Yak It To Me!

Yak It To Me!
Vermont Yak Wagon & Mobile BBQ

Did you know yak meat is one of “the planet’s greenest red meats”? Red meat does get a bad rap because of it’s high use of energy, pesticides, land, water pollution and overall impact on global warming. But yaks are smaller than cows, eat less grass and take up less space. And the meat itself? well it’s lean, nutritious and tastes delicious too. If you love red meat, why not switch to sustainable yak meat?

Now after a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign and meat from yaks around New England, Yak It To Me! is bringing yak meat to Vermonters around the state.

Doesn’t a yak-burger on a Vermont bun with Vermont cheese and locally grown veggies sound good? Or how about a yak-dog or a yak-sausage? How much more local can you get?

Look for the Yak It To Me! mobile cart at the Waitsfield Farmer’s Market on Saturdays as well as around Burlington and festivals around the states. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to find their summer schedule.

As they say, “Once you go yak, you never go back.”

On the 12th day of Vermont Christmas

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love sent to me

12 Deals a waiting

11 Darns a toughing

10 Mustard munchies

9 Wallets penning

8 Meals a training

7 Skida sporting

6 Girls a coding

5 Peanut Butters

4 Douglas Sweets

3 Red Kite’s

2 Laughing Moons

and a Fat Toad in a Maple Tree

flavor plate

flavor plate
websites for restaurants

What a great idea! Let restaurant owners and chefs do what they do best – prepare and serve delicious meals. And let Flavor Plate do all the work to give them a digital and mobile presence. What Dealer.com does for car dealerships, Flavor Plate does for restaurants.

Take a look at all the features they offer:

• website manager
• menu manager
• photo gallery
• mobile friendly
• design tools
• events calendar
• online gift card sales
• social media
• online reservations
• SEO control
• email marketing
• google maps

Restaurateurs! what more could you want? ok, maybe all this for free? Well, Flavor Plate does have just ONE very reasonable plan that for a small monthly fee covers all of it! You can’t afford to not have one of these websites.

Join these fine restaurants and consider becoming a client today:

• The Bearded Frog
• Black Sheep Bistro
• Cucina Antica
• Hinesburgh Public House
• Magnolia
• Starry Night Cafe

Bonus perk! If you’re a farm-to-table restaurant, you’ll get a discount.

“Simple. Beautiful. Restaurant websites.”

And of course, all made in Burlington, Vermont!

big picture farm

big picture farm
a vermont goat dairy & farmstead confectionery

Based in Townsend, Big Picture Farm is the home to almost 30 Saanens, Alpines and floppy-eared Nubians. Yes, we’re talking goats and these lucky guys get to roam freely around the farm eating what’s in season. Imagine their diet:

Spring – wild chocolate mint, clover, honeysuckle and other wildflowers
Summer – legumes and beans
Fall – crisp oak leaves, apples and ferns
Winter – white pine and hemlock saplings

And of course some premium local hay.

This varied and flavorful diet translates into milk that is “exceptionally floral and creamy” that is used to make:

– farmstead goat milk caramels
– small batch cheeses

Louisa and Lucas, the owners of Big Picture Farm, don’t mess around – their product list may be short, but their press and  award list is long:

– 2013 Good Food Awards winner
– 2012 SOFI Award for Outstanding Confection
– 2012 USDA Value-Added Producer Grant
– 2011 Winner of the BDCC/Strolling of the Heifers/Farm Business Plan Competition

And Louisa and Lucas aren’t just farmers. They’re also artists. Learn more about them and their journey on their blog, “Farm Weather”.

With their charming logo, packaging and commitment to their mission, Big Picture Farm is a farm to celebrate and support.

They get the big picture.

gredio

gredio
software applications for food companies

Remember Green Mountain Mustard? Well, founder/owner Michael Adams has started another company offering an app for food companies called Gredio. It’s a way for food producers to keep track of and control:

• recipes
• inventory
• product costs
• production schedules
• production history
• invoices
• lot tracking of ingredients

It even has 8 calculators that help figure out:

• ingredient costs
• labor rates
• transportation costs
• retail price

Just to name a few. Take a look at their one minute video.

This app from Gredio is the perfect solution for:

• value-added food producers
• home bakers
• co-packing kitchens

So for all those “made in vermont” food producers/home bakers and those beyond our state, why not try Gredio’s new app to help organize your business, become more efficient and make more sales?

It’s free.

p.s. Gredio recently won the LaunchVT competition for young entrepreneurs.

mad river food hub

mad river food hub
supporting local food producers

The Mad River Food Hub in Waitsfield is a fully licensed, 40,000 sf storage, processing and distribution facility. Within Vermont, it was the first:

• for profit food hub
• shared use state-inspected meat processing facility

This is just the kind of partnering that Vermont needs to support our producers so they can continue to make and sell their made in Vermont foods for us all to enjoy. It allows small scale producers to share costs and grow their businesses. Producers can:

• rent a room by the day or weekly
• rent dry, refrigerated or frozen storage space
• become part of the weekly distribution to retail markets in vermont

Currently, the following producers are taking advantage of what the hub has to offer, you probably know of a few these and notice many are outside of the Mad River Valley:

• Kingsbury Market Garden
• Lawsons Finest
• The Vermont Meat Co.
• Knoll Farm
• Gaylord Farm
• Vermont Raw Pet Food
• Vermont Bean Crafters
• Vermont Yak
• Screamin Ridge Farm
• Starbird Fish Co
• Tannery Farm
• Rookies Root Beer
• Tonewood Maple
• Vermont Salumi
• Apple Cheek Farm
• New Village Farm
• Tangle Town Farm
• Liz Lovely Bakery
• Vermont Pub & Brewery
• Zero Gravity
• Prime Restaurant Group
• Bobcat Brewery
• Luna Bleu Farm
• North Branch Farm
• VT Whey Fed Pigs
• Winter Moon Farm
• Grow Compost

This food hub is a win win for producers, consumers and the Vermont economy.

Thank you Mad River Food Hub for doing your part in supporting local business and bringing these made in Vermont products to a store near us!

vermont sail freight project

the vermont sail freight project
farm to plate, powered by sail

Created by Erik Andrus, a farmer in Ferrisburgh, Vermont, The Vermont Sail Freight Project is a carbon neutral transport initiative connecting the farms and forests of Vermont with the lower Hudson Valley. Bringing our amazing made in Vermont products all the way to the big Apple on a boat? YES! How Vermont is that?

This boat  will bring that made in Vermont, natural freshness right down the river to the lucky consumers in New York City and all carbon neutral. What a great idea. Not new, just great to be going back to our roots.

And this sailing barge won’t be coming back to Vermont empty. It’ll be filled with goods. Yes, we do make a lot of what we need in Vermont except for maybe a handful of staples such as olive oil, chocolate, sugar and coffee, to name a few. Carbon neutral up the river they’ll come.

This is a win-win and one to watch.

And by the way, Erik’s a rice farmer and a lot more. Check out Vermont Rice, Boundbrook Farm & Good Companion Bakery. No need to be putting any rice or bread on that sailing barge as it heads north again.

three revolutions

Three Revolutions
put your money where your mouth is

So by now everyone has heard of kickstarter, right? well, Three Revolutions is similar to kickstarter but it’s focus is food. And for those of us who love Vermont, want to buy Vermont, Three Revolutions is based in Vermont! They “fund food through community” and it is the first crowdfunding platform focused on farm and food related projects.

Not sure how it works? Take a look here where they outline the process:

• planters sow ideas
• pollinators spread the word
• cultivators fund planters so they can grow their ideas to fruition

We all have to eat. So why not go and take a look at the current projects and consider funding a food innovator that will bring something good to your table or town?

Will you be a planter, a pollinator or a cultivator?

green mountain mustard

Green Mountain Mustard
Gourmet Mustard Made in the Mountains of Vermont

These are no ordinary mustards. Not only are they rich and creamy, they’re also made in Vermont using local ingredients:

• Eggs from local family farm
• Butter from Vermont Cabot Coop farmers
• Maple syrup from local  farms
• Yellow mustard seeds from Clear Brook Farm in Shaftsbury

Every one of their flavors are distinct and delicious:

• Barn Burner
• Garlic Oregano
• Sweet Hot (original flavor)
• Wholegrain Mustard
• Horseradish

The Green Mountain Mustard story is similar to other made in Vermont products that got their start at local farmer’s markets – at their second market they sold their 24 jars in less than 30 minutes! That was in 2010. Today you can find their mustards in over 70 stores nationwide.

Dip pretzels in their mustard, smother your meats or fish with their mustard, use it in salad dressings or in any of these recipes! Good mustard can be used in so many ways!

How can you not switch over to Green Mountain Mustard? And turn on someone else while you’re at it. Can you say party gift? stocking stuffer?

vermont smoke and cure

Vermont Smoke and Cure
Made from scratch in Vermont

Based just outside Burlington in Hinesburg, Vermont Smoke and Cure makes some of the best (possibly the best) smoked meats! They’ve been at it for more than 50 years, smoking meats the old fashion way with only with pure ingredients (yes, including Vermont maple syrup). They really do make everything from scratch!

Think everything pigs. Vermont pigs:

Bacon – 5 knives, natural thick sliced
Hams – uncured half steaks
Peperoni – smoked, of course
Sausages – breakfast, maple, summer, hot & sweet italian

When you eat bacon, or any other pork product for that matter, ever think where it came from? Vermont Smoke and Cure only uses Vermont grown pork from farmers who treat them well – living in open pastures and eating grains and legumes. No hormones! No farrowing crates! These are happy pigs!

Just like they say on their cool website, their meats truly are full of flavor and “Damn fine!”

With the holidays around the corner,  Vermont Smoke and Cure has “7 sweet and delicious stocking stuffers”, according to Real Simple Magazine. Our favorite – the Vermontavore Box!

Buy local. Buy Vermont. Eat local.