Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Co -- Orders due by Friday, July 3, 9 AM!

We will be heading up to Vermont this weekend to pick up our Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Company Products.

Orders are due by Friday morning, 9 AM (July 3). You can drop your order off at address on the order form. Order form link is below.

Members may order Maple Syrup (4 grades), Maple Cream, Maple Vinegar, Maple Candy, Honey, Creamed Honey and Vanilla Extract.

All products are organic, GMO free and Kosher. All maple products are made at the Farm in Belvidere Center, VT. All honey is made from bees raised on Lake Champlain in Alburgh, VT. Products will be delivered the following week. Order form can be found below and on our website.

Products

Maple Syrup (4 Grades, 4 Sizes, $10-$48)

Maple Cream ($15/lb)

Maple Candy ($15/lb)

Maple Vinegar ($15/Quart)

Honey ($22 Quart/$12 Pint)

Creamed Honey ($8.50/lb)

Vanilla Extract ($12/0.5 Pint)

Maple/Honey Order Form

To find out more about the Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Co, click here to read about Melissa's visit to the farm in Vermont with her sons last year.

Get Your Grill On...

River Bend Farm

Just in time for the Fourth of July Weekend, the Farm & Fork Society has teamed again with River Bend Farm to provide a mix of BBQ favorites!

BBQ Grill Pack includes 16 (6oz) Angus Beef Burgers, 16 (2oz) Angus Beef Franks (no nitrate cure), 12 (3oz) Jalapeño and Cheddar Beef Franks (regular cure), 4 (4oz) Berkshire Pork Sweet Italian Sausages, 4 (4oz) Berkshire Pork Spicy Sausages (Chorizo or Hot Italian) $99. Quantities are limited and will be allotted on a first come, first serve basis.

Also Available are the Angus Beef Sampler which includes 40 pounds of beef: 1/3 steaks that may consist of Rib-eye, T-Bone, Porterhouse, Sirloin, Tenderloin and Ranch (Chuck), 1/3 Roasts that may consist of Chuck, Rump, Round, & London Broil and 1/3 Ground Beef. (Reg. $425 - Farm & Fork Society $382.50) and the Berkshire Pork Sampler which includes 35 pounds of pork that may consist of ham, ham steaks, chops, spare-ribs, bacon, 3 kinds of sausages and a pork shoulder. There will be no Scrapple in the Pork Sampler. (Reg. $275 - Farm & Fork Society $247.50)

Orders must be received no later than June 12, 2015. Please refer to the order form for details. Click here to download.

Pick up will be at the Farm & Fork Society’s Millburn location on June 26th between 12pm and 3pm. 

Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Company

You can still order products from Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Company including Maple Syrup (4 grades), Maple Cream, Maple Vinegar, Maple Candy, Honey, Creamed Honey and Vanilla Extract. All products are organic, GMO free and Kosher. All maple products are made at the Farm in Belvidere Center, VT. All honey is made from bees raised on Lake Champlain in Alburgh, VT. Products will be delivered in late July. Click here to download order form.

Farm & Fork Society Car Magnet

Show your support for our Farm & Fork Society community by proudly displaying your membership with a car magnet! New Farm & Fork Society magnets are now available for $3 each. You can email us if you want one prior to the first pick-up.

Volunteer Sign Up has Begun!

Our volunteer coordinator, Nino, has been hard at work setting up the 2015 volunteer schedule. For all those who have already signed up for this season, you should have received an email from Nino via Volunteer Spot to sign up for your volunteer shift. If you have not, please email her at volunteerffs@gmail.com.

Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Co. Offering / Contracts for 2015 Season Due May 1

We are excited to announce that we are once again working with Joe Russo of the Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Company in Vermont. Members may order Maple Syrup (4 grades), Maple Cream, Maple Vinegar, Maple Candy, Honey, Creamed Honey and Vanilla Extract. All products are organic, GMO free and Kosher. All maple products are made at the Farm in Belvidere Center, VT. All honey is made from bees raised on Lake Champlain in Alburgh, VT. Products will be delivered in late July.

Products
Maple Syrup (4 Grades, 4 Sizes, $10-$48)
Maple Cream ($15/lb)
Maple Candy ($15/lb)
Maple Vinegar ($15/Quart)
Honey ($22 Quart/$12 Pint)
Creamed Honey ($8.50/lb)
Vanilla Extract ($12/0.5 Pint)

Maple/Honey Order Form

To find out more about the Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Co, click here to read about Melissa's visit to the farm in Vermont with her sons last year.

REMINDER: 2015 Member Contracts & Checks are due by May 1. 

NOTE: If you are splitting a share, please remember to included contact information for your share partner. In addition, only one contract per group and all payments must be included in one envelope.

New Offerings: Stock Up Share, Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refinery Company Products, Rolling Hills Farm Garlic Vinegar

Circle Brook Farm (formerly Starbrite Farm) End of the Season "Stock Up” Share 

Circle Brook Farm is offering one additional share to Farm & Fork Society Members that will be delivered on our last delivery date (November 21). This will be a “stock up” share and includes various vegetables that store well, so you can enjoy produce from the farm well into the winter months as well as have great veggies for your Thanksgiving table! 

The total weight of this share is 50-60 lbs. Approximately a third of the share is an assortment of butternut, acorn, buttercup (kabocha), delicata, and sweet dumpling squash. The share also includes an assortment of root vegetables such as carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, celery root and radishes. The root crops are most likely to comprise about 12 lbs. of the share. 

Circle Brook Farm had a great potato harvest this season and an excellent onion and winter squash crop as well. The share will have about 25 lbs. of potatoes (fingerlings and an assortment of other varieties of potatoes) and onions. Also included will be cabbage, and whatever greens the farm still has in the field at this time, such as arugula or other mustards, and spinach. It is possible that broccoli, cauliflower, or Brussels sprouts will be included, but cannot be guaranteed.  

The cost of this final share is $80, which is an excellent value, equivalent to a wholesale price for much of the produce included.

The potatoes, onions and squash can be stored in a cool dry place such as an attached garage or enclosed porch, where they will not freeze. The root vegetables and cabbage will best be stored in your refrigerator. This final share will not work for everyone, but John Krueger hopes that many of you can participate. Doing so will help him make use of the produce that he has in storage and utilize what remains in the fields. The best part, John will finish the season with enough money in the bank to pay the bills during the winter months!

If you are interested in this share, please email us at farmandforksociety@gmail.com. We will email all those who want to purchase the stock up share check and mailing instructions.  

The following products make great holiday and teacher gifts!

Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refinery Company of Vermont Product 

Farm & Fork Society Member can once again order Maple Syrup (4 grades), Maple Cream, Maple Vinegar, Maple Candy, Honey and/or Creamed Honey from the Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refinery Co in Vermont. A new addition will be Vanilla Extract that is available in half pint jars.  

All products are organic, GMO free and Kosher. All maple products are made at the Farm in Belvidere Center, Vt.  All honey is raised on Lake Champlain in Alburgh, VT. 

Orders must be received by October 31. Products will be delivered on November 21. (Click here for Order Form)

Rolling Hills Farm Vinegar

Lori Giotti, a Farm & Fork Society member, in-law's own Rolling Hills Farm in Pennsylvania. At the farm they make homemade vinegars in two flavors Garlic and Garlic Honey. We sampled. They are delicious. The cost is $10 per bottle (375 ml).  Email us at farmandforksociety@gmail.com if you are interested in ordering a bottle. Please let us know which kind and how many bottles. We will email you with check instructions and pick up date. 

This Week's Shares -- July 11, 2014

Vegetables

Carrots, sugarsnap or snow peas, scallions, summer squash, 2 heads of lettuce, choice of kale or chard, Napa cabbage (for those who did not receive last week in lieu of broccoli) basil, broccoli (a few groups may receive cauliflower instead), and choice of tatsoi, broccoli raab or other mustard greens.

Fruit

Blueberries
Cherries

Eggs

Poultry 

Full Share Members get two chickens/Half Share Members get one chicken

Pasta

Cider

Two 1/2 gallons per share this week to make up for last week/

Pies

Half Share members get pies this week.

Green Mountain Maple Refinery Co. Inc

If ordered maple/honey products, they will be available for pick up.

Farm and Fork Society Tees are now available in limited sizes and quantities. Made of 100% Organic Cotton and soft to the touch, you can own your own and show your support for your local farmers and CSA community! Available for $12 and in Adult sizes only - XS, S, M, L & XL  If you are interested please email us.

Farm & Fork Society Members get 10% off at Green Nectar Juicery in Millburn for the CSA season. (6/13-11/21)

A Family Outing to Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Company Inc. in Vermont

By Melissa Goldberg

For the past five summers my family has vacationed on Lake Champlain at the Tyler Place Family Resort.  One of my husband and my favorite activities is to take a bike ride and stop at Joey’s Junction in Highgate Center for breakfast or just a maple latte. We always have to make a trip back with the car to pick up Joey’s organic maple syrup to stock up for winter hoping the amount we buy will last until we return next August.  It never does!  It's just too good...

This year after discussing with Wendy about expanding the Farm & Fork Society’s offerings, I mentioned Joey’s great maple syrup and products and we thought they are perfect products for the CSA.  I shot off a quick email to Joey and in a day we were discussing plans to supply his Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refinery Co. products to our members. Joey also invited us to come to his sugar house in the winter when they were tapping the maples.

Well, during Spring Break of this year I decided last minute to head up to Stowe, Vermont for Spring skiing with my two sons. It rained our first day so we decided not to go skiing.  I happened to email Joey that morning about where I could buy his products near Stowe for our Equinox event and he responded “come to the sugarhouse we are boiling in a couple hours..”  With a quick Google map I discovered the sugarhouse was only 30 miles away. We were on our way.

The Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Company, Inc. is one of the largest maple sugar farms in the State of Vermont. There are over 1,000 acres of forest which contain mostly northern hardwoods exhibiting sugar maple as the dominant cover type. It is NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) certified organic and Kosher. These certification standards are unique to this sugaring operation.  

Maple season occurs in winter/spring when nights are still cold and the days are warming up to allow the sap to start flowing from the trees. When you drive up to the farm you can see the extensive pipeline system throughout the forest. All of the sugar maple trees in production have their sap tapped and then transported directly to the sugarhouse/storage tanks via these vacuum pipes. 

Vacuum Pipes & Storage Tanks

Even on a rainy day you can smell the sweetness of the maple syrup cooking in the sugar house, a smell that my boys and I wish we could bottle.  

Once in the sugarhouse Joey gave us the tour. First the maple sap comes in from the trees to a storage tank outside. The sap is pumped to a reverse osmosis  system to removed the water from the sap. Through this processes the sap goes from 2-3% sugar to about 66% sugar.  From this system the sap goes to the steamer.  This is different than most conventional methods of evaporating maple syrup to make syrup. Most maple syrup producers use either wood, oil, or gas fired evaporators which boils the sap at a very high temperatures. Instead of heating in this manner, Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Company Inc. has heat exchangers which carry the heat from steam through the maple sap which makes the sap boil at a much lower temperature than a conventionally fired evaporating system. This protects the delicate maple flavors in the syrup.  

Stainless Steel Kettle

Another differentiating point, most larger maple syrup producers use commercial defoamers when boiling the sap (even organic syrups). These defoamers are some type of fat or oil (animal, nut, or vegetable). You will never know because it is not on the label on the product and could cause allergic reactions in those who are sensitive. Joey only uses a small amount bees wax from his own honey bees raised on Lake Champlain as a defoamer.

Once the sap is boiled to the required temperature, the raw syrup is piped into stainless steel kettles where it is tested for sweetness and density. Then it is filtered and the final product is piped into 55 gallon drums. One filled drum weighs over 600 pounds!  

Joey gave us a taste of the hot syrup. Wow, what a sweet treat (pun intended)!

Joey and my boys

Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Company Inc. not only produces maple syrup but also maple cream, maple vinegar, maple candies and honey from their bees hives on Lake Champlain. (Joey told us his bees have been on vacation in California for the winter at an almond farm. They are due back soon when Vermont gets warmer!)

New Offering: Maple Syrup and Honey from Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refinery Company

Farm & Fork Society members can now purchase maple syrup, honey and other maple and honey products from Joey Russo's Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refinery Company in Vermont. 

Born in New Jersey, Joey Russo became interested in maple sugaring at 13 years old when his parents purchased a retirement home in Delaware County New York. He received a bachelors degree in Food Industry from Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture in Pennsylvania, He also studied at the Culinary Institute of America in New York and received an A.O.S. degree in Culinary Arts. Shortly after Russo began is professional career he purchased a large sugaring operation in Lamoille County Vermont in the Town of Belvidere. Using his food engineering background, he devised an evaporating system using high pressure steam. The system is refined year after year and makes a beautiful flavored pure Vermont maple syrup at the Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Company.  In addition, Russo has recently purchase property on Lake Champlain where he makes the finest pure honey. 

Members may order Maple Syrup (4 grades), Maple Cream, Maple Vinegar, Maple Candy, Honey and/or Creamed Honey from the Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refinery Co in Vermont. All products are organic, GMO free and Kosher. All maple products are made at the Farm in Belvidere Center, Vt.  All honey is raised on Lake Champlain in Alburgh, VT. 

Orders must be received by June 20.  Products will be delivered on July 11. (Click here for Order Form)

Please note this offering is considered a supplemental share.