Change of Season, End of Season, Looking Ahead: Lots of Activities at the Farm
October is a “saddle-season” which almost stands on its own. The summer shares come to an end, the winter shares start up (imagine local, organic vegetables through the cold winter months!), and we hold an annual meeting and harvest dinner to reflect on the season and the progress of the farm. We hold elections for new board members who help us navigate changing times.
End of Summer Shares
The final two weeks of summer shares are here. All shares end on October 21 and 24. We know some of you are trying to make-up for missed weeks, but we ask that you limit yourself to double pick-ups only. It’s hard to calculate our harvests and distribution plans otherwise.
All summer share members will receive a link to complete the annual survey on crops, farm experience, and communications shortly. It’s your opportunity to provide feedback for our future crop planning and operations. Stay tuned!
Winter Shares will Start October 31
Yes, Halloween will be our first Group 1 pick-up for the winter! Winter share pick-ups are every other week and are held across the street from the summer barns. There are signs for parking. You can’t miss us! All the information about pick-up dates and what to expect may be found here.
If you haven’t signed up for a winter share, don’t delay!! We are 75% full right now and we have about half the number of shares as we do in summer. The fresh greens for winter have been planted in the hoop houses already! Baby lettuce, spinach…when there is snow on the ground!
If you have signed up for your share but forgot to add bread, eggs, or cheese, please go here.
A Harvest Dinner in October
See why October is the perfect month? Harvest dinners to celebrate the bounty and gather as a community are an absolute “must.”
Our 31st annual harvest dinner and annual meeting will be on October 26 at the ONE Community Center on 20 Allen St, 5:00-7:30. If you are able to bring a dish, please do…but don’t feel pressured. There will be lots of foods. Full details may be found here.
We will also introduce the candidates standing for election to our Board of Directors. It’s an opportunity to share your thoughts on the farm and its future. If you are interested in serving on the board, please go here. Our election period will run from November 11-24 and all co-op members in good standing will receive an electronic ballot.
It’s not too late to become a co-op member before the election period! Join now by going here.
Don’t you agree, October has something for everyone?
2024-25 Winter Share Sign-up is Open
Our 2024 season hasn’t gone according to plan, but with your support we are working daily to harvest and plan for bounty and recovery. We are happy to offer a robust and delicious Winter Share featuring fresh greens, root vegetables, and other delights.
Click here to sign up for a 2024-25 Winter Share and join us for our 19th year eating on the dark side of the Farm.
We have great looking crops of carrots, sweet potatoes, and other roots, and expect a strong season for indoor and outdoor greens like baby lettuce, spinach, kale, parsley, and cilantro. We'll have our usual assortment of green, red, and napa cabbages, and while we lost several important winter share crops, we plan to source potatoes (as we did last winter share) from other sustainable farms, and expect also to purchase in some butternut squash, onions, and assorted roots as we can find them.
The Winter Share will begin October 31st (Group 1) or November 7th (Group 2) and continue alternating Thursdays through May 1 and May 8th, 2025. All pickups are Thursdays, 2:00-6:00pm (please note earlier end time than Summer Shares.) For full details on picking up a Winter Share and what to expect, go here. Be sure to grab the calendar widget for your group which has all the dates!
Trent's Bread, Pigasus Farm Eggs, and Does' Leap Farm Organic Goat Cheese (chevre, feta, caprella) are available by pre-order; a limited number of each product will be available for purchase on the spot. Sign up with your Winter Share enrollment or at a later date.
We appreciate your enthusiasm and commitment to Intervale Community Farm and value your ideas and thoughts. If you have any questions about the Winter Share or other things at ICF, please feel free to email us or talk to a staff member at pickup
Sign up for yourWinter Share here.
Fall Crop Report
Thank you for continuing to support Intervale Community Farm. Through both hard years and bountiful harvests, ICF exists to serve our members and we persist because of your steadfast commitment.
Please keep picking up your vegetables - our biggest hope is that everyone can use and appreciate the fresh food we still have available. We are grateful to the dozens of volunteers who helped us save and store many of the crops we are all still enjoying. These late August and early September weeks should mark our low harvest, as many of our replanted crops begin to mature in the next couple of weeks.
With a few more weeks of perspective, we’ve assessed the impact. The list of lost crops is discouraging: sweet peppers, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, winter squash, pumpkins, storage onions, storage potatoes, tomatillos, snap beans, parsley, Brussels sprouts, celeriac, parsnips, many herbs, and several varieties of flowers.
The good news is that many crops are flourishing: cucumbers (likely to be our top season ever at 15,921 lbs and counting), bunched herbs, PYO flowers, and salad greens, along with several beautiful acres of re-planted carrots, broccoli, kale, spinach, romaine lettuce, snap beans, zinnias, sunflowers, green/red/napa cabbage, and others. Despite our losses, our overall share value is running equal to comparable retail cost elsewhere.
The ICF staff and Board are thinking hard about longer-term changes to improve our odds in the face of climate change. We plan to build two more greenhouses next spring to shelter more crops on our small postage stamp of unflooded ground. This will allow us to move our sweet peppers and a few other heat loving crops to a less flood prone location and provide more space to grow greens for our winter share. We are also thinking in earnest about securing a parcel of land in a low flood risk area, so if you have any leads on land for lease or sale that is flat-ish and 5 acres or more, please let us know!
You can support our future success by continuing your CSA membership at Intervale Community Farm and sharing your enthusiasm with us and others. Look for an email about 2024-2025 winter share sign-up soon. Consider joining us for a conversation about future strategies for ICF at our late October annual meeting (stay tuned for details) where we’ll share a meal, some photos, and conversation. If you want to lend additional financial support to farms in the Intervale including ICF, consider contributing to the Intervale Farmer Recovery Fund.
Thank you for being our loyal members for 35 years: we wouldn’t be here without you!
Buckets of Flowers
Yesterday, before the thunderstorms but in the middle of mosquitoes, Sara Barsotti and Bonnie Acker prepared flower bouquets for the NOFA Senior Shares.
Each bouquet was made up of seven or eight kinds of flowers, half wild ones (Joe Pie Weed and Queen's Anne Lace) and half from our PYO flowers (a lot of gorgeous zinnias amongst them!) Joe Pie Weed was the foundation in every bouquet; they are the beautiful pink blooms on the very high plants west of our pole barn.
What are the NOFA Senior Shares? Each year NOFA coordinates tiny vegetable shares for residents in Senior Housing. This year ICF is serving 149 seniors in 10 locations in Burlington, South Burlington, Williston, and Winooski. Representatives from the housing facilities pick up bulk vegetables on Tuesdays from the farm. Will Pearl is the coordinator for ICF this year. The shares are then distributed to the seniors at the housing site. The shares are for 10 weeks and may consist of a tomato, a cucumber, carrots, onions, and squash, quantities suitable for probably one person who doesn’t cook much. The flower bouquets are an added treat and provide just a little more color!
Many thanks to Sara and Bonnie for their hard work!
2024 Flood: 2 Weeks Out
We want to update our loyal and valued members on our post-flood status. It's been two weeks already, but we are in pretty good shape despite Mother Nature's irony of a flood on the same day as 2023.
A difference from 2023 is that the farm is drying out more quickly, which has allowed us to get back to work. Since the flood we’ve been planting like crazy, some previously scheduled, some new makeup crops. The list is long: baby lettuce, salad mix, cilantro, basil, scallions, carrots, beets, romaine lettuce, kale, collards, broccoli, napa cabbage, winter red and green cabbage, zucchini, and yellow squash. More flowers, broccoli, herbs, baby greens, and head lettuce are some of the crops still to plant. Special thanks to Harlow Farm in Westminster, Walker Farm in Dummerston, and High Meadows Farm in Putney for donating and trucking a load of fully grown transplants to us to speed up our recovery.
Pick-ups are back to normal schedule now, thank you for your patience. We still have full coolers of pre-flood, harvested vegetables: carrots, onions, potatoes, beets, cabbages, kale, and chard. Paired with the unflooded salad mix, baby lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes we are harvesting, this makes for a pretty good selection of vegetables.
Our goal is to have at least 8 vegetables on the tables each week, so we may be rolling out items at different times. And of course the flowers! We are grateful to ICF members and the wider community folk who came to harvest in the rain and mud on July 11 and helped us salvage so many crops. Thank you!
In addition to replanting we are tending and weeding our unflooded crops, irrigating(!) and cleaning up our fields: pulling up plastic, tomato cages, drip tape, and so forth. If you’d like to help us with cleanup, we are coordinating volunteers through the Intervale Center. You can sign up here. We’ve had great volunteer groups helping us prune blossoms and work on other crop restoration projects in the past week.
Our summer share value as of week 8 is about equal to comparable retail prices allowing for the single pick-up missed on 7/11 or 7/15. Based on 2023, we expect to equal or better retail prices for the 2024 summer share.
If you’d like to make a financial contribution, you may donate via the Intervale Center’s Intervale Farmer Recovery Fund.
Thank you for your continued support, enthusiasm, and for coming to pick up your vegetables!
The Flood of 2024: Message from Our Board of Directors
To Our Wonderful Members,
We are deeply appreciative of all of you, members new and old, who are partnering with us to grow wonderful organic food this summer. This past week has been quite challenging, but we are continuing to find great hope in our community through your support.
Your Uplifting Membership
Your membership is supporting the continued stewardship of our Intervale soil and the surrounding natural habitats. We are confident that our fields, with a fertile and meaningful agricultural history, will rebound to produce bountiful harvests once again.
Your membership is ensuring that we'll continue donating free and highly nutritious food to people in our community who otherwise might go without, through the Vermont Foodbank, Feeding Champlain Valley (formerly Feeding Chittenden), the Intervale Center, Food Not Bombs, NOFA VT's Senior Farm Share Program, and the People's Farmstand.
Your membership supports our hardworking staff who have been cleaning up, rebuilding and replanting to bring you as much delicious food as possible, all according to the strictest state and federal food-safety guidelines.
Your membership, for the long haul, is supporting our Farm's adaptations to climate-change challenges. With other Vermont farms, we are learning how to keep growing wonderful food while building the emergency systems for harvesting flood-threatened crops, diligent soil testing for ensuring comprehensive food-safety, and restoring the land and replanting crops for the best possible outcomes.
The Value of Your Food
For many years, the food you've been receiving has had a value of at least twenty-five percent higher than what you paid for, and even after last year's flooding, what you paid for matched the value of the food you received.
However, as this season's summer harvests will be less than expected, if this will meaningfully impact your household's food security, please do not hesitate to ask for a pro-rated refund. We will provide automatic pro-rated refunds for our Supported Share members.
Helping Intervale Farms
We can use your help to renovate plants and clean up! If you’d like to come out and help us pick up muddy things, you may join us as a volunteer. For dates and to sign up, click here and scroll down to see the Intervale Community Farm options
All the farms in the Intervale are dealing with huge crop failures and other flood-related losses. In the spirit of pulling together in this very challenging time, we hope that those who have the financial capacity to do so will donate to the Intervale Farmer Recovery Fund. All donations to the Center's Recovery Fund are tax-deductible.
The Intervale Center is the nonprofit stewardship organization for all the Intervale farms including our Intervale Community Farm, Diggers Mirth, Hallow Herb Farm, June Flower Farm, New Farms for New Americans, the People's Farm, Pitchfork Farm, and Sugarsnap. One-hundred percent of the funds raised will go to these farms including our Farm. Because of this support, we will not be doing a Go Fund Me fundraiser this year.
Together We Can
As your Board members, we are completely committed to the Intervale Community Farm Cooperative and what we can achieve going forward. In honor of our staff and of you, our members, we're in this for the long haul. We thank each of you so much for being ICF members and forming such an uplifting community!
Gratefully,
Abha Gupta
Bonnie Acker
Caroline Hauser
Jacob Holzberg-Pill
Lis Mickenberg
Maja Smith
Mark Twery
Mieko Ozeki
Pamela Kraynak
Members of the Intervale Community Farm Board of Directors
Intervale Community Farm Monday 7/15/24 pickup is CANCELED
Volunteers harvesting potatoes Thursday as floodwaters flow in.
Thursday pickups will resume Thursday, July 18
Monday pickups will resume Monday, July 22
Update July 15: Please note: we have to suspend doubling up on missed shares until we can assess and replant. If you are a Monday pick-up, please do not come on Thursday, 7/18. We will figure out bread, eggs, and cheese shares as well.
Thursday, July 11, the Winooski river inundated nearly all of Intervale Community Farm. We were more prepared for this flood than that of last July 11th, saving thousands more pounds of potatoes, onions, and other crops with the help of nearly 100 volunteers. The outpouring of support for ICF and our neighbor farms is amazing and heartening.
All that produce our walk-in coolers will keep us all well fed for the next several weeks, along with our productive cucumber and tomato greenhouses, which weren’t affected by the floods. Many of our baby greens were also unaffected. As we did in 2023, we will resume replanting as soon as it is safe to do so and expect to put together a solid summer CSA share, though later August will be thinner than we’d like. We will have tomatoes for pick-up starting this Thursday.
Unfortunately, our losses are large, none more than our pick-your-own crops, which are likely a total loss except for flowers. Based on 2023, the flowers proved tougher than expected, and it is likely we will have flowers to pick this summer after the floodwater subsides. As such, all pick-your-own crops are closed until further notice. We hope to reopen the flowers soon and begin replanting herbs and pick-your-own herbs when conditions allow.
The Intervale Community Farm Board and Staff truly appreciate the support and encouragement we have received from all of you and the wider community. Expect further communications from us next week about ongoing operations and how you can help, if you are so inclined. While we may have specific tasks needing volunteers, for now all the farms are asking the community to register with the Intervale Center through their volunteer channel. They maintain a master list and when we have a need they put out the calls. You will also find their Farmer Recovery Fund donation page here.
It’s Happening Again: We need your help. Pick-up on 7/11 is CANCELLED.
As hard as it is to comprehend, we are at the same time period as last year and we are expecting some flooding of our fields. We don't know yet if the damage and destruction will be as bad as in 2023, but nonetheless, we want to harvest everything we can from certain low-lying fields.
Date and time: THIS MORNING, July 11.
Park up the road from our summer parking area (Intervale Center area) and look for the signs indicating where we are working. You'll be walking further down the road rather than driving.
Please wear boots, hats, gloves, and slickers as it will be wet and very muddy.
Your willingness to offer assistance is greatly appreciated. We are a community and we'll get through this together.
2024 Summer Pick-ups Have Started
Monday was an exciting day, and it was wonderful to see everyone again. There were lots of smiles and hugs! The preparation for us is similar to preparing for the first day of school: is everything ready? do we know what information we’re presenting? are the signs ready? is the harvest done?
Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Farmers harvested over 1000 cucumbers Monday morning. They make guesses as to when the first cukes will be ready; having them on the first day of pick-up is both a surprise and a joy! And then the heads of lettuce which prefer cooler weather: Romaine is my favorite, but I’ll never pass over a soft head of butter lettuce. Herbs were ready (cilantro and dill), salad mixes and arugula, and spinach were all laid out and enticing. Salads for everyone this week!
Farmers were very busy doing “new member orientations,” too. We have 118 new members this year, a record number. If you see someone new who looks a little puzzled despite the personalized explanations, please help them out. We give out a lot of information in a short time.
Tiny Bouquet
We had new tiny bouquets. We had kids in the sandbox and in the apple tree. We had people wandering in the perennial herb garden. And we had bike riders.
We have a new sign, the result of much work over the winter by our Equity and Diversity committee (comprised of both staff and board members.) Please be sure to see our Land Acknowledgement posted on the information board as you enter the pole barn.
If you were scheduled for a Monday pick-up and missed it, please come on Thursday. You don’t want to miss the early cucumbers. If you are a Thursday person, we’ll see you soon!
We are looking forward to a bountiful season!
Summer 2024 Volunteer Opportunities
For the fifth year, Board members Bonnie Acker and Mark Twery will be coordinating weekend work-mornings for ICF and City Market members and volunteers.
Tasks will be varied, quite useful and hopefully very enjoyable for everyone! No gardening or farming experience is necessary, only a love for being out-of-doors! Most weeks will entail weeding to help with veggies bound for ICF members as well as for veggies to be donated to the Vermont Foodbank, the Abenaki Land Link Project, and Feeding Chittenden, amongst other destinations.
City Market members may earn working-member hours (which will be recorded by Bonnie and Mark.)
THE PARTICULARS
WHERE: We'll meet in the ICF parking lot by the pole barn or be in-view nearby!
TIME: 7:00-11:00am
Please feel free to come for the entire time or any part. Every moment of your time will be treasured!
DATES: The first and third weekends of the month
Saturday May 4 / Sunday May 5
Saturday May 18 / Sunday May 19
Saturday June 1 / Sunday June 2
Saturday June 15 / Sunday June 16
Saturday July 6 / Sunday July 7
Saturday July 20 / Sunday July 21
Saturday August 3 / Sunday August 4
Saturday August 17 / Sunday August 18
Saturday August 31 / September 1
In addition, we may hold some last-minute "pop-up" mornings if the Farm needs additional help!
WEAR: Durable work clothes and footwear, sun-protective hats and sunglasses, and bug-spray are very helpful for farm-projects.
BRING: A water-bottle and work-gloves and a favorite shovel or pitchfork if you have one. We'll have, however, extra gloves and helpful tools to share.
CHILDREN: All will be very welcome if there's an adult with them!
RSVP & QUESTIONS: To sign up or to obtain more information, please contact ICF Board member Bonnie Acker.
Signing up helps us organize tasks and tools, notify you if a morning is cancelled or re-scheduled due to inclement weather, and if there might be a limit on the number of participants.
We're really looking forward to seeing you this summer!
We’re Spinning Our Salad Now (and we have a new tractor!)
New salad spinners
If you have enjoyed a winter share with us, have you noticed the difference in the salad greens, spinach, and kale? Everything is less damp now!
Greens wash area
ICF bought 2 new Speed Queen commercial washing machines and have converted them to giant salad spinners. We will continue to triple rinse all of the salad greens, but now we will be spinning them at the end resulting in a drier, higher quality, longer lasting, final product. Food safety is key in all facets at ICF, especially in the wash station. We consulted University of Vermont Extension services and used guidelines they created for the conversions. We also talked to other Intervale Farmers who are using washing machines as spinners. They have had great results.
We can see the improvement already and hope you can, too.
Kubota M96SHDM
On the equipment front: Near the end of 2023 we bought a new(er) tractor to pick up some of the load from our older and worn machines. Our lightly-used 2012 Kubota M96 is only our second tractor of the 13 we’ve owned that was designed for vegetable farms (along with our 1949 Allis Chalmers G), though it came from a ginseng farm near Utica, NY.
The chief features distinguishing our new Kubota are, a) narrow tires (about 12”) that allow us to drive through a crop without driving on it; b) high clearance (25”) under the center of the tractor so we can weed and work over taller crops like Zucchini, Onions, and Brussels sprouts without breaking leaves, and; c) a super slow transmission which we need for pulling our transplanter. We think that this combination will make our work easier and faster. It will certainly burn less diesel, operate more safely & quietly, and need less maintenance and repair attention.
ICF Share Slide-up Scale
The wet & wild farmers of Intervale Community Farm.
Why Slide Up?
As most people are aware, the general cost of living has increased in recent years, and rents in the Burlington area have grown even faster. Living on a farmer wage has always been a squeeze, but ICF is at risk of losing experienced and talented employees if we can’t pay them appropriately. Sliding up provides additional revenue for ICF to devote to wages for our farmers beyond current levels, while still allowing ICF to offer more affordable share prices for those who need them.
ICF began in 1990 to better value the people, the land, and the community. For 35 years, fair and meaningful employment and ecological farming practices have underpinned ICF’s work to feed our thousands of CSA members. We hope our new sliding scale pricing will allow us to continue our vital work of growing healthy food for our members while fairly compensating the work of our dedicated farmers.
How Does It Work?
On our sign-up form, a drop down menu for each share size shows:
standard share price (our “base rate”), shown as share cost and cost per week;
the base rate with 10% added to the share price;
and the base rate with 20% added to the share price.
All of these share options allow ICF to continue what we have been doing, and hopefully, pay meaningfully higher wages for our staff. Everything helps!
If I Slide Up, Will It Matter?
Yes! Intervale Community Farm’s achievements have always hinged on the modest efforts of the many. We are here today because many, many CSA members have agreed to share the risk and embrace the goals of ICF. While it is hard to predict specific outcomes or revenue, here are a few things to note:
It takes about $15,000 to increase wages for most of the staff by $1.00/hour;
Around 100 members sliding up their share price 20% would raise around $15,000;
Sliding up +10% on a 2024 Small Share costs you an additional $3.50/week; adding +20% is $7.00/week;
Even with a price increase of 20%, the average ICF CSA member is still receiving many more vegetables than at comparable retail prices. View our Share Value information.
Why Can’t I Slide Down?
Our base rate share price is set to provide ICF with sufficient revenue to operate, but just barely, so we can’t discount below that without jeopardizing our ability to provide CSA members a diverse basket of quality produce. ICF continues to offer our Supported Share Program to households with lower income who qualify for the program. We are also happy to set up a payment plan for anyone.
Why Doesn’t the Base Rate Cover What ICF needs to operate?
ICF’s share prices have always aimed to balance our desire to keep vegetables as affordable as we can with our desire to pay our farmers a fair wage that provides a reasonable standard of living. Complicating our discussion is the national food pricing environment, which strongly undervalues labor and ecological concerns, but sets the reference pricing against which all producers are compared. Our definition of ‘affordability’ and ‘fair wages’ have been topics of concern for the Intervale Community Farm Co-op Board and staff for many years, and will continue to be so.
2024 Summer Share Sign-Up Join Us for Our 35th Year!
Dear ICF CSA member,
Like farmers all over Vermont, the ICF team is busily preparing for a productive and delicious 2024 season. Share in summer’s bounty and sign up now for your 2024 summer share. Learn more about our 2024 offerings on our Summer Share page.
We at Intervale Community Farm are happy to turn the page on a difficult 2023. Your collective willingness to share some risk through our community-supported agriculture (CSA) shares carried us through, and our losses were made whole by your financial, physical, and moral support. Thirty-five years of success are backstopped in poor seasons by your enduring commitment to our co-op farm. Together we have come a long way since 1990!
Rent and general prices have increased greatly in the past couple of years, and ICF wages have not kept up with the cost of living in Burlington. Our success depends on training and retaining smart and talented farmers. We’re asking you to consider the value of ICF in your life and your community.
Our new Share Slide-up scale on our sign-up form provides a tool for those who wish to help us toward a livable income for more of our farmers. Sliding up your share price 20% still saves you a considerable amount over comparable retail vegetables. As with everything at Intervale Community Farm, all members paying at any level are an important part of ICF achieving our goals: 35 years of CSA shares have brought us to where we are now! We appreciate payment in full for those who can, as it allows ICF to offer flexible payment plans to those who need them. Read more about our Slide-up scale.
Please note that our Supported Share program for qualifying lower-income households is unaffected and still operates as it has in the past.
Avoid missing out on a summer or winter share and enjoy other benefits by joining Intervale Community Farm Cooperative as a co-op member-owner. See sidebar graphic for details.
If you have friends, family, or colleagues who are interested in a summer share at ICF, please send them our way. Find out more at our website, email us, or leave a voicemail at 802 658-2919.
Please watch for emails and information from Intervale Community Farm and please add kathie@intervalecommunityfarm.com to your allowed email. We will let you know what is happening on the farm and keep you informed about our upcoming summer season.
On behalf of the Intervale Community Farm staff and Board,
Andy Jones, Farm Manager
Important: Winter Share Location Change for December 21
Group 2 Winter Share Pick-up for 12/21 will be
MOVED to the Intervale Food Hub, 180 Intervale Road, Burlington.
Due to flooding on Tuesday 12/19, Intervale Road is not easily passable.
Fortunately ICF was spared meaningful crop loss.
Intervale Food Hub is at the back of the lot behind the Intervale Center’s brick farmhouse. It is the first driveway on the right after you pass Gardener’s Supply Co., and approximately across the road from the McNeil power plant. You may park at the Food Hub building while you pick up your share. There is parking available on the other side of Intervale Road or in the lot behind the farmhouse if the Food Hub lot is full. See map for details.
Maple Wind Farm will be on site again with various meats for sale or for you to pick up your pre-orders.
We apologize for any inconvenience, and are very grateful to our neighbors at Intervale Center and Intervale Food Hub for hosting Winter Share on short notice.
ICF Distributes Our First Co-op Member Patronage Rebate for 2022
In October, the Intervale Community Farm Cooperative distributed our first ever patronage rebate for the year 2022.
When consumer cooperatives such as Intervale Community Farm earn a profit, many co-ops return a proportional share of those profits to their co-op member owners as a patronage rebate.
A patronage rebate is a reminder that Intervale Community Farm is a different kind of business, owned and governed by our 300+/- co-op member-owners, for your mutual benefit, as it is defined by the Intervale Community Farm Cooperative Board of Directors.
The July 2023 flooding presented ICF with one of the largest financial challenges in recent history, making it odd to return money right now, with many of you donating generously toward flood recovery. That said, the $3000 distributed is a modest sum, and the milestone of Intervale Community Farm Cooperative’s profitable 2022 and first ever patronage rebate is worth celebrating. We’ve had questions, but please know that community donations were not used to fund these rebates, which stem from a profitable calendar year 2022. We’d also like to thank the ICF co-op members who elected to donate their patronage rebates back to ICF.
You too can become a member-owner of the Intervale Community Farm Cooperative, or email Andy Jones or Kathie Sullivan with questions or for more information.
2024 Board of Directors Election Results
We are happy to announce the results of the recently held election for the 2024 Board of Directors. Welcome back Bonnie Acker, Emily Portman, and welcome aboard to Abha Gupta!
Updated 2/7/2024: Since the election, Emily Portman has resigned from the board due to work obligations. We thank her for her service.
Caroline Hauser was appointed to the vacant seat. Learn more about Caroline below.
Abha Gupta brings a deep background in horticulture, farming, and agricultural research to our team. Her full candidate statement is here.
Bonnie Acker has been a member of the farm for over 30 years and a board member since the beginning of our co-op. She is responsible for most, if not all, of the public art around the farm and the field signs. As well, Bonnie spearheads farm member volunteer efforts for seasonal projects.
Caroline Hauser
Continuing on the board for 2024 will be Mark Twery, Maja Smith, Mieko Ozeki, Lis Mickenberg, Mandy St. Hilaire, and Pamela Kraynak.
2023 ICF Annual Meeting Recap
On October 21, 2023, we returned to the Integrated Arts Academy for our annual meeting and recap of the year.
We had a plentiful pot luck dinner while members in attendance were able to chat with each other and catch up a bit.
After dinner, Farmer Andy Jones discussed the difficult year we’ve had due to the July floods, but also emphasized we are on good footing due to the hard work of both staff and volunteers and the generosity of members and area businesses through many donations. Some of the pictures were astonishing to see in terms of the water, the tables that had floated down the road, and the shear devastation of crops. But there were also many pictures of our fall plantings and recovery.
Andy explained our final 2023 summer share value was nearly on par with normal retail pricing, noted ICF’s first ever co-op patronage rebate, and paid tribute to departing, long time board member Christopher McCandless and 14 year Farmer Silas Branson.
To see the slideshow as a Powerpoint or Google Slides, go here. (File will download for opening.)
If you have any questions or would like more information, contact Andy Jones or see any member of the staff at a winter pick-up. (NOTE: We have some room in our winter shares still, sign up here.)
Watch this space for more details on the summer share value, summer survey, patronage rebates, Christopher, Silas, and the results of the board election.
2023 ICF Board of Directors Elections
Electronic ballots will be emailed to all co-op members in good standing on October 23. To be in good standing, your equity contributions must be paid in full ($200) or current to 2023 (at the rate of $25 per year since your date of joining the cooperative.)
Candidate Statements may be found here.
The link to the ballot is included in the email you received. Voting closes on November 5.
If you think you should have received a ballot and did not, please do the following:
check Spam folder
check Promotions folder if you have a Gmail address
contact Kathie to check your co-op status.
You can join the ICF Co-op at any time! If you join before the expiration of the 2023 voting period on November 5th, you may still vote in this election. Go here to find out more about becoming a member of the ICF Cooperative.
2023 Annual Meeting and Serve on the Board of Directors
Notice of 30th Annual Meeting
and Year-end Potluck
Intervale Community Farm Cooperative
Saturday, October 21, 2023
5:00-7:30 p.m.
Integrated Arts Academy/H.O. Wheeler Elementary School
6 Archibald St., Burlington
Please join The Intervale Community Farm board and staff members for our
Annual Meeting and Year-end Potluck, a tradition of the farm for 30 years.
5:15-6:00. Potluck dinner. Meal details below.
Agenda:
6:10 Call to order & welcome
6:15 Introductions
6:30 Board candidate introductions & elections process
6:40 Slideshow & review of 2023: what happened, where are we now, and what lies ahead for ICF
7:00 Member forum Q&A discussion
7:15 Adjourn
Children’s activities and childcare for younger kids will be available during the Annual Meeting portion of the evening.
EAT!Enjoy an ICF tradition and a truly great potluck – we know you can cook!
Last names beginning with:
A-E Please bring a dessert
F-S Please bring a main dish
T-Z Please bring a salad-like dish
ICF will provide some additional supper for those unable or preferring not to
bring a potluck dish to the meeting, as well as drinks and dishes/cups/flatware.
All ICF CSA members are welcome and encouraged to attend this Annual Meeting and year-end potluck.
Intervale Community Farm Board Elections
ICF is governed by a nine-member board of directors, elected to staggered three-year terms by the members of Intervale Community Farm Cooperative. Board members receive a free small share (or equal credit) annually.
Intrigued? Please contact Farm Manager Andy Jones, or 802-658-2919 x4.
Candidate nominations are due Wednesday, October 18. Go here for ICF Co-op membership info.
2023-24 Winter Share Sign-up is Open
Our 2023 growing season hasn’t gone quite according to plan, but the staff and Board of ICF are still at it. With your support, we have been working daily to keep ICF moving forward to bounty and recovery. We are happy to offer a robust and delicious Winter Share featuring an assortment of fresh greens, root vegetables, and other delights.
Click here to sign up for a 2023-2024 Winter Share and join us for our 18th year eating on the dark side of the Farm. We have reduced the Winter Share price to $450 to account for our unplanned changes. Reduced price Supported shares of $300 are available to qualifying households.
While we lost important crops like onions, winter squash, and potatoes, we replanted carrots, beets, turnips, rutabaga, and radishes, and we predict solid crops of all. Our winter greens were minimally affected, and we forecast fairly normal harvests of spinach, kale, baby lettuce, arugula, parsley, cilantro, bok choi, Swiss chard, napa cabbage, green cabbage, and red cabbage. We plan to purchase organic potatoes from another vegetable farm, and our sweet potatoes look promising.
The Winter Share will begin November 2nd (Group 1) or November 9th (Group 2) and continue alternating Thursdays through April 25th or May 2nd, 2024. All pickups are Thursdays, 2:00-6:00pm (please note earlier end time than Summer Shares.) For full details on picking up a Winter Share and what to expect, go here.
Trent's Bread, Pigasus Farm Eggs, and Does' Leap Farm Organic Goat Cheese (chevre, feta, caprella, tomme) are available by pre-order; a limited number of each product will be available for purchase on the spot. Sign up with your Winter Share enrollment or at a later date.
We appreciate your enthusiasm and commitment to Intervale Community Farm and value your ideas and thoughts. If you have any questions about the Winter Share or other things at ICF, please feel free to email us or talk to a staff member at pickup
Sign up for your Winter Share here.