Thanks to Urban Dweller for sending me this great story in the New York Times this past weekend about a small town in Vermont, just the size of Gas City, that’s trying to rebuild itself as a collective farming community after its granite businesses went bust.
One of my favorite parts of the story is that Hardwick is about to open a year-round farmers market…major progress considering the market started 20 years ago as one farmer selling out the trunk of his car. Now that guy was an entrepreneur.
So far some 75-100 jobs and a huge increase in customers has resulted from the efforts.
But will it be enough to sustain a whole community? So long as these healthy operations don’t get so big that they sell out and trade quality for the ease of consolidation, it just might.
After all, the public is hungry for local foods from sustainable farming operations. I’ll be pulling for this community and hoping its a model for small towns across the country.
The photo is a vintage image of an old Hardwick granite company.
Virtual Farmgirl 
