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The Grocers Project had a very successful online series for stores & farmstands with Jeanie Wells, known nationally for the Mighty Community Markets classes. The info provided hit all the high notes providing critical information to strengthen independent & coop stores & farmstands. The Project looks forward to another round offering up even more timely info to help stores in the changing retail climate. We also are working with stores & our team of consultants on marketing, operations, & promotions.

"In the last 30 days, the Co-op has sold 652 quarts of fresh, local strawberries - an absolute record. While it is hard to compare given the different timing of the season each year, that is 5x more than what we sold in the same time frame last year."- Morrisville Food Coop

In Memory

Vermont lost a giant tthis week with the passing of Bruce Kaufman of Riverside Farm in East Hardwick.

A founding member of Deep Root Farmers Coop, Bruce was a preeminent grower of organic produce, a visionary in building a regionally important & viable business model to support generations of organic farmers. He literally grew, picked, packed & shipped tons of produce. He fostered gazillions of microbes through decades of soiling building practices. Bruce's impact extended beyond Vermont to include the entire North Atlantic including Quebec. His commitment to his communities (plant, soil, people) truly helped build the national 'organic movement'.

The Grocers Project recognizes his deep commitments & mourns his loss, knowing that his time here was positive with far reaching impacts across the farming & retail sectors.

A memorial gathering and celebration of Bruce's life will be held at his farm this Friday, July 18, at 4:00 pm, 117 Riverside Farm Drive, East Hardwick VT 05836

Onward Into Blueberry Season!

We know it is high summer when blueberries are harvested in Vermont. Our growers extend their sales with early, mid, & late varieties. This keeps folks coming to farmstands, & PYO as well as taking it for granted that their favorite store will have local varieties for many weeks.

At retail stores, it wasn't very long ago that blueberries were a seasonal crop. The berries traveled an east coast pipeline from Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, then the last of the northern hemisphere berries came from the Maritimes of Canada. Then it all changed.

Production, harvest, & shipping globally became the norm for South American countries supported by producers in United States to become a global industry in less than 20 years. Naturally the implications are for investment companies to make money not necessarily take into considerations the impact on people or the environment. They are grown in high dessert, low water areas where laborers (primarily women) are not paid wages commensurate with the high value-high profit trade.

With a year round supply from Peru & its 49,000 acres of production, distributors & retailers have conditioned shoppers to switch from blueberries as a seasonal crop to berries available year round fresh & frozen in large value packs. The South American blueberry industry continues to explore market variables & funding opportunities are available with a goal for super-sized berries. despite all these investments & sales, the living conditions of blueberry harvesters haven’t kept pace with the industry’s success. "While the companies continue to grow, we’re exploited on minimum wage [$275 per month],” says Julisa González, a picker at Camposol, the largest blueberry exporter. Her daily pay barely covers the cost of three packs of blueberries in New York City.

Across the globe, produce is being grown in a dystopian landscape of plastic, soilless conditions. On top of those issues is the fact that only in the USA can hydroponic be labeled as organic. The production method of hydroponic which includes blueberries is hugely dependent of the fossil fuel & plastics industry.

The USDA, alone in the world, allows hydroponic crops to be labeled & sold as Organic. 

Visits to & Gatherings at Stores

Summer wouldn't be summer if old screen store doors didn't slam shut & folks didn't hang out on the old porches that hold a towns' history.

Our general stores are still carrying on making history welcoming the community with doors open for business. 'Summer towns' are known as places where kids can pop into a store make a purchase in their wet bathing suit. In Elmore the store reopened to the joy of locals & summer peeps living the Vermonting" life. A crowd enjoyed the grand reopening store, a chicken BBQ hosted by the volunteer fire department, local music & general summer glee!

How perfect that a store that has a history of serving its community reopened to fanfare July 6th. A cause for continued celebrations. Now the next phase of hard work begins, running a small rural store. Having a strong base from the area makes all the difference.

Meanwhile Brownsville Butcher & Pantry has made summer even more convivial with a pergola for customers to enjoy the fleet of onsite gatherings centered around good food for their community. Summer is in full force with branded bevies, music, & grab & go food. With an eye for supporting local food, their purchases from local food hub Food Connects is on target to increase more than 3x from last year. Way to speak volumes about the impact of local purchases!

Elmore comes out to celebrate

It's Hot & It's Good

Here is exciting news from Butterfly Bakery of Vermont. While setting up for their first time exhibiting at the Summer Fancy Food Show in NYC, owner & visionary, Claire received news that their now-famous Taco Vibes Only hot sauce was named one of the “hot sauces chefs swear by” at Food & Wine Magazine! 

Since appearing on Season 20 of Hot Ones, the super-hot Taco Vibes Only has become increasingly popular gaining huge traction. It was the only non big-brand included (ie Tabasco or Cholula). It is even more exciting that a Vermont business that contracts with Vermont farms stands out not only in the hot seat, but with its mission!

BBVT says "It’s really crazy how the popularity continues to grow, & we consistently see it talked about in online forums like Reddit etc. "Congratulations to be atop the 'best of' list released by Food & Wine! YAY Team BBVT!

Save the Date September 10th

The Vermont Specialty Food Association annual meeting is a must for food businesses. If you aren't yet a member join now! (stores & distributors can support the organization with a membership too!)

This year's theme is Sales & Revenue Growth. As always, the agenda is packed with inspiring & practical content for specialty food & beverage producers. Save the date for a day of good people doing good work to support the local & regional food economy. Register here.

Comings & Goings

Trenchers Pasta

It takes a huge amount to grow a food business. But as a reader of Small Bites you already know that. We see businesses grow only to disappear for any number of reasons, often not publicly disclosed.

One of Vermont's recently growing brands, Trenchers Pasta, is going to be closing down due to family illness & the need to shift priorities. Giacomo & Jenny will be moving to Italy to assist with the needs of their family. Their appreciation of all of you- stores, distributors, valued allies - is well articulated in their recent statement. The Grocers Project has been a fan since first meeting them at a VSFA meeting several years ago. Congratulations to Trenchers for their 2025 Good Food Award win for Bucatini pasta. We wish the best for them.

Cavendish Quail has launched one of Vermont's most unique products. Pips are hard-boiled, peeled quail eggs! They have hit the store & restaurant scene. These tiny gems are chock full of protein for snacking, salads, & even to garnish cocktails! Contact our Cavendish friends to carry this new product!

Hit the Spot: Refreshing Ice Tea

Free Verse & Wilson Farm both create custom blends sold across the state & are available nationally through their online stores. Visit their beautiful farm stores when taking a break & staycationing in the Chelsea & Greensboro areas.

BONUS Idea: For PYO operations & farmstands, serve up cold, refreshing & uplifting blends as a bonus to your customers on hot days.

Clearly We like This!

Our 3-part retail training series with Jeanie Wells hit the spot. This is what success sounds like!

"These classes were AMAZING. And we have made a bunch of changes to our store. 

We have moved shelves around so shelf stable products that pair with certain refrigerated products are next to each other. Like the cracker display next to the cooler that has all of the cheeses in it. All of our shelf stable displays are now presented vertically instead of horizontally. We have vertical color stripes. Every product is now categorized (before we had most things lumped into one "partner farms" category) & the categories are located next to each other on the shelves. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT!?! Holy moly, there has been a ton of movement in our market and we are already seeing improved sales! We had some really low performers that have jumped up in sales just from these changes."

-Abby at Maple Wind Farm

Measuring Sales Against Projections

This goes in the category of you really never can know.

Distributors, whether for profit or non-profit enterprises, like all businesses create a budget aligned with current & forecasted data to plan for the year ahead.

But who would have imagined all the monkey wrenches thrown our way since January of 2025. A few notable ones are constantly changing tariff threats, the dismantling of federal programs that support farmers, a cyber attack on the nation's largest national food distributor, dismantling local food purchasing programs for schools, & ICE raids on food & farm production facilities with downstream impacts across the entire supply network.

When it comes to analyzing the data mid point in the year, there is a lot to explore. We have heard some areas of sales are strong such as at coops & farmstands. This is true for Food Connects, yet summer camps & schools have taken a hit with a reduction of sales of Vermont & regional products. Wilcox has seen strong increases with the new lines of products it carries since Lesser distribution was purchased. Also an unusual bump when UNFI was down for two weeks, distributors stepped in cross docking or temporarily bringing on key regional products to meet their customer needs. The UNFI impact was particularly challenging for perishable products with stalled production, short-dated products, or backed up inventory.

Sales are up in some categories, down in others & the same is true for the different category of stores. Prices are still high & shoppers continue to shop for values to make the most of their budgets.

ACT 129 Defining Local Products

Eco Bean is made from ingredients not regularly produced in Vermont or not available in sufficient quantities to meet production requirements. They can still be “Vermont” food when it satisfies the “unique food” criteria. Two or more requirements must be satisfied

•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;

•Substantial transformation of the ingredients in the product occurred in Vermont; and/or

•The headquarters of the company that manufactures the product is in Vermont

Eco Bean is by Vermont 

definition a "Local" product as they are headquartered & produce in Vermont with substantial transformation of ingredients.

Store POS systems can add the "local" attribute to their products for tracking sales which adds data to the NEFNE regional economic impact research.

Consolidation Hurts Local Sales

In June Keene, NH based C&S Wholesaler announced it is set to acquire Spartan Nash for $1.77 Billion. Privately owned C&S which sells to stores in all 50 states, seeks to purchase a publicly traded one, whose stock price has shot up with the announcement. This merger will expand to 60 distribution centers, increase service to 10,000 independent stores & expand to 200 corporate run stores. Mega business consolidation will be felt throughout the supply chain with impacts for vendors, distributors, & stores impacting local & regional sales.

High summer, local produce is getting fluffed & buffed at Brownsville Butcher & Pantry's "new" display cooler.

Refreshing summer beverages from Sweetwater Soda available through VT Roots

The Importance of Storage in Expanding Regional Sales

Now more than ever Vermont has increased the support of businesses selling to stores by making storage a key component in moving inventory.

State & federal public grants & private money have been invested in facilities for proper handling of products across categories. These facilities are both privately owned enterprises & non-profits working to meet the 'shipping' needs by first having optimal conditions for storage. This is often considered 'middle of the supply chain' support.

Let's take a look at a few options available, knowing each is a unique business crunching numbers to either break-even or make a profit. The unique fee structure decision-trees to storage, cross docking, shipping & handling are taken into consider by the vendor seeking the services to support their business as well as each facility reaching its targeted customers to relocalize sales.

VFFC in Rutland is up & running for cold storage, they are working to provide future climate-controlled food storage for new & local producers. They are expanding cross dock & logistics services covering the Rutland, Mettawee, & Ludlow regions. They also provide emergency storage to support regional food security in heightened times of need. Keep up with their developments & for more info, contact Melinda

Myers Produce in Hatfield, MA has capacity for short or long term storage in dry, refrigerated, or frozen conditions for a monthly rate per pallet. They offer refrigerated transportation to & from storage, for a discounted freight rate.  Download the storage & warehousing rates here.  View the geographic area they cover.  Email storage @ myersproduce.com 

CAE & Farm Connex in Hardwick also has loads of opportunity for storage with their recent expansion. They offer cold & frozen storage for perishable & frozen food products. The state-of-the-art facility can easily accommodate all types of delivery vehicles, & space is available by the case or by the pallet. Dig into all their services to help grown your food business.

Food Connects in Brattleboro provides access to source-identified, locally & regionally produced food helping small & medium-sized vendors access wholesale markets. It offers third-party storage for hire services handled by trained FCFH operations. Learn more here.

ACORN based in Middlebury covers the needs of the northern Route 7 western corridor & Champlain Valley with dry, refrigerated, & frozen storage. Among their services they offer cross docking & freight drops.

Dock to Door: Local, Relocalize, Delocalize- It's complicated

As a business grows their distribution ranges change which can have a negative impact on the 'original' distributor which is always seen as an 'incubator' agent in nurturing the growth curve. Each distributor operates with its own values system to meet its customers. Growing distribution is a complex set of decisions for the brand seeking to grow sales. There is never a one size fits all answer to the rectifying challenges to gain retail store sales.

ACORN & Green Mountain Farm Direct have teamed up to widen Savoure small batch soda widen distribution. The goal is to expand sales to the far reaches of Vermont.

They have worked out the cost & delivery schedule details for cross docking which makes the product accessible to more stores & farmstands through Farm Direct with delivery through Farm Connex. If that sounds like a lot of logistics, you are getting the hang & complexity of increasing sales area.

Pumpkin Village Foods was an early entry point for Savoure to expand beyond DSD to stores. This nurturing stage helped gain new customers while supporting sales growth for PVF. As the sales expanded so did the production to meet the increased demands. What often evolves is exploring other distribution options. This is pretty classic for growing sales but which can impact the original distributor if there is overlap in sales, a varying distribution cost, or minimum order structure for stores. This is where a store buyer comes into play looking at costs, delivery schedules, minimum order thresholds, etc. It also plays into supporting the existing distributor that helped bring the product into the store.

Generally, when a small business expands its distribution options it is looking at its production & operational costs, accounts receivables, product handling & integrity is maintained along with a number of other considerations. Decisions including changes to "localized" sales with existing customers can be taxing on the one-on-one relationships & also challenging as downward margin & pricings is incurred.

For Farm Direct to bring on Savoure, all of these considerations came into play. Expanding sales through distribution requires thoughtful consideration & careful analysis. It includes the history of growth from its original distributors' support in conjunction with sales & margin goals. The learning curve is often taxing on cash flow & operational considerations to meet new demands.

Summer Displays & Promotions

Yeah, it is summer alright!

Corn, tomato, blueberries, & BBQ season is in full force. Weekends are made for hang-time, & what better way to be than firing up some good food with a touch of maple. We are Vermonters after all.

Stores & farmstands can cross promote these summer faves with a display that include Sartwell Farm BBQ sauce. It is distinctly small-batch made with maple from our most northern region. It is available through Pumpkin Village Foods

Eco Bean based in SoBTV is locally known for its cafe serving up high quality products including salad bowls, smoothies, beverages, & salad dressings. Their ethos is based on the goal to preserve the natural enzymes & nutrients of every single ingredient to support the immune system.

They are committed to the highest quality, cleanest food sourcing superior, local ingredients whenever possible. 

The dressing are sold as a strong brand in gluten free, soy free, & GMO free category. Distributors such as Northeast Specialty Foods in Maine drive sales to outlets in New England. Elsewhere in the mid Atlantic states they are sold more widely to stores, including INFRA members through KeHE.

Farmers as Retailers:

Everything, Everywhere,

All at Once!

Farmstands & robust farm stores are jamming! Produce is full on summer with the intersection of raspberries, blueberries, corn (!), tomatoes & the onslaught of summer squash too.

Produce is all about abundance -real or with a 10th Avenue fake out- using props to provide the sense of a huge display. Abundance in a farmstand tells the customer to "buy this" because not only do we have loads of it, the season for this is "here & now"!

Of course, there is a balancing act: stock for anticipated sales with assurances the produce is displayed in optimal conditions. This is especially true for unrefrigerated produce with high humidity & heat conditions experienced this week.

Make It Easy to Shop

Clearbrook Farm in Shaftsbury have pretty much perfected produce displays for huge summer sales. They been at it so long, they are cultivating "next gen' customers both local & summer folks coming to enjoy the bounty of the state.

Andrew & his retail team know that the season requires all hands on deck to build, maintain, & retool displays as the (short) season changes. They live by the addage "don't wait for old product to sell before putting how higher quality items". Keeping produce at the highest qualtiy generates sales as does reworking space for current high-desired items.

Already blueberries are gaining space front & center, melons, peaches, corn are on the runway to bang out strong sales with each items carrying the store in aggregate for a strong margin.

The farmstand in high summer is a must-visit for other farmers seeking to "how it's done!"

What We Are Hearing

Sales of local products across categories are strong at the farmstand retail level. Vermont Roots in Rutland covers the state with a product mix strong on dry goods & pantry items. It services a large number of farmstands not only for its products, but the minimum order is favorable for farmstands seeking to balance its inventory to sales ratio.

For many of our smaller distributors, Summer is a banner season to drive sales & contribute to their bottom line. One new farmstand on the VT Roots route is the Town Line Farm also home of Melissa's Bakery in Wheelock.

Woods Market Garden, in Brandon has joined Deep Root Organic Coop. As a "southern farm" they are able to get a jump on crops while extending the season on late fall crops. They are currently supplying lettuce, bunched greens, & cabbage. Before long, pallets of cabbage & corn will hit the loading dock at the Deep Root warehouse in Johnson where the crops will be shipped throughout the Atlantic region. Sales overall for the coop are evening out after a slow start with our cold, wet Spring. This week's heat is putting pressure some crops for bolting, exceeding their optimal condition for wholesale.

Heidi & Nacho

Have Been Released

On June 14th, Nacho & stepdaughter Heidi were delivering food to farmworkers in Franklin County, VT when they were pulled over without cause by officials from the U.S. Border Patrol. Agents smashed their car window & violently detained the two community leaders.

They have won their freedom after nearly a month behind bars. The two are Migrant Justice leaders & a judge granted them bond& ordering their release. This result would not have been possible without the hundreds who took action at protests across Vermont denouncing the detentions & the thousands who sent messages to ICE demanding their release.

The Vermont Freedom Fund is one of over ninety community bail & bond funds across the country that make up the National Bail Fund Network. The NBFN works with & provides resources for community bail funds that are freeing people by paying bail/bond.

In Vermont it works alongside Migrant Justice, an organization of Vermont farm workers fighting for food justice & human rights. Their mission is to build the voice, capacity, & power of the farmworker community & engage community partners to organize for economic justice & human rights. Migrant Justice helped to create Vermont Freedom Fund.

ICE Raids Instill Fear Nationally

In California it is reported that at many farms up to 70% of the laborers are absentee. The aggressive tactics & lack of due process undertaken by ICE have instilled fear across the ag industry. From Vermont to California workers are living in deep fear.

The contradictory messages from the administration regarding workers' fear of deportation is confusing to all. Farmers (82% who voted for changes in immigration policies) fear crop & livestock losses will cause bankruptcy. They now feel the impact of their voting decision.

All aspects of food production require a high level of skills. Sec of Ag Rollins last week suggested Medicaid recipients should be put to work in the ag sector harvesting & planting crops.

The farming sector is broken. No immigrants. No food. No farms. There are solutions if all parties, including the corporate farms that benefit from the current system would address the issues with an entirely new set of values. To create a fair humane ag & food manufacturing system requires a shift that in our current climate is doubtful.

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 as there is much to process right now,

with the potential to over look details. Thanks to everyone who contributed tot his 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.