Back in mid-July 2019 I had the pleasure of being invited to participate in a conference called the Rural Quadrennial. It is held every four years in Britain, Canada or the USA and participation is restricted to scholars from those nations. There is, however, the possibility for occasional Australian and New Zealand people to be included and I have now been invited to four such events over the years. In sequence they were Halifax (Nova Scotia), Spokane (Washington State), Brandon (Manitoba), and just recently Burlington (Vermont). On this occasion I got in via being made an honorary Canadian! Each conference has interesting paper sessions, but this post will focus on the four and half days we spent on the road visiting farms and farming communities. Such tours are central to all these conferences and highly valued.
This post focuses on some the farms. Late on Monday 15th July we headed off the Bread and Butter Farm to see its approaches to farming and community development and, subsequently have an evening meal there.
Here we have the suitably rustic entrance to the bead and butter farm, a plaque stating the community values of the enterprise, and warning sign about roaming kiddos. This farm is about ethically and ecologically sound food production, strengthening the local community and school education. Let's a look around the farm.
Farm produce ranges a wide range of veggies and livestock, especially in this case little piglets.
And the business serves food out of doors - fine for the summer's day we were there.
The following day we started our from Burlington for what's called the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. We visited the Laggis Bothers farm. It's partly a dairy with around 500 cows located on about 1500 acres (c. 600 Ha.) of prime hill-top land. It's a small operation by Australian standards. But the farm also produces a variety of 'green' produce. Here's the owner addressing his audience and a view of some of the farm buildings.
This last one shows the 'cow shed' and we can take a peek inside.
All up, it was an interesting sample of what seemed to us a good model of local agriculture.
The third farm visit was, for me, a bit of a surprise. I like to eat Belgian waffles coated in maple syrup, usually Canadian in origin. I've always associated that lovely ingredient with, of course, Canada. After all, the maple leaf is the national emblem enshrined in that country;s flag. Well, the next farm we visited in Vermont was called the Bread Loaf View Farm and its main output we found to be maple syrup. We saw the farm's maple abundant maple trees of varying ages, the collection of their sap, and its subsequent processing into the syrup one buys in the shop.
Here's the farm's mascot at the entrance. And we made our way to the Sugarhouse to meet up with our hosts. And I took a quick peek inside.
and how holes were drilled into the bark, tubes were inserted to draw of the syrupy flow, and networked to drain a strong uptake of the product - see below.
Eventually the sap reaches a tank back at HQ and from there it is taken into the Sugarhouse to be refined into the final syrup product.
Here we can members of our party watching the refining process, while below a shelf was stacked with samples of the final product.
As we exited from the building on our back to our bus I was taken by this sketch of what the farm looked like maybe a century or so ago. I'd have to agree that the processing system has improved significantly between then and now.
That's all I'm posting about farms in Vermont, but in the next few days we'll see many of the other interesting dimensions of rural life in the USA, assuming I find time to wade through hundreds of pictures I took.
AS
This post focuses on some the farms. Late on Monday 15th July we headed off the Bread and Butter Farm to see its approaches to farming and community development and, subsequently have an evening meal there.
Here we have the suitably rustic entrance to the bead and butter farm, a plaque stating the community values of the enterprise, and warning sign about roaming kiddos. This farm is about ethically and ecologically sound food production, strengthening the local community and school education. Let's a look around the farm.
Farm produce ranges a wide range of veggies and livestock, especially in this case little piglets.
And the business serves food out of doors - fine for the summer's day we were there.
The following day we started our from Burlington for what's called the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. We visited the Laggis Bothers farm. It's partly a dairy with around 500 cows located on about 1500 acres (c. 600 Ha.) of prime hill-top land. It's a small operation by Australian standards. But the farm also produces a variety of 'green' produce. Here's the owner addressing his audience and a view of some of the farm buildings.
This last one shows the 'cow shed' and we can take a peek inside.
And, of course, the winters get very cold in the far north-east of the USA, so we found a shed stacked high with dry feed for the long winter months.
And the remaining pictures show the surrounding countryside and some of the veggies being grown.
The third farm visit was, for me, a bit of a surprise. I like to eat Belgian waffles coated in maple syrup, usually Canadian in origin. I've always associated that lovely ingredient with, of course, Canada. After all, the maple leaf is the national emblem enshrined in that country;s flag. Well, the next farm we visited in Vermont was called the Bread Loaf View Farm and its main output we found to be maple syrup. We saw the farm's maple abundant maple trees of varying ages, the collection of their sap, and its subsequent processing into the syrup one buys in the shop.
Here's the farm's mascot at the entrance. And we made our way to the Sugarhouse to meet up with our hosts. And I took a quick peek inside.
The we headed off into the forest of maple trees to learn about their growth patterns,
and how holes were drilled into the bark, tubes were inserted to draw of the syrupy flow, and networked to drain a strong uptake of the product - see below.
Eventually the sap reaches a tank back at HQ and from there it is taken into the Sugarhouse to be refined into the final syrup product.
Here we can members of our party watching the refining process, while below a shelf was stacked with samples of the final product.
As we exited from the building on our back to our bus I was taken by this sketch of what the farm looked like maybe a century or so ago. I'd have to agree that the processing system has improved significantly between then and now.That's all I'm posting about farms in Vermont, but in the next few days we'll see many of the other interesting dimensions of rural life in the USA, assuming I find time to wade through hundreds of pictures I took.
AS
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