Vermont grantees say Working Lands grants funded equipment, marketing and trellising that expanded production and sales

Four recipients of fiscal-year 2025 Working Lands Enterprise Initiatives grants told program staff and board members that modest state investments and technical assistance helped them scale operations, stabilize supply chains and unlock private investment.

"Butterfly Bakery Vermont is a farm to fork food manufacturer," said Claire George, owner of Butterfly Bakery of Vermont, describing a business that sources "100% of our milk, produce, and maple" within 200 miles of its kitchen. George told the board that a $45,000 business enhancement grant and a $5,000 trade-show grant funded photography, paid advertising, SEO work and a trade-show appearance that together helped boost branded sales "27% compared to the same period of 2024," with November–December growth near 50%.

The marketing and technical help, George said, did more than buy advertising: it provided signaling that helped secure outside investment. "If the state of Vermont believes we can make these plans a reality, then others do too," she said, and projected that doubling branded sales over four years would bring more than $5 million in out-of-state revenue into Vermont and support about a 25% increase in full-time staff.

Misha Johnson, co-owner of Free Verse Farm and Apothecary in Chelsea, described a small herb operation that used a Working Lands award to buy a European-made electric harvester—"a little bit more than $13,000," she said—and a solar-powered drying barn built in 2022. Johnson showed video of the harvester in action and said it cut the labor needed to harvest 100 bed-feet from several man-hours to "just 1 person in 10 minutes," allowing faster drying cycles and the capacity to increase annual dried-herb output toward 1,500–2,000 pounds.

"We sell out of our herbs every year," Johnson said, listing sales channels that include a downtown farm shop, an online store and regional wholesale partners (FoodConnex, the Acorn FoodHub). She also confirmed the TerraTek harvester is battery-powered and self-propelled.

Miles Jeunesse of Vermont Heavy Timber said a $50,000 Working Lands grant helped build a timber-drying shed next to his Huntington shop to store and season cut timbers. Jeunesse said the shed (described in the presentation as approximately "25 by 100 square feet") will free roughly 500 employee hours from logistics tasks so staff can focus on restoration and value-added work; he emphasized that about 90–100% of his logs come from Vermont suppliers and that the company trains and retains skilled carpenters.

"That grant has been big for us," Jeunesse said, noting plans to use the infrastructure to support a proposed nonprofit trades school and a separate regional grant application to study glulam timber for covered highway bridges.

David Keck of Stella 14 Wines (Keck Wine Enterprises) told the board a Working Lands award funded trellising for a vineyard planted in 2024 and allowed the team to recover from extreme weather setbacks in recent years. Keck described replanting 3,500 vines in 2024, repairing and extending trellising, and projecting conservative production increases that would lift product output and support seasonal hires. He said the grant "dramatically changed our perspective for the year" and enabled immediate implementation of materials purchases and trellising work.

Program manager Elizabeth Siswell framed the four presentations as examples of the Working Lands program's goal to fund a diverse range of businesses and project sizes. Board members thanked presenters and noted the application process itself forces applicants to clarify business plans. The meeting recessed for a short break and was scheduled to reconvene at about 10:45 a.m.