Little Village Acres farm is a common good project in Middlebury, VT helping meet the need for locally grown, high quality produce for our neighbors who face food insecurity. Seeing an unmet need for locally grown, high quality produce for our neighbors who confront food insecurity, Paul and Deb purchased 7 acres of farmland, complete with a beautiful, nearly 100-year-old barn, off Rd 116 in Middl
ebury 2 years ago, and began the process of turning it into a working farm growing food for Middlebury’s HOPE and other Vermont food banks. Our first planting year, 2023, was an inauspicious one to begin farming in Addison County. A very late last frost and then not one, but two major summer floods damaged or destroyed crops all over Vermont. While we planted carrots, garlic and potatoes, only a portion of the potatoes survived to be harvested. Community volunteers from HOPE and ACORN came and dug, washed, and bagged spuds alongside us over several exhausting but exhilarating days. In the end, despite the weather problems, we were delighted to be able to donate over 5,000 pounds of potatoes to HOPE and the Intervale Center in Burlington. For the 2024 season, we worked up a crop list with the guidance of Jean, Anna and Lucy from HOPE, looking to fill the bank with the most needed and requested items. Julie and her wonderful crew at Red Wagon Plants in Hinesburg provided us with starts of cabbage, plum tomato, butternut squash, peppers and a complete array of herbs. Our friend and neighbor, Sam, generously grew dozens of hot pepper bedding plants in his greenhouse and gave them to us! We had so many that we were able to send some on to another local farm that grows produce for the Viva El Sabor culinary collective. Golden Russet Farm in Shoreham donated hundreds of red and white onion starts, which HOPE ferried over (and Anna helped plant!). Finally, in addition to more of the white Reba potatoes we grew in 2023, we seeded out red Chieftain potatoes, carrots, garlic and more herbs. A rather significant math error (oops!) allowed us to share hundreds of pounds of potato seeds with Granville’s Clearfield Farm. While many Vermont farmers generously participate in gleaning programs, where volunteers collect produce left on the plants or on the ground after the main harvest, Little Village Acres main focus is growing vegetables and herbs expressly to donate to food banks. However, while learning about the needs of the local organizations receiving gleaned goods, we uncovered another unmet need; most farmers and food banks lack the facilities to clean, package and store the gleaned produce. The result of not having a way to process produce is that food banks get too many perishable items all at once and are unable to use them up before things begin to spoil. This leads to much waste during the harvest season and a dearth of nutritious vegetables during the winter. The difference just the ability to freeze fresh produce would make is enormous! We imagined having a facility at Little Village Acres where they could not only take care of what we grow at our farm, but also help process gleanings from other small farms. The vision is coming to fruition in the shape of a building on the farm with facilities to clean, package, store, cook, refrigerate and freeze produce and other local farm ingredients. While the talented craftsmen of Quaker Village Carpentry work with other local trades to complete and outfit the building, we will be busy planting, watering, weeding and harvesting. We’ve sent our first Napa cabbages along to HOPE already, in what we hope will be the beginning of a bountiful 2024 full of nourishing food for them! Want to join us? Contact HOPE at [email protected] about volunteering!
