As Co-op Closes
Producers Seek New Markets
By Sandy Vondrasek Cooch

Local food producers and the folks who loved their products are scrambling to find ways to connect following the closing of the Randolph Cooperative Market.

One "local foods visioning meeting," has already been held, with the next one April 25, 7 p.m. at St. John’s Church. (See other article.)

Meanwhile, former Randolph Co-op vendors, whose livelihoods depend on marketing what they grow or produce, are looking for alternative markets.

Randolph Center maple syrup producer David Silloway figures that he sold about half of the syrup he produced each year at the Co-op.

Silloway sold both packaged and "bulk" syrup. The latter required consumers to fill their own containers from a large, spigoted barrel in a store cooler.

Silloway has been too busy sugaring to work out a new market, so far. He suggested that those interested in purchasing his syrup give him a call.

Bottled Milk

Many Co-op shoppers were also big fans of the glass-bottled milk and premium ice cream produced by the Strafford Organic Creamery.

Amy Huyffer, one of the dairy’s co-owners, said this week that she would be open to a new retail outlet in the Randolph area, "if someone had a store that seemed like a good match."

Handling the creamery’s milk requires extra labor, as store employees must deal with full and empty (returned) glass jugs.

However, Huyffer noted that the milk previously allotted to the Randolph Co-op has already been diverted to a new store.

"We have a waiting list," Huyffer said. "We are now short of milk."

Consumers love their milk, she said, not only for the glass bottles, but for its absolute freshness. Since the Strafford Organic Creamery bottles its own milk, the biggest time span "from cow to shelf" is four days, and it is usually only one or two.

The creamery has about 30 outlets. Those closest to Randolph are the South Royalton Market; the Sharon Trading Post; Hunger Mt. Co-op in Montpelier; and cooperative stores in White River Junction, and in Hanover and Lebanon, N.H.

Huyffer expressed appreciation that the Randolph Co-op, which at one point had owed her dairy quite a bit of money, had paid its entire account before closing.

Local Veggies at a CSA

Clotilde Hryshko and Jim Merriam of the Camp Merrishko organic farm in East Brookfield sold close to half their vegetables through the Randolph Co-op.

And, Hryshko’s plants—sturdy tomato plants, other veggies and herbs—were also a popular item each spring at the Co-op.

As an alternative, Hryshko has decided to focus on ramping up her farm’s CSA program to market vegetables, and going to a "preorder" system for the plants.

In a CSA—or community supported agriculture—consumers pre-purchase a "share" that entitles them, in Camp Merrishko’s case, to a weekly supply of vegetables, May 30-October 10.

The Camp Merrishko CSA—available in small and large shares—provides a steady source of organically grown veggies, at less than market price, Hryshko said. A typical weekly offering in mid-season would include: one pound each of beans, tomatoes, and potatoes; one bunch carrots or corn; two cucumbers, fresh onions and garlic, a bunch of garlic, plus eggplant, melon, and/or peppers.

Hryshko’s greenhouses and early-warming valley fields allow her to produce abundant quantities of crops like melons, tomatoes, and peppers that are often hard for home gardeners to produce. Camp Merrishko also gives shareholders access to a large "cutting garden," which is well stocked with herbs and flowers from July until frost.

The CSA system takes a little getting used to, since consumers have to sign up and pay in advance of the growing season, and they have to pick up their food at the farm.

Hryshko had 20 CSA members last year, and they carpooled for pickups, so that only five or six cars came to the farm each week, she said. This year, Hryshko could accept as many as 50 shareholders, and if she gets that many, she will add a second pick-up day.

There are only a handful of CSAs in Central Vermont, but they are "huge in Burlington," where the Intervale CSA has a waiting list of customers, she said.

Hryshko noted that CSA members are often gardeners themselves. CSA offerings, she said, "would make a nice complement to most gardens, or allow gardeners to concentrate on their specialities."

Plants, Too

Fans of Hryshko’s garden plants will be able to preorder them this year—though an order form available at Cover to Cover Books in Randolph or through Hryshko. Pickup will be either at the bookstore or the farm.

For more on the CSA or plant orders, contact Hrshko at 276-3950 or clotildeh@gmai.com.