Friday, January 26, 2018
An on-site U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector flagged the facility for the "mis-stun" of a sheep. Animals are stunned before they are slaughtered.
"This caused the animal to suffer momentarily before another stun could be properly administered," said the statement from Arion Thiboumery, general manager of Vermont Packinghouse. During the one-day suspension, other aspects of the business — including meat packing and processing — remained in operation, according to Thiboumery.
Tags: Vermont Packinghouse , animal slaughter , USDA , humane treatment , livestock , violations , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Blexy, an 1,800-pound Holstein, was named Supreme Champion at the
World Dairy Expo on October 7 in Madison, Wisc. She bested about 2,300 animals to win the prize.
Blexy's co-owners, Sharyn and Tim Abbott, live in Enosburg and operate a dairy farm and cattle breeding business in Richford, Borderview Genetics.
Tags: Vermont , Holstein , dairy cows , World Dairy Expo , Franklin County , Image , Web Only
Monday, August 7, 2017
About 400 people attended the sold-out fundraiser for the VFN — a statewide nonprofit that connects food producers and restaurateurs, and works to strengthen partnership between the groups. The network's membership includes 113 chefs and 140 farmers/food producers.
Sunday night at the Coach Barn, farmer-chef connections were on display in a delicious and creative array of mini-meals, from complex (smoked beef with pickled blueberries and radishes, garlic-chili aioli, basil and mint) to simple (ham and butter on baguette).
To honor the event, we recognize seven contributions:
Tags: Shelburne Farms , Vermont Fresh Network , farm to table , fundraiser , locavore , Image , Web Only
Thursday, March 30, 2017
Allison Hooper and Bob Reese cofounded Vermont Butter & Cheese Company from a barn in Brookfield in 1984. Thirty-three years later the business, which changed its name to Vermont Creamery in 2013, brings in tens of millions of dollars annually and employs about 100 Vermonters full time.
While representatives from the creamery and from Land O'Lakes have been forthcoming since news of the sale broke yesterday, many Vermonters were left wondering what it would all mean. Would the company stay in Vermont? What would happen to current employees, and to the farmers from whom the creamery buys milk? Would the chèvre, cultured butter and soft-ripened cheeses be different now?
Tags: Vermont Creamery , Goat Cheese , Land O' Lakes , Deals , Image , Web Only
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Tags: Farmers Market , Burlington , UVM Dudley Davis Center , Duck eggs , Rice , Locavore , Image , Web Only
Monday, October 17, 2016
Since then, BRP has operated as an independent entity — until now. On October 24, the company will be purchased by Illinois- and Wisconsin-based Reinhart Foodservice, the fourth largest food-service distributor in the country. Staff was informed of the change on Friday.
Tags: Black River Produce , Reinhart , distribution , food , Image , Web Only
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Luitel is among a group of about 30 people, most of them from the Bhutanese community, who have been picking grapes at the vineyard since the harvest season started earlier this month. A smaller number of Congolese are also pitching in at the vineyard on Route 7.
For the past three years, co-owner Kenneth Albert has depended on his personal connection with a Bhutanese individual to recruit grape pickers from that community. "They are more reliable," he said. "Local residents [are] doing it as more of a recreation."
Tags: Shelburne Vineyard , Bhutanese , grape pickers , harvest , Image , Web Only
Thursday, June 2, 2016
This week’s issue of Seven Days features an interview with renowned food writer Ruth Reichl. Last week, I met Reichl at Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, where she spent three days co-teaching a summer course called “Food Writing From the Farm” at the college’s School of the New American Farmstead.
There wasn’t enough space to run the entire interview in print. Here are extended questions and answers from our front-porch conversation on the Sterling College campus:
Tags: Ruth Reichl , Sterling College , agriculture , chefs , eating , dining , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Sometimes, you feel like brunch at Shelburne Farms. But that craving can't be satisfied last-minute — reservations are necessary well in advance. And not all of us want to pay $14 for a veggie hash, anyway.
Luckily, there's a lower-cost but equally ultra-local option. In front of the Farm Barn, a food-truck-style set-up known as the Farm Cart offers a menu of sandwiches, salads and soup. And since seating is at gnarled wood picnic tables in an open field, you may be joined for lunch by a chicken or two, as I was.
Tags: alice eats , shelburne farms , shelburne , burger , beef , strawberries , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
On Saturday, Wisconsin's Cheese Underground blog broke news that the FDA had reinterpreted a food safety law, in effect outlawing the centuries-old practice of aging cheese on wooden boards.
The post unleashed a fury in the nation's artisan cheese community, and food bloggers responded in kind, posting articles with gloom-and-doom headlines such as "FDA May Destroy American Artisan Cheese Industry" (Forbes) and "The FDA’s Misguided War on Bacteria That Make Cheese Taste Good" (Slate).
If the policy sticks, it could have dire consequences for Vermont's artisan cheese industry, costing small, family-run businesses millions, should they be required to replace wooden aging shelving with stainless steel or another material.
But Vermont Congressman Peter Welch says in a phone interview with Seven Days that he plans to put the kibosh on the issue before it impacts local creameries. "We've got to stop this dead in its tracks," he says. "The cheesemakers are rightfully alarmed, and the FDA has issued a statement that creates [a lot of] ambiguity and uncertainty. There's just no reason to ban — or to suggest the possibility of banning — wood boards on which to age cheese."
Welch calls the policy "a catastrophic situation in the making ... The reason I say catastrophic is, if you make our artisan cheesemakers get rid of their wood and replace it with stainless steel, [it'll be] enormously expensive." The congressman also foresees consequences extending far beyond the borders of our little state: "This is the mother of all trade wars with Europe. Their cheesemakers use wood [for aging], and they would be prohibited from exporting that cheese to the U.S., and then obviously that would create a retaliatory response. So this is the mother of all dumb ideas, and we've gotta stop it."
Tags: cheese , cheesemakers , dairy , FDA , food , food safety , Peter Welch , Image , Web Only