This summer our market garden produced a variety of vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruits, and nuts. We've planted over 1,000 native New England hardwood trees, which will provide windbreaks, wildlife corridors, and enhanced habitat for pollinator species to flourish around the farm. And we recently completed construction on our new livestock barn!
The newly built livestock barn will be welcoming our beef herd and new crop of piglets in the next few weeks, which will allow us to begin to focus on the renovation of another of the farm barns. The newly renovated barn will be home to a year-round farm market and kitchen where we will be able to process fresh produce into shelf stable products so that the summer bounty can be enjoyed and available throughout the year.
“Our vision for Philo Ridge Farm is about keeping this land working in productive agriculture. We want to have a farm model that will sustain itself financially and be sensitive to water and soil quality, carbon sequestration, energy efficiency, and encourage an ethic of valuing the natural landscape and historic architecture of a traditional Vermont farm,” says farm owner Diana McCargo. “In partnership with the Vermont Land Trust, we’re protecting this beautiful view scape so it remains in agriculture. The addition of a kitchen and year-round market will help us share our food and love of this land with our community.”