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ACORN's mission is to help revitalize the health of our land, our local economy and our local communities so they can provide sustainable sources of food, water, energy, employment, capital and other essential resources.
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TAKE ACTION TO SUPPORT ACORN
Be active in relocalization with a donation for
Attend a workshop
Find us on
Send events & items of interest for the newsletter to Annie@acornvt.org
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is a great resource for spending your dollars locally.
 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. Great gifts for Grads, Dads or for anyone.
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for all their community fundraising dinners! Speaking of dinners, have you tried their Misty Knoll Farm Chicken Wings?
Another great tool for sourcing locally AND touring the county for all things farm and food. Use the Dig In's interactive website to create a specialized food tour in Vermont! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June is all about Strawberries!
Stop by your local berry growers for the sweet taste of summer!
Norris Berry Farm, The Last Resort, Scott's Greenbush Farm, Sunset Hill, Woods Market Garden, Marble Rose, Omar's Uncommon Fruits, Douglas Orchard, Boutin Farm. Find the farm locations in the Local Food Guide!
Do you need help finding good recipes? Sign-up for
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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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Sign up and receive promotional materials for your farm stands, CSA's and retail produce departments!
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 | VSJF Bio-Energy Videos
Algae to Biofuel | BIO DIESEL |
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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
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SAVE THE DATE FOR ACORN'S BIGGEST FUNDRAISER!
SEPTEMBER 21 TOUR DE FARMS SHOREHAM, VERMONT
Looking for local meat for the grill? Check out our local farmer stands, farmers' market, the Middlebury Coop, Mountain Greens Market and Green Pasture Meat
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In case you didn't know!
Potato Hill Bakery sells as the Middlebury Coop, Lincoln General Store, Mountain Greens, Almost Home, the Jerusalem Store and the Shelburne Supermarket
FYI grab some Orb Weaver cheese to go with it. It's great to see the bakery expanding their delivery routes!
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ACORN Continues Celebrating Jr Iron Chefs of Addison County
Here are the Ferrisburg Foragers receiving their "chef quality" saute pans at a school wide gathering! This honor coincided with an early harvest of fresh spinach from the school garden, and a first delivery of freshly picked radish from the Lalumiere Farm. It was a good day for the school motto "Food Matters". Sarah washes the fresh spinach as the students receive their pans.
ACORN is happy to say our partners at Neat Repeats and the Basin Harbor Club help us celebrate our good food culture in Addison County! Many thanks to our sponsors and the school mentors for teaching the students good food habits.
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ACORN is part of Vermont's Farm to Plate Network. 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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School Gardening with Eliza
ACORN has hired a Middlebury College Intern to help spruce up school gardens. Eliza has started her work to help clean up beds for planting, worked with the Shoreham Garden Explorers to plant and is arranging Lincoln School and community work days. We all know many hands make light work and school gardens are always in need of attention. Each school is a unique setting, reflected in the gardens as much as school leadership. If you are gardener, a community member who wants to help out, contact your local school office. Feel like donating to ACORN's Tools for Schools Program? Click here for ACORN's Paypal portal.
Eliza is also working on ACORN's annual Tour de Farms- she is helping create the "Trike Route" for our youngest riders and she is documenting Addison County agriculture through various medium including video, photography and social media.
In the photo above are the new compost bins at Shoreham School. Food Service Director, Dot oversaw the construction with support from a couple of Middlebury College students as part of sustainability curriculum. Dot's skills go beyond the kitchen to these fantastic new bins as part of the schools' effort to prepare for VT Act 148, aka "The Compost & Recycling" law.
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Hunger Free Vermont: Summer Meal Programs
Over 37,000 Vermont children depend on free or reduced-price school meals during the school year. When school cafeterias close in June, many of these children lose their most important source of balanced nutrition.
 Summer can be a high-risk season for low-income children; studies indicate that disadvantaged children are more likely to gain weight and fall behind their peers academically during the summer months. By the time school opens again in the fall, many kids have fallen behind both nutritionally and developmentally. Hunger Free Vermont is working within communities to increase access to healthy meals during the summer.
The Out-of-School Time Nutrition Outreach Program will continue to work with community partners to identify opportunities for program improvements and expansion, to ensure Vermont children have access to nutritious meals and snacks during the summer and after school programming. Sites Meal sites will be located in Addison County and are listed at HFVT.
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Farm-stand Feature:
Lewis Creek Farm
Summer is all about good food, good weather and good times. Stop in at the roadside stands for the bounty of the county. When it's time to do swimming in the local rivers, Lewis Creek has a couple of wonderful spots and the best part of the day is picking up some of Hank & Margo's fabulous spinach and incredible strawberries. Everyone knows farm-stand shopping is a bundle of sensory experiences that exclaim summer. Lewis Creek Farm is located in the center of Starksboro on Route 116 and is on the way to great hiking and swimming holes.
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Golden Russet Farm: Gleaning & Solar Energy
A bright sunshiny day in May, was a perfect day to claim winter was really over and it was safe to think spring!
The sun was beaming down at Golden Russet Farm in Shoreham the day they hosted a solar benefit for HOPE. With a portion of proceeds from plant sales to support the gleaning program, this is another wonderful example of community and network building. ACORN & the ACORN Renewable Energy Coop participated in this event .
Are you a farmer who wants a gleaning team to help clea n your fields? The food becomes part of the service of local food shelves and community meals. ACORN is working with HOPE this summer to help organize the farms. Please contact Gretchen 802-431-3395 for program details.
Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. Some ancient cultures promoted gleaning as an early form of a welfare system. Gleaning has been long the subject of artists. NPR explains the process and the impacts of the logistics of gleaning in this short radio story.
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Rock Dust: Remineralization
Rock dust may be utilized as a "foundation of fertility", for revitalizing depleted or sterile soils as well as anchoring healthy high functioning growing media. Rock Dust Local encourages the integration of biological farming practices when selecting these geologic materials for use.
Remineralization is a global initiative carried out through local land management practices which revitalize biologic ecosystems. Increased nutrient value in food imparts health up and down the food chain. The sustainable local sourcing of mineral rich rock dusts for agriculture and forestry contributes to good health locally. Revitalize your soil while relocalizing the economy! Contact Tom Vanacore for details on sourcing for optimal remineralization of your farm or garden.
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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.
for details contact Norma 999-3420
Friday Night Music Series
June 6 
Lincoln Peak
Perfect for farm-stand picnics with the bounty of the county listening to
Sims & Lavoie
June 7th 9-4 Willowell, Monkton
by Oscar Nominated Josh Fox
June 8th, 7:00
Isley Library Middlebury
Learn more about Phase II of the Pipeline
Pipeline Public Hearing
June 12 7:00 MUHS see flier below for details
Pollinator Workshop in Fairfax
June 30, 4 - 7 pm at River Berry Farm in Fairfax Learn what you can do to enhance pollinator habitat. Sponsored by the Vermont Land Trust
Grazing Workshop, Sudbury Community Hall
Monday June 16,
9:30-3:30
Register by June 11 for this excellent workshop on holistic pasture management
Edible Landscaping / Permaculture Workshop
Farm Tour: Kimball Brook 
Tuesday, July 8
6 - 7:30 pm
North Ferrisburg
Tour a farm that raises grass-fed Holsteins and packages its own dairy products. Visit the pastures, barns, and milking room. Sponsored by the Vermont Land Trust; Members free/$10 non-members
Strawberry picking with your friends, family, or solo 
From Late June till the crop is harvested
Any PYO farm in Addison County or anywhere!
Vermont Beekeeper Association Meeting
Saturday July 12
Bennington, Grace Christian School
Tom Seeley will be discussing "Honey Bees in the Wild" and "Swarm Intelligence in Honey Bees"
The Art of Fermentation
Monday July 21 lecture,
Tuesday & Wednesday July 22-23 Hands-on Workshop
Shelburne Farms
Register and Info
Vermont Land Trust Annual Meeting
Sunday, August 10, at Health Hero Farm in South Hero. Lake Champlain is the backdrop for field trips to conserved farms and orchards, a forestry tour, and a naturalist hike to an ancient coral reef. Local Motion will lead a guided bike tour on blissfully flat roads to a conserved dairy farm. Go the Islands and enjoy the day in the upper Champlain Valley!
Looking to connect to a greater good? Sign Up for the Resilience.org newsletter!
 See what else he creates when not at work
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Thanks to all of you for sharing links and information. Keep me posted of things of interest to relocalization and Addison County!
Annie Harlow
ACORN Network
802-922-7060
annie@acornvt.org
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