This Tuesday:

http://www.osgata.org/

If you eat, this concerns you. Find a way to help out the folks at OSGATA that are finding ways to help you.

“By the excellence of his work the workman is a neighbor. By
selling only what he would not despise to own the salesman is a
neighbor. By selling what is good his character survives his market.”
-W. Berry

Pumpkin-Studded Fennel Fun

Late Autumn allows us a wide range of local ingredients to draw upon for our seasonal limited runs. Above is a transformation of Cedar Circle Farm’s pumpkins and Seth Johnson’s jacob’s cattle beans into a spreadable infusion of fennel seed, coriander, and just enough peppery heat. The pumpkins’ seeds are roasted with Louis Rainvilles’s sunflower oil, sea salt, and fresh cracked pepper before being sprinkled on the finished spread.

Ninja Bennet Skinning Oven-Roasted Pie Pumpkins

The spinning planet has brought about crisp air and apples and heralded in some long-awaited colors and textures to the valleys and the tables therein. A perfect pairing with the thickening scents of wood-smoke and leaves’ return to soil.

We’ve started in on our phase of Autumn-centric offerings to make the most of these ever-short-lived bounties.

The Twilight in the Meadow fundraiser for RAFFL was the first venue we debuted our Sas-squash Sliders this year. A mash of Great Northern beans chocked full of red kurikubocha squash, anchos, herbs from Alchemy Gardens. These all coalesce around a bouquet of our other standard local leanings in an aromatic batter before being tossed in some organic Vermont-grown cornmeal and getting touched off in our oven.

The Cambridge Hotel (Home of Pie a la Mode) championed our black bean burgers throughout the summer and then recently became the first restaurant to plate our timely and, possibly majestic, Pumpkin Jake Burger. Curious?

A Pumpkin Jake Burger = Jacob’s Cattle beans from Seth Johnson and Morningside Meadows up in Glover…Pumpkins from amber-toned fields of several organic Vermont growers…onions from Evening Song Farm…three different varieties of pepper-heat…and (of course) a top-secret blend of herbs developed by NASA for the Space Station.

These are full of yum and zero on gluten—and every other food allergen/dietary consideration I’m aware of. The same should be said of our latest hummish, the nefarious Pumpkin-Seeded Shallot Spread. For those among us who take our meals in spoons or on chips, voila! What we have here is much of dear Pumpkin Jake’s gusto met with the formidable advantage of ready-to-eat, portable, packable, smotherable qualities.

Available by special order, in select venues, and at the New Amsterdam Market. If supplies hold out, expect to see it at one of the several winter farmers markets in Vermont we’re planning to vend at. Check back in for more details.

Over a month has passed since flood waters transformed the landscape of Vermont. Most of the roads have been cobbed back together, but other transformations have been more lasting.

Farms from some of the most northwestern parts of the state, all the way across and down to the southwestern counties have had to find ways to cope with flooded fields, erosion, silt-laden lands, crop diseases stirred on by the sustained wetness… the list goes on. There were endless heavy-hearted tales shared.

A few weeks ago we started a humble campaign to try to help relieve some of the financial hardships for and share the tale of our friends at Evening Song Farm. Kara and Ryan tell the story best of their ambitions and healthy progress towards their goals; and then the effects of having a riverbed where their acres of vegetable fields once thrived at their website: www.eveningsongcsa.com

Check that out and please offer any direct aid you can as there is still much to do all these days later.

Evening Song Spread

While you’re at it, one more way you can help is by keeping an eye out for our Evening Song Spreads at a few select stores around Vermont, as well as the New Amsterdam Market by the South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan. We’ve showcased the onions and garlic Kara and Ryan were able to harvest into batches of limited run white bean dips that lean on Kenearly beans donated by the likes of Yoder Farm in Danby and Jacob’s Cattle purchased from Morningstar Meadows in Glover. 60% of proceeds get funneled directly to Evening Song Farm to help with the rebuild. You can always get in touch with us regarding shipping as well.

Our hearts go out to Kara and Ryan, along with the lovely folk of Arethusa Farm and the rest of the Intervale farmers who’ve lost out this year after an already tough wet start to the season. Here’s to all those who’ve lost out and all those who’ve found the beauty of willing and able neighbors on all sides through this.

For other ways to help all of those still in need, and there’s still no shortage:

Vermont Strong: campaign funneling funds to the Vermont Food Bank
Mad River Valley: relief for one of the harder hit valleys in the state
Intervale Center: Burlington-based incubator farms that were inundated
NOFA-VT: your one-stop spot for all things organic farming in Vermont
Evening Song: in case you missed the link earlier

We’ve officially made the last of the micro loan deposits we needed to bring on board the equipment I spoke of in our last post!

Respect for the kind of knowledge that enables grass seed to grow grass; the cherry-stone to make cherries.

I am humbled by how supportive our community of friends and family have been. With these kitchen bottlenecks now overcome, expect to see Bean Crafters in more places in Vermont (particularly in schools and larger grocers) as well as more thoroughly present in our neighboring states around New England.

This is huge for us, and huge for our farmers. We expect to double our weekly output right of the bat, and have it triple by the new year.

The flip side is that we still need your help via pre-orders (CSA-stylee) of our burgers and hummish so that we can foot the grocery bill to accommodate the hike in our kitchen capacity. Here’s a reminder, and slight enhancement to the deal on the table:

Send in $50, $100, $250, or $500 by September 10th and you will receive, starting December 1st, a ration of frozen bean burgers and/or hummish delivered every two weeks in whatever portions you specify. You’ll be getting these at our wholesale prices. And don’t forget the limited edition Pumpkin-Poblano-Kidney Bean-Thyme Burger we’ll be throwing in for all supporters.

Beyond all of that, all participants chipping in $250 or more will receive a follow-up email containing details of a special community meal I will be putting together this Autumn to show my appreciation. It will be three course localvore bounty complemented by ciders and brews from the valley specially made for the event. Live music. Lovely folk. Served up family style at an area farm.

I’ve still been too busy to throw a Paypal button up, but soon! In the mean time, if you’re enticed, just call or email me and we’ll sort details out. Remember, we’re looking to pull all of this together by September 10th!

Again, a heartfelt thanks to all our friends without whom there would be no such movement.

Want to make an easy $100 and put some limited edition seasonal bean burgers in your freezer? Read on.

Things are good in Bean Crafter Land. Perhaps too good.  Growth in demand for our winsome craftings has officially outstripped our humble kitchen and team’s capacity. What’s an aging one-year old company to do? Two banks and one leasing company have essentially told us that in light of our brief history, our consistently increasing sales amounts to little more than…well…a pile of beans.

Pile of beans...complete with Crafters.

Good news really. Being ‘unbankable’ has placed us in the happy position of further aligning ourselves with our community (and alternative modes of business) in fun and fancy new ways.

Here’s what I mean, and where you come in:

In order to raise the $15k capital to get us to our next economy of scale we’re soliciting two opportunities to accrue value for our neighbors and fuel for our company:

1.) You can pre-purchase $100 worth of burgers and receive a bonus four-pack of a limited run mid-summer burger as a thank you. This extra capital will be put towards our wholesale grocery list that entails more than seven-times the quantity of local veggies we purchased last year for our Fall and Winter production.

-or-

2.) You can invest $1,000 in your friendly neighborhood Bean Crafters and receive $100 on your principle 14 months hence. A better return than any stock market index, let alone CD (and these days I’d argue with less risk). The math/return stays the same whether you scale your investment up or down. These dollars are slated for kitchen equipment (forming machine, new oven, food processor upgrade, root cellar and storage infrastructure).

The timeline is, well, ASAP. We need to raise this all one way or another by the end of August to stay viable–or at least vivacious. I’ll be posting our progress at the end of each week as well as a list of folks who’ve partnered up with us.

I’m sure there’ll be questions, so feel free to email me at joseph.bossen@gmail.com or call 802-325-2144. If you’re ready to chip in, please send checks or love notes to PO Box 836, Pittsfield VT 05762. You can also bring them to either the Rutland Downtown Farmers Market or New Amsterdam Market.

We’ll be adding a PayPal option to our website later on this week.

—–
This is all about you asking and us doing our damnedest to deliver. It looks like to do so involves asking you in return. Funny how demand begets demand… lovely how auspicious that can be when it’s energy being cycled through our community all the while.

Lest we forget, more than fifty cents on the dollar we receive goes directly to the farmers we depend on. Versus less than ten cents through mainstream products and marketplaces.

Join us in putting our money where our mouth is: this soil.

Hummish Skyline: the Other White Dip meets New Amsterdam

The summer’s farmers markets are in full swing and they’ve left us with the happy problem of not being able to produce enough of our hummish to keep up with demand. Each week we’ve been selling out at both the Rutland Downtown Market in Vermont and at the New Amsterdam Market in Manhattan’s Lower-East Side.

We’ve been keeping up with the bounty of the season and its persistent flux by changing our recipe for our white bean hummish to include a different parade of transient wild edibles each week. Last week’s include dandelion greens, burdock root, and lambs quarter. This leaning on foraged foods has become increasingly possible and enjoyable through our partnership with our friends at Breezy Meadows Orchard and Nursery in Tinmouth.

This week we’ve put together a hummish with nettle, lambs quarter, and fresh picked garlic scapes. We’ve also added a chipotle black bean hummish to the mix of offerings that incorporates ample garlic scapes as well. It’s my new favorite. We’ll be sure to have more made throughout the next few weeks.

Come to the markets and snag them while you can. These like the fresh ingredients they are comprised of won’t last.

Just a quick scoop on what’s happening this Saturday with our debuting at the biggest, best and brightest farmers market in the whole dang state:

10% of our opening day proceeds will go to afflicted Japanese Farmers

Outside of our usual faire, we’ll be doing Grandma’s Bean Ball Subs, offering frozen Bean Balls, fresh Carrot Ginger Juice (carrots from Arethusa Farm), and 12oz tubs of our Refried Beans of the North (pinto beans from NY, sunflower oil from VT, sea salt from ME, and cumin).

We’re happy to be participating with other farmers and vendors, RAFFL, and NOFA-VT in donating 10% of our opening day proceeds to our Japanese neighbors.

Come on out. It looks like the rain will be holding off until the end of market.

The end of April came with Earthweek, which found our bean burgers at Localvore meals across colleges and community groups around the State.

April also brought the annual Black River Produce Food Show where we debuted our new lines of both HUMM-ISH (a white bean spread sourced entirely within New England) and the first, as far as I can tell,  REFRIED BEANS that are grown and made in New England (Vermont and New York pinto beans). These will both use organic ingredients, but won’t likely be certified until later this year or next year.

Both new items were well-received at the Food Show, and then we sold out of our inventory at our first New Amsterdam Market in NYC the following weekend.

Please get in touch regarding pricing, sizes, and availability. More information available on our PRODUCTS page.

Beyond starting up at the New Amsterdam Market, we’ll also be having our opening day at the Downtown Rutland Farmers Market this weekend. It’s from 9-2pm in downtown Depot Park, off of Evelyn Street. We’ll be selling our new prepared foods, as well as new hot meal items, and freshly-made local vegetable juices. Every Saturday until October.

Not sure if you can afford local, all natural foods in economic times such as these?

Bargain Shopping?

Well you won’t be saving any money if you go to the Rutland Burger King. Our meals actually, somehow–and it has something to do with the ‘efficiency’ of sourcing locally and seasonally
–are as much or less than a meal at Burger King.

If you factor in the pending health care costs that come with eating BK, we’re actually underselling one of the biggest, most subsidized venues in our nation’s ‘food’ system. You know, that feels pretty good.

Stay tuned! There’s a lot more updats than I can fit into one post.