An Introduction to the Farm

Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center is a flower and certified organic vegetable and berry farm located off U.S. Route 5, along the Connecticut River, in East Thetford, Vermont. We have 40 acres in cultivation plus 25,000 sq.ft. under cover in hoop houses. There is a farmstand and coffeehouse on the farm.

Most of our produce and flowers are sold in our farmstand; we also participate regularly in farmers’ markets in Norwich, Vermont, and Lebanon and Hanover, New Hampshire. Vegetables are also sold to several area restaurants. Cedar Circle Farm operates a thriving community supported agriculture (CSA) program serving 175 members.

Cedar Circle Farm also has an explicit and important non-business mission: education. The Azadoutioun Foundation of Cambridge, Massachusetts purchased the farm in the fall of 2000 and hired Will Allen and Kate Duesterberg as managers, responsible for both the conduct of the farm business and the development and provision of high-quality education programs at the farm.

The foundation’s goal for the farm was to establish an agricultural education center along with a model organic farming operation. During the third year of operation of the farm, we began to institute the educational programs, the goals of which are four-fold:

• to raise public awareness about the importance of locally grown, organic produce;
• to train young and aspiring farmers;
• to increase access of organically grown produce in low-income communities; and
• to create models for farm-appropriate alternative energy strategies.

The previous owners, Robert and Marilyn Stone, owned the farm for approximately 22 years. Under their tenure, the farm focused on conventionally grown vegetables, flowers, and strawberries, with both wholesale and retail sales; the Stones opened a farmstand for the latter. They sold the development rights on the farm to the Vermont Land Trust in 1990. Prior to the Stones, Cedar Circle Farm had been a horse farm and a dairy farm.

Cedar Circle Farm in the news

• Lights, camera, action! The film crew from Emeril Green, a wholefoods cooking show on Planet Green with superstar chef Emeril Lagassi, came to Cedar Circle Farm on September 9th to get footage for an upcoming fall special (date tba) on sustainable farms in Vermont. The cameras followed the farm crew as they performed their daily tasks of harvesting, packing CSA baskets, plowing with the draft horses, and running the farmstand. The show will feature: the farm; CCF farm managers, Kate and Will cooking with Emeril; our CSA program; educational programs; and our focus on alternative energy strategies. We are thrilled to be a part of the show.
• Saveur magazine calls us out as “outstanding in our field” We couldn’t have said it any better. Thank you, Saveur. We’re pleased as punch to be included in this list:

Shopping at farmstands is one of summer’s greatest pleasures.
Dining at them is even better.
Here are six that serve great homegrown fare.