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First a huge thank you to everyone who shared so much great info this month! This feels like a BIG Bites, it doesn't even include the usual Big E review.

The New England Food System Planners Partnership released a detailed analysis of local food spending in New England – Regional Food Count 2022. The report reveals that $2.28 billion or 3.1% of New England’s total $120.6 billion in food, beverage & alcohol expenditures were directed towards local & regional products, highlighting a critical area for potential growth & investment. 

In this report, ‘local’ is defined as food grown or produced by state & 'regional' is defined as food grown or produced in New England. The report reveals that spending on food & alcohol for at home consumption totaled $55.6 billion, or 46.1%, of the regional total, with the remaining $64.9 billion spent at restaurants & other venues away from home. Spending across just five channels—grocery stores, supercenters, food stores, & limited-service and full-service restaurants—accounted for nearly 70.0% of total state food & alcohol sales.

Accompanying the local food count, is an interactive data dashboard, enabling a look at the regional and state level results. Expanding a regional food system as we are in New England takes leadership, vision, & grit. Under Ellen Kahler's leadership the six NE states are building alliances among organizations which in turn help drive more connectivity with producers, distributors, stores, & end-users. Having a strategic plan that is revisited acts as a signpost & a roadmap. The goals of the regional research are embedded in the VT Grocers Project & through data collection at Vermont stores & distributors for ten years.

Seasonal Products Require a Seasonal Touch for 4Q Sales

With fall here, displays across stores get retooled to highlight seasonal sales in addition to "regular" sales promos.

At the Buffalo Mountain Market, the Produce Crew recently reworked displays & farmer photos to highlight their local producers. It may seem like a 'boring' vegetable, but the staff knows how to merchandise freshly harvested, flavorful, cabbages. The Arrowhead variety is a rare tender, sweet seasonal variety that allows for a texture break along with the display of collards, green Savoy, & purple cabbages.

At the Genny in Craftsbury their house-made line of soups always feature local ingredients & are slacked out for easy 4Q sales. With many varieties stocked for easy grab & go, the soups are a highlight for the busy fall, augmenting sales of complimentary products including freshly baked crusty breads, Vermont cheese, apples & of course other ready-made foods from their exceptionally talented kitchen crew. 

4thQ sales always has "gifts" in the mix. Our artisan crafters often find increased sales at local stores which can act as a 'gateway' to develop more wholesale opportunities.

Holiday planning starts earlier in the year for our food manufacturers & for buyers. Now is the time to review your pre-orders or get on the horn. You want to be sure you have lined up ‘hardgoods’ & gifts, & of course abundant chocolates for holiday sales

Farmhouse Chocolates is just one of our fabulous chocolatiers ready to stock your needs to enhance holiday gifts. Head to their 'wholesale page' for details. (they also sell direct to consumer)

Farmhouse Market in Wilmington has the ubiquitous colorful & abundant fall apples, pumpkins, & squash. As a brand new member of INFRA purchasing cooperative the buyers have access to a wider range of products through the national distributor KeHe that will round out their 'natural' & organic product mix & offer more competitive pricing.

"What I didn't know was that much of America's food industry was working to put small independent grocers like me out of business. Since day one, I have struggled to keep our grocery prices competitive because of the high prices I've needed to pay for them. "- Farmhouse Market, Wilmington

Store & Farm Stand Technical Support Services

Jessie is rocking the resets at the Morrisville Food Coop. The store is receiving technical assistance through Farm to Plate's Grocers Project. The suite of services is offered to inde stores & coops. We provide an opportunity to up-train new staff in the nuances of retail food sales that support local economies, their communities, & expand fresh-food offerings. Services are formatted to help meet the needs of individual stores with TA offered online & in person. Contact Annie to discuss & line up services.

Getting it Right: Cooler Tools

Organization matters, especially for small stores with limited staffing. Clear plastic bins (lids sold separately) are perfect to organize small produce orders. Keeping them in a designated spot in a walkin makes it easy to keep track of products & stock while maintaining quality.

An often-overlooked backstock detail: You cannot place boxes directly on the floor. This applies to the sales floor & walkin. Dunnage racks are great in coolers & backstock areas for produce & other products. These are designed for bearing heavy weight & are easy to keep clean.   

There are many options out there in internet land for food storage bins & racks & they are available through local restaurant supply businesses too. Do make the effort to properly store products not only for health code compliance food safety, but product integrity too. 

It Takes Organization

To Create Regional Sales

To increase sales requires bridging gaps across the full slate of businesses from farmers through production, to distribution & finally stores & market channels. This chain of events is present across all food categories each with their own unique variables.

September was a month where folks gathered to learn, share, network & bridge 'industry knowledge gaps'. The Vermont Specialty Food Association held its annual meeting. This event provides insights from food manufacturers & trade organizations where everything is touched upon directly through speakers think compliance variables to grow your food business (insurance, HR, etc) & a day of targeted B2B networking engagement.

Also this month Vermont celebrated "Cheese Week" with fabulous events at farms, cheese manufacturing, & the day long Vermont Cheese Council Cheese Summit. The summit was one of the highlights for folks attending from LA, Chicago, New England & of course Vermont for a day of learning, sharing & tasting geared to "industry folks. The hours meeting our cheese makers & tasting clearly fulfilled the needs of cheese influencers such as Nick Hoehn of The Roaming Wedge a cheese shop on wheels in Chicago. His time in Vermont was very special. “As I sit back and reflect on the past week spent in Vermont for the Vermont Cheese Council cheese week cumulating in the cheese summit all I can say is Perfection! The amount of time and care every farmer & cheesemaker put into managing the perfect landscape of Vermont and the care put into every pound of cheese made shows immensely!!

There is a network of specialists that are story tellers. Both Janee of Mobile Monger who toured Vermont & Alisha Norris Jones who joined Jasper Hill for a week of cheese training had great adventures at farms, stores, & hobnobbing. Both curd nerds share lots of info in podcasts, writings & topics all things cheese. Both welcome Small Bites readers to join their platforms to develop your ‘cheeseness’ capacities. 

Speaking of Cheese:

Major Kudos!

Beth Chevalier, the Cheese Department manager at the Brattleboro Food Co-op, passed the American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional® (ACS CCP®) Exam this past June.

The Exam, not commonly known outside cheesemonger & maker circles, is notorious in the U.S. artisanal cheese community as the cheese equivalent of the bar exam. For the layperson, it may be more helpful to think of this as something akin to becoming a sommelier of cheese. By any standard, it is a huge achievement, & the Brattleboro Food Co-op community is immensely proud of her effort. Read more on her achievement!

Kayleigh Boucher of Boucher Farm takes on the role of 'next-gen' sales & marketing of the hand-crafted 'Blues'. She attended the Cheese Summit & shared samples with mongers from across the country, as well as regional distributors. Their famed 'Gore Dawn Zola' is simultaneously sweet, earthy, & creamy.

For over 18 years this farm has produced small production raw-milk cheeses by hand at their dairy. Provisions International is one of their distribution outlets. Locally, the cheese can be found at City Market, Healthy Living & Shelburne Supermarket. Down in southern Vermont their cheese can be found at the Brattleboro Food Coop where Beth Chevalier is the head buyer. They also sell direct to customers & cheese-seekers at Burlington's summer farmers' market.

Planning 4th Quarter Sales

Free Verse Farm takes pride in growing herbs organically with great attention & care. From seed to harvest, herbs are grown with intention & harvested with reverence.

Then they blend them by hand in their small apothecary. The result is an herbal tea experience that you won't forget: voluminous herbal blends with fragrant leaves & flowers.

Available to stores through Food Connects & online wholesale through Mable. With chilly temps on the way, stock your shelves with these high quality products to enhance 4Q sales. Check out their 'Wholesale Tab' for more info.

Brand Building: It Takes A Team

Bringing food products to market is an iterative process. Just ask Andrew at Mighty Mudita who attended the 2023 Grocer Project's Distribution Readiness series. His niche plant based product line was all about meeting a need. The product development was a huge first step for this emerging food entrepreneur. What followed was a course in meeting many needs to grow a business with business support services & production at CAE.

With a keen eye for differentiation, he met up with the design services of Tara Lynn Clayton. She is based in Vermont serving food, beverage, & specialty brands. As a brand grows, so do the details to professionalize product packaging, marketing, all types of outreach promotion to meet & expand sales potential. Tara’s style jumps out due in part to her whimsy but also her attention to matching styles with client desires for positive outcomes.

From small emerging brands to multi-million-dollar enterprises, she helps businesses grow their sales through a systematic approach commensurate with the scale & aspirations of each client. She welcomes new clients across the Small Bites readership of farm, food, & distribution sectors.

Scaling Business: Everything is Connected

Over the years Small Bites has touched on all aspects of production through to retail. Each issue illustrates the intricacies & knowledge needed to affectively sell food & support effective growth.

Often stores switch up their distributors for 'better pricing' to pass along to shoppers. It also happens that food manufacturers & farmers switch distributors for any number of reasons including but not limited to downward pricing pressures, pickup or delivery variables, bearing increased sales & marketing allowances, unfavorable payment terms & impacts to cashflow. At the production level changes can make products less available to stores & changes at the distribution level affect producers’ access to stores. This is a very fluid business which impacts product availability.

A 2016 article by Mark Cannella frames some of these 'scale' issues from a farm perspective, yet the growth variables are tangible across the supply chain. This quote remains relevant & can be applied to food manufacturing CPG brands too. 

'Why not encourage small farms & food manufacturers to simply scale up? To grow larger and reach an economy of scale that could increase profits? Many have tried but it turns out to be not so easy. Expanding a farm business almost always requires the recruitment, management, and retention of employees, which requires setting up formal payroll practices, absorbing costs to provide worker benefits, and institutionalizing specific farm management practices for others to follow. This requires new skill sets. Scaling up also leads to a customer service focus that many farmers are not interested in fulfilling. This does not mean that small farmers aren’t friendly and courteous to talk to—many excel at that. But an expanding farm must engage with all different types of buyers. Farming & marketing simultaneously is not for everyone. And the impact of managing various distribution options is time consuming with increased pressure on cash flow management.' 

Business News:

Change in the Air

After 34 years as an anchor bakery in Chittenden County Mirabelle's Bakery has changed ownership. Farm to Plate wishes the best for the big life change for founders & ace bakers & business folks Alison Lane & Andrew Silva. The new owners intend to continue to keep selling direct to consumer, & continue the frozen line sold wholesale through Lesser Distribution. Read about the new ownership in Seven Days.

Butterworks Farm has also changed ownership recently. With an eye to expanding sales opportunities the new owners look to continuing the valuable legacy of the Lazor family to the land, the health of animals, building soil, & of course premium organic yogurt & other dairy products to reach across New England. Read more here.

American Flatbread frozen pizza (was) a Vermont brand born in Waitsfield. Expanding the brand was a key element when in 2010 owner George Schenk could no longer keep up with demand & the opportunity looked bright. He sold to Rustic Crust in Pittsfield, NH & in 2018 $8million was invested for expansion by private equity Advantage Capital Agribusiness Partners (ACAP). In August 2024, Rustic Crust was in a panic to secure more money yet was denied funding from banks. This manufacturing plant was the 3rd largest employer in the town & a once solid New England based brand. The private equity, the sudden closure seems reminiscent to the Vermont Koffee Kup & VT Bread Company debacle in April 2021. According to the nonprofit Private Equity Stakeholder Project, private equity portfolio companies are more likely to go bankrupt than other companies & they are seen as looting our country of jobs & getting away with it. Check out Plunder for a read into PEs deleterious impact across the entire spectrum of businesses.

This Is What

We're Talkin' About!

Nestled high in the Vermont mountains, Flag Hill Farm, is one of the original Vermont cideries that helped pave the way for the craft cider renaissance. The rustic family farm is solar-powered, adheres to Audubon guidelines for maximizing bird & pollinator habitat & is a Real Organic Project farm that is part of the VT Land Trust. Their certified organic hard ciders, apple brandy & cider vinegars draw complexity from the collection of over 80 varieties of cultivated & wild apples!

Flag Hill partners with Side Hill Orchard sourcing organic apples grown across the way in Vershire since 1987 (certified since 2010). The craft of growing a wide range of hardy varieties in the 200-tree orchard & the craft of producing beautifully flavored vinegars makes for a long lasting & respected partnership & products sought by buyers in the northeast.

The small batch apple cider vinegar & apple balsamic are available DSD to area Coops, including the family of Hanover Lebanon stores, through Food Connects & Myers Produce. It is available up & down the mi- Atlantic region & to Vermont stores through Rainforest Distribution based in New Jersey. This large & growing distributor carries niche products from New England; many brands had been carried by Associated Buyers but have the potential to meet sales as far as the mid-Atlantic region.

Farmer a Retailer:

Roots Farm Market

Located in Middlesex at the intersection of Routes 2 & 100B this vibrant store features all their own prolific crops along with an emphasis on Vermont & regional products.

Like many stores, Roots Farm Market adjust their purchasing & sales strategies based on the numbers. Data is key at understanding where their profit centers are for their farm & their store.

They work closely with their distributors, making strategic adjustments as needed. As farmers, they know the value of direct to store vendor relationships for products across categories. They have a nice range of "hard goods", these might fit a gift category which help drive 4thQ sales. Local artisans find a supportive partnership as do our food makers of shelf stable products.

October is a blitz of every imaginable colorful cucurbit, local apples from orchards including Scott's in Dummerston are made available through Farm Connex. A primary feature is their locally raised meat section. It is clearly a defined element of their business with well merchandised, easy to shop selections. As temperature will shift, fall begins the season of roasted meats & high quality meat is always served at holiday tables. 

October is Party Month

Center for an Agricultural Economy celebrates its 20th year. It will be holding a celebration on Saturday, Oct. 5, at its three Hardwick locations: Atkins Field, Vermont Food Venture Center & the Food Hub. There is much to celebrate, including the 'Yellow Barn Project & the new facility for Farm Connex distribution, both supporting expansion of products to the region.

We Like These Signs Of The Times

Informative signs & clear communication are key strategies in sales & marketing. Sometimes they are well thought out & tactical led by cohesive marketing & operation teams, other times they are filling an immediate need. Either way they matter in helping customers make choices & definitely they help in distribution getting products on the right truck to the right stores.

Information can truly be the key to helping showcase new, regional or unusual products, such as the Sugarloaf Chicory & Mass grown ginger at Buffalo Mountain Market.

Networks Matter:

Farm to Plate Annual Gathering at Killington's Grand Resort is

November 20 & 21. It is two days of collaborative problem solving, skill building, & innovation in Vermont’s food system. This year it is centered around the theme Transformative Action. Registration is scheduled to open soon!

New England Feeding

New England

Marty’s Local in Deerfield, MA builds our regional food system by linking the exceptional farmers & food producers of our area with local retail & institutional outlets. 

They offer daily deliveries of fresh, high-quality produce, flours & grains, dairy, meats, cheeses, & specialty foods. They source from farms & food businesses in Western Massachusetts, Vermont, the Hudson Valley of New York, Connecticut, & Maine.

The farmers & food producers in New England can grow, raise, & make almost anything. This enormous variety of delicious & healthy foods is right here, all within a day’s drive and often much closer. By supporting these businesses, Marty's team is growing our local economies, providing flavorful & nourishing foods, promoting sustainable agriculture, protecting farmland, while celebrating the rich heritage of our region. Thanks for all you do Marty'sLocal!

Defining VT Local

In prior Small Bites, you have seen the clues about what is "local" to Vermont per ACT 129. Here is an example of a complying business:



Processed foods are broken into two subgroups. A product is considered a ‘processed food’ whenever it is not a raw agricultural product, but processed foods also include raw agricultural products that have been subject to processing, such as canning, cooking, dehydrating, milling, or the addition of other ingredients. 

Processed foods include dairy, meat, maple products, beverages, fruit, or vegetables that have been subject to processing, baked, or modified into a value-added or unique food product. 

Processed foods are “local” and/or “Vermont” food if:

• The majority of ingredients (meaning more than 50 percent of all product ingredients by volume, excluding water) are raw agricultural products that are “local” to Vermont;

• The product was either processed in Vermont or the food manufacturer is headquartered in Vermont (or both are true).  

Flag Hill ciders & vinegar are local by Vermont definition: headquartered here, incorporating local ingredients, & produced in Vershire. Please add VT local as an attribute to your POS system to collect the data!

Looking for Local?

The links have been corrected!



Intervale Food Hub

Provisions International

VT Roots

ACORN Food Hub 

Upper Valley Produce 

Monument Farms 

Food Connects

Lesser Distribution 

Pumpkin Village Foods

Killam Sales

Myers Produce

Wilcox

Marty's Local

Kayleigh Boucher in her happy place!

Did you Know?

Farm to Plate's events/news/jobs page is a go-to list all sorts of great ways to connect & learn. Check it out regularly & share your good stuff too! Ooddles of updates that can include agroforestry, women farmer summits, butchering seminars, staffing news, & so much more.

Calling All Legislators

As a reader of Small Bites, tell us about your local food constituents. Feed me info on farm, food, or retail stores. Email a pic, a link, a short tale, etc. With your help, we can spread the word of businesses in your jurisdiction. Let's share the good things! email:

smallbites802@gmail.com

We cover food production, delivery, sales, & global supply chain variables to support viable regional food systems. We are definitely Vermont focused, but this info is widely applicable for stores & farmstands to increase local food sales. 

WOW! SO many great 'shares' from you all this month!

Special Thanks: Claire at VT Cheese Council, Ruth at Brattleboro Food Coop, Shad at Rainforest Distribution, April at Intervale Food Hub, The entire CAE & Farm Connex Crew, Emily & Valeria & Buffalo Mountain Coop, Sebastian at Flag Hill Farm & Cydery, Michael at Lesser, Food Connects, Kayliegh at Boucher Farm

Small Bites comes to you via grants & is created for farmers, food manufacturers, distributors, & grocers to increase VT food sales. We support the New England State Food System Planners Partnership effort to strengthen the regional food economy

Contact: Annie Harlow

smallbites802@gmail.com

All info is subject to change.

Created with support from the Canaday Family Charitable Trust