Cedar Circle Farm and Education Center

The vegetable growing program engages our public through our community supported agriculture programs, which provide opportunities to learn about the seasonality of produce and benefits of local and fresh food. Cedar Circle maintains a relationship with our community through weekly email newsletters that provide information about preserving food, recipes to utilize local ingredients, and issues that consumers should be aware of when they make decisions about personal and environmental health when they spend their food dollars. The Farm also works with another Vermont nonprofit corporation to maintain a small garden dedicated solely to supporting a Vermont nonprofit that delivers unused fresh food to local food pantries. The expense of these programs, which share resources, is approximately 35% of our total expenses.

Research at Cedar Circle Farm and Education Center, focuses on learning new and traditional growing practices that rejuvenate soil health and regenerate natural resources crucial to the success and sustainability of pesticide-free farmers. This year, approximately 15% of our expenses were on research and development. This included work on minimizing tillage in annual vegetable systems and trialing alternative soil fertilizers and pest management techniques. These trials were shared in workshops with farmers and through a partnership with american farmland trust.

Under our umbrella of Education programs, we have our summer camp, school programs, cooking for middleschoolers, and our little farmers program. Workshops and tours also provide hundreds of guests annually, with first- hand information and experiences in learning to increase sustainability awareness and to promote good health. The Education programs combined account for approximately 20% of our expenses respectively. These programs all utilize the vegetable growing operation as their "classroom- or area for learning about food, agriculture, and ecology through hands-on learning experiences in the fields or greenhouses. All of our staff prioritize Education, community engagement, and forward-thinking solutions to meeting the mission of our organization.

Cedar Circle Farm and Education Center, Inc. has several other offerings, including its pumpkin festival, special event flowers and pick your own flowers programs, and its Farm stand, Farm kitchen and hello cafe. While these programs provide income to the Farm, they are operated to use as a learning resource for Farm visitors and also to cover the costs of the Farm's other non- income generating activities and, when aggregated together, often result in a loss to the Farm due to the time and effort required to operate them.