If you were reading Plate to Plate back in October, you’ll remember that Dan and I spent a weekend up in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, visiting friends and checking out the extravagantly publicized — and rightly so — Claire’s restaurant, in Hardwick.
Hardwick is the little town that could. This scrappy little place — a dot on a map overrun with winding roads — has reinvented itself as an innovator in local, sustainable food systems.
On the surface, and in more than a few other ways, Hardwick and the northern Berkshires are similar. To be sure, they are different in many ways, too. But it is the similarities that interest me. I left Hardwick last fall wondering, first, how they managed to do it; second, who “they” were; and, third, whether a steady, meaningful, and lasting change of this nature could be possible in North Adams and the northern Berkshires.
An October, 2008 article in Gourmet touches on some of my questions. And as it turns out, the author of this piece has written a book on the same topic, to be released in March: The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food.
From the book’s blurb:
Over the past 3 years, Hardwick, Vermont, a typical hardscrabble farming community of 3,000 residents, has jump-started its economy and redefined its self-image through a local, self-sustaining food system unlike anything else in America. Even as the recent financial downturn threatens to cripple small businesses and privately owned farms, a stunning number of food-based businesses have grown in the region—Vermont Soy, Jasper Hill Farm, Pete’s Greens, Patchwork Farm & Bakery, Apple Cheek Farm, Claire’s Restaurant and Bar, and Bonnieview Farm, to name only a few. The mostly young entrepreneurs have created a network of community support; they meet regularly to share advice, equipment, and business plans, and to loan each other capital. Hardwick is fast becoming a model for other communities to replicate its success. The captivating story of a small town coming back to life, The Town That Food Saved is narrative nonfiction at its best: full of colorful characters and grounded in an idea that will revolutionize the way we eat.
What I want to know is: Can Hardwick be a model for economic growth and change in the northern Berkshires?
Via the Claire’s blog, New Vermont Cooking. You can pre-order the book through the Galaxy Bookshop, in Hardwick.