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Fall has arrived in Vermont after a summer of farm, food, & market upheaval. We welcome this transition with a stretch of warm, sometimes sunny weather with its annual momentum of seasonal change. Though the fall produce harvests will be down significantly due to the May freeze, July flooding, & rainy summer. Folks are positive the colors & flavors of autumn will continue to lift spirits.

In this issue we touch on a few details for growing food businesses to meet distribution & store buyer needs. Think pallets & learning the language of product categories & buyers. Of course, there will be lots of info on our local and regional businesses.

As always, we encourage our VT businesses to comply with the state local food definition". If it hasn't been a priority yet, it is time for all stores & distributors to tweak their metrics to comply with the state definition. Find the state’s "local" details here. Read on for new products, distributor insights, & welcomed seasonal changes. 

Wake of the Flood

Sterling Market, member of the AGNE family of retail stores is in the heart of Johnson. It has been closed since July when flood water thoroughly damaged the building impacting the rural towns that relied on it. As a full-service store & the only supermarket it met the needs of the town & surrounding communities.

The town, community members,

developer & AGNE all recognize the need to get the store rebuilt. A recent

meeting helped solidify that need. Despite the location in the flood zone, to rebuild will require mitigation engineered to withstand future impacts. Learn more about the Johnson store from WCAX & VTDigger.

Lemons into Lemonade,

Apples into Cider

Despite the May freeze which damaged the blossoms of apples & other tree fruits, Vermont does have an apple season. For the most part in Vermont, this year the yields are lower & the apples are smaller making the wholesale revenue low.

One of the most significant growers

of heirloom apples in the nation is Scott Farm in Dummerston, VT. The crop was nearly entirely wiped out by the freeze, decimating their wholesale business. It has required some on farm retooling, so they have added lots of on farm events & new products at its retail farm store. Making the most of the autumn orchard experience, this year their farm market offers up a wider selection of products from area distributors & local farmers such as eggs, meat, milk, baked goods & produce.

"As our season progresses there will be limited quantities of various varieties. We cannot say for certain which ones or how much until the time has come, so please bear with us as we navigate this unknown season ahead." Scott Farm

Love of Orchards,

Apples, Pies, & Donuts

Windham County orchards got hit hard by the May 18th freeze. Five iconic farms lost what amounts to their entire apple & fruit crops. Harlow’s Sugar House, The Scott Farm, Green Mountain Orchards, Dutton’s Berry Farm, & Dwight Miller Orchards.

Retreat Farm is hosting a day of support & a foliage-teasing day of live local music, food trucks, & fun to give the farms a shot in the arm of love & kindness. The October 1st event is open to everyone.

Allen Brothers in Westminster is producing cider & selling it at a fast clip. Across the state it is certain cider sales will be down this year & customers are wasting no time in getting fresh-pressed at orchards & farm stores.

Keeping folks happy & coming back to their store they serve up the Maple Creamee filled Cider Donut. It is where heaven meets earth. #Vermonting

Newly Onboarded & Expanded or Rebranded Products

The Tipsy Pickle specializes in creating handmade artisan pickles in collaboration with Vermont's leading brewers, distillers & most recently a new line of pickles in collaboration with cider makers Champlain Orchards, Cold Hollow & Cider Lab.

Belladore Bakery located in W Danville specializes in gluten & dairy free, & celiac safe sweet treats. Products are DSD to independent stores & Hunger Mountain, Buffalo Mountain Market & the Morrisville Coops. Find out more about the bakery from a WCAX story here.

Chex Finer Foods has

onboarded Sugar Bobs' Finest Kind Maple products providing the company an opportunity to expand sales to other NE states. Sugar Bob is available locally through Lesser Distribution & to stores nationally through the online wholesale platform Mable.

Pete's Stand

across the Connecticut River has become a new farm partner with Food Connects. Potatoes, cucumbers, & kale are a few of the produce items selling to stores & institutions in VT, MA & NH.

Gammelgarden Skyr recently rebranded its packaging & promo materials. Retail stores have helped customers by placing their signage on cooler doors. As brands grow it is often part of their strategy to make adjustments, sometime from the recommendation of distributors

or marketing consultants.

Maple 100: A Seasonal Display

Vermont Maple 100 is bigger, sweeter, & more exciting than ever. From September 15 – October 15, 2023, Vermont stores & sugarhouses join forces with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture (VAAFM), Vermont Department of Tourism (VDTM), & organizations from across the state to help visitors & Vermonters discover ways to indulge in Vermont's sweetest treat.

The annual promotion, during our high traffic foliage season (!), is the ultimate showcase of everything maple related. Stores are creating maple cross-promotions

to encourage sales from prepared foods to Sugar Bob's Finest Kind

range of products, to maple soda & seltzer.

It’s not too late for stores to build

displays & end caps to shine. Shout out on your use social media to grab

the attention & make a lasting impression for all maple enthusiasts.

Change in the Air

Leadership is shifting at two of our largest food coops Hunger Mountain Coop & Brattleboro Coop. And Springfield Coop has recently hired a new general manager. Meanwhile, on other fronts Aldi acquires Winn Dixie & closer to home, AGNE acquires three Mack's Market stores in Essex, Woodstock & Stowe.

Vermont vendors attended The Big E promoting their products & our place in the New England food shed. Saturday the 23rd was Vermont Day. As businesses grow, this event helps build a direct to consumer demand that feeds the CPG & specialty food trends that help drive sales through distributors.

Distribution: It Takes a Region

Getting food from one location to another is a complex set of decisions that rely on human relationship & logistics technology.

Building regional sales requires

ongoing strategies in a landscape of ever changing business decisions.

Recently, Food Connects

in Brattleboro sent a shipment of Vermont cheeses to Philadelphia through PA-based buyer Third Wheel Cheese, which in turn then

transported them to Four Seasons Produce, which sold them to their store accounts.

Among the VT cheese producers

benefiting from this relationship are Grafton Village Cheese, Maplebrook Farm, Barn First Creamery, Champlain Valley Creamery, Shelburne Farms,

& Plymouth Cheese.

Logistics from Farm Connex

& funding from the Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Initiative & Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center supports Vermont's growth of

regional agriculture, production, processing, & infrastructure.

Proper Pallet Preparation

Packing items on pallets requires planning, attention to detail, & following certain procedures. Be mindful of doing it in the safest way possible. Details matter, as errors can lead to lost products, broken pallets, & injuries. Damage, shrinkage, returns, unmet expectations at time of receipt can lead to future lost sales.

The standard size of pallets is 48 by

40 inches. Avoid common mistakes including using pallets with rough or broken edges & products hanging over. 

Make sure all shipping information,

handling instructions, & safety precautions are clearly labeled on your pallets.

As businesses scale to ship pallets,

it is important to understand some of the ‘physics” behind shipping. Heavy

boxes on the bottom offer stability for a foundation as products move through logistics transportation. This keeps a low center of gravity. Create an interlocking structure by avoiding columns for stability. (It's a bit like building a stone or brick wall). Stack

products in rows with each layer flat before starting the next layer of the

column. Pay attention to height making sure it is not too high. 

Use enough shrink wrap to secure

stacks on top of the pallet. In some cases, strapping is preferred (polypropylene, polyester, or steel). Bags & fluid containers often need plywood or heavy cardboard between layers to offer stability.

There are many videos & tools to

help you as you expand your scale to include distribution making it easier at cross docking or at receiving at its destination. Check out the many resources, such as this video.

Farmers as Retailers

Autumn is often thought of as "harvest season"

This time of year, with so many

travelers tooling around, farm stands are a sought-after stop.

As the leaves change so do displays

to help travelers purchase our farm-grown products along with those from

distributors and DSD vendors. The farmstands burst with bright colors in the fall. The range of pumpkin & squash colors, late season tomatoes & corn, zinnias, sunflowers, flowering kale, root crops, & red, white & blue potatoes make the retail experience a joyful part of the season.

Speaking of potatoes Chapppelle's Farm in Williamstown has for 50 years offered PYO operation one day a year. And this year it was Sunday Sept 24^th. Hundreds come for the fun, food, & festivity. Unlike last year when it was a drought, this year the crop looks abundant, despite the rain.

It is a super fun outing for families

& friends. The freshest French fries you will ever eat are served on the

farm!

In addition to PYO, Chappelle's sells to seven VT Hannaford's stores, through Reinhart/PFG, to

the VT Food Bank. They ship by pallets red & white varieties in

standard 50-pound bags, as well as 5 &10 pound bags. For a reference to

pallet packing (see above) 200 10-pound potatoes fit on a pallet. ;-)

Zero-Waste Bags

Offer your shoppers an option for zero-waste bags for bulk grains, nuts, beans & dried goods. Organic cloth bags are available from Simple Ecology in 3 sizes from 2 to 8 cup volumes. Also available are different types of produce bags.

Bread From the Earth is a bakery of artisan crafted wood fired sourdough breads sold within a tight distribution route. Located in West Townsend the DSD route sells to stores & farmstands. Londonderry Village Market (another sore in the AGNE family) & Wild Carrot Farm are just two of the stops on their route.

The bakery also has a direct to consumer 'CSB' community supported bread program. Based on the CSA model folks pre-pay for shares of bread with a weekly pick up at area farms & stores.

Resources:

Cornell's Small Farm Online Training Courses

CPG specialist Jordan Buckner shares tips & insights via LinkedIn & an email subscription. Food manufactures & stores can get tips & be on the pulse of growing brands.

Regional distributors are paving the way for local resilience, but farmers & fishermen will need more support to compete against global supply chains. Read more from ManufacturingDive here.

If you are a new or long-time reader of Small Bites, consider registering for the Farm to Plate News which covers many intersecting topics for a broader connection to work across the state. Post (& explore) jobs & events reaching a new audience of farm, food & forest connected people. Farm to Plate readership extends beyond Vermont to all areas of the country too!

Store Training



November 8th Coming to Vermont! Jeanie Wells of Mighty Community Markets, James Morrell & Annie Harlow share pricing & merchandising practices. Jeanie brings her skills to this in person event. It is just what we need now to build, & rebuild community, stores. Registration link soon

Food Producers...

Trade Show Grants Available

VAAFM Trade show grants are available for 2024 . The grants are useful for emerging brands to learn the language of sales & gain confidence & proficiency to get brands in front of more buyers, at stores & distributors.

Community Connections

Lamoille Farmer Thank You Dinner

October 5th 5-8:00

Smuggler Notch Inn Jeffersonville

East Calais General Store renovation is done! YAY! The East Calais Community Trust is holding an official Ribbon Cutting on Friday, Oct 27 at 11 am. Sen. Welch & other dignitaries will be on hand as well & representatives from our numerous granters & funding sources. The community will of course be attending!

Last But Not Least: VT "Local"

Vermont is the only state in the northeast with a local food definition. Stores & distributors need to fall in line & be in compliance when promoting your 'local' sales.

The VT Agency of Agriculture, Food, & Markets & the State Attorney General (which oversees consumer protections), & the legislature agreed on a uniform definition to protect producers & consumers.

Small Bites comes to you via USDA & High Meadows grants. Content is created for farmers, food manufacturers, distributors, & grocers to increase VT food sales

Small Bites supports 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

Phot credit: Sterling Market, Ginter Kleis

Special Thanks to:

Leda at Dosa Kitchen, Angela at Tipsy Pickle, Seth at Pumpkin Village,

Sarah at Bread From the Earth, & Michael at Lesser Distribution



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