The Farmplate Blog

Local author and Vermont ag expert Ron Krupp leads a visual tour through his new book, Lifting the Yoke: Local Solutions to America's Farm and Food Crisis, tonight at City Market in Burlington. While many see the national food system as a failure, Krupp finds solutions in our own backyards.

An activist in farm and food issues for nearly four decades, Krupp started the Brattleboro Farmers' Market in the early '70s, coordinated the Tommy Thompson Community Garden in the Intervale, worked with the Heartbeet farm in Hardwick and published "The Green Mountain Farmer," a monthly newsletter in the early '80s. He's also the author of The Woodchuck's Guide to Gardening, which received the Christian Science Monitor’s Garden Book of the Year award for New England in 2002. VPR listeners know him as the station's farm and garden commentator. The free discussion begins at 7 pm: sign up at the customer service desk.

More Regional Events

(All events take place in Vermont unless otherwise noted)

Stop by the Pierson Library in Shelburne to see "Rural Vermont's Activist Farmers," a traveling exhibit of photographs and stories on the lives of 15 Vermont farmers that share a vision of economic justice. The exhibit will be on display through the end of January. Next stop will be the Griswold Library at Green Mountain College in Poultney for the month of February.

FarmScapes, a juried art show, opens tonight at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts in Lake Placid, New York, featuring works inspired by the local working landscape and local produce. Twenty-four North Country artists contributed to the show, which runs through February 14.

Friday, January 15
A Regional Food Summit, sponsored by the Sustainable Agriculture Council and the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, gathers input on farms, food production and food security from participants for the Farm-to-Plate Initiative's 10-year plan to build a more robust local food system.  The summit will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 pm at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden.

Saturday, January 16
Head out to a Winter Farmers' Market in Burlington (at Memorial Auditorium on Main Street), in Montpelier (at the Alumni Hall Gym of the Vermont College of Fine Arts) or in Rutland (at the Old Strand Theater). Markets all begin at 10 am.

Seasonal winter beers from top Vermont breweries will be paired with culinary delights from 60 top Vermont male chefs at Stratton Mountain's "Men Who Cook" fundraiser for the Stratton Mountain Foundation. The event will be held in the Stratton Resort Base Lodge from 7 to 10 pm.

Annual Game Supper - A feast featuring bear, moose, deer and domestic turkey benefits the Knights of Columbus scholarship funds. Seatings at 5 and 6:15 pm Holy Family Parish Hall in Essex Junction. $6-12.

Looking for a rotten good time for a Saturday night? Celebrate the kick-off of Highfields' "Community Supported Compost" share program the 1st Annual Compost Cabaret with performances by Alan Greenleaf & the Doctor, Rob Mermin of Circus Smirkus, Good Old Wagon, Geoff Hewitt, The Drumatics, Roaring Dandelion and others. The event starts at 7 pm at the Town Hall in Cabot. Suggested donation $10.

Wednesday, January 20
Farmers and food producers fill Vermonters' totes with local and organic eggs, cider, seeds and cheeses at the Lamoille Valley Farmers Artisan Market.  3 to 6:30 pm at River Arts Center in Morrisville.