Stonyfield Farm Tour

Earlier this month I was given the opportunity to travel to Vermont to be a part of the 2016
Stonyfield Farm Tour.  This was my first visit to the state of Vermont and the weekend was
one that I will never forget!  My love for the Stonyfield brand has never been stronger and
I am proud to partner with such a wonderful, caring company!

The farm tour weekend began Friday afternoon at the beautiful Stoweflake Mountain Resort
and Spa in Stowe, Vermont.  That afternoon I met the twelve bloggers (Ann, Joanna,
Jessica, Sarah, Erin, Ashley, Michelle, Calley, Diana, Leah, Angela and Nicky) that I
would be spending the weekend with, along with Mairead and Liza from Stonyfield.

Our first stop was a community supper hosted by Kimball Brook Farm in North Ferrisburgh.

During the summer months, the farm hosts Summer Suppers and everyone in the community
is invited to come listen to music, eat farm fresh food and just have good old fashioned
family fun.  It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed a delicious dinner!  The homemade
butter was the best butter I have ever had!

This is Mairead and Liza from Stonyfield.  These ladies took such good care of us the
entire weekend!  Love them!!

After dinner we toured the farm and then made a pit-stop to Ben & Jerry's on the way
back to Stowe.  The factory tours had already shut down for the evening, but we enjoyed
yummy ice cream cones before calling it a night.

Saturday morning we headed to Enosburg Falls, VT, where we met Julie and her family
at Green Wind Farm.  Julie's farm is transitioning to organic, so Kyle (Stonyfield Farmer
Relationship Manager and Brit (Director of Organic and Sustainable Agriculture) met
us at the farm to help explain organic farming and all that is involved in transitioning
a farm from conventional to organic.  Stonyfield supports their direct farmers and is
there for them 24/7 to make sure that the yogurt you and I eat is certified organic and
of the highest quality.

Julie's farm was so beautiful and green and she loves each of her twenty-five cows like
they are her children.  She knew them by name and you could tell that the farm was
her passion.  This visit made me respect farmers so much more than I ever did.  I
could tell that she had worked hard all of her life and did so because she loved farming.

After touring the farm we returned to Julie's kitchen where her family had prepared a
delicious, homemade breakfast just for us.  We all sat around a huge table and enjoyed
the morning talking to each other, listening to Kyle and Brit educate us even more and
devouring the most delicious blueberry pancakes I have ever had! The pancakes were
topped with homemade maple syrup right from Green Wind Farm!  Julie gave us each
a jar to take home with us.

Our next stop was for lunch at a restaurant called Positive Pie.  It was there that
we were greeted by one of the founders of Stonyfield, Gary Hirshberg.  Gary
joined us for lunch and talked to us about the early years of Stonyfield, GMO
food labeling and the importance of keeping chemicals away from our food.
It was such a honor to meet him and I really appreciated him taking the time
to talk to us!

For the past several years we have been trying to buy organic food as much
as possible (especially the dirty dozen) and yogurt, of course, and I now know
how important it really is for good health and for protecting the environment.

After lunch we visited the Churchill family at the Wonder Why Farm.
Farmers Jen, Morgan and their children, Nora and Sam, gave us a tour of their
robotic dairy farm, which was the coolest thing ever!

Wonder Why Farm is absolutely beautiful!  Almost a year ago, they transitioned their dairy
to a robotic dairy system, which allows the cows to line up whenever they feel like they
need to be milked.  It was amazing to watch the cows enter the gate to be milked and
watch the robot do it's thing!  Lasers scan and measure where the milking system needs to
attach to the cow.  The robotic milker monitors and measures the quality of milk and records
the number of visits for each cow.  It was amazing to watch!!

The Churchill family showed us all around the dairy and took us on a long walk through
the fields.  The view was stunning!

Little Nora loves the cows and is a farm girl through and through!

Later that evening Mairead and Liza took us to Michael's On The Hill for the most
wonderful dinner.  The restaurant was pretty dark inside, so I don't have any good photos
to show you, but it was one of the best meals I have ever had the pleasure of eating!

Sunday morning the Stowe Farmers Market took place right across the street from our
hotel. We walked around, sampled tasty treats and took in the beautiful Vermont day
before heading home.

I feel so blessed to have been chosen to attend the Stonyfield Farm Tour.  Thank you to
Mairead, Liza, Kyle, Brit and Gary from Stonyfield.  And a special thank you to all of
the farmers that let us tour their farms and welcomed us into their homes.  Growing up
on a farm in and in a farm community, I have always known the importance of farmers,
but this trip made me appreciate them even more!

The farm tour also showed me the importance of trying to live a more organic life,
free of artificial hormones, pesticides and GMO's.  There are a handful of brands that
I am passionate about and I am proud to say that Stonyfield is one of them!!

Disclosure - As a member of the Stonyfield Clean Plate Club, I was chosen to attend the
2016 Farm Tour and Stonyfield paid for all of my expenses.  As always, all opinions are
100% my own.