South Valley Farm

Westminster, VT

Chris Vincent, South Valley Farm

We love the pastoral ideal. When you come upon South Valley Farm in Westminster, Vermont it looks like farmer Chris Vincent may have found that ideal. Rather than look of human enforced order the barn and out-buildings are clustered in a way that fits the surroundings. It appears as if the builders took advice from the land when siting the buildings. As you get closer it becomes clear from the tilled fields, hoop houses and crop rows, that this is not some apparition but a real working farm.

Vermont is wonderfully blessed by the presence of small farmers like Chris. He has been farming in southern Vermont and just across the river in New Hampshire for 21 years. Chris has owned and farmed South Valley Farm as a certified 100% Organic operation for the last 10 years. The challenge and the ability to survive as a farmer is to find what works. “Try different things” says Chris. His farm is a regular cornucopia of produce. He grows strawberries which you can pick–your–own when in season. In spring his hoop–style greenhouses are filled with vegetables starts which he sells at the Farmers’ Market and uses to plant his fields. There are lettuce and salad greens, beans, carrots, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, peas, squash, cilantro, kale, and corn. In addition, there are tomatoes, especially tomatoes. Chris is particularly fond of his Gilbertie tomatoes which look like a cross between a plum tomato and bell pepper and are extremely tasty and produce few seeds.

The variety of what Chris grows is a little daunting but he knows that specializing too much can be a bad idea; besides, as people who belong to the South Valley Farm CSA know, you get to try a lot of things. Maybe Chris grows something you’ve never tried before, like Gilbertie tomatoes or broccoli rabe, a somewhat bitter but nutty, delicious and extremely nutritious member of the brassicaceae family.
Being a farmer is, like most difficult things, romantic to those of us who don’t live the experience every day. Just imagine how you would deal with having the rows of carefully planted squash suddenly torn up in one night by a snapping turtle the size of the rim of your car; a somewhat common experience on South Valley Farm. Chris knows the snapper is just looking for a nice safe place to lay her eggs and carefully relocates the turtle and her clutch to a safer location. For both of them success is about ensuring the wellbeing of family. In the end Chris Vincent is growing food for people and the sight of his harvest and the knowledge that his efforts are going to feed his neighbors make up for the long days and constant effort.