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A Vermont Picnic

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Pictured Recipe: Blueberry Tart with Walnut Crust

Farther south in Rutland, Vermont, Donald Heleba, 69, still works the land his family has farmed since 1926, growing about 35 different potatoes on eight acres without herbicides or mechanical harvesting. “I handsort 10,000 potatoes by myself,” Heleba says with quiet pride. “I’m not bragging, but I’m very particular.” His stock changes each year, but includes varieties like Green Mountain and Makah Ozette. Some don’t sell too well, but “I keep growing them just so I don’t lose the seed,” he says. Back when his father grew potatoes, Heleba recalls, “People bought them by the bushel. Now they buy them by the pound.” But other things are different too. “When I was in school, people used to make fun of you if you were a farmer,” he says. “It’s changed. Now they treat you like you’re special.”

—Melissa Pasanen is an award-winning freelance writer with a focus on food and farming. She co-authored Cooking with Shelburne Farms: Food and Stories from Vermont (Viking, 2007), a New York Times “notable cookbook.”

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