Dance/movement class (Intro to Nia! Info below), massage therapy sessions, community acupuncture, and herbalist consultations and formulations, all FREE for farmers! Take a break from the spring chaos and come build community and get pampered! Childcare, lunch, and community connection space provided.
SCHEDULE
10:00am - 11:30am: Introduction to Nia workshop with Jane Mann. Please arrive by 10am for a 10:15 sharp start time.
Nia is a sensory based movement workshop that draws on dance arts, healing arts, and martial arts to sooth, energize, and empower body and soul. Nia is fun, highly accessible, and can easily be modified to fit a wide range of ages and abilities. There is capacity for more people to participate in this section of the day than in the "wellness stations". Come one, come all!
11:30am - 2:00pm: Wellness Stations (includes massage therapy, acupuncture, and herbal consultations & formulation)
30-minute slots for herbal consultations with Clinical Herbalist Lizzie Golden
15-minute massage therapy sessions with Steen Croitoru, CMT
Community acupuncture with Hadley Clark, L.Ac.
*There will be a shared meal and community space to relax, rejuvenate, and connect with local farmers during downtime between sessions.
Please note: this event is for working farmers to show gratitude and appreciation for the people who feed our communities, and to honor the tremendous physical and emotional effort that it takes to do so. Space is very limited and we expect this event to fill up with a waitlist. Practitioners are paid through Rural Vermont so farmers can access wellness services for free. Registration required, lots of info about the event, what to bring, and practitioner information here.
Food Justice Garden, Sharon, VT
10am-3pm
SUNDAY, 4/13
Rain or Shine
Lunch, Tools, & Education Provided
RSVP required for planning purposes
We hope you can join us! Work brigades are a popular education tool used around the world to strengthen communities and build trust and solidarity through collective labor, connection, mutual aid, and knowledge sharing. Agroecological education will be provided by special guest Buzz Ferver, founder/owner of Perfect Circle Farm in Berlin VT and a long time naturalist who has been growing and propagating trees for over 45 years. Come learn about the Vermont People’s Agroecology School, the Sharon Food Justice Garden, and agroecology as a social, political, and ecological movement building tools to grow community resilience and food sovereignty.
We will be digging a variety of nursery trees to help create space to grow more annual vegetables for the food pantries and community refrigerators around Sharon and South Royalton. Some of the trees will be sold through the WRNRCD annual tree sale, some will be planted to support riparian areas impacted by recent floods and some will support starting a nursery for the People’s Agroecology School.
This work brigade is co-hosted by the People’s Agroecology School of Vermont of Rural Vermont, the Regeneration Corps and the White River Natural Resources Conservation District’s Farm Force. Lunch will be provided by Moon & Stars.
Come join Rural Vermont and Mary Lake on Sunday, November 17th at Shepherd Moon Farm in Corinth for a lamb on-farm slaughter and processing workshop. In the first half of this 2-part workshop, participants will learn how to humanely slaughter a lamb. In the second half of the workshop, participants will learn how to efficiently butcher and process a lamb.
The workshop will be hosted by Dani Grover and Eva Westheimer of Shepherd Moon Farm. Shepherd Moon Farm is a newly created sheep farm with plans to start milking and making cheese next season. Dani Grover and Eva Westheimer started the farm and moved to Corinth in 2022 with plans to co-locate production alongside respite for folks engaged in social movement and organizing work.
Please join Rural Vermont and Merck Forest and Farmland Center in Rupert, Vermont on Saturday, November 10 for a pig slaughter and processing workshop.
In the first half of this 2-part workshop, participants will learn how to humanely slaughter, gut, skin, and quarter a whole pig. The 2nd half of the workshop will feature instruction on how to efficiently butcher and process various pork cuts.
Join the Vermont Wild Kitchen for an evening of good food, people, and discussion! We'll explore, cook, and eat burdock root, which can be foraged throughout Vermont. One of our guest chefs will be Chrys Tsang and they will cook kinpira gobo with burdock root. Our other guest chefs Ari Lattanzi and Matt Bull from Make Do Farm will walk us through prepping and cooking turkey, which many folks are raising and hunting this time of year. The event will be held from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM at the BLM House in South Royalton. Free but registration required and limited capacity.
Please join us at Union Brook Farm for a turkey processing workshop on Sunday, November 3 from 11:30am - 3:30pm!
Emily Virzi and Rose Thackeray will teach participants the basics of raising, slaughtering, and processing turkeys. Participants get to take home 2-3# of ground turkey!
At this slaughter and processing workshop, participants will learn how to slaughter, butcher and process turkey in a way to get the best results for a succulent bird. Wings, breasts and thighs all need different temperatures and times to cook. Cooking the whole bird makes for dry breasts, burnt wings tips, and everyone fighting over the dark meat. Buy whole turkeys directly from farmers and learn how to cook the bird in the way that makes the best meal at this workshop!
Are you interested in increasing your or your community’s sustainability, climate resilience, and food access? Rabbit meat is among the most sustainable proteins you can consume, using far less resources and definitely less work than most other livestock. And, yes, it really does taste like chicken... buttery, lean chicken!
Join Rural Vermont and Giant Journey Farm in Newfane on Saturday, October 26th from 10:00-1:00 to learn about raising and processing the other other white meat! The workshop will be led by farm owners Seren and Rick on their quirky 2 acre regenerative farm where they teach folks about farming while they grow year-round produce, and raise poultry, rabbits, and goats.
It’s that time of year! We look forward to gathering with the Rural Vermont community to make art, share a hot meal, meet and elect our Board of Directors, hear and offer updates, and much more! As always, this event is FREE for Rural Vermont members! Not a member? Join in advance or pay $35 at the door.
Please join us at Union Brook Farm in Northfield for a chicken processing workshop on Sunday, September 29 from 1:00pm - 4:00pm!
Emily Virzi and Rose Thackeray will teach participants the basics of raising, slaughtering, and processing meat chickens. Participants get to take home one whole delicious meat bird! If there is time and interest, Em & Rose will lead us through instruction for the cutting/parting of whole birds. Limited capacity, register now! Registration fee is $70.
Rural Vermont and Vermont Growers Association are excited to present our 4th cannabis workshop collaboration at Tilia Hills! Tilia Hills is a small, diversified farm licensed as a Tier 1 Outdoor Cultivator, located in Franklin County and operated by husband and wife team Ethan Kramer and Kristin Wolford. Ethan and Kristin welcome us to their gorgeous outdoor cannabis operation, where we will discuss at-scale late season field and flower maintenance, ripening stages, harvest preparation, and much more.
Join Rural Vermont for a chicken barbeque at our Quarterly Member Forum on Thursday, August 22nd from 5:30-8pm at Four Springs Farm in Royalton. We’ll celebrate the passage of the parted poultry bill with a grilled chicken potluck picnic, art stations, and summer fun! Free for Rural Vermont members and $10-$15 for everyone else. UPDATE 8/18: This event is FULL and cannot accommodate walk-ins.
Come join Rural Vermont and Mary Lake on Saturday, August 17th at NewGrass Farmstead in Wolcott for an on-farm slaughter and processing workshop. This is an opportunity to learn about the need for culling as part of livestock management and the benefit of on-farm slaughter to ensure quality of the entirety of life for the old beloved livestock animals. In the first half of this 2-part workshop, participants will learn how to humanely slaughter a culled ewe. In the second half of the workshop, participants will learn how to efficiently butcher and process a ewe.
Learn more about Vermont’s 30x30 process and join the 6/27 public meeting of the VT Conservation Strategy Initiative (VCSI)! Meeting registration is required. Farmer stipends are available through Rural Vermont for attending.
Registration has closed for this event.
Please email mollie@ruralvermont.org if you are interested in attending.
Join us Friday, May 3rd, from 9am - 3pm* at Foote Brook Farm, 641 VT-15 W, in Johnson, VT for a tree planting work brigade! We will be transitioning riverbank farmland impacted by the 2023 flooding into a riparian buffer zone to increase climate resiliency and adaptation on the farm. Work brigades are a popular education tool used around the world to strengthen communities, build trust and solidarity through collective labor, connection, mutual aid, and knowledge sharing. This is the first in a series of agricultural brigades hosted by the Vermont Agroecology School Collective (an independent project of Rural Vermont). Lunch, refreshments, agroecological education and tools provided. RSVP required for planning purposes.
Vermont’s ability to feed itself relies on thriving community scale farms working together towards food sovereignty and community resilience. We hope you can join us!
*We may finish before 3pm depending on numbers. It’s okay if you can’t stay for the whole time.
The Vermont Wild Kitchen returns with another in-person program on Sunday, April 14th for a Franklin County event focused on rabbit: how to raise them, how to hunt them, and finally how to cook them! The day starts at Give a C.A.R.E Farmstead in Bakersfield and ends at East Fairfield Community Center. Free! THIS EVENT IS AT CAPACITY, BUT WE ARE KEEPING A WAIT LIST.
WE WELCOME MEMBERS OF ALL EXPERIENCE LEVELS!
All Rural Vermont members are invited to join the Rural Vermont staff and Board for our next virtual forum. These Quarterly Forums are opportunities for our members to join our Policy team in a virtual forum to discuss particular issues which may be affecting your farm and / or community, and/ or that we are currently working on. Bring your questions, ideas, and concerns. We look forward to seeing you there!
Over the past decade, Rural Vermont’s Small Farm Action Days have provided hundreds of agrarians with a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the Vermont legislative process. In 2024, we’ll be co-hosting Small Farm Action Day with NOFA-VT on Thursday, March 14th from 8am to 2:15pm at the Vermont State House in Montpelier. This full-day event is designed for those who are curious to learn more about navigating and influencing the legislative process, as well as gaining access to members of the agricultural committees. Attendees will gain skills, connections, and experience to confidently and effectively advocate for the wants and needs of themselves and their communities.