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Earl Ransom is, according to agricultural census data, part of a tiny demographic group: He's a black dairy farmer in Vermont.
Resources
This episode on Brave Little State, the history of Vermont’s whiteness — both racial and cultural — and stories from people of color about what it’s like to live here.
Welcome to the Afros and Knives podcast, an interview podcast that celebrates the Black women working and leading in food, wine, and hospitality.
Whetstone Magazine debuted in the spring of 2017 with the mission of championing food to expand human empathy. Whetstone works with a team of global creatives representing over a dozen countries. As a minority-owned publisher, we’re proud to say this venture is led by a team of women and people of color. We believe that diversity isn’t just noteworthy, it’s what makes our work so essential. When the gatekeepers are diverse, so too are the stories, its tellers and their experiences. This diversity accelerates our collective knowledge and empathy. Whetstone is unequivocally and gratefully a better publication because of it.
Stories
We all know that “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” Similarly, as any parent knows, you can put good, healthy food on kids’ lunch plates but that’s no guarantee they’ll actually eat it.
Hen of the Wood, so emblematic of the pastoral farm-to-table movement in Vermont, may go as far as a restaurant can to showcase the state’s bounty.
In spite of successes, we are struggling to make our small farm profitable—which often leads to increased stress and a sense of failure. We’re grateful that we’ve been able to finance our startup ourselves, but we recognize that most of our farmer colleagues don’t have such reserves.
David and Jane Marchant of River Berry Farm—an organic vegetable and fruit producer in Fairfax—were early adopters of biomass heating.