Participate in Vermont's inaugural Open Farm Week!

We are getting ready for Open Farm Week August 3-9, 2015, and we’d like to invite you to join us!

Building off the success of NOFA-VT’s 2014 Open CSA Farm Day, several organizations from around the state are coming together to organize this event with the plan of expanding both the scope and the length of the event.  Our goal is to strengthen consumers’ connections to Vermont land and farms, while teaching them how to access Vermont-grown food, fiber and forestry products.  We envision Open Farm Week as an annual event that invites both Vermonters and vacationers to build relationships with our farmers and deepen interest in Vermont’s amazing working landscape.

Open Farm Week is an opportunity for you to spotlight your farm and showcase your products.  Whether you sell directly to consumers or wholesale markets, farms of all kind are encouraged to participate. If you are not usually open to the public, that’s okay too. We will provide you with resources about managing safety and liability, as well as what guests will expect when coming to your farm.  Please plan for some ways to engage consumers while they are visiting.  You may want to provide tours or other activities such as seed planting, tastings, scavenger hunts, or on-farm dinners for folks to engage in. We recognize that one specific day might not work for well for everyone, so we have the given you a whole week to provide the opportunity for you to participate on whichever day(s) work best for you.

For more information and to sign up to participate, please fill out this form: www.surveymonkey.com/s/VTOpenFarmWeekRegister

Councils, associations and networks - there are many ways you can participate and highlight your farm members for Open Farm Week! Brand trails, blog posts and events with your organization and participating farms through DigInVT.com, the website hosting Open Farm Week. Connect with Grace at grace@vermontfresh.net to get involved, find out which of your farms are already signed up and get the word out to more!    

We will be providing each participant with outreach materials so you can help us engage consumers in your area of the state. Sign-ups end on July 1st but please consider signing up early in order to begin marketing your participation in this event sooner. Please direct any questions to vermontopenfarmweek@gmail.com We look forward to working with you!