Celebrate ripe, red organic strawberries and fields of bright orange pumpkins at Cedar Circle Farm!

Festivals . . . dinners . . .
    . . . tastings . . . classes . . .
      . . . workshops . . .

We have a full summer of events for you and your family here at the farm!

Coming soon: A complete list of what’s happening at the farm in 2012!

Below is a review of what we offered in 2011.

Quick links

Fathers Day Organic Berry Breakfast new!
Harvest Festivals
Dinners in the Field
Gardening and Cooking Classes
Tomato Tasting by the River
Seasonal Guided Farm Tours new!
Pumpkin Patch Tours for kids!
Horse-Drawn Wagon Rides to the Pumpkin Patch free!
Beginning Farmer Workshops

Breakfast In the Field NEW!

Father’s Day Pick-Your-Own Organic Berry Breakfast
Sunday, June 19, 9 am to noon
Average breakfast price $12. Reservations are not required!
Enjoy free tractor-drawn wagon rides to and from the pick-your-own berry patch. Take this opportunity to buy dad the spectacular breakfast he deserves at our Breakfast in the Field Café, featuring strawberries, farm-made pancakes with strawberry sauce, Hogwash Farm sausage, farm-fresh vegetable frittata, coffee, tea, smoothies and more. Live music.

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Harvest Festivals

Our 9th Annual Strawberry (Sunday, June 26th) and Pumpkin (Sunday, October 9th) Festivals are rain-or-shine harvest celebrations that draw more than 1,200 people of all ages from the Upper Valley and throughout New England. Horse-drawn wagon rides to and from the strawberry or pumpkin patch, kid’s activities, face painting, live music, educational displays and self-guided farm tour, cooking demonstrations, and a farm-fresh food concession keep families entertained throughout the day, and coming back year after year.

Learn more here.

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Dinners In the Field

Dinners in the Field are another favorite summer activity on the farm. All proceeds from the slow foods celebrations benefit the work of our education and community outreach programs. Now in our seventh season, the 2011 dinners take place on select Friday or Saturday evenings. Tables are set with linens, china, and glassware, under tents along the banks of the Connecticut River. These popular dinners often feature a guest chef or food producer, and freshly harvested and prepared foods from the farm, served in a beautiful and tranquil setting in the company of friends and neighbors.

Learn more

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Gardening and Cooking Classes

With the growing popularity of the localvore movement and the desire to eat more locally grown foods year around, gardening and the art of the pantry and “putting food by” are making a comeback. As part of our education program, Cedar Circle Farm offers annual gardening, cooking, and putting food by workshops. Join us to learn how to get your own home garden started, and then we’ll help you take your skills for using fresh produce to a new level. And we can help you eat local all year round with our workshops on canning and freezing and kimchee and sauerkraut (lactofermentation) using organic vegetables from our fields—and take home tasty treats for your winter pantry or freezer!

Learn more or Sign up

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3nd Annual Tomato Tasting by the River

Saturday, August 27, 2–4pm. Honor the commitment that generations of farmers have provided in preserving the biological and cultural diversity of our food traditions. Join us for a casual evening of celebration, live music, and a tasting of the many varieties of heirloom and hybrid tomatoes grown at Cedar Circle Farm. We’ll offer a rainbow of tomatoes in the raw for sampling, and a selection of delicious farm-made tomato appetizers to taste. There will be a special cash only farmers market featuring an array of farm-preserved tomato goods to keep you through the winter. Held under a tent in case of rain, in our fields along the banks of the beautiful Connecticut River.

Features a talk on heirloom tomatoes and the Slow Food movement by New Hampshire writer and food activist Ben Watson, author of Taylor’s Guide to Heirloom Tomatoes. $25 per person. Advanced registration required.

Get all the details

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Seasonal Guided Farm Tours

Year round!

Our farm tours do more than just show you around our beautiful spread. You’ll learn how we have incorporated food and farm education into our mission, how we use the farm as a tool for educating the public about sustainability, and you’ll see the farm in action. As is the way with farming, our tours change with the rhythm of the seasons- highlighting jobs, systems, crops, and visits to the fields, teaching gardens, root cellar, draft horses, chickens, alternative energy components and more. Each 1 hour visit includes a guided walking tour and a hands-on group activity. Tours with custom or themed topics are available.

All guided tours are by appointment only: Please call Cat Buxton at the farm to make a reservation, 802-785-4737 or email Cat. 
Fees: $6/person. Students/seniors: $5/person. Minimum $30. Classroom fee $75 or $5/student whichever is less. Children under 3 are free.
Large groups and visits longer than 1 hour are negotiated on an individual basis.

What kind of hands-on activities?  Our Education Coordinator Cat Buxton has a bunch of games and activities to engage youth in agriculture and the living world around us. Some popular activities include Three Sister’s Tag, Plant Cycles, Seed or Insect Safari, Spring Sleepers Search; Sensory Treasure Hunt, Writing Challenge; Posey Poetry; and more. Ask Cat in advance to customize an activity to meet your needs, interests, or age group, pre-K-12.

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Fall 2011 Pumpkin Patch Tours — FOR KIDS!

Tuesday thru Friday, October 11-14 AND October 18-21 ONLY

Tractor Ride to the Pumpkin Patch: Bring your daycare, school, or youth group for a tractor driven ride through our fields to the pumpkin patch. Our Education Director, Cat Buxton will welcome your group to the farm. There will be time for each child to choose a pumpkin as large as they can carry and one for the classroom. Leave extra time to visit the horses and gardens, play in the sand box, or have a picnic. $5 per person.

Add an educational tour/activity to your Pumpkin Patch tour! $6/student or $90/class includes a tractor-drawn ride to the patch, a pumpkin per students and one for the classroom, and an extra 15-45 minute tour or activity with our Education Director, Cat Buxton. It is best to allow 1.5 hours for this combo.

These tours fill up quickly so register as early as September 1 .

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Horse-Drawn Wagon Rides to the Pumpkin Patch — FREE!

October 22nd & 23rd AND 29th & 30th ONLY; Sat-Sun, 11 am-4 pm

Take a free horse-drawn wagon ride to the Pumpkin Patch to pick your perfect pumpkin. See our educational displays, take our self-guided farm tour, and visit the Hello Café and Farmstand. The kids can play in the sandbox and meet the horses.

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Beginning Farmer Workshops

Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center hosts, organizes, and co-sponsors workshops for beginning farmers, usually one per summer. For example:

In 2011 we:

Hosted a farm tour and presentation featuring farm operations manager, Luke Joanis, who shared his systems for charting and projecting field plans with participants in the UVM New Farmer Project.

Farm manager, KateDuesterberg, served as a mentor to aspiring farmers through the UVM’s New Farmer Project.

Our farm and systems were featured in UVM’s ‘Across the Fence’ series on the topic of Food Safety and Agritourism. Watch the clip.

We hosted an agricultural exchange student from Haiti, Ronel LeFranc, as he worked to develop skills and models for sustainable farming to bring back to his home country. Watch his video.

Farm manager, Will Allen, led a tour of the farm, and farm kitchen manager Alison Baker led a discussion for dietetic interns as a part of their symposium for new students from UVM, UNH, and Keene State University.

Farm production manager, Megan Baxter, led a presentation at the New England Fruit & Vegetable Conference titled ‘Tools for Efficient Post Harvest Handling’.

Farm education coordinator, Cat Buxton, and kitchen manager Alison Baker, led a presentation at the Farm Based Education Association Conference titled ‘Integrating Nutrition and Farm Based Education in to Farm Events and Activities’.

Farm education coordinator Cat Buxton teamed up with local educators to lead two presentations at the New Hampshire Farm To School Conference titled ‘Down On The Farm - Engaging Students in Agriculture’ and ‘Growing Your Farm To School Program’.

In 2010 we:

Hosted a Food Safety Workshop in collaboration with UVM extension. The workshop was designed to inform farmers who are concerned about Food Safety and GAP requirements but do not plan to get GAP certification.

Hosted professional development farm tours for two visiting conference groups: The Promise of Place conference for educators and the Womens in Sustainable Agriculture Network conference for farmers.

Donated a spreadsheet we designed to NOFA-VT to use for their On-Farm Energy workshops. The worksheet is a good first step to an energy audit, and will help farmers collect data on all types of energy users on the farm enabling easier identity of low hanging fruit, and priority improvements.

In 2009 we:

Hosted a Compost workshop for farmers, funded by a SARE speaker grant, with Tom Gilbert of Highfield’s Compost Institute in Hardwick.

Were one of four host farms on the NOFA-VT On Farm Energy tour which highlighted farms across Vermont with innovative alternative energy strategies or components.

Photos by Robert Eddy; Kimberly Grant