While small farms are fast becoming an endangered species in Vermont, a number of farmers look to innovation and diversification to resist the tide. On the following pages, Vermont Quarterly visits four farms worked by young alumni united by their love of farming and commitment to preserving the state's working landscape. A larger dairy farm may make sense in Addison County, but we like this spot, this farm, and we need to work with the natural resources at hand.
Family ties are strong here.
His parents, Stuart '61 and Beverley, carried on the family farming tradition and welcomed Amanda and Ross into the business in 1996. The attractions of the land are strong as well. Beautiful and peaceful, Lilac Ridge is a 600-acre mix of woods and open land just a few miles west of Brattleboro. Sunflowers, part of the market garden business, grow alongside the dirt road leading to the farmhouse. Behind the flowers are three acres with everything from artichokes to broccoli, cucumbers and mesclun.