Winter Solstice Reflections & New Year's Wishes
What three words come to mind when you think of Salvation Farms?
With the new year’s start in sight, Salvation Farms’ Board and staff took a moment to reflect on what Salvation Farms means to them. With a prompt to share the first three words that came to mind when they thought of Salvation Farms - these words were shared:
community - innovative - food - farm - committed - altruistic - building - inspirational - visionary - change - ambitious - grounded - people - caring - connective - dedicated - together - food security - steadfast - scrappy - accessible - loving - inter-woven - energetic - amazing - growing
As we prepare for a year of programmatic growth, we revisit why Salvation Farms is unique in its food system work. Our mission is to build increased resilience in Vermont’s food system through agricultural surplus management. This mission is critical for everyone’s future food security.
Our goals are to:
- reduce food loss on farms
- increase the use of locally-grown foods
- foster appreciation for our agricultural heritage and future
- support the development of socially and environmentally just local food systems
We believe that:
- farms are, were, and always will be our salvation; small, diversified farms are the cornerstones of healthy, wholesome and stable communities and cultures
- the best way to build lasting change is to involve people in the process; this creates ownership and intrinsic value
- food, a common and essential resource, is an extremely effective tool for social change
We are inspired by sustainable agriculture, natural resource management, experiential education, and justice within the food system.
We know that, together, we can create more locally-fed and food-secure communities.
A Nourishing Collaboration
During this first, full year of gleaning in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom we discovered plentiful partnerships and forged a unique collaboration with the St. Johnsbury Academy.
David Hale, instructor shares:
For many years, the Academy hosted the Friday community lunch at South Church Hall. During the pandemic, the dining room space became a classroom and is still being used in that capacity. Losing the community lunch created a gap that needed to be filled. While they don’t know it at the onset, our students have deep seeded values of giving and caring for others. This Spring, I met with Hillary from Salvation Farms and area food shelves to build a system that would prepare locally gleaned produce in such a way to make them more accessible to their patrons. The reality is that most people don’t purchase fresh vegetables to cook at home due to many factors: time, space, equipment, knowledge, or other resources. While many of us look at the beautiful produce available at the food shelves, many do not bring those vegetables home.
Our processing is simple, without preservatives or anything unhealthy added to the gleaned items. The whole plan doesn’t work without hands. My first call for volunteers brought in over 30 students who processed corn, summer squash, and zucchini. These items are packaged in portions enough for 2-4 people. It worked like a champ and the students were thrilled. The feedback from the food shelves has been very positive as well.
For Salvation Farms, this partnership exemplifies the power of community collaboration and a shared value of creating opportunities that nourish body and mind. In addition to engaging a dozen Academy students gleaning this fall, we were able to donate a variety of locally gleaned crops to the Academy. Student volunteers, with support from instructor David Hale, worked in the Culinary Arts’ kitchen on campus to chop, puree, roast, and sauce these gleaned crops into frozen products. The Academy has provided the resulting frozen food to their community food shelves. These food shelves are serving upwards of 300 individuals each week.
We are pleased that this collaboration has exposed students to local farms and locally grown foods. That it has made visible to young minds the potential within a local food system. And, that local nourishment has been made more accessible to those who may need it most.
Neighborly Committed
Farmer Richie at Cabot Smith Farm will tell you that gleaning was not something he thought he would allow on his farm. That is until he learned that the practice was referenced in the Bible. He woke up one morning, not to his usual alarm, but to his radio telling him about the practice of gleaning. That was the day that he changed his mind. Faced with a few acres of sweet corn and no market, Richie reached out to his local school. They were eager to help him harvest that corn for his community. Cabot Smith Farm has been working with gleaners ever since.
Richie and his wife Connie have been growing blueberries, corn, summer squash, and winter squash on their property for more than twenty years - but everyone knows them for their U-Pick strawberries.
With the support and enthusiasm of farmers Richie and Connie behind Salvation Farms, we’ve been able to glean more than 15,000 pounds of nutrient rich produce from their farm this year. And with their trust, we’ve engaged groups of students from three near-by schools, corporate groups, and community volunteers to glean their fields and pack-house this year.
Many are surprised by the amount of surplus produce one small town, rural Vermont farm can have. The produce that Cabot Smith Farm has available for gleaning are crops that don’t satisfy the cosmetic standards of grocery stores. It may be misshapen pie pumpkins, cucumbers that are just too small, or off-color butternut squash. Farmer Richie grew frustrated with the amount of produce his crew was forced to spread back onto the fields because there wasn’t a market for it. That’s what led him to Salvation Farms. Richie wants the food he grows to feed people, to feed his community.
We are proud of the strong partnership that has developed with Cabot Smith Farm in recent years. As 2022 draws to an end, we look forward to the coming year and to this relationship growing. Farmer Richie says, “We need you as much as you need us.” Salvation Farms agrees. We all need local farms and they need us to support them. That’s how we’ll stay fed.
Wonderful Winter Squash
An excerpt from Salvation Farms’ Vermont Fresh Handbook
Contained within the pages of the Vermont Fresh Handbook is information on the nutritional value, storage, preparation and simple recipes for forty different fruits, vegetables, and herbs that grow well in cooler climates.
Order your copy here!
Winter squash is one of the first crops to ever have been cultivated in the Americas; archaeologists have uncovered seed remnants that are believed to date back thousands of years.
Nutritional Benefits:
Winter squash provides complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, vitamins A and C, several types of vitamin B, potassium, manganese, folate, and omega-3 fatty acids. It really packs a punch!
Storage:
After harvest, most types of winter squash should be “cured” in a warm, dry spot for several days. Squash should then be moved to a cool, relatively dry place. Un-damaged squash stored this way can last months. Squash can also be cooked, then pureed or diced, and frozen.
Preparation:
Except for delicata, most squash is peeled. Some with smooth skins, like butternut, can be tackled with a vegetable peeler before cooking. But for most types, however, you’ll want to slice the squash in half vertically with a sharp knife (careful!), scoop out the seeds, and then roast or steam the pieces until the flesh softens. At that point, you can scoop it out of the skin and put it to use.
Simplest Squash — serves 4–8
Ingredients:
2 large winter squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 425°. Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds, peel, and chop into pieces.
- Toss pieces with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven, drizzle with maple syrup, then return to oven and cook until totally tender. Serve hot with additional salt and pepper.
Salvation Farms’ Aid was a blast!
If you missed it – don’t worry, there will be another! This year’s music was incredible, the venue was amazing, the silent auction was a treasure trove, the Serving of Salvation was a treat, and the ticket holders ... oh, they were the best! Keep watch for a Save the Date announcement for Salvation Farms Aid
2023. We want to see you there!
And, THANK YOU Front Porch Forum for being Salvation Farms Aids’ 2022 Headlining Sponsor and for helping neighbors connect and build community through online neighborhood forums. Since 2006, you’ve helped people feel more connected within their communities. Thank you for your work and for supporting Salvation Farms critical mission.
Salvation Farms has nearly half of our 2022 annual fund goal left to raise.
Our $236,580 goal is what we need not only to maintain but to grow our impact.
So far this year we captured and moved more than 240,000 servings of locally grown, nutritious, surplus produce. In 2023 we’ll do even more but NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
Your gift brings locally-grown nutritious to those who need it most.
Our donors - YOU - make our work possible. Please support us with a yearend gift if you have not yet made your contribution. And please tell a friend about our work.
Share the message of our work and help get us to 100%!
Here are some of our 2023 goals:
- Provide at least 45 farms with services that move their quality, surplus food to more than 50 sites that feed youth, families, and seniors
- Produce at least 30,000 servings of frozen food made from surplus fruits and vegetables
- Install a walk-in freezer for the temporary storage of our frozen food
- Help Vermont’s prisons source upwards of 15,000 servings of surplus produce
- Hire a Gleaning Coordinator, install a walk-in cooler, and open a satellite office to increase our services in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom
We need all of the support our community can offer to ensure we enter 2023 strong.
MAKE YOUR DONATION TODAY!
Give online or send a check payable to Salvation Farms to PO Box 1174, Morrisville, VT 05661.