The VYCC is currently hiring Corps Members and Crew Leaders for our 2011 field season!  NOW is the time to apply for either a Crew Leader or Corps Member position!

Interested in Crew Leading? To learn about all of VYCC’s opportunities, please read through our Crew Leading page on our website and then if your interested, submit an application online today.

We hire Corps Members on a rolling basis. To find out more, visit our Corps Member page.  To apply for a position, please fill out our online application found at www.vycc.org/apply.

Positions for both Crew Leaders and Corps Members are limited, so don’t delay – apply today.

If you have questions, call us at 1-800-639-8922 or email info@vycc.org.

Now accepting members for our 2011 growing season ~ Fresh and Local, Horse Powered, Educating tomorrow’s farmers!

Even though the snow is flying and the ground is frozen solid, we are beginning to plan for this upcoming growing season which is sure to be as successful as last. Like last year, we are offering a 20-week summer CSA, a Fall share and a Pasture-Raised Poultry share.

**We are excited to introduce our Frozen Vegetable Winter CSA! A taste of summer in the midst of the winter cold. This consists of a monthly pick-up of frozen vegetables such as broccoli, tomatoes and corn (just to name a few) for 5 months, November – March. Contact Beth Whiting at Maple Wind Farm for more details. 802.434.7257. www.maplewindfarm.com.

Become a member today! Your membership helps support local agriculture, educational efforts and contributing healthy food to the charitable food system.

For an order form please click here.

Summer CSA

• 20 weeks of farm fresh vegetables (June-October)
• Pick-Your-Own Garden – enjoy picking flowers, herbs, cherry tomatoes, beans, peas and hot peppers
• Add-on options available: eggs, maple syrup, bread, cheese
• Weekly newsletter with recipes, farm updates and special events

Fall CSA

• One time pick up in November with ~35 pounds of storage crops such as potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, parsnips, cabbage, winter squash, etc.

Pasture-Raised Poultry CSA

• Enjoy fresh chickens raised on our beautiful pastures
• 2 chickens/month: June, July, August

Frozen Vegetable CSA (details above)

Contact Beth Whiting at 802.434.7257 for more details.

The VYCC’s Online Holiday Auction is a fun way to connect with supporters while raising funds for our youth and conservation programs. All proceeds from the auction directly support our efforts to inspire the state’s youth to become tomorrow’s environmental stewards and community leaders.

The auction will feature a wide assortment of items including gift certificates, ski passes, museum memberships, weekend getaways, and much more!

How you can help:

1. Make a donation! With over 10,000 people visiting the auction website, it is a great way to advertise. Donations can be anything from gift certificates to canoes to donated services…..a bread-making class, a financial consultancy, or a vacation rental. Donations are tax deductible and a great way to show your support for the VYCC.

2. Bid! Bidding will begin on November 26. Instead of elbowing your way through “Black Friday” crowds, visit our Online Holiday Auction and do your shopping from the comfort of your home. Every bid you make will help support the VYCC’s effort to provide meaningful employment opportunities to Vermont’s youth while completing high-priority conservation work.

To support these programs, visit the auction at www.vycc.cmarket.org. Bidding begins on November 26 and will close at noon on December 14.

iPads…Battery-powered lawn mowers…Week-long getaways in Nantucket…Yeah! Celebrate the VYCC’s 25th Anniversary with our best-ever Online Holiday auction!

Bidding will open on November 26, 2010 at 7:00 AM EST Time.

This year we’re partnering with the Vermont Mountain Bike Association and DREAM. Our goal is to raise over $30,000 to support our youth and conservation programs. Every item you bid on will help us get closer to this goal!

How you can help: We are still looking for more donations! Our auction is a great marketing opportunity for businesses, artists, and other nonprofits. Help spread your business’s name at the height of holiday shopping by donating an item or gift certificate to the VYCC. To make a donation, contact Kris Smith at kristin.smith@vycc.org or (802) 434-3969 x122.

Remember, bidding officially begins November 26. Check back often to see what’s new. Feel free to place a Watch on your favorites, so that you’ll know as soon as bidding begins!

The date for the installation of solar trackers at the Monitor Barns has been moved to early November. A 36 panel installation would require using a portion of conserved land. As such, the Vermont Land Trust, Richmond Land Trust , and the VYCC are working together to balance the legal requirements of the easement with what everyone agrees is the right thing to do – produce alternative energy to reduce our carbon footprint.

The Solar Orchard will produce 210,000 Kwh of energy annually, enough to fully power the VYCC’s needs and send a significant amount to local schools.

The Orchard will be in the upper field between the two barns as one looks north from I-89. This is an exciting venture we hope to announce the final agreement in the very near future!

With the cold late autumn days and the bountiful fall harvest, it’s now the perfect time to roast a chicken or make chicken soup!

We have frozen chickens for sale, all raised on the beautiful pasture behind the Monitor Barn here in Richmond by VYCC Farm interns.  Also, as we head into the holiday season, consider purchasing a local frozen chicken to donate to the food shelf.  Food shelves struggle with acquiring enough protein rich foods to distribute to their clients and this is a great way to help! Chickens are $4.50/lb

We also have eggs for sale for $4.00/dozen.  If you pass the Monitor Barns on a regular basis this is an easy stop to make.

If you are interested, please contact Amanda Payne, VYCC Farm Coordinator at 434-3969 x145 or amanda.payne@vycc.org

Thank you for your support!

Chickens on pasture behind the Monitor Barn.

Last Friday we had about 20 gleaners from Richmond Elementary School (both students and their parents) out to the farm, organized by RES school chef, Karyl Kent.  They gleaned a total of 240 lbs of produce, including paste and slicing tomatoes, broccoli shoots, cabbages, kale and chard.  Karyl’s plans were to make “macaroni and trees” with the broccoli, sauce with the tomatoes and freeze the kale/chard for winter soups.  It was wonderful to see kids trying kale for the first time and others simply enjoying themselves on a rather warm fall day at the farm.  CSA member Wendy Gagliardi was out with her children who made a great big dent in the paste tomatoes.  A great big shout out to Karyl who is doing amazing work at the school, working tirelessly to get as much farm fresh produce to the students as possible given her limited budget.  Gleans such as these are creative ways that help her financially and get kids out on farms!  This week her crew of gleaners will be heading to Jericho Settlers Farm to glean potatoes…

This Working Summit is designed to share what we have learned and to learn from other exemplary programs including:  The Walden Project, Smokey House, YouthBuild, The Twilight Program, Kindle Farm, and The Moosalamoo Center.  The VYCC invites all Vermont educators working in and supportive of alternative education.

For more information please contact Harry Frank at 802.434.3969, ext. 146 or by e-mail at harry.frank@vycc.org. Read the rest of this entry »

The Farm Crew has been enjoying the cool Autumn weather as the heavy harvest season continues!  While the plants look as if they’re starting to go by, they are still putting out a steady bounty—especially those tomatoes!  The zukes, cukes, and summer squash seem to have quit after a seriously good run, those plants were heavy producers!  Still lots of exciting vegetables to come though(Roots! Brussel sprouts! Hearty greens! Winter squash!).

Delicata Squash

Since we’ve had such a fortunate growing season, we have had the opportunity to share our bounty with some of our area food shelves.  We’ve been bombarding the Richmond Food Shelf with as much fresh produce as they can handle, and taking boxes upon boxes to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf in Burlington.  To date, the following produce has been donated:

• 1,046  lbs to Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf
• 50 lbs to Our Community Cares Camp
• 40 lbs to Richmond Friday Night Food Affair (community supper free and open to the public)
• 150 lbs to Richmond Food Shelf (on top of the 20 lbs of produce they buy weekly at a much reduced cost)

On top of that, now that school is back in session, we have been making weekly deliveries to schools in Richmond, Jericho, and Bolton.  For the Farm Crew, every delivery we make to a food shelf or school is an important act.  We were all drawn to this farm for the purpose of expanding access to fresh food—getting fresh food to Vermonters who are food insecure, and feeding the growing bodies and minds of our youth has been an excellent way to keep us motivated as the season starts to wind down.

Last week was the conclusion of the Monitor Barns Farm’s pastured poultry season. Since April, 900 chickens have passed though our hands and its a bittersweet feeling to see them go… The three hours dedicated daily to their chores and maintenance can now be focused elsewhere on our bountiful harvest of the coming autumn, but we all enjoyed the daily rhythms and interactions with our little avian friends.

Our main goal with the chickens was to allow them to live out their lives with as many natural instincts and inherent chicken traits as possible. In short, we want to raise happy, healthy chickens which in turn provide us with tasty, nutritious poultry. To keep our birds happy and clean, we kept them on pasture and moved their little homes (we call them tractors) twice a day and let them out of their tractors whenever weather permitted.

For anyone who doesn't believe Cornish Cross actually graze, take a look at this picture.

As with any system in its first season, this was definitely a learning process. Through the first two batches we refined our systems to become more efficient and profitable. In this final and last batch of 300 birds, we felt we had finally gotten all of our bumps out and ended up producing a great batch of birds (even with a small incident with a hungry raccoon). One of the crew leaders, Angie, was able to create a holistic budget for the birds that tracked every cent it took to produce them… results will follow. The interns here at MBF were able to learn every part of raising these birds- from raising the chicks in the brooder, to maintaining them on pasture, to processing the birds and finding a market for their sale.

We raised a breed called Cornish Cross or Cornish Rock. This is the generic white breed that commercial poultry producers use and has been hybridized and bred to put on weight quickly with an efficient conversion of grain and produces large breasts and legs. Generally, this is the breed that American consumers want. However, many people in the world of sustainable agriculture look down upon these super-hybrids as lazy and weak. And, while there is definitely more health issues with these birds than more-hardy, heritage breeds we saw excellent results. Our day old chicks were very active and healthy- we got them from Mt. Healthy Hatchery in Ohio. We kept a pretty low mortality rate and tried to get them out on pasture as early as possible (around 2 weeks). It was blatant to us that the earlier we got them out on pasture, the better they were at foraging and utilizing those chicken instincts we were hoping to foster.

We hope you’ll enjoy feeding these chickens to your friends and family knowing how well they were cared for!  Please inquire with Amanda Payne, VYCC Farm Coordinator if you are interested in buying a chicken.  802.434.3969 x145

Raised with care and dedication,

Ben, Angie, Kelly and Melissa (The Monitor Barns/VYCC Farm Crew)