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The Season of Good Food, Good People, & Gratitude

So much good came out of the Small, Yet Mighty workshop on November 8th. Through a USDA Market development grant Farm to Plate hosted a training for independent and cooperative stores. Jeanie Wells of Mighty Community Markets, James Morrell of Columinate Consulting, & Annie Harlow of the Farm to Plate Grocers Project brought their A-Game covering loads of info to take back to stores. The topics included an overview of the grocery sector, & the intersection of competition, store margins, product differentiation, & clarity of the VT Local Food Definition. Stores showed up for this first-of-a-kind training. In 2024 Farm to Plate & its network partners will have workshops geared to stores, food manufacturers, & producers including farmers to hone skills & insights to sell products & meet one another to exchange info & ideas.

In this issue, we share some mighty good information & resources to help drive local VT sales in state & to the northeast region. Read on!

Bringing it on!

Our Small, Yet Mighty workshop was the first of its kind offered by Farm to Plate’s Grocers Project. It could not have been better!

2024 we will be rolling out more workshops & training for stores supporting them in selling more local products, while also improving operations, & margin gain. We will host both online & in person to professionalize grocery sales & clarify market variables & constraints. Do you have a topic you want us to cover to help your store? Let us know!

We are also lining up workshops for

vendors to access distribution & improve their operations in the competitive grocer & CPG environment. Stay tuned! Be sure to keep up with Small Bites where we will promote them. A special thanks to all the folks attending & to Savoure, Garuka Bars, & Krin's Bakery for goodies that the workshop registrants were introduced to and enjoyed.

Local Berries

November is all about the Vermont Cranberry Company. This unique niche, highly seasonal business is helping stores to differentiate from larger national chains. Under Cranberry Bob's watchful eye, Vermont's first & only commercial cranberry farm continues to thrive. 2023 was a heck of a growing year for all crops, & the cranberries weathered the variables well.

Area stores can access the limited

fresh berries & processed juice through Pumpkin Village Foods, Myers Produce, Food Connects Black River Produce/PFG, UNFI Produce, & select direct to store delivery DSD to established accounts.

Stores such as Monadnock Coop in NH drive their seasonal produce sales by accessing products such as cranberries through Food Connects. As always with distribution product selection & companies are subject to change.

"It only rained twice in 2023, once for 25 days straight, the second time, for 17. -Cranberry Bob

No need to wait for December sales for Eggnog when November works!

Across the state our dairies are blending their masterpieces & capturing sales at area stores.

Strafford Organic, & Miller Farm are two dairies featuring eggnog now. Seasonal sales benefit from optimal visibility, clear signage, & social media promotional posts.

Keep Your Eyes on These Stores

East Calais General Store had its grand reopening on October 27th. Luminaries from our local, state, & federal representatives celebrated this event. The newly restored 1850 store has once again become a social hub for the community. The selection of offerings is being fine-tuned, as of now the store serves up 802 Coffee & stocks miso, Local Donuts, milk, groceries, prepared foods. It is also CSA drop off for Pete's Greens. Read more

JJHapgood the town center of Peru is undergoing a change in ownership & stewardship. Ten years ago the store came back to life after a mighty renovation & served its community well. Early this month the transition began under new ownership. The store will be reopening after a short transition period.

Bringing You Vermont is a unique general store & sandwich shop in Bennington. Offering a large assortment of quality goods proudly made in Vermont, they receive deliveries from local distributors including Killam Sales. They have everything merchandised for easy sales & as the name implies, are all about Vermont!

Clarifying Local Products

In Small Bites, you have seen the clues about what is "local" to Vermont per ACT 129. In future issues, look for "random acts of products" to help clarify the definition.

1. 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.
2. 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.

Babette's Table complies as a "processed food" using Vermont pork, processed & headquartered in state.

Choosing & Onboarding Products

In our store workshop, Jeanie Wells provided great insight into the use of data in product selection. It is valuable for stores (& vendors) to learn to ask questions & review data to be clear on the purpose of the category & potential value of placing new products in your mix. Here are a few of her “questions to ask”:

Will it strengthen your position in the market?

What tier product is it ?(think good, better, best as regards quality &/or pricing profile)

Will it cannibalize sales of your existing products?

What does data suggest, is it a top seller?

What slow sellers will you cut?

4th Q Cheese

Jasper Hill Farm based in Greensboro, took home the highest honor as Best American Cheese at the annual international World Cheese Award competition. Their Harbison's took home the coveted trophy. This soft-ripened cheese with a rustic, bloomy rind is wrapped in strips of spruce cambium, the tree's inner bark layer, harvested from the woodlands of Jasper Hill.

Congratulations JHF, this is a huge

win for you & for Vermont! Stores carrying this cheese (& other JHF)

have a great opportunity to bring awareness of the award with signage & social postings.

Vermont's food economy relies on a network distributors, each with their own specialty in products selected, types of accounts they service & range of routes. Farm to Plate Grocers Project helps stores access products. Through our ten years developing tools, let us help you!

Myers Produce is a woman-owned regional trucking company based out of hubs in New York City, Western Mass & Northern Vermont. By shipping regional products across food categories to stores in the metro areas, they are meeting the demands of store buyers, farmers & food manufacturers. A recent purchase of a warehouse in Hatfield, MA offers food companies dry & refrigerated storage along with logistics.

Reminder: Harvest of the Month

Stores often do not have substantial internal marketing programs. Lacking the resources of large corporate entities, retailers can lean on existing resources to help inform staff. Knowledgeable staff will drive sales by sharing product knowledge & vendor information with their shoppers.

In Vermont, we have Harvest of the

Month, a project incubated by Green Mountain Farm Direct. The extensive resources help stores, food service workers, educators & the

public learn about "food culture & origins" through multiple resources.

The amount of useful information should not be ignored. An absence of information lessens sales

opportunities & thwarts the local economic multiplier effect, which we strive for in our stores & in our communities.

A featured harvest each month provides inspiration for your store or farmstand. Use the shelf tags, posters, register signs, & recipes to market your store as the local differentiating option while supporting Vermont farmers.

Supply Side: Facts & Fallacy

Soil grown organic food has been diminished by policy, lack of oversight, & a redefinition of organic which has led to the "explosion" in organic sales.

Organic has over the last 30 years

become a gigantic business funded by private equity & financial securities supported by USDA policies. These powerful businesses & interests drive actions that dilute & are contrary to the interpretation of the original soil & environmental welfare attributes of the USDA definition.

Hydroponics has led to the farce of

USDA organic integrity. Berries grown in the plasticized growing systems are now the primary growing practice in the southeast (& globally including South American berries). Organic production practices by law must maintain or improve the physical, hydrological & biological features of a production operation, including soil, water, wetlands, & wildlife. The laws have been diluted to favor the mega corporations & their supply chain partners that are disrupting fragile ecosystems with the influx of new growing systems.

Stores have seen a huge increase in low-cost berries for winter sales, often being clueless to the production which can be contrary to a stores’ purchasing mission statement. But lower costs can allow for margin gain at the retail level. This can be favorable to overall Produce Department margins.

It is time Produce Departments step

up & learn the details of these cheap berries, often going against

the mission to "support local". Shoppers have become accustomed to inexpensive berries throughout the year which exasperates Real Organic growers who are using soil-based environmentally-healthy growing practices & battle against the momo culture 'plasticulture' farming. Catch more here.

To date, Carofin & its affiliates have raised in excess of $1.3 billion across more than 200 direct private investments. In addition to its focus on agriculture, the firm stated that it has also raised capital for various companies in the food production vertical, including sweet potato farming, poultry processing, tomato farming, & organic beef cattle ranching, among others over the past decade. 

Filling in the Gaps:

Stores in rural parts of the state do not have easy access to many Vermont products due to remote locations. Distributors have their distinct routes based on operational efficiencies including drive times, distance between stops, vendor pick-ups such as Bill of Lading, & back hauls.

Some of our local food vendor/

manufacturers can ship direct to stores through wholesale tech-based e-comm ordering platforms including Mable or Faire. Other vendors may ship direct via flat rate USPS, obviously dependent on product size

& shipping attributes. Local food hubs & independent distributors often work together to help get our VT products to stores & other market channels.  Store buyers can reach out to us if seeking a product. Farm to Plate has a catalog of products with methods of distribution (always subject to change though!)  

A cautionary note for vendors: regarding the online platforms, be sure to maintain your own sets of data because you want to protect your accounts (they own the data in their systems).

Wholesale marketplace Faire raised 12.6 BILLION valuation in 2022

November 3, 2023

it laid off about 250 or

20 % of its staff

Food Businesses to Watch

Butterworks Farm, the pioneering grass fed dairy in Westfield, is for sale, according to co-owner Christine Lazor. Since 1976, the farm has been a national leader in organic dairy production practices with a line of regionally distributed products.

They became a notable Vermont brand with sales originally to coops & natural food stores. They expanded distribution to New Englanders through Whole Foods Markets. We wish Christine & her family well in their transition. Read the 7 Days article about the farm.

Paprika Catering in Waterbury will be expanding sales to stores in next year with their classic Empanadas. They are full on working on the production facility & the team is stoked for "sales to stores in '24!"

Based in Guilford, The Hidden Bean Bakeshop has a unique niche based on the background of its owner. As a registered dietician, Kelsey Baumgarten has an academic background studying nutritional properties of beans, working in hospitals, & interestingly as a baker in Vermont at Earth, Sky, Time Farm. It was there that she found her sweet spot baking unique pastries & breads with high nutrition values with beans as a primary ingredient. She sells locally DSD at the Brattleboro Food Coop.

Edible Vermont Fall Issue

Packed with stories of resilience, strength, & care from all over Vermont, this issue

focuses on community building & the impact of the July flooding & the deep freeze in May. Edible Vermont aligns with the local food community. Advertise your business & or make copies available at your store or business.

More Resources

INFRA Independent Natural Foods Retailer Association

Neighboring Food Coop

Cooperative Funders of the Northeast ethical funding

VT Fresh Network partnership of producers, chefs, & retailers

Migrant Justice  building the voice, capacity, & power of the farmworker

NEFNE 30x30 Local Food Count growing, raising, catching, & producing 30% of New England’s food from within New England by 2030

Small Bites comes to you via USDA grants. Created for farmers, food manufacturers, distributors, & grocers to increase VT food sales

We support the New England State Food System Planners Partnership

Contact: Annie Harlow

[email protected]



Unless otherwise noted, photo credits are from company social media, websites or Annie Harlow

Special Thanks to James Morrell & Jeanie Wells

All info is subject to change; thank you to all who contributed to this BIG issue