Red osier dogwoods planted in Michelle's honor behind the Intervale Center barn

We’ll be taking a quiet moment to watch this beautiful video based on “This I Believe,” an essay Michelle wrote that conveys with grace, power, and beauty the reasons we’re do the work that we do.

For more information on Michelle and the incredible impact her legacy continues to make in the world (including generous annual support of the Intervale Center’s work), please visit Michelle’s Earth Foundation.

I believe that we should understand our place in our regional ecosystems and communities, as well as pledge our allegiance to the earth as a whole.

Thank you for showing that you value our mission of strengthening community food systems. Thank you for letting us know that you value our work sustaining farms, land, and people. Thank you for knowing (and loving) your farmer! Finally, thanks to you, we achieved so much in 2011. Here are some of the highlights:

SUSTAINING FARMS, LAND, and PEOPLE

Over 20 Vermont farms participate in the Intervale Food Hub's multi-farm CSA

Success on Farms: We worked with 22 farms this year, providing business planning and technical support services to help grow and manage their businesses. Over the past ten years, we’ve worked with over 100 farms that represent about 10,000 acres of Vermont’s working landscape.

Intervale Food Hub: The Food Hub helped 20 farms reach local food-lovin’ CSA (community-supported agriculture) customers at 25 workplace drop-off points in Chittenden County, including UVM, St. Michael’s, and Champlain College. We also exceeded projected annual sales by nearly $100,000!

The Food Hub is pleased to now accept EBT and NOFA Farm Shares for CSA share payments. We continue to explore new options to extend CSA to all income levels and populations, including college student shares and a new share available at local elementary schools.

Though our gleaning and food rescue program funded by Gardener’s Supply Company came to an abrupt halt with Tropical Storm Irene, from early July through August we were able to distribute over 7,000 pounds of produce to income-eligible community members through a Free Food Share to individuals and social services. Between 25 and 33 households received shares each week. All Free Food Share recipients surveyed indicated that the share increased the amount of fresh vegetables prepared and eaten by their families.

Stay tuned: We will be unveiling an exciting new Food Hub-related campaign at the beginning of next month – right now we’re calling it “The Gamechanger.”

Intervale Conservation Nursery: We supplied 14,000 native trees and shrubs to riverbank restoration projects and planted an additional 4,485 trees throughout the Lake Champlain Basin. This helped restore nearly 100 acres of riparian habitat and helps keep Lake Champlain clean for all to enjoy.

We are continuing to partner with US Fish and Wildlife Service on a monitoring project that will evaluate dozens of riparian restoration areas over a 5-year period.

Food writer Mark Bittman visited the Intervale Center the day after Thanksgiving. The orange Intervale Center hat looks good, no?

Policy: We continue to work with the City of Burlington, Vermont Agency of Agriculture and FEMA to ensure that floodplain locations like the Intervale can continue to be utilized in support of sustainable agriculture. We also hosted Congressman Peter Welch to help inform his work on the House Agricultural Committee, and discussed national Food Hubs with Senator Bernie Sanders and special guest, food writer Mark Bittman on the day after Thanksgiving. Read what Bittman had to say about the Intervale Center’s work here.

What Happened to Intervale Compost Products? We successfully transitioned Intervale Compost Products (now known as Green Mountain Compost) to its new state-of-the-art home at the Chittenden Solid Waste District facility in Williston. Compost lands and buildings are being leased to Intervale Community Farm, which plans to expand pick-your-own operations after soil enhancement on the site. The former Compost offices have been leased to the Intervale Farmers’ Equipment Company, providing year-round office and storage space for Intervale farmers.

Sharing Our Work: We hosted 10 Summervale events attended by 600+ people each week! We celebrated, ate, drank, created, grooved, and learned together … and can’t wait for Summervale 2012!

National and international visitors included the National Peace Academy, visitors from China and Russia participating in the Vermont Council on World Affairs‘s International Visitors Leadership Program, the staff of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, the Vermont Regional Food Centers (16 groups statewide), a beginning farmers group from Missouri, and many others. We also sell our Farmer Manual in North America.

Certainly not least, Flood Relief: With the help of our community, the Intervale Center raised over $140,000 for the Intervale Center Farmers’ Recovery Fund! We couldn’t have done it without your incredible generosity. Thank you!

Intervale farmers and Intervale Center staff members gathered in October 2011 to celebrate the rainbow after the storm

By Mike Ingalls, Intervale Conservation Nursery Manager

Cozy in our offices during this snow, sleet, and windy weather, we’re thinking back to an incredible opportunity the Intervale Center received this fall. Our Conservation Nursery was awarded a $20,000 grant from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR). One of GMCR’s key funding focuses is water quality, which aligns directly with the nursery’s mission: restoring and conserving riparian zones to protect our waterways and Lake Champlain from agricultural runoff and pollution.

Thanks to this generous grant, we’ll be able to greatly increase the impact and sustainability of the Intervale Conservation Nursery. The grant supports three key fields: marketing, monitoring and partnership-building. We’ll be busy building connections with landowners, creating professional marketing materials, and developing a rigorous monitoring and evaluation tool to measure and report Nursery results over time, including species planted, number and location of projects, and miles of riverbanks, stream banks and lakeshore planted throughout Vermont.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters employees partnered with Conservation Nursery staff to plant around 50 native trees and shrubs in Burlington's Intervale

Best of all, we’ve been able to implement two large riparian restoration projects along local watersheds — the first, a 1-day project, took place along the Winooski River in the Intervale. GMCR volunteers and Conservation Nursery staff planted over 50 container trees. The second planting project involves an estimated 700 trees and shrubs and will take place closer to GMCR’s headquarters in Waterbury.

What Does the Intervale Conservation Nursery Do?

We grow trees!

Until recently, bareroot trees and shrubs were available in large quantities to Northeastern clients mainly from nurseries west of the Mississippi River. While these plants were the correct species, their genotypes originated from western plant populations, raising serious concerns that these plants from milder West Coast climates lack the hardiness to survive in Vermont — and that non-native genetic material is compromising Vermont’s native plant communities.

The Intervale Conservation Nursery was established in 2002 to fill this gap by providing locally sourced native species of trees and shrubs for planting projects that restore stream and riverbank buffers, protect natural habitats and reduce phosphorus runoff.

Today, the Nursery grows native trees and shrubs for conservation projects statewide. Our plants are organically grown from seeds or cuttings collected by our staff from native wild populations throughout Vermont. Grown using only organic methods, our trees are hardy Vermont natives, genetically designed to withstand Vermont’s harsh winters.

The Intervale Conservation Nursery is a central component of the Intervale Center’s work, as healthy water is an integral part of healthy agriculture and a food system that’s good for people, animals, and the planet.

I wanted a song that really captured what Christmas means to someone like me, who is very spiritual, but not necessarily religious,” McGraw explains. “And I wanted a song that doesn’t gloss over the dark stuff, but instead unravels the beauty of the complete picture.

To learn more about Kara McGraw, check out her website or Facebook page.

Representatives from Regional Food Centers tour Intervale Community Farm, a 500+-member CSA in Burlington's Intervale and a Farms Program Mentor Farm

By Sona Desai, Food Hub Manager

This fall, the Intervale Center hosted the Vermont Regional Food Centers for a tour and discussion about food hubs. The Vermont Regional Food Centers is a group of around 15 organizations around the state that are working to help connect farmers to markets by providing aggregation, distribution, marketing, storage and/or processing support.

We hosted folks from the Center for an Agricultural Economy in Hardwick, Foodworks at Two Rivers Center in Montpelier, Saint Johnsbury Local Food Alliance, Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN) in Middlebury, Rutland Area Farm and Food Link (RAFFL) and others.

The tour of the Intervale Center’s lands and programs included a visit with Andy Jones of Intervale Community Farm, along with visits to the Intervale farmer barn, greenhouse complex, Intervale Conservation Nursery and the Intervale Food Hub.

Following the tour, we had a great conversation with Jim Barham of the USDA and Katie Enterline of the Wallace Center to discuss Food Hub trends on a national scale. Food Hubs are cropping up all over the country — 100 have already been identified, and the list is growing. The Intervale Center is excited to be leading this movement here in Vermont.

All in all, it was an engaging and inspiring day as we learned from others and shared our work.

We were also lucky enough to have lunch catered by Mara and Spencer Welton of Half Pint Farm (an Intervale farm). They created a wonderful burrito bar that included homemade tortillas, pinto beans, green chili sauce, red chili sauce, and preserved local veggies from their farm. They are serving their amazing burritos at the Burlington Winter Farmers Market all winter long, so check them out!

ICN Assistant Manager, Lynn Wolfe, preparing to plant a dogwood

This October, volunteers gathered in Essex, Vermont to plant 76 Intervale Conservation Nursery-grown trees and shrubs along Alder Brook as part of the Alder Brook Project, an ongoing restoration project that started in spring 2011 and will continue through spring 2012.

The Friends of the Winooski River have been working with the Town of Essex Conservation Committee to improve riparian and meadow habitat on a town-owned parcel of land along Alder Brook and one of its tributaries. To date, over 430 trees have been planted along the brook by Friends of the Winooski River and volunteers from the Conservation Committee, the University of Vermont, the Green Mountain Valley School, and Essex High School. This is just one of dozens of restoration projects to which the Intervale Conservation Nursery is proud to provide locally-grown trees!

To learn more or to purchase trees, please visit our website.

Volunteers plant Intervale-grown trees along Alder Brook

Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mark Bittman, and Travis Marcotte discuss the Intervale Center's work strengthening the local food system during a press conference on Friday, November 25. Photo credit: Joe Speidel.

On the day after Thanksgiving, United States Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Times columnist and author Mark Bittman emphasized the importance of a strong local food system while visiting the Intervale Center.

The Intervale is an experiment of extraordinary importance,” said Bittman. “The Intervale Food Hub, and projects like it, are the way of the future … It’s an inspiration for everybody.

Joined by the Intervale Center’s founder, Will Raap, and its executive director, Travis Marcotte, the group learned about the Intervale Center’s work, toured the Intervale Food Hub facility, and held a brief press conference at the Calkins Farmstead, where the Center’s offices are located. They also enjoyed local refreshments prepared by Intervale Center staffer Julie Rubaud and Intervale Center board member Maura O’Sullivan, chef at Burlington’s Penny Cluse Cafe.

From l.: Intervale Center board member Meg Smith, Bernie Sanders, Will Raap, and board member Mary Sulilvan listen to Travis Marcotte speak about the Intervale Center's innovative programs. Photo credit: Joe Speidel.

Joined by Intervale Center staff, board members, and Intervale farmers, Bittman and Sanders learned about the Intervale Center’s innovative Farms Program, which incubates 1-2 new farmers in the Intervale each year, as well as the Intervale Food Hub, which aggregates and distributes local products from over 23 regional farms directly to consumers, retail markets, and institutions.

“The Food Hub is really sort of innovative. It will be interesting to see where it goes, though there’s no reason it won’t do great,” said Bittman.

Bittman and Sanders also talked to Intervale farmers Thomas Case, of Arethusa Farm, and Eric Seitz, of Pitchfork Farm. Along with the other 10 farms operating in the Intervale, these businesses bring over $1 million of local food annually to Burlington-area markets. (Already familiar with Intervale farms, Bittman expressed his concern about Irene-related damages in an earlier blog post here.)

Also present were Erica Campbell, the Farm to Plate Initiative‘s Program Director, and Joe Speidel of the University of Vermont‘s Community Relations office.

What is taking place here in the Intervale is extraordinarily important,” said Bernie Sanders, “not only for Chittenden County and Vermont, but as a model for the nation.

From l.: Bernie Sanders, Will Raap, and Mark Bittman discuss the Food Hub's aggregation and distribution systems. Photo credit: Alice Levitt

 Read more about the visit:

Burlington Free Press

Blurt: Seven Days staff blog

Bernie Sanders’ newsroom

“Fall Peak” (above) is an original watercolor that will be raffled off during the event, with all proceeds going to the Intervale Center Farmers’ Recovery Fund.

After spending so much time painting in the Intervale this year, I especially want to help farmers get back on their feet and have the means to plant in the spring,” says Montstream.

Montstream presented an exhibit titled “Into the Intervale” this June, which featured depictions of various Intervale landscapes that inspire her work.

Stop by Saturday at noon to check out Katharine’s live watercolor demonstration, and look at fellow artist’s Walt Montstream’s Iron Art, as well as Intervale-themed calendars and iPad sleeves created by Flashbag and featuring Montstream’s art. Great stocking stuffers for the holidays for a great cause!

Intervale Center

The Intervale Center is seeking a part-time Administrative Assistant. Tasks include reception, gift processing, donor stewardship, management of office equipment, supplies, and mail, and support for the Executive Director. An ideal candidate is a team player with a Bachelor’s degree, 2 years’ experience in administration, development or customer service, excellent communication and computer skills, and a passion for community food systems. Please send your cover letter, resume and two references to Mandy Davis, mandy [at] intervale [dot] org by Tuesday, November 15. The Intervale Center is an EOE.

Download the full job description here.

Join our passionate, committed, and energetic team!

Bella Farm, an incubator farms participating in the Intervale Center’s Farms Program, will be leaving after the 2011 growing season. We’re sad to wave goodbye to Bella Farm and proprietor Rachel Schattman, but we know that her future will be bright and filled with delicious pesto and herbs!

Rachel has been a participant in the Farms Program since 2009, and will transition  to a family-owned piece of land in Monkton for 2012. Bella’s new farmland features rich, loamy soil as well as a gorgeous historic barn.

Rachel says, “Being a part of the Farms Program has helped me do exactly what I set out to do: Get the farm off the ground, truth-test some ideas, and gain experience.   I’m grateful for the check-ins, the support and the opportunities that being a part of the Intervale [Center's] community has provided. It doesn’t seem possible to fully articulate how much I’ve learned in the past 2 years!”

Even though Bella Farm is moving, this doesn’t mean that Rachel’s delicious pesto is going away. It is available at City Market and the winter Burlington Farmers’ Market.

Congratulations, Rachel, and best of luck!