Bread and Butter Farm
Shelburne, VT
Our work is to re-imagine a collaborative working landscape that takes care of the soil, microorganisms, plants, animals, farmers, neighbors, and community that depend on this land. Through this work, we engage all members of our community in real and meaningful ways. We provide healthy, ecological food and products as well as joyful experiences that reaffirm our connection to each other and to our environment. To continue to succeed in our simple yet ambitious work, we are evolving to organize the connected businesses and projects that operate from the farm-hub. Central to our farm community is the stakeholder team—our business owners, enterprise managers, key partners, and family members. Our team meets regularly in an iterative process where we practice active listening and transparency to vision and make decisions about our shared direction. In this, we aspire towards cooperative ownership and decision making, while also protecting the autonomy of our individual people and businesses so that they can freely collaborate, lead and shine. We also see our team work as part of supporting each other’s whole livelihood, which includes our personal emotional, spiritual, physical, and financial goals, relationships, and well being. Visit Bread and Butter Farm here.
Read Three Poems for Bread and Butter Farm by Dan Close
Brookford Farm
Canterbury, NH
An important part of the mission of Brookford Farm in Canterbury is to reclaim and return the land and soils to optimum fertility. Through the use of organic methods, including a mixture of animal and green manures, crop rotation, and good ole’ observation, we hope to find the best uses of the land. We will have our ear to the ground and be listening for the response to our actions. Cows, pigs, chickens, insects, micro-organisms, vegetables, grasses, and a variety of grains will all intermingle and slowly but surely improve the fertility of the soil. As a result of this variety of life and their intermingling, we will have a variety of by-products to nourish our physical bodies. These products include milk, butter, cheese, beef, sausage, bacon, chicken, eggs, sauerkraut, and 40-50 varieties of fresh and stored vegetables. We are an open place for people to come, visit and learn. We host a handful of public events over the course of the year, but many folks just come on the weekend to look at the newborn calves, the heifers out grazing or the pigs rooting in the soil. Our products and events draw health and community-minded individuals from as far away as Boston. All are welcome at any time and we believe strongly that people need to know more about where their food comes from.
Read “Two Poems for Brookford Farm by Meghan Collins
Liberation Farm
Wales, ME
Liberation Farms is food justice in action. It is a demonstration of the success that is possible when marginalized communities have the opportunity to organize and lead themselves. It provides new American families struggling with food insecurity with the tools and resources to grow healthy, culturally-appropriate foods for themselves and their community. This investment in growing nourishes body and soul as farmers ground into familiar traditions and meaningfully utilize their agricultural roots as they build new homes here in Maine. The program assists Somali Bantu Family Farmers by providing access to land, seeds, trainings, technical assistance, and marketing.
Read “Liberation Farm” by David Crews
Normanton Farms
Litchfield, NH
We sell delicious, healthful, pastured chicken, pastured pork, and 100% grass-fed beef all raised on our certified organic pastures. The cattle at Normanton Farms are the foundation of our holistic farming system that mimics nature in a way that builds fertility in the soil, treats the animals humanely, and produces healthy food. In the spring, summer, and fall we move our cattle every day to graze in a fresh paddock of our certified organic pasture. The cattle trample what they don’t eat, leaving behind plenty of organic material to feed earthworms and other organisms and to return nutrients to the soil. We provide free-choice certified organic minerals such as salt, iodine, potassium and calcium. During the winter, we feed them certified organic dry hay and wrapped bales of certified organic high-moisture hay. We do not treat our cattle with hormones or antibiotics. Our cattle have never tasted corn, corn silage, brewer’s grain, or any other kind of concentrated grain. We do not even use grain for “handling” them. We buy weaned calves only from like-minded farmers whom we know and trust, and we require our suppliers to agree to our “never-ever” protocol, which outlines humane standards of animal handling and care like: offering enough time before weening calves from their mother’s milk, following a list of appropriate and safe supplements, offering a minimum set time for grassland grazing, and providing pasture forages that have been grown without chemical pesticides or herbicides.
Read Three Poems for Normanton Farms by Mary Bancaccio
Vernon Family Farm
Newfields, NH
Situated on 33 acres in Newfields, NH, Vernon Family Farm is a pastured poultry operation focused on regenerating soils, community, and connections to food. The chickens are raised with non-GMO grains, are USDA certified, Halal inspected, air chilled, and every part of the animal is processed and used. Along with a value added product line named “Wicked Chicken” which includes a rotisserie chicken, soup, and pot pie, the farm offers an incredible selection of cuts and preparations for their customers such as chicken sausage, ground, offal, skins, and broths. In addition to their meat offerings, Vernon Family Farm also sells rainbow eggs from their pasture raised hens and a variety of farm products from Brookford Farm and other local NH farms.