Vermont Breakfast on the Farm returned on August 5, welcoming the public to Sunderland Farm in Bridport, Vermont. Nearly 1,400 visitors enjoying a local Vermont breakfast and a self-guided tour of the dairy farm located in the Champlain Valley. Since 2014, Vermont Breakfast on the Farm has worked to connect the public with hard-working dairy farming families like the Sunderlands – who produce wholesome dairy, care deeply for their cows, and work to protect, maintain and improve the working-landscapes of Vermont.
Attendees enjoyed a local Vermont-made breakfast before engaging in an educational walk around the farm, learning what makes a Vermont dairy farm tick. Breakfast included parfaits with yogurt, granola, and blueberries in addition to fresh cider donuts, sausage, cheese, and milk.
Twelve educational stations throughout the farm tour helped visitors to learn about daily life on the farm. Those stations included a look at how calves are raised, what cows eat, as well as how milk is transported from the farm to the store. Guests also learned how farmers safeguard local waters like Lake Champlain with protective cover crops and toured the free-stall-barns where they were able to see cows being milked by robots in real time.
“With less than 2% of the population involved in agriculture now, our consumers are more unaware of what really happens to get food from farm to tables,” said Courtney Banach, Breakfast on the Farm Committee Co-Chair who is also a dairy farmer in Bridport.
Sunderland Farm has been part of the Bridport, Vermont community for more than 160 years, when Merino sheep could be found in their pasture. The family made the transition from sheep to dairy in the late 1800s. Today, the farm has 240 milking cows and over 450 total livestock. In 2020, Sunderland Farm was named the Vermont Dairy Farm of the Year, an award recognizing an overall excellence in dairying, including outstanding herd performance and superior milk quality. Farms also are evaluated on crop production and pasture quality, environmental practices, financial management, and involvement in the agricultural community.
This year, event organizers collected more than $700 in donations for The Vermont Farm Fund, NOFA Vermont’s emergency fund, and other organizations supporting farmers impacted by flooding.
Breakfast on the Farm is made possible with the help of over 100 volunteers and by the generous donations of agricultural businesses, organizations, and brands including Vermont Dairy Farmers, Farm Credit East, and New England Dairy.
vermontbreakfastonthefarm.com 