Spotlight: Real Farms, Real Food

Spotlight: Real Farms, Real Food

Promising that “the public gets to see where everything begins and can trace the path from seed to fork,” Rutland Area Farm and Food Link is highlighting Rutland County and its agriculture to provide residents with greater access to local farms and local food. With this in mind, a six-month/six-farm tour with culinary workshops, “Real Farms, Real Food, Real Rutland,” was born, paid for through a Specialty Crop Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Dig in and enjoy on these two tour dates:

June 29: Second Nature Herb Farm and Horticultural Services, 35 Mill Pond Rd., Wells, 10a-noon (802-645-9346, greenworksvermont.org/members, secondnaturevt@gmail.com). Tour-goers will learn about culinary and medicinal herbs from farm owners Ellen Malona and Richard Strange, who, for 14 years, have provided landscape and garden design, installation, and maintenance using all-organic and sustainable practices.

August 10: Wellsmere Farm, 199 Vt. Rte. 30, Wells, 10a-1p (802-645-0934, mmorey1025@yahoo.com). The subject is canning and preserving root vegetables. August is a time of abundance. This 250-acre farm boasts a petting zoo — and ledges where peregrine falcons nest. The farmers boil their own maple syrup and sell alpaca products and all-natural soaps. Learn from the Bates family how to prepare and keep fresh produce, even when buying in bulk, and how to do it on a tight budget. Make sure to visit the kitchen, where canning and processing take place, and pop into the newly built root cellar.