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The Burlington's Farmers' Market starts on Saturday, May 10, at City Hall Park in Burlington. It lasts from 8:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m., rain or shine.

Last summer, Seven Days Digital Development Director Bob Kilpatrick brought his video camera to the market one afternoon, and filmed Tom Azarian performing with Joe and John Cleary. Watch his short video for a preview of this local summertime treat.

See the Burlington Farmers' Market website for more information.

Packed in quart-sized Baggies, the stuff looks rich, crumbly and decidedly illegal. But the label states otherwise: It’s nutrient-rich humus, a.k.a. Premium Quality Worm Castings — the end product, literally, of thousands of red worms, also known as red wigglers, tiger worms, manure worms, stink worms, fish worms, dung worms, fecal worms and striped worms.... Read more

Every localvore knows the feeling that settles in around early spring: It's been five months since you agreed to eat food grown close to home, but your social conscience is only so patient. You find yourself sneaking guilty glances at the salad section of the grocery store.

The mesclun is still from California. But to succumb now — to purchase out-of-state roughage — would be unconscionable. Which makes you wonder: How do ethical eaters craft off-season meals that are both tasty and non-masochistic?... Read more

Strolling around his Burlington property, Jon Normandin identifies edible plant species like an experienced field guide. Dressed in navy workpants and a red-and-white flannel shirt, the white-haired IBM employee points out peach, plum, pear and cherry trees covered in delicate white flowers; blueberries and cranberry plants; pungent-smelling Egyptian "walking" onions, and herbs such as anise and tarragon. Next to his loamy vegetable garden, in the asparagus patch, plump green spears have pushed through the still-cold spring soil. These plants are just a sampling of Normandin's productivity.... Read more

The Upper Valley Food Co-op in White River Junction was abuzz last Tuesday, but the talk wasn’t about the rising cost of food. Will Allen of East Thetford’s Cedar Circle Farm was about to discuss his new book, The War on Bugs.

“Oh, that’s good,” a woman in the check-out line said to the cashier. “But does he spray things, or does he just talk?”

The answer, on both counts, is a resounding, “No.”... Read more

Picture three successful middle-aged couples: an IT guy and a “hockey mom”; an organic vegetable farmer and a therapist; a college professor and the director of a nonprofit organization. Now imagine these accomplished professionals chasing an escaped yak up a busy Vermont highway, or negotiating fresh manure piles as the group attempts to herd two dozen of the large, hairy beasts into a paddock for the evening.... Read more

The stock market may be in shambles and the housing market taking a plunge, but when the Burlington Farmers' Market opens on May 10, organizers expect it to do booming business. In fact, they've added 10 new vendors — nine selling produce, local products and prepared foods, and one selling crafts — to the cadre that gathers each warm-weather weekend in City Hall Park. Many of the new folks will be arranged along a previously unused path that radiates from the fountain at the park's center.... Read more

It was a damp, chilly morning, the kind of weather that inspires one to bundle up in extra layers rather than shed them. But for Shelby, one of about 50 sheep in Shelburne Farms’ flock, the weather was a moot point. Livestock specialist and shearer extraordinaire Chet Parsons was waiting.

Preschoolers and their parents — clad in flannel, Gore-Tex and, of course, fleece — gathered in the Farm Barn. Parsons, in suspenders and decidedly elfin moccasins, dispensed wool history and trivia and whetted the audience’s appetite for the main event.... Read more

They had to jump through some hoops to get it, but Spencer and Mara Welton of Burlington's Half Pint Farm just received approval to build a half-acre hoop house on their leased land in the Intervale.

Because the Intervale is designated as a floodway, any "structures" are rigorously monitored. The duo had to work with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, FEMA, ANR, the Intervale Center, and the City of Burlington to bring the project into compliance.... Read more

By now, everyone in Burlington has probably heard about the swift response from the Agency of Natural Resources — largely the Natural Resources Board and Act 250 officials — to put the kibosh on the “hazardous” composting operation at the Intervale. You know, they’re the same folks who swept in with bureaucratic ferocity when a multi-story section of scaffolding at Vermont Yankee collapsed and thousands of gallons of water spewed onto the ground.... Read more