Root Words

Sugaring in Vermont (Update)

As we come out of winter, the energy of spring starts flowing in our forests again.  Cold nights and warm days don’t just mean muddy roads, they mean the sap’s flowing again, and it’s sugar season.  All over the state folks are boiling in outdoor kettles, homemade evaporators, and sugar houses. In celebration of the season, we’re putting out this Sugaring in Vermont episode from our archive.  The episode features a lot of folks from a story gathering we hosted in 2019, including Grace Korzun.  Grace passed away this past October, and we’d like to dedicate this episode re-release in her memory.  Hope you enjoy, and thanks for listening.

In this episode we explore the the tree that connects so many of us to place and community, the sugar maple.

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell, Kara Fitzbeauchamp, and special guest Jessee Lawyer of The Dawnland Kitchen.

Special thanks to Greg Cox, Grace Brigham, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders.

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online 

 

Family Food Security and the Parent-Child Center

About a quarter of children in Vermont have faced food insecurity over the course of the pandemic, but it’s estimated that one in ten Vermonters were already dealing with food insecurity before the pandemic.  

A patchwork of agencies and organizations work to blunt the most severe outcomes of inequity in the food system, disproportionately felt by BIPOC Vermonters and women and children.  On this episode of Root Words we’ll connect with Joleen Durfee, director of the food access & education program at the Parent-Child Center of Rutland County, and we’ll hear how she works to bring joy and empowerment into the community.

But first, we check in with Keely Agan of Hunger Free Vermont.  

Passionate folks like Joleen and Keely are working around the state to balance some of the inequities in the food system, while honoring folks' innate dignity.  There’s a lot of work to do to create a more just food system, and we’ll continue to share stories of the folks reimagining the food system here on Root Words.   

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell.

Special thanks to Keely Agan, Joleen Durfee, and Rutland’s Parent-Child Center. 

To learn more about the Parent-Child Center of Rutland County’s programs or what you can do to get involved, visit www.rcpcc.org. If you’re interested in joining your county’s hunger council visit www.hungerfreevt.org.  

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online 

Universal School Meals

About 79,000 students go in and out of classrooms each school day in Vermont’s public schools.  Some may be learning to add and multiply, some to speak a new language, and some to fix a small engine, but all of them will get hungry, and need to refuel their bodies to help their minds grow.  

Feeding all of these growing students is no small task and it connects parents and care-givers, all levels of government, farmers near and all-too-often far, and a web of federal programs. In Vermont, it’s estimated that nearly a quarter of children are facing hunger.    

On this episode of Root Words we’ll hear how the pandemic has changed school meals and how some hope some of the changes stick while we explore universal school meals.  We’ll hear from Teddy Waszazak, universal school meals campaign manager of Hunger Free Vermont later in the episode, but first let’s reconnect with Harley Sterling, school nutrition director of Windham Northeast Supervisory Union.  

Hunger Free Vermont is working to level the playing field in public education, making sure student needs are met. 

Teddy Waszazak remembers what it was like to be a kid facing food insecurity growing up, and that empathy feeds his work as universal school meals campaign manager for Hunger Free Vermont.  

Teddy and the folks at Hunger Free Vermont are working to ensure that students continue to receive a nutritious breakfast and lunch everyday.  Bill S.100 is in the house education committee, and has been paired back to only include universal breakfast at this time.  Hunger Free Vermont has begun briefing legislators, and continues to fight for universal lunch.  

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell

Special thanks to Teddy Waszazak, Harley Sterling, and Hunger Free Vermont. 

To learn more about Hunger Free Vermont’s Universal Meals campaign visit www.universalschoolmealsvt.org.  

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online 

Taking Space, Vermont RELEAF Collective

Tina Picz, a forager, food photographer and food stylist in the Mad River Valley addresses equity and justice in food systems through conversations she facilitates on her social media channels.

These conversations center and uplift the voices of food sovereignty workers, and create space for BIPOC leaders in food systems, land use, and health.   

On this episode of Root Words we’ll explore the importance of affinity spaces for BIPOC Vermonters while experiencing their foodways. We’ll hear from Olivia Pena, founder of Vermont RELEAF Collective, a network by and for Black, Indigenous, & People of Color advancing Racial Equity in Land, Environment, Agriculture, & Foodways and we’ll reconnect with Tina Picz.  

RELEAF practices 3 main initiatives: Building Community, Sharing Opportunities, and Amplifying voices. 

This past November I got a chance to connect with Olivia Pena, Vermont RELEAF’s founder and community organizer, to learn about why she was inspired to launch the RELEAF Collective in Vermont.  

Our connections with the Land, our Environment, Agriculture, and our Foodways are deep in Vermont and deeply tied to quality of life for all Vermonters, though many of the decisions regarding our connections with these things happen in white spaces, and the stories that are shared of leaders in these fields have been pretty whitewashed for a long time. 

But, all that is shifting and networks of BIPOC farmers, environmentalists, and food sovereignty advocates, like the folks of Vermont RELEAF Collective, are amplifying the voices of folks that have a lot to contribute to the future of Vermont’s foodways and land use, while also creating space for folks that break the mould of who a farmer can be in Vermont. 

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell

Special thanks to Tina Picz, Olivia Pena, and Vermont RELEAF Collective. 

To learn more, check out Vermont RELEAF Collective at www.vtreleafcollective.org. You can find Tina Picz on Instagram at VermontFoodPhoto.

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

 

Bison and Home Butchering

This past week during an interview for root words I started getting a storm of messages coming in over my phone and it turns out that my brother Pete got a deer late one afternoon just before the snow storm came in. My father and I loaded up the car and a plastic sled and headed out To help drag. The whole ordeal took us three hours left is all good and tired. This weekend the family convened to do at home butchering of this harvested deer and I thought it would be nice to present a short snapshot of our amateur process, With a little professional context from my conversation at farmers market with Hunter Hubbard of Mountainview Bison in North Clarendon, Vermont.

Today, most folks probably haven’t had the experience of processing their own meat from an animal they’ve raised or harvested, even if they’ve been a meat eater their entire lives.  In many ways it can be like taking on a large gardening project, it can be a bit daunting to get into, a lot of hard work, and very rewarding and educational.  

As I mentioned in episode 13: Hunting, A Family Tradition, my father and uncle learned to process deer from their father, and from Uncle Lindy the family butcher.  Pete and I have stirred up this tried and true family tradition and knowledge a bit by incorporating some stuff we learned on the internet.  There are YouTube how-to’s on everything, and we can’t resist cosplaying our Italian heritage with the search for a delectable Osso Buco cut.   

We may have fallen short of the perfect Osso Buco, but we did make some more family memories, and we will make some great family dinners.  

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell.

Special thanks to Hunter Hubbard from Mountain View Bison, my father Peter, my brother Pete, uncle Mike, and farmer Scott for letting us use his barn to process Pete’s deer.  

To learn more about Mountain View Bison, look them up on FaceBook.  

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

 

Abenaki Land Link Part II: Tribal Gardens, Processing, and Distribution

A lot of Abenaki folks as well as community partners are rebuilding Abenaki Foodways- growing, processing, and distributing Abenaki crops.

On this episode we hear from a few Abenaki gardeners, Chief Shirly Hook of the Koas Abenaki and Michael Descoteaux.  And later we hear what it takes to get from garden to plate, while we connect with Roland Bluto and Joe Bossen.  

The Abenaki Land Link project addresses the overlapping challenges of how to develop contemporary Abenaki foodways inside a western colonized food system while creating food security for a people historically removed from land access.  The project also opens opportunities for Abenaki and non- Abenaki folks to partner on solutions to these complex challenges.   If you would like to support the Abenaki in their journey towards food sovereignty, you can connect with Zea Luce at NOFA-VT about becoming a Land Link grower, and by keeping an eye out for Abenaki branded products.  

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell

Special thanks to Chief Shirly Hook, Michael Descoteaux, Roland Bluto, and Joe Bossen.

To learn more about the Abenaki Land Link program or to sign up as a grower visit nofavt.org.  Learn more about Chief Don Stevens’ food sovereignty work at abenakitribe.org, and to learn more about what Joe Bossen is up to in the kitchen, check out vermontbeancrafters.com. 

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Abenaki Land Link Part I

Food Sovereignty is basically when a person or a people have agency over their foodways.  Many people today do not have this agency, including Vermont’s indigenous communities.  We heard from Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan band of the Abenaki in episode 10, Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Vermont, about his three pronged approach to creating more food security for Abenaki citizens.    

For Abenaki people today, growing and distributing culturally relevant and healthy food is challenging because of the limited access to tribal lands.  Chief Don Stevens and others have addressed this difficulty by cultivating partnerships with generous land stewards and organizations like NOFA-VT, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont.   

In episode 11 we heard about the work of Seeds of Renewal and Alnobaiwi, Abenaki led programs that bridge traditional and contemporary foodways.  Many seeds from Seeds of Renewal make it into tribal gardens and Abenaki Land Link gardens across the state, gardens and growers that are coordinated by NOFA-VT.   

On this episode we get out to the field and hear about growing Abenaki foods in Vermont, while we connect again with Chief Don Stevens and with Zea Luce of NOFA-VT.

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell.

Special thanks to Chief Don Stevens, Zea Luce, and all of the Abenaki Land Link growers across the state.

To learn more, check out NOFA-VT’s Agricultural Literacy Week YouTube video on the Abenaki Land Link Project or at NOFAVT.org.  

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Foraging

Before there was home delivery, before there were supermarkets, before there was refrigeration, even before people cooked their food, people fed themselves and their families by foraging their landscape.  Collecting food, medicine, or provisions from our environment is perhaps the closest we can get to our food-source, and the places we live.  Much of the world continues a healthy relationship to their home though foraging, and even here in the US, foraging is having a re-emergence spurred by revivals of tradition and quests for self-sufficiency and connection to one’s landscape, even in urban environments.  

On this episode I head into the woods with my brother Pete, and connect with a few inspired foraging folks: Walter Collins and Tina Picz. 

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell

Special thanks to Walter Collins, Tina Picz, and the VT Foragers community for ID support and inspiration.  

To learn more, check out Vermont Foragers on Facebook and Tina Picz on Instagram at VermontFoodPhoto.  You can learn more about Vermont Releaf Collective at www.vtreleafcollective.org.  For a real treat, and this is highly recommended, check out Alexis Nikole on Instagram or Facebook @blackforager. 

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Hunting, A Family Tradition

On this episode of Root Words We’ll hear about Vermont’s deer hunting tradition.  Hunting is important in Vermont, it’s even protected under the state constitution. It’s one of the oldest ways that people have connected with their food source and their extended family, And on this episode, we’re going to hear from my family.  My father Peter, and cousin Joe’s daughter Valentina.  

Vermont has over 800,000 acres of federal and state land open to hunting and 65,000 resident hunters, most of whom hunt white-tailed deer.

Many youth first experience Vermont's forested landscape following a parent or guardian through the woods during hunting season and, if the hunt is successful, will have local venison to share with their family and friends.

This episode of Root Words was produced by Stephen Abatiell.

Special thanks to Peter Abatiell Jr., Valentina Duval, Allen Mills, and the rest of my family.

Very deep thanks to the deer I harvested during the making of this episode and to the forest that raised it.  

You can learn more about hunting in Vermont, including hunter safety courses, seasons, and regulations by visiting Vermont’s Fish and Wildlife website at- www.vtfishandwildlife.com

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Veteran Food Security

Peacemaking was the original intent of Veteran’s Day.  In 1926 congress passed the resolution to set aside the 11th of November honoring the Armistice of World War I with these words…

“Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations…”

For this episode I spoke with Richard Gallo, who practices goodwill, feeding and sheltering the Veteran community. It’s a wonderful example of active peace making.

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell

Special thanks to Richard Gallo, our Veteran community, and those who support them.  

To learn more about resources available to eligible veterans and their families, please visit The Vermont Veterans and Family Outreach Program online.  The 24 Hour Resource Line for Crisis Situations can be reached at (888) 607-8773  

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online