lottery, there's never enough money to expand and grow the way we'd like. http://www.rockvillemarketfarm.net Lower Notch Berry Farm July 22 — July 28 How many acres of berries do you farm? 3 acres. How long have you been farming? Since 1991. What are your growing practices? All natural--sawdust and hardwood chips for mulch; no chemicals or sprays whatsoever. What are the obstacles to getting your farm organically certified? Cost, lack of knowledge about how to go about it. We don't want to make our berries unaffordable. Everyone should be able to have fresh locally grown berries. What's your favorite dish to cook with blueberries? Blueberry Buckle, Pie, Cobbler, Muffins… hard to choose; probably Blueberry Buckle. Blue Moon Sorbet July 29 — August 4 How did you get started in the sorbet business? I was the pastry chef at the Prince and Pauper Restaurant in Woodstock, Vermont, from 1985 to 1995, and my wife Pamela was the bar manager. I made ice creams and sorbets all the time for the restaurant. One day in 1994, I was at my local supermarket looking for a pint of sorbet to take home. The selection was dismal and I thought, "someone should start a sorbet company that makes high quality sorbet with interesting flavor combinations like I make at the restaurant". Then I thought "Hey, I could do that!" I went home and told Pamela that we should start a sorbet company. She thought I was crazy but somehow I talked her into it and a year later we made our first batch. Where did you get the idea for your name? The idea for the name came about because we thought of a Blue Moon as something special, something rare, just like our sorbets. So Blue Moon Sorbet was born. Can you tell us the difference between ice cream, sherbet, gelato and sorbet? I'm not an expert on ice cream and gelato but gelato is just the Italian version of ice cream, it usually has less butterfat and is more dense. Sorbet is just the French word for Sherbet. Where do most of your ingredients come from? Sherbet is usually made with milk and fruit flavoring and/or fruit and sugar. Traditional French Sorbet like we make is made with only fruit, water and sugar. Most of our fruit comes from France. We use local fruit whenever possible. Our Apple Cider Sorbet (seasonal) is made with Vermont Apple Cider. Our Wild Blueberry Sorbet is made with Wild Maine Blueberries. Our Cranberry Orange Sorbet (seasonal) is made with Cranberries from Massachusetts. What's your favorite flavor? Our favorite flavor is Mango Passion because it is just the perfect sorbet, dense, rich in flavor, great color, also a scrumptious combination of flavors, the tart and bright passion fruit just compliments the softer delicate mango to make the perfect sorbet flavor. http://www.bluemoonsorbet.com/ Golden Russet Farm August 12 — August 18 How did you all get started farming? We actively owned and managed several acres of mature apple trees in Monkton, and in the winter of 1980 we met the manager of the Burlington Farmers’ Market at a potluck in Richmond, and asked her about possibly selling apples there for the upcoming season. She suggested that we grow some vegetables to offer at the summer markets in order to cultivate customers for our fall apple sales. Serendipitously, several weeks later, a neighbor offered us land to grow a large garden on – and thus we began, in 1981, our careers as organic vegetable farmers. How many years have you been farming? 2010 represents our 29th year of raising organic vegetables commercially, the last 26 of which have been at Golden Russet Farm in Shoreham. How did you get started selling to the Co-op, and how has that impacted your business? In 1984, Judy Campbell, then the store manager of MNFC, stopped by our farm stand on Silver Street and asked us if we’d consider selling vegetables to the Co-op at wholesale. Since by that time we were growing more than we could easily sell at the Farmers’ Market, we began selling a few items to the Co-op that summer. Even when we belonged to the Deep Root Organic Truck Grower’s Co-operative in the late ‘80’s, (and nearly everything we grew went down country), we maintained a great working relationship with the co-op. Since that time it has become far and away our largest wholesale account, and sales continue to grow! What's your favorite thing to grow? Judy loves being in the greenhouse in the spring, and all the aspects of nurturing seeds into plants as the days get longer in March and April. Will’s passion is in managing the fields, and his favorite crops are onions and their allies (garlic and shallots), with which he claims to have a lover’s quarrel. What do you grow the most of, and why? In terms of acreage, it’s a toss up between potatoes, cucurbits (cukes, melons, winter & summer squash, etc.), and brassicas (broccoli, kale, cauliflower, turnips, etc.). In terms of gross value, potatoes nudge out the garlic crop, but it really varies from year to year depending on the season and the weather. When you guys finally retire (not any time too soon, we hope!), do you have a succession plan in mind? If by succession you mean “success,” the most important measure would be to have the land continue to be actively farmed. It’s fair to say that we would like to have a relationship with someone in the next generation who is willing to work with us for several seasons with the goal of eventually easing into the management and eventual takeover of the farm, while bringing their own skills, interests, and talents to make it their own. Their success would be enhanced by the investment of time spent on the farm learning from our experiences with the soils, micro-environments, quality standards, and markets. If by succession you mean “passing on knowledge,” a number of the approximately 200 employees over our 29 years of farming have gone on to have their own farms and/or personal gardens. It’s safe to say that nearly all of them have a deeper appreciation for where their food comes from, and are better consumers because of their farm experience. If by succession you mean “retirement,” we’ll probably keep doing what we’re doing on a smaller scale, for personal rewards. Frankly, we haven’t found much time to think about life “after” farming! http://www.goldenrussetfarm.com/ Orb Weaver Farm August 19 — August 25 How long have you been farming? We've been on our farm since March of '81. But, we became interested in farming when we lived in Western Massachusetts in the 1970's. We started making cheese in our kitchen, growing all our veggies, and learning all we could about farming. Since 1981, when we began here at Orb Weaver Farm, we have farmed exclusively, learning and fine tuning as we went along. How did you come to the decision to be full time farmers? It's all we ever wanted to do. We wanted to work in agriculture and be our own bosses. And... we love feeding people. I understand you had some financing help from your college days— can you tell us about this loan program? When we decided to become farmers, Marjorie enrolled in the Stockbridge School of Agriculture. It's a 2 year land grant college at Umass, Amherst. There we became eligible for a wonderful loan from the Lotta Crabtree Trusts. Lotta Crabtree was an actress in the 1860's and upon her death she left money to establish several trust funds, one of which was for new farmers graduating from Stockbridge. It is a 10 year no interest loan, and truly, we would not be here if it were not for her. Our first cows were all named after trees in her honor! How are you cow's lives different from cows on large scale, conventional dairy farms? First of all our cows are milked for 7 months instead of the usual 10 months. They spend the summer grazing the pastures, and during the winter months, go outside daily. They have names instead of numbers. But probably the most important difference is their diet. They eat a small amount of grain, and lots of high quality second and third cut hay. Not eating any silage, they have a much more natural diet. And because we make a value added product, we don't have to push them for production. All this leads to a long and happy life. We love our cows! We've probably had 15 generations of cows born here on our farm. What's your favorite thing to grow? We only grow six vegetables for market. They are: lettuce, shallots, field grown tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and fall broccoli. Although we grow commercially, we strive to have an aesthetically pleasing garden. So, we set out our lettuce in alternating color blocks. I'd say our favorite crop to grow are cherry tomatoes. They are trellised , meaning they are trained to grow up twine and reach a height of over 6 feet. They are truly a thing of beauty. And, we love how many you guys [at Middlebury Co-op] can sell... mixing red and yellow varieties has been a fun way of marketing them. Also we really enjoy using cover crops as a green manure. They are beautiful as they are growing, and serve to feed the soil as well. Some day you all will retire, though we hope not any time soon! Do you have a succession plan in mind? Phew. That’s a big one. Yes we will retire in the not too distant future. Recently we have dabbled in raising beef, which is one idea we have thought of... that way we would still have cows around, but don’t have to milk them. To answer the question, no, we have no succession plan, but we do think about our retirement, and are waiting to see how it unfolds. http://www.orbweaverfarm.com/ Contact: info@middleburycoop.com