Aug 6

Aug 6 14 Vermont Farmers to Follow on Instagram

Cultivating creativity is an essential skill for successful farming in Vermont.

Pockets of fertile soil in the Green Mountain State are generally small, weirdly shaped, sloping, hard to find, expensive to buy, and covered in snow for much of the year, so Vermont farmers need to get creative to make things work. Industrial agriculture as practiced on the vast Midwestern plain just isn’t feasible here, and so Vermont farms are diverse, funky, resilient, and interesting in a way that thousand acre rows of monoculture corn and soy will never be.

How do Vermont farmers succeed? By harnessing ingenuity, creativity, and the kind of work ethic that makes Elon Musk look like a slacker.

Is it any wonder, then, that so many Vermont farmers are killing it on Instagram these days?

Here are 14 of our favorites Instagram accounts run by farmers in Vermont.

Life Arises Farm - @lifearisesfarm
Devoting oneself to farming in Vermont requires a keen eye for detail, appreciation for natural beauty, and attunement to the rhythms of the land. Few farmers capture and communicate this spirit as well as Darby Weaver, FarmHER-Seeker-Writer at Life Arises Farm.

Longest Acres Farm - @longestacresfarm
Kate, of Longest Acres Farm, is practically royalty in the world of farmstead Instagram, with over 50,000 devoted followers. Her dreamy images of farm life in the Chelsea Hills are paired with artful captions that connote a sense of nobility and elegance, but the formality of her feed is tempered by sweetly self-deprecating humor and lots of pictures of dogs. One regularly featured scene, the view #fromthecoffeecouch, is doubtless responsible for inspiring dozens of people to pursue their own vision of agrarian bliss on a backroad in the Green Mountains.

Bread & Butter Farm - @breadandbutterfarm
Many Vermont farms grow a diverse array of products, but Bread & Butter Farm takes diversification to a whole new level. In addition to raising livestock, growing veggies, and welcoming visitors to an on-farm store and cafe, Bread & Butter Farm also hosts numerous educational and community events, such as their famous Burger Night. Kiddos are always welcome at Bread & Butter Farm, including for Music for Sprouts, a music and movement class for young children led by my dear friend Chris Dorman, star of the critically acclaimed children’s television show Mister Chris and Friends on Vermont PBS.

Fusda Farm - @fusdafarm
Legend has it that Fusda Farm is named after a rare orchid that blooms along the North Wolcott road in Craftsbury, and is said to represent great wisdom. [ Editor’s note: We have our suspicions.} Come for the sardonic wit and gorgeous vegetables, stay for the story of a father and son farming in the Northeast Kingdom.

Good Heart Farmstead - @goodheartfarmstead
Farmers Kate Spring and Edge Fuentes grow vegetables (and community) in the hills of the Worcester Range. Their stated mission is to make local food accessible to everyone, regardless of income, and they work tirelessly to provide fresh food to folks in need.

Big Picture Farm - @bigpicturefarm
Mouth watering caramels. Frisky goats. Lush pastures. Is it any wonder that Louisa Conrad of Big Picture Farm in Townshend is closing in on 20K followers?

Cate Hill Orchard & Sheep Dairy - @catehillorchard
Ceremony and song are an important part of life at Cate Hill, where farmers Josh Karp and Maria Schumann regularly host solstice ceremonies, Georgian-style feasts, and sing-a-longs featuring Lithuanian folk songs. Their Icelandic style sheep-milk skyr is out of this world, especially when sampled at dawn under their ancient apple trees.

Flatlander Farm - @flatlanderfarm
Located in Starksboro, Vermont, Flatlander Farm is a pasture based farm offering goat meat, duck eggs, and Freedom Ranger chickens, with the motto “Thoughtfully Raised, Rotationally Grazed”. Their Insta feed channels a wabi-sabi spirit of appreciation for imperfect and transient natural beauty, with equal doses of humor and poetic inspiration.

Butterworks Farm - @butterworksfarmvt
A few years ago I planted wheat with Jack Lazor of Butterworks Farm on a beautiful spring day in North Troy. Jack told me, in his understated way, that his career as a farmer was motivated and sustained by love. Love for people, love for soil, love for animals, love for place… all of this love comes through in the Butterworks Farm feed.

Morey Hill Farm - @moreyhillfarm
Farmer David Johnson is creating abundance and beauty on a former hillside dairy farm in Craftsbury. His feed is mostly flowers, with the occasional glimpse of fine woodworking, happy pigs, and epic perennial gardens.

Tapalou Pollinators - @tapaloupollinators
Reverence for flowers runs deep at Tapalou Guilds, an organic farm in Guilford, Vermont. Hanna, the farmer behind the Tapalou Pollinator feed, grows flowers to fill “bellies, eyes, and souls” and to help people mark transitions in their lives.

Heather Bruggeman - @heather_bruggeman
Heather tends hearth and home on an idyllic farmstead deep in the Northeast Kingdom. The content and composition of her photos are always spot on, and her captions entertain, educate, and inspire. I had no idea, for example, that so many parts of the milkweed plant are edible until I read Heather’s post about eating early spring shoots, flower buds, and tender seed pods.

Richardson Family Farm - @richardsonfamfarmer
In 2018, the Burlington Free Press ran an entire feature about Richardson Family Farm under the provocative headline This Vermont dairy farm is 100 years old and uses Instagram better than you. Amy Richardson, the photographer behind the account, has a special talent for capturing the expressions of Jersey cows in the pasture and barn.

Anson Tebbetts - @atebbetts
If you like sunrises, goldendoodles, and cows, with a little dose of political savvy on the side, you’ll love the feed of Anson Tebbetts, who lives on a family farm in Cabot and currently serves as Vermont’s Secretary of Agriculture.

Old Soul Farm - @oldsoulfarmvt
Kim and Matt farm with permaculture principles on 13 acres of south-facing land in the granite hills of Barre. The rich colors of their feed highlight the beauty of lilac blossoms, rhubarb stalks, and blood-red strawberries.

Apple Tree Farm - @appletreefarmvt
Jess, the farmer behind the Apple Tree Farm feed, is an extraordinarily talented writer who generously shares heartfelt captions that capture the hardship and the joy of raising children and livestock on an offgrid farmstead in Vermont.

Earth Sky Time Community Farm - @earthskytime
A three-generation family farm rooted like a bold, beautiful sunflower among the grand estates of downtown Manchester, Earth Sky Time Community Farm integrates art, bread, music, organic vegetables, and radically possibilitarian community building in a tradition reminiscent of Bread & Puppet, the venerable theater company in Glover.

Well, that’s 14 Instagram accounts fun by Vermont farmers, but we couldn’t resist highlighting one more. Consider it a bonus!

Myers Produce @myersproduce
Technically Annie Myers isn’t a farmer these days, but her plucky food distribution company plays a critical role in Vermont’s food system by connecting Vermont farmers with buyers in New York City. We love to explore the myriad connections between Vermont and New York City here at State14, and we dig the Myers Produce feed, which features big red trucks navigating between small farms and big city streets.

Do you have a favorite Instagram account run by a Vermont farmer? Tag @state_14 to let us know!

Lead Image: Big Picture Farm

Tim Patterson

I was born in Durham, Connecticut and moved to Craftsbury, Vermont when I was twelve. My family and I now live in the village of Richmond, Vermont and also care for a bit of land just west of Craftsbury Common on Mountain Hill Road. We share this Northeast Kingdom homestead with guests, who can book stays in our cabin + studio and house via Airbnb. I love exploring Vermont and meeting Vermonters, and I'm grateful for the seemingly inexhaustible abundance of beautiful places and kind, interesting people that I encounter in this brave little state. You can connect with me on Instagram @timpatterson82 or on Twitter @tcpatterson.