13th Annual Forum

Growing Our Local Food Economy


Sunday, August 9, 2009

Shelburne Farms Coach Barn

Join the fun in 2010: Sunday, August 8, 2010



Come celebrate the successful farmer-chef partnerships that thrive in Vermont and help enrich our local communities! This annual event, held at Shelburne Farms’ Coach Barn on the shore of Lake Champlain, offers the rare opportunity to mingle and break bread with farmers, growers, chefs, and neighbors all interested in insuring a fair and sustainable food system for our future.

Forum Photo

Ticket Sales:
• VFN partner and supporting member tickets are $50
• Non-member tickets are $70

Join today as a Supporting Member and receive the member ticket price!
To purchase tickets, please call 802.434.2000.
This event always sells out!

2009 Forum Program:
• 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Educational Workshops - See details below. Additional registration fee required.
• 5:00 p.m. Opening Reception with passed Hors d'oeuvres, Vermont artisan cheeses and various VT product samplings
• 6:15 p.m. Woody Tasch, keynote presentation
• 7:15 p.m. Walk-around Dinner provided by 20 of the best chef and farm partnerships in Vermont. See entire list of participants below
• 8:00 p.m. Ice Cream Bash graciously dished up by Strafford Organic Creamery

Educational Workshops
Understanding Pastured Pork: Learn about the life and times growing up as a pig on a pasture-based farm. Then Chef Jeff Egan from the Bees Knees will talk you through the differences in cooking with pasture raised pork and the art of nose to tail eating, plus he’ll take a stab at explaining a cut sheet and the options/cuts you can get from a full or half potion of pork. The workshop will take place in the Education Center at the Farm Barn. Cost is $15 per person reservations are required - call 802.434.2000. You need not be participating in the Annual Forum to purchase a ticket.

Vermont Wine and Cheese Pairing: Explore the art of joining Vermont Cheeses and Vermont Wines. Put your senses through their paces as you taste and evaluate 5 pairings from various Vermont cheesemakers and vintners. The tasting will be held in the East Dining Room at the Inn at Shelburne Farms. Cost is $20 per person - only 20 seats available and reservations are required - call 802.434.2000. You need not be participating in the Annual Forum to purchase a ticket.

Woody Tasch Woody Tasch
Woody Tasch is Chairman and President of Slow Money, a 501 c 3 formed in 2008 to catalyze the flow of investment capital to small food enterprises and to promote new principles of fiduciary responsibility to support sustainable agriculture and the emergence of a restorative economy. Tasch is Chairman Emeritus of Investors' Circle, a network of angel investors, family offices, and social purpose funds and foundations that has invested $133 million in 200 early stage sustainability-promoting ventures and venture funds, since 1992. He is a frequent speaker at various socially responsible business and sustainable agriculture venues, including Social Venture Network, SRI in the Rockies and Terra Madre. He is the author of the recently published Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered.


VFN Forum Group Photo

2009 Annual Forum Chef and Farm Partners
The following VFN Members will be preparing dinner at this years forum.

• American Flatbread • Bluebird Tavern • Boyden Valley Winery • Cafe Provence • Champlain Orchards • Chow! Bella • Dancing Cow Farmstead Cheese • Eden Ice Cider • Elements Food & Spirit • Fat Toad Farm • Fletcher Allen Health Care Nutrition Services • Healthy Living • Hen of the Wood • Inn at Shelburne Farms • Jasper Hill • Leunig's Bistro • Lewis Creek Farm • Main Street Grill (NECI) • Michael's on the Hill • O’Bread Bakery • Old Tavern at Grafton • Ploughgate Creamery • Red Hen Baking Co. • Shelburne Farms Cheese • Shelburne Vineyard • Stowe Mountain Lodge • Strafford Organic Creamery • Sugarsnap • Taylor Farm • The Bee's Knees • The Inn at Weathersfield • The Kitchen Table Bistro • The Painted Tulip • The Perfect Wife Restaurant & Tavern • The Pitcher Inn • University of Vermont - Sodexo Campus Services • Verde • Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea Company • Vermont Butter & Cheese Company • Vermont Smoke and Cure • Warren Store Deli • Windfall Orchards • Woodcock Farm Cheese Company

VFN has been honored by many remarkable keynote speakers who have generously given their time and talents to this event.
Past Speakers include:
Dan Barber, executive chef/co-owner of Blue Hill - 2008
Gary Paul Nabhan, author, lecturer and conservation scientist - 2007
Michael Ableman, farmer, writer, photograper - 2006
Odessa Piper, pioneer chef and advocate for direct farmer and chef relationships - 2005
Christopher Kimball, television host, editor and publisher (Cook's Magazine, Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country and America's Test Kitchen) - 2004
Alice Waters, chef, author, internationally renown local food advocate - 2003
Eliot Coleman, farmer and author - 2002