Origins of Food

27/01/2021

Thanks Brandon Library and Olivias Croutons for inspiring us to bake chocolate cake today. I was also inspired by our local mitten wearing hero!

08/01/2021

Our dear friends at Imap Guatemala are fundraising for their "500 Healthy Kids" initiave, which will help give protein-rich amaranth drinks to families with children affected by the pandemic. Please take a look at the video on their GoFundMe page to learn more about this amazing grassroots program, donate what you can, and spread the word!
https://www.gofundme.com/f/qzzbwc-healthy-kids?fbclid=IwAR0sEQUffJxqP3unkShZplKKj4Cgroww_Cd9_igwD76F-QEap3kSOe00e-s

COVID-19’s impact on Guatemala has been profound and devastating. Most disheartening is the fact tha… Myriam Legault needs your support for 500 Healthy Kids

11/11/2020

A friend and Board Member and I started a series of one-on-one farm visits around the Champlain Valley to deepen our connection to our local farmers and food producers, hear how COVID has affected their markets, and understand how ACORN can best serve them in the future. 👩🏻‍🌾

Here, we’re feeding garden veggies to some very fluffy sheep (and an Angora goat!) who enjoy some of the most beautiful views of Bridport and western Addison County at Alissa and her daughter make artisan fresh and aged sheep and cow’s milk cheese, sheep’s milk gelato (great for lactose intolerance, and in fun flavors like cardamom pistachio and sticky date pudding), and gorgeous fiber. When I asked if she’s pulled more towards making cheese or the fiber arts, Alissa joked she’s a cheesemaker by profession, but a “fiberaholic” by hobby. 👩🏻‍🌾🐑🧀

Fairy tale farm cheese (and possibly the gelato, which is season dependent), is available at , and through their website. 👩🏻‍🌾

07/11/2020

Today is a GREAT day; out with the fascist and in with a hot tub. Four years of anxiety + stress held in my shoulders and jaw and neck can start melting away. Looking forward to winter, especially 1.20.21, SO HARD. ✊❄️ 🎉

21/10/2020

Vermont friends, check out this new Farm Walks intiative! Stretch your legs while visiting some of our state's gorgeous working farms. https://www.diginvt.com/blog/farm-walks-farmer-participation/ DigInVT

Vermont Farm Walk Network - Farmer Participation The Farm Walk Trail network is a collaborative initiative of food, farming and agritourism organizations to create a directory of walking trails on farms across Vermont. Farm walks offer Vermonters a healthy and safe place to be outside, engage with t...

20/10/2020

The Agitators: play about abolitionists, staged on a (rare) Black family owned farm.

We really enjoyed watching an outside reading of The Agitators, a play by Mat Smart, on the fields of

This super engaging play weaves the story of the 45 year friendship between American icons Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass.

Set primarily in 19th Century Rochester, NY, many of the conversations, not-always-friendly debates and pointed philosophizing of political strategy to achieve race and gender and equality still ring true today, 130 years later. Even the land we watched it on was relevant- Clemmons Family Farm is one of only 17 Black-owned farms in Vermont, out of about 2,500 farms! This speaks to the wider disparity of Black-owned farmland in this country... which adds up to a mere 0.4% of the U.S.’s total farmland. So much “progress” still needs to be made.

This play also made me realize how much I don’t know about a crazy important period of American history, and I left feeling inspired to keep on agitating. 📣

20/10/2020

🍎Apple picking time is one of the best times. 🔮 In my near future I predict: apple pie, apple cider, apple cake, apple cinnamon oatmeal... and lots of fresh, crispy apple snacking. 🍎

17/10/2020

Get out the vote! Voting is democracy in action; make your voice heard!

12/10/2020

✨Celebrate Indigenous People’s Day! ✨ Especially honoring all of the indigenous womxn who have stewarded this land, and continue to care for this land, for the last 10,000 years, or more. They are still here, many working to ensure their traditional plant medicines, foods and culture persevere despite 400 years of patriarchal colonization and exploitative globalization. ✨

✨Acknowledge the land you’re occupying, and please make sure this isn’t the *only* day Indigenous people are celebrated and recognized. ✨

✨Are you familiar with the indigenous groups who previously lived (and may still live) where you now call home? Are you acknowledging the original people of the land in public spaces, private meetings? Do you recognize unceded territories and broken treaties? Have you read any books, or listened to any podcasts, by indigenous people? Have you considered offering any of your wealth privilege as reparations? ✨

✨All photos were taken with permission, from the Quechua and Tz’utujil people we know, in Chincheros and Ccatcca, Peru and San Juan la Laguna, Guatemala, respectively. ✨

09/10/2020

Once a model, always a model. No one like my mama to pose for seasonal photos for a local food newsletter! 💁🏻‍♀️ Go out and support your local pumpkin grower (if you haven’t grown your own this year). This year was a bumper crop for some folks! 🎃

09/10/2020

One of our local apple orchards could use help taking care of s group of their migrant farm workers who contracted COVID. As many of us know, front line food workers are some of the most at risk of getting sick, and have the least access to healthcare or any kind of "safety net." These men are away from their homes and families, growing food for our country. Please help out if you can.

Thank you for all the kind words and support that we have received over the past few days. It is truly humbling to see our communities rally around us during these difficult times. This community support is part of what makes Vermont so special; we’re honored and inspired to be a part of it. As y...

07/10/2020

We said farewell to our beloved Ravioli, the 1997 RAV4 we bought from a Florida surfer dude on his way to Bali back in 2015. She had 97k miles. 🚗 We drove Ravi up and down both coasts of the U.S. and across the country both ways. She scaled the Rockies and plowed through blazing hot deserts many times. She went up and down the Pacific Coast Highway and took us through “the loneliest road in America.” She’s been to all four corners of the continental U.S and served us our portable home for quite some time. Although she has her quirks, she never broke down. 😅 Swipe through to see some of our favorite memories with this badass champ of a car. She gave us the freedom to travel and live an alternate lifestyle for years, and we’ve got so much gratitude for her. The farewell is quite bittersweet. 😢 Our friend’s 16 year old son is scoring a sweet little ride we hope will bring him as much joy as she brought us. 💜

18/09/2020

Pretty simple formula for Joy: one part cat, one dose of sunshine, and a handful of veggies you nurtured from seed. Combine and serve. ☀️

17/09/2020

Well worth reading while sipping your daily cup. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/09/coffee-rust/616358/

Coffee plants were supposed to be safe on this side of the Atlantic. But the fungus found them.

15/09/2020

“It came to me while picking beans, the secret of happiness.” -

Six months after we sowed our first indoor seeds in the spare bedroom turned yoga room turned plant nursery turned chick incubator, we’ve fully experienced our garden’s incredible gifts and the knowledge that Pachamama does indeed love us. 💚

Sunday was our best harvest day yet, and we still have loads of fall veggies coming through, even as frost threatens and the leaves begin their annual changing of the guard. 🍁

Matt’s building cold frames out of old windows from a friend’s house renovation and every night is spent on food preservation: pickling, freezing, dehydrating, canning. 🌀🌱🍯

02/09/2020

Home office and lunch break, Summer 2020 style. 👩🏻‍💻 Gazpacho, dilly beans, pickles and sourdough: all homemade and homegrown (except the wheat and butter, but that’s local thanks to and ) 🙌🏻

This screened in patio space that faces our backyard has been my home office, conference room, dining room and general sanity-maintainer for the last four months. The hummingbird/butterfly/squirrel/cat/chicken entertainment has been pure magic, and there’s something about watching a clothesline blow in the wind. ✨👩🏻‍💻

01/09/2020

Did you know Vermont grows peaches? 🍑 That’s right... we’re not just maple and cheese! I was fortunate enough to get a tip from a friend that had a few “dropped” peaches left to pick so I hopped over and scooped up some of the still delicious fallen fruit. 🥧 I’ll be slicing and freezing to use in a pie/crisp/crumble so we can reminisce about summer while the snow is falling. ❄️

I also couldn’t resist the aroma of the JUST made cider donuts and a half gallon of cranberry apple cider. I’ll be heading back very soon to walk the orchard’s rolling hills and verdant rows to pick Asian pears, and of course, so many A P P L E S 🍎🍏🍎🍏

30/08/2020

Black lives still matter. 📣 @ Vermont

24/08/2020

Yesterday we went for a 13 mile jaunt through the woods and mountains near us and came back with these gorgeous chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms for dinner. (Don’t worry, we left way more than we harvested). Got home, fried them up with a buttermilk crumb, whipped up some DIY ranch dressing, and yes, they tasted just like... 🐓✨ @ Moosalamoo National Recreation Area

24/08/2020

Have you ever held, let alone tried to take a selfie, with a bunch of collard greens with 50+ leaves? At least I entertained myself for a few minutes. But, yes! What a beautiful plant to grow, harvest and eat! Ended up blanching and freezing quite a lot so we can enjoy summer greens in the depths of winter. ❄️🥬 @ Vermont

17/08/2020

When I lived in DC and NYC, Sunday brunches meant bottomless Bloody Mary’s and hangover platters. My, how time changes us! ⏰

Fast forward 10 years to yesterday, when we maximized the summer berry load with a lovely Sunday brunch at Taconic Rambles state park, just 20 minutes away from our house. 🍓

We feasted on blueberry scones still warm from the oven (thanks to for the recipe), slathered with fresh blueberry and strawberry whipped cream, honey and strawberry/currant jam, washed down with garden mint and black raspberry water. All berries sourced within 25 miles of us! 🍹

Side dishes: cucumber salad, homegrown tomatoes, and melon and cookies from 🤤

A few rounds of competitive backgammon rounded out the morning. 🎲 @ Taconic Mountain Ramble State Park

15/08/2020

Does a bear s**t in the woods? 🐻🌲💩

Yes, yes she does....AND she helps distribute many berry seeds along the way. 💩🌲🐻 @ The Long Trail

14/08/2020

First time growing garlic from seed; I’d say we did alright! 🙌🏻

Garlic is a wonderful plant to grow, and help mark time and the seasons; we planted last October and harvested in July/August. ❄️ That’s right, they survive Vermont’s LONG winters underground! ❄️ It’s also a bit of a confidence-booster; after we put spring veggie seedlings in the ground in April, itching for something green to grow, waiting, and nervous we had messed everything up, the garlic shoots were well above ground, waving their green shoots at us. 👋 🌱

This harvest may not last us the full year as hoped, but it’ll get us close, helping us avoid buying too many from Argentina or China, where a lot of garlic is shipped in from. 🤦🏻‍♀️

These beauts have been braided and are currently curing in our basement. A few cloves have already gone into batches of pesto, dilly beans and last night’s patatas bravas. 🍲

The garlic seed cloves were purchased from a family farm that had cultivated their own variety, at last year’s Garlic Fest in Bennington, back when food festivals were still a thing, and we got to hang out with friends and 💞

Here’s to enjoying the the fruits of our garden year-round, and hoping to more garlic fests in the future! 💫 @ Brandon, Vermont

12/08/2020

Hello! We’ve taken a bit of a break these last few months to pause and reflect. To say this summer has been a difficult one is the understatement of the year, and we have our home garden to thank for what sanity and hope we have left. Mid-August seems to be the beginning of peak harvest season for Vermont, and today’s basil haul is bringing me some much needed joy. We grew these babies from seed, tending them in a spare bedroom turned plant nursery/baby chick incubation space. I experienced a beautiful mix of satisfaction, awe and gratitude snipping each stem this morning, hoping we may still get another harvest before the frost hits in September (or October...?). Now, to make pesto for the year! (Using our own garlic, to boot!) 🌱☀️ @ Brandon, Vermont

05/06/2020

Today would have been Breonna Taylor’s 27th Birthday. Breonna was an EMT on the front lines during COVID-19, but she was senselessly killed in her Louisville, KY home on March 13 by police who were looking for someone else. They entered her house without knocking and shot her at least eight times. Her killers have not been charged. Send a birthday card to the Kentucky Attorney General’s office to demand


Happy Birthday, Breonna. Rest in power.





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01/06/2020

✖️Showing up in our hometown tonight for and ✖️ there are two more vigils tomorrow night in Rutland. Wear a mask, bring a sign. ✖️ @ Brandon, Vermont

23/05/2020

for @ Vermont

18/05/2020

Curbside delivery for the most essential local items. 🥂 @ Vergennes, Vermont

17/05/2020

A snapshot of the summer to be. ☀️ 🛶 🌊 @ Fern Lake Beach

15/05/2020

Vermont does curbside pick-up for blueberry plants. 🌱 @ Miller Hill Farm • Nursery & Gardens