Like many things in the world, it turns out that even when it comes to organizing farm tours, there is a certain order to things. Order things the wrong way, and you’ll find yourself promptly zipped into a hazmat suit on the hottest day of the summer. Like so:
On Wednesday morning, I met up with the Norwich University crew on Sou
th Hill in Williamstown at Chappelle’s Potatoes. Bob and Barb Chappelle are known for their 50-acres of potato production, but what many don’t know is that the Chappelle’s are also one of the (if not “the”) largest seed potato suppliers in Vermont. Walking around the potato warehouse, you can see signs of Bob’s past career as an engineer. Everything is efficient and calculated, perhaps also as a result of the benefits of specializing in growing one crop – a rarity in a state like Vermont where many vegetable producers are highly diversified.
From Chappelle’s, we drove southeast to Long Wind Farm in Thetford. We were met at the farmstand door by owner Dave Chapman, holding an armful of white plastic bags.
“You just came from a potato farm, and you’re at a tomato farm. You’re going to have to put these on,” he said has he passed out full body, white plastic suits to our team. As much as we giggled negotiating skirts and limbs into one-size-fits-all suits, the reason for this safety measure was quite serious. Dave apparently had just recently heard about a case of blight at another farm in Vermont, a plant disease that can destroy entire crops. With a disease like blight that affects crops like potatoes and tomatoes, one case of blight can easily become hundreds…in other words: Hazmat suit on. Duly noted for next year – we will not visit the potato producer and tomato producer in the same day.
I’v
e heard tales about Long Wind Farm’s 2-acres of greenhouses that produce tomatoes almost year-round, but this was my first time actually seeing it. Row after row, the tomato vines are encouraged to grow taller and taller, using a vine-wrapping system that winds throughout the rows. Looking at one tomato plant, Dave estimated 
that from the base of the stem to the top of the plant strung up it was 35 feet tall.
The heat pipes that run along the base of the plant also double as tracks for their harvesting shuttles to run on. Long Wind has plants producing from March through December, giving the soil and plants a rest for a few of the winter months.
The final leg of our tour brought us to Randolph to visit Freedom Foods. 
Freedom Foods is a food processing facility for specialty food producers, just south of the village of Randolph. Owner Kathy Bacon touted that with little to no marketing, they receive over five inquiries a day from food producers across the country looking for kitchen space to rent. Our group of chefs didn’t know what to expect as we wandered from kitchen to kitchen, each full of new-fangled mixers and bottle fillers and dish washers and baggers. Each piece of equipment was introduced as a calculation of time – “this filler can fill in 5 minutes what it used to take us to fill in an hour.” I could see the mental wish list of each chef growing as we rounded every corner.
As I got back on I-89 north headed home, it dawned on me how each of our hosts that day illustrated models of specialization and scale: Bob, Barb, and Dave immersed in the high efficiency, yet high risk of producing a single crop; Kathy being 18 months into operating a new facility that more than quadrupled the size of her previous production space. Quite a group of fascinating innovators to spend a day with!
nate about everything apple. Sandi Earle, Executive Chef at Champlain College, met and thanked the crew who make the apple pies she serves in her dining hall. We watched an incredibly efficient crew pack the remains of last years apple crop into retail bags. We poked our heads into the newly constructed cidery. We ended with a stroll up the hill to see the new apple trees.
ch Vermont Sweetwater was ahead of the curve years ago. The company began with a Vermont Maple Seltzer in the mid-1990s, made using sap from their neighboring sugarmakers in the Poultney area. In a retro-fitted dairy barn which houses all of their production and storage, we sampled their creative additions to the product line of natural sodas, with flavors like Rugged Mountain Root Beer and Mango Moonshine. 
le Food Hub aggregates products from farms across Vermont and distributes throughout the Burlington area. This was our first visit since Intervale Food Hub became an approved vendor this summer, becoming a gateway for many small to mid-scale farms to sell into UVM. Our team got to see the packing room where all products get aggregated and packed out to then be delivered to three sites on UVM campus. Thanks to Bobby Young and Sona Desai at IFH for being great partners!
Opening the door to their new greenhouse packed full of tomato vines, Andy explained how they expect to produce over 20,000lbs of tomatoes out of this one greenhouse. As Andy fielded questions, it was apparent how the combination of his experience, technical knowledge, calm manner, and calculated approach to farming were a good example of the “something right” that has dictated this long life of ICF.
that the word “mirth” in 
Diggers’ Mirth is truly a fact of life on this farm. Quality of products grown at Diggers’ Mirth as well as quality of life seem to hold equal weight. Since 1992, they have enjoyed slow growth, experienced very little debt, and have enough shared responsibility to not over-tax any of the owners and workers.
rom UVM should visit the UVM farm, Catamount Farm. Our tour guides, Isabella and Amanda, were part of the UVM Farmer Training Program, a 6-month intensive training program for aspiring farmers and food system advocates. In addition to seeing where our food comes from when we purchase from Catamount Farm, we got to see first hand all that Isabella and Amanda have learned in just a few short months of being in the program. To top it off, Isabella whipped out a pocket knife to slice off some vegetable samples during our stroll through the fields.
ont Soy, Michael Carr, Business Manager, asked if we were indeed going to Boyden Valley Winery later that afternoon. Yes, I confirmed. Michael went on to say how the Boyden’s had just planted a large crop of soybeans for Vermont Soy, and circled around to explain that the okara, a by-product from tofu production, then went back to the Boyden’s to feed their cow herd.
nt Soy sits the 15,000 sq ft facility of the Center for an Agricultural Economy, the home of the Vermont Food Venture Center. For full disclosure here, this is where I worked before coming to Sodexo! A lot has happened since my last day back in February, from new products being made to new equipment coming in the door. In addition to the community building, market development for farmers, and food business incubation work they are known for, what’s clear in walking away from a tour with Connor, Sarah, and Alissa is that they’re a great team.
wner Dave Marchant pulled up in a golf cart, having been harvesting greens in a distant field. I think one thing I deeply admire about experienced farmers is their ability to quickly calculate what “makes sense.” When asked about the history of the farm stand that we stood in while talking with Dave, Dave simply responded it was the result of needing a place to send folks who stopped by looking for a head of lettuce. So he built them a farm stand that operates with an honor code system. Create your own market that requires very little management to run – makes sense.
business management, the Boyden’s are a staple of Vermont’s farming economy. Operating at least five different businesses under the family name, from maple produ
ction to a winery to an event center to growing soy beans for Vermont Soy, they have discovered a way of creating business opportunities between and within generations on this, rather large, plot of land.
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