Newly refurbished, the Yellow Barn in Hardwick is just a few shades more golden than a block of seriously sharp cheddar. Built in 1913 for dairy cattle and then the site of an auto body shop, the barn had stood unused since late 2016. Now it’s returned to its roots as a bright, airy retail outlet for Cabot Creamery.
Steps from the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, the store celebrated its grand opening on September 14. It offers free samples of Cabot products, cheeses from other local producers such as Sweet Rowen Farmstead and Vermont Creamery, and cheese-friendly accompaniments — think Blake Hill jams, Stowe Mercantile crackers and Northwoods Apiaries honey. For serving, customers will find fondue sets, petite serving spoons and elegant slate boards.
Next door, as part of the same redevelopment project, workers are putting the finishing touches on a new squat, contemporary structure. The energy-efficient 25,000-square-foot shell will be divided evenly between the Center for an Agricultural Economy and Jasper Hill Farm.
The Town of Hardwick owns the property and spearheaded this multiyear effort, collectively referred to as the Yellow Barn Project, to bring a boost of tourism and industry to the area. In collaboration with current and future tenants, the town gathered nearly $10 million in state and federal grants, loans, and other funding for construction. Tenants will invest additional millions to outfit their spaces.
For Jasper Hill, the Yellow Barn will streamline order fulfillment and allow the processing of large cheese wheels on-site, “which will alleviate operational strain” at the Cellars in Greensboro, communications director Zoe Brickley said. The space will also give the business’ currently scattered team members the opportunity to work out of the same office.
The Center for an Agricultural Economy is looking forward to expanded offerings and the elimination of “critical bottlenecks” in workflow, executive director Jon Ramsay said.
Currently, the nonprofit uses a nearby location to house both its offices and its Vermont Food Venture Center, which rents kitchen and storage facilities to farmers and food entrepreneurs. As the 20-year-old nonprofit has grown, that space has gotten cramped, Ramsay said. Spreading out will foster new opportunities.
For instance, nearly all the cold storage shared by the CAE programs will move into the new building, Ramsay noted, giving the Venture Center room to construct a “proper pack line” to streamline food production.
That will benefit CAE’s Just Cut program, which contracts with farms to purchase root vegetables, processes them for ease of cooking, and sells them to schools, hospitals and other institutions. Currently, when schools are in session, Just Cut processes and distributes 2.5 tons of produce weekly, Ramsay said. More efficient packing of the beets, potatoes, carrots and cabbage will save hours and permit increased production.
The farmers and food producers who pay for time at the Venture Center will likewise benefit from the redesign and additional rentable storage space. The massive facility is a “big investment for the local food system of Vermont,” Ramsay said.
The new building will become the hub of CAE’s Farm Connex distribution biz, which aggregates goods from producers as far apart as Scott Farm Orchard in Dummerston and Hall’s Orchard in Isle La Motte, then drops them off at more than 500 “market access points” around Vermont and New Hampshire.
The CAE’s side of the building will also include a meeting room with a teaching kitchen, suitable for workshops, shared meals and “whatever the community dreams up,” Ramsay said.
Meanwhile, the Yellow Barn retail space stocks products made by Vermont Food Venture Center tenants, such as Green Mountain Peanut Butter and Jasper Hill Farm cheeses, alongside Cabot’s ridged potato chips, cheddar blocks, and boxed mac and cheese.
Erica Burke, Cabot’s general manager of retail operations, said it’s important to the farmer cooperative “to celebrate other Vermont cheesemakers and organizations with a shared agricultural heritage. Our goal is to use the store to build consumer awareness, love and loyalty among both tourists and locals.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Cheddar Than Ever | The Yellow Barn Project and new Cabot outlet boost tourism and industry in Hardwick”
This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2024.
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