Find us on Facebook as Addison County Relocalization Network & add to our conversation
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Look for our new Local Food Guide around the county or download from our website
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Ferrisburg art teacher Alison Parsons is this year's Local Food Guide cover artist. Contact her for special commissions and to buy shirts, cards & prayer flags for gifts may be able to help you meet your financial needs.
NOFA sponsored CSA Day on May 4th. Addison County farms hosted open houses featuring their farm products. CSA's can be found in our Local Food Guide~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thinking of what to do when your friends come to town? Create a food trail with Dig In VermontFiddleheads & ramps are in season! Enjoy the bounty from our woodlands.
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Helping Vermont increase local food sales through a strong network and sponsoring events such as Vt Restaurant Week.
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Goats enjoying spring
Good for a smile
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Sign up and receive promotional materials for your farm stands, CSA's and retail produce departments!
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 Local farm-stand signs are up! Stop in for seasonal crops & seedlings for spring planting Please Support ACORN's
Local Food Guide Advertisers!
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Donate to ACORN by July 1 and we will apply to the Junior Iron Chef campaign or Tools for Schools programming! A little goes a very, very long way!
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eat locally at The Antidote in Vergennes! It's where locals meet to eat great food in good company! |
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ACORN Celebrates Jr Iron Chefs of Addison County
With sponsorship support from Neat Repeats and the Basin Harbor Club, ACORN awarded the Junior Iron Chef teams of Addison County with either chef jackets or ten inch saute pans. We appreciate the support of these businesses. If you want to support these and school garden efforts you may donate here. We invite businesses to sponsor our efforts to recognize student initiatives.
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Walker & His Texas Rangers; MT Abe
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Weybridge Iron Maidens with Basin Harbor Club Chefs
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MUHS Bean Queens were WINNERS of BEST USE OF LOCAL INGREDIENTS!
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ACORN Hires Communication Manager
Maddy Willwerth came to Vermont to attend Champlain College and kept her sights here. Not only does she grow her own vegetables in her backyard she has plans to grow ACORN's presence in the community! She is passionate about community revitalization through sustainability and she is ecstatic to use her marketing and outreach expertise to further ACORN's mission. Feel free to send her calendar updates to help build our network. You can meet up with her on ACORN's Facebook page too!
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We are a volunteer board with a hired communications director working on specific projects to broaden Addison County's impact in the arena of food,
agriculture, capitalization of small businesses and renewable energy resources. The links are meant to show the array of Vermont-based resources. Kindly share ideas that can support our effort. Thank you for supporting our work.
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Gardening Resources
The Lawrence Memorial Library in Bristol has created a seed saving library. With a generous contribution from High Mowing Organic Seeds they have vegetable seeds that you can "borrow." The seed exchange gives library patrons access to free, non-genetically modified seeds. Patrons can "borrow" up to 3 packets of seeds from the library. To return the seeds in the fall, the gardener lets a few of the plants go unharvested and collects the seeds from these plants, returning them to the library. They will have a seed saving workshop to teach you how later in the summer. If you have any seeds you have saved from last year add them to the library this year. The library has excellent gardening books available to inspire or teach. 
Bristol Community Garden has filled its slots, but if you want to garden, consider helping out at the MT Abe student garden. For more info, contact Walter and let him know you want to help the summer garden provide fresh produce to the cafeteria for the 2014-15 school year. ACORN is hired a summer intern to work at school gardens. If you are interested in helping out at your schools' garden contact Annie for details and summer schedules.
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Root Cellars: Any Interest?
 UVM Extension is trying to gauge interest in root cellars among fruit and vegetable growers in order to direct future research and education programs. They distinguish root cellars from coolers based on how their temperature is maintained. Consider root cellars to be passively maintained using ground thermal mass and occasional air exchange. Whereas coolers use some sort of mechanical refrigeration system (CoolBot™ , Split Evaporator / Compressor, etc.) and heated storage uses some form of heater. Essentially, root cellars are grid disconnected storage to me and present a compelling option for energy efficiency and resilience. There may be opportunities for hybrid systems which make use of mechanical refrigeration for pre-cooling or shoulder season cooling and/or heaters for freeze protection but these systems would generally not be used at all in the depth of storage. Chris Callahan, UVM Extension Agricultural Engineer wants to hear from you! Do you have interest in passive storage practices such as root cellars? Why? Contact Chris (860-380-0448 cell) and give him your feedback, ACORN will gladly help organize a workshop! |
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Pesticide Training for Farms
Agricultural producers in Vermont who use organic or conventional pesticides and have employees, are required to comply with the Worker Protection Standard.
If you use ANY pesticide on your farm and have employees who apply them to your crops you are required to train them prior to them performing any such task.
The Vermont Agency of Agriculture will provide training to groups of producers in geographic areas of the state. Get your group together and contact Annie Macmillan at the Vermont Agency of Agriculture who can arrange the training for you, at 828-3479.
If you would like help in promoting a training in Addison County, ACORN can help! Contact Annie or Maddy and we can send invites out to growers.
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Farm-stand Feature: New Leaf
 This year New Leaf Organic Farm is growing a wide variety cut flower varieties. Located on the Bristol- Monkton line, for years Jill Kopel has been growing a mix of organic vegies, herbs and flowers. She has refined her selection and is featuring an abundance of usually hard-to-find varieties. Stop by her greenhouses for beautiful flower & vegetable seedlings. She also has the best sun hats to protect you while gardening!
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Willowell Offers Herbal Workshops for Fun & Health
Do you have an interest in natural medicine, want to learn how to make your own salves and tinctures, or wish you could identify useful plants? The Willowell herbal workshops series welcomes you! Join them on their land in Monkton, on the Bristol Monkton Road. Herbalists Julie Mitchell of Eos Botanicals and Juliette Abigail Carr of Old Ways Herbal will lead informative classes that approach herbalism from several different angles. Whether you are new to herbal medicine or looking to expand your existing knowledge, you will walk away with new understanding and skills. Please pre-register and get more info on their website.
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Opportunities & Events
Spring Cleaning? Donate your clean, in great condition clothes to Neat Repeats in Middlebury mentioning ACORN as the recipient. It's a great way to support our Junior Iron Chef initiative.
May 7, 2014 7:00 PM
VPIRG Public Hearing on the Fracked Pipeline
Shoreham Elementary School
"The Art of the Hedge"
Learn how to design & maintain privacy hedges
Vermont Foodbank's Hunger Action Conference
May 9th Sheraton Burlington, VT
 May 10, 2014 Basket Making
Lincoln Peak Vineyard
Saturday, May 10, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm, bring a lunch pre-register & details
May 13; 4:00 at Addison County Regional Planning Office
May 18th from 11 - 3 ; The event supports HOPE farm gleaning and celebrates solar energy. Stop by, learn, support HOPE and purchases your garden bedding plants! Become a friend of HOPE on Facebook.
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Thanks to all of you for sharing links and information. Please share our website link on your site to help build the local food network!
Annie Harlow
ACORN Network
802-922-7060
annie@acornvt.org
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Find Addison County's newest hard cider at 
