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Community Capital 119<br />
Farmers Diner is still building up, but it has already begun<br />
to fulfi ll some <strong>of</strong> the l<strong>of</strong>ty ambitions it has set for itself. The<br />
Middlebury diner, which also serves as the commissary, sources<br />
83 percent <strong>of</strong> its food within a 70-mile radius. It turned pr<strong>of</strong>i table<br />
in August 2010. Together, the Middlebury and Quechee diners<br />
employ about 50 people and generate annual sales <strong>of</strong> about $1.2<br />
million—all <strong>of</strong> which benefi t the area’s farmers and economy.<br />
A sister company, Vermont Smoke and Cure, turns locally raised<br />
pork into bacon, sausage, and ham.<br />
Now, Murphy and Perras are getting ready for their fi rst<br />
foray outside <strong>of</strong> Vermont: They plan to open a Farmers Diner in<br />
Lafayette, California, just outside <strong>of</strong> San Francisco, in May 2011.<br />
In keeping with the pod model, the Lafayette diner will be followed<br />
with a second one in the vicinity, along with a commissary<br />
to share costs and prep work. Rumors <strong>of</strong> a Brooklyn diner had<br />
local foodies buzzing last summer, and a prospectus was circulating.<br />
Although that is still being considered, Perras says, the lure <strong>of</strong><br />
a nine- month growing season in the Bay Area was just too much<br />
to resist. In the meantime, Brooklynites will have to content themselves<br />
with The Farmers Diner Cookbook, to be published in late 2011.<br />
Community- Supported Everything<br />
The community- owned and -supported ethos has been taken to<br />
perhaps its most ambitious lengths in Hardwick, Vermont, where<br />
an entire ecosystem revolving around sustainable agriculture and<br />
food has taken root, sparking an economic and cultural revival in<br />
the area. You might call it community- supported everything.<br />
Over the past three years, Hardwick has created 100 jobs in<br />
value- added agriculture. To put it in context, that’s one- fi fth <strong>of</strong><br />
the area’s total employment. The Hardwick “miracle” has been<br />
well- chronicled: It has been the subject <strong>of</strong> features in the New York<br />
Times and Gourmet, as well as a book, The Town That Food Saved, by<br />
farmer and area resident Ben Hewitt. But less attention has been<br />
paid to the creative fi nancing that made it all possible.<br />
Like any story about Hardwick, it all seems to begin with Tom<br />
Stearns, the red- bearded, charismatic founder <strong>of</strong> High Mowing