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Per usual, there is a lot going on in the world of farms, distribution, and retail food sales.

 In the words of Will Rogers, various national & global variables are in fact currently 'trickling down' but it is not the wealth that is trickling. It is an economic disparity, with it increased costs of pretty much everything across the supply chain. Add to that the raids on workplaces & homes of workers across sectors & we end up with a gush of deleterious economic & social impacts.

Originally coined in 1932 as a humorous statement, in 2025 it is no joke how hard it is to run small businesses dependent on local spending. The dollar does not go far, nor do the social services created as ‘safety nets’ to meet needs such as SNAP benefit & supporting the health through WIC nutritional support for women, infants, & children. With the government currently shut down the services rendered are in jeopardy. Businesses often prepare for a flush of sales in the fourth quarter. With all that is happening, the remaining 83 days of the year will be indicative of how to prepare businesses for 2026. 

The Georgia Market: Where Community Matters

Earlier this year the Georgia Market changed hands. With it a change in community engagement. Under the guidance of Zev Werts, it maintains its independence as a family owned & operated store. It has a mission alignment that has increased local vendors & refined the store's role in the community through a meal program unique to the area.

Every other Sunday, the store hosts a community meal with funds raised going to local charitable & service agencies. In Georgia there is no restaurant, so if the market can provide space for a lunch or dinner meal to the town’s residents it fills that void. The other point is it just helps the community the market is in. The town food shelf was the beneficiary of the first Serving Sundays having raised $9,000 in total for the shelf. The Library was another direct recipient.

The grocery store has become more of a community center partially through the Sunday meals. Often heard among shoppers is a revitalized sense of community, the chatter across the store is a buzz of positive interactions touching on many aspects of the town.

 “Werts said with an unpredictable federal government, having the local community come together & help one another is the long term goal. It’s a chance for Georgia’s community to take action during challenging times.” Read more from the St Albans Messenger 

It's Cool:

The Perishable Team

Stores know that money is made (or lost) when Perishable Departments lack oversight. Think about it. Every product has a ‘shelf-life’ & in the refrigerated space that means all those dates need to be monitored so that shoppers can keep items for a few days before they might spoil.

The ‘Cool Team’ at Brattleboro Coop takes their job seriously. Every item is continuously reviewed for ‘short dates’. It starts when product is received, then the date details continue to be monitored by assiduously rotating based on dates. This type of oversight & management helps them control shrink & reduce losses. With dedicated communication & oversight the team keeps their eyes on their distributors making sure the products have ample shelf life.

Perishable management requires close attention to detail from Production through distribution & ultimately on the store shelves. Way to go Team Cool at the BFC. 

Help on the Way:

Running Your Store

You're doing everything right. You're sourcing from local farms, building relationships with your vendors & customers, keeping your shelves stocked, (& working sixty-plus-hour weeks). Your store is generating $100,000, $150,000, or possibly $200,000 or more per month in sales.

So why does it feel like you are broke & or exhausted?

At Creators Financial, Jim Verzino asks that question in a way to get to the answers. By looking at income & balance sheets he can quickly find your unique trouble spots. He then helps you craft a series of dedicated steps to turn your store around. He is offering a limited number of free introductory consulting sessions. 

Read Jim's proposal to help you identify profit leaks & get to the place you work so hard to get to.

Facelift in Lincoln!

When the only store in town located at the biggest intersection gets work done, everyone notices. In the center of Lincoln, there is quite a buzz about the renovations to the stately old building. With plans for meeting current & future needs, The General is undergoing a thorough overhaul, to the delight of everyone! Since January 2024, new owners have been chipping away at interior upgrades & changes to product mixes for groceries & gifts. Now the changes will be seen from the outside with more interior changes to come too. 

Seasonal Baking is Here!



Mama Tree Farm has a line of gluten free baking mixes that are available through Provisions International & DSD. The line of Ancient Grains covers breakfast with pancakes, & desserts with brownie & cookie mixe, & launching a bread mix too. They are small-batch crafted with millet, teff, sorghum, amaranth, arrowroot, & tapioca.

Larger stores including City Market Coop & small footprint shops such as Free Verse have taken notice of this niche brand. The pack size is a six-count which is great to introduce the line. Looking for a Vermont baking line to augment King Arthur Baking? Consider Ancient Grains. 

Food Production:

Traceability Systems

You know it. You need it. You know you need it. The ‘it’ a system to align current & future traceability processes as your business grows. Lot tracing is a known barrier, often a headache in growing.

Batchbetter.com has created an easy-to-use daily production & record system for each lot. They take your handwritten (coffee stained?) production sheets turning them into easily accessed digital records.

How it works: Snap a photo of your completed receiving, production & shipping sheets with your phone. No special equipment needed. Upload it to Batch Better. It accurately transcribes every ingredient & lot code. No manual data entry. Each upload becomes a structured record, powering instant traceability & real-time inventory. No sifting through binders. The trace reports make recalls & audits a breeze.

Their system helps other food production operations efficiently manage their records while tying them to the inventory assets. Find out more here.

Rival to the Rescue!

Are you building your brand & ready for a bit of nudging to get out of your own way? A multi-week workshop series through Rival Brands could be just the ticket. A four or ten week series is available.

The intensive course strips away branding industry jargon & replaces it with easy-to-understand strategy concepts that are ready to implement & will energize your business. Learn how to ask the critical questions that define your brand & gain access to answers for your place in the market.

You will come away with concrete ideas that target your specific business goals through a decision-making framework applied to branding context.

Find more info, pricing & apply here (space is limited).  These workshops are funded by a Business Enhancement grant from the Vermont Working Lands Initiative.

Attention Curd Nerds!

Vermont Cheese Council is thrilled to announce our in-person, all-day Autumn Conference Friday, October 24, 2025.

This action-packed full day of learning at is at the beautiful Billings Farm. Content is crafted for cheesemakers, but we welcome mongers, aspiring makers, & other industry curd nerds who want to learn more about the specific deep dives of artisan cheesemaking. 

Stores with robust cheese departments will up their game & hang with the best of Vermont's best cheese people. Among the many topics, cheese mongers can learn How Supply Chain Engagement Can Guide Product Development, & join in the conversation around Sensory Evaluation. More info & register your cheese team here.

CranberriesApples & Winter Squash

It MUST be fall

OK, so it was just 85 degrees. But that doesn't mean its not also harvest time in our orchards & at "Cranberry Bob's" in Fairfax.

Vermont Cranberry Company

2025 harvest has begun & fresh cranberries are back! Bob added some new varieties to his Vermont operation so we have the benefit of an earlier crop. That is great news for folks (ME!) who love the short-lived season. It is decidedly not just for November.

Produce crews can get to work extending the season with ample cross-merchandising opportunities with apples, figs, baking ingredients. Meat Departments can stock the retail boxes & promote with Cavendish Quail.

Pumpkin Village Foods will deliver the cranberries to stores along their routes. Berries are available in retail packaging or bulk (in 5lb increments, 15lbs/box).

KIS Kombucha has rolled out a seasonal flavor just in time for chilly nights & plaid flannel shirt days. The Elderberry Ginger is one of the short-run flavors that bump up sales. Through their years of experience, they focus on "making the products people are buying" . They keep their SKUs tight, adding seasonal flavors to keep things exciting. Their customers, including store buyers, know these flavors are short-runs with exciting flavor profiles.

BRP: Trade Show

October 28

Stores & suppliers meet up through Black River Produce at their annual trade show. Local food vendors gather this year at the Fresh Food Expo in Burlington

The BRP sales team will be working the floor yucking it up, hosting store buyers & vendors to talk shop.

According to USDA data, 42% of US farm workers are undocumented immigrants, and just under 70% are foreign-born. And a March report from the Urban Institute found that most Medicaid recipients are either already working, exempt or face some sort of instability. Rollins suggested 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program” as potential workers.

-Guardian

VT Grocers Project:

Producing Results

The Vermont Grocers Project 

of Farm to Plate & Small Bites hosts a day for store Produce Departments to create a collective buzz learning from each other Thursday November 6th from 9:45-3:00.

Warehouse visits are always eye opening for produce workers. It is as though a lightbulbs goes off helping store staff understand just how food goes from point A to Point B. A big ol' reality akin to the challenges a store faces, except on a grander scale.

Upper Valley Produce embraces helping folks see the inner workings by hosting tour. Hanover Food Coop follows with all things Produce: back room systems approaches, local vendors, merchandising, & creativity for optimal sales. James Morrell, Becca White, James Gordon & Annie Harlow, lead the day with decades of experience.

This is a chance to geek out with other Produce nerds to share your powerhouse of knowledge for a day of all things Produce. It is free, however, pre-registration is needed for planning.

These are unsettled times in grocery stores & will be as the year goes along. Let's band together as regional food allies to foster a stronger business-to-business network.

Extending Seasons

Extending Sales

There is both an art & a science to seasonal food storage extension.

The art, well it might come in the form of beautiful copy in a seed catalog, where farmers are lured into a variety by the creative marketing team (only slightly kidding). The science comes from proper post-harvest conditions to create optimal temperature & relative humidity controls for each crop.  

Over the course of twenty years,

& most notably in the past 10, there has been extensive research into the infrastructure & resources needed to sell fall harvested root crops into early Spring. See this UVM report for crop details.

In 2015 UVM Extension identified key barriers & current conditions across farms. The project improved the ability of Vermont vegetable farms to store crops such as beets, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, onions, winter squash & sweet potatoes to help meet the late winter demand.

Each crop has specific requirements. Vermont’s commercial vegetable farms rarely achieve the optimal conditions due to lack of sufficiently separated storage compartments, and lack of space to manage the produce integrity across the storage months. 

CAE in Hardwick is one organization that has stepped in providing modern environmental monitoring & equipment to properly monitor crops. The new facility also has frozen & dry storage in the facility. They provide availability for farmers & value added producers to meet ideal storage & handling conditions. Interested in their storage capacity? Email the Farm Connex Team for details!

Product integrity starts at the farm is carried over through distribution into grocery store produce departments. The more farmers & grocery clerks understand the demands & nature of produce, the more successful they are.

Cornell University's Small Farm Resources

30 years & Counting

Cavendish Game Birds, Vermont’s renowned jumbo quail are born & raised on a small farm in Springfield, Vermont. They are substantial in size with a well-developed finish of a slightly sweet flavor, making them a very versatile choice for home chefs. Streaks of fat under the skin help maintain flavor keeping them moist & tender while cooking.

The premium, easy-to-prepare, nutrient-dense farm raised & on-farm processed quail can enhance winter sales. Products are available fresh or frozen to stores including Putney &

Springfield Coops, Woodstock Farmers Mkt, & Brownsville Butcher & Pantry. Contact the farm for details on distribution of both quail & their legendary “Pip” hardboiled eggs.

Farmer as Retailer

Winter is a great time for farms to go through the SNAP authorization process.

Becoming SNAP authorized is a way for direct marketing farmers to make their food more affordable for low-income Vermonters. Direct marketing farmers can now become authorized to accept SNAP payments online. MarketLink can provide support & NOFA-VT staff are available for farms looking to enroll in SNAP online.

Health Hero Farm

Health Hero Farm produces 100% certified grass-fed beef on certified-organic pasture & hay. They have multiple sales channels to get local beef into the hands of customers.

The farm stand is open year-round, by appointment with pick up hours for meat 9-5. Although if you have an emergency beef need, they are happy to help. In addition to the farmstand, they deliver pre-ordered cuts direct to consumers, & they sell to a local store. They accept EBT for their meat delivery service with a 10% discount for "by the cut" (not available at the farmstand).

Throughout the year, the farm makes cuts available to Keeler Bay Variety. The meat department supplements its sales from cattle just down the road.

Nationally, beef prices are very high right now. At the farm sales are remaining strong without a price increase. Due to the unstable Spring soaking rains & Summer draught hay prices are climbing in Vermont. It is expected that the farm's meat prices may be impacted later on.

In the warm months the farm welcomes cyclists, hikers, & visitors by selling popsicles & snacks at family-friendly prices. They boast the world’s best caramels hand crafted right here in South Hero with local goat milk from Capsand Creamery”. An added summer season customer touch is having an air pump handy & a bicycle tool kit to do a few quick adjustments. 

The farmstand is in the heart of Hero, welcoming locals & travelers from all over the world. 

Seasonal Highlights

Farmstands & stores have shifted to sweet potatoes from Laughing Child & Burnt Rock as well as other producers. Sweet potatoes in Vermont are a huge hit & Laughing Child commands a presence in one of the great valleys of the state.

Brassicas are nudging in to capture sales with Brussels sprouts beginning to show their faces & giant kale bundles rounding out the cooler case.

The bright Fall orange, red, & yellow colors of winter squash really help farmstands & Produce departments pop. All the crazy colors, shapes & textures make for a beautiful transition as seen in the Roots Farm Market picture above.

Knowledge is Key

with McKenna Hayes

McKenna Hayes of Food Connects is taking her deep operational knowledge of distribution to help explain how food hubs can support producers, food safety practices, & meet compliance requirements. The USDA’s Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP) helps hubs & farms move toward organic certification. 

The Lunch & Learn discussion offers valuable insights for growers, food hub operators, or for those of us simply interested in the systems behind local food aggregation. 

Farm Direct: Open Position

Green Mountain Farm to School based in Newport, VT is currently recruiting for a Food Hub Account Manager. A hybrid position, with two in-person days a week, this is a great step for someone looking to use their skill set to advance local food sales to stores & institutions.

The successful mission-driven food system candidate will utilize sales skills to support the growth & management of the food hub. They will develop, manage, & grow customer accounts for Green Mountain Farm Direct. Job position details here.

Join the

2025 Local Food Count

Customers want local, affordable food. They are also recognizing more & more the value of regional food & the positive economic & multiplier effect of keeping dollars local.

Food & beverage establishments & organizations across New England are invited to participate in the upcoming 2025 Local Food Count a regional effort to measure how much local food they buy & sell within the six-state region.

The Local Food Count is part of the New England Feeding New England (NEFNE) initiative, which aims to strengthen the region’s food system and increase local food sourcing. By participating, restaurants, schools, distributors, grocers & other food and beverage buyers & sellers headquartered in New England help identify purchasing patterns & uncover opportunities to grow local food procurement across the region.

Read more from Vermont Business Magazine, here.  Questions? Contact Annie

Save the Date!

Join the Fun

Vermont Farm to Plate's 15th Annual Gathering is on November 20th & 21st at Burke Mountain Resort.

The theme "Keep Calm, & Collaborate on: Working Better Together as a Region in Uncertain Times"       

Business Support Services

VSJF offers business management coaching, entrepreneurial support, & training to position Vermont entrepreneurs for growth & long-term success.  Explore the possibilities!

Farm to Plate's events/news/jobs page is a go-to list to connect & learn.

Apologies for any oversights & typos.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue

Created with gratitude for the support from the Canaday Family Charitable Trust 

We directly 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.