VT Pierogi was born from Jes Scribner's first growing season during a residential program at Birdhous. Birdhous is a co-working landscape built on a mission to make agriculture enterprise more accessible and to help young folks in their transition from dreaming to doing.Their Roosting (residential) program allows budding environmental entrepreneurs (read: modern agrarians) to enjoy the independence and realize the demand of operating their own venture without the distraction of overwhelming financial responsibility. They believe this type of agricultural venture will become more and more relevant as farmers retire and their agricultural land is turned over to a generation in debt.
Firmly seated in working experience and a hands-on agricultural education, Jes threw spaghetti at the wall. Heirloom potatoes proved to be a most rewarding crop, and she had perfected a pie dough in her personal life, so it seemed only right to start milking cows and adding in cheese. She was eager to elevate consumer expectations on what might be available in the freezer section and show how transparent sourcing could be-- right there on the ingredient list.
Their crop is "Certified Naturally Grown", a standard based on the highest ideals of the organic movement: no gmos, no synthetic chemicals, and supporting a local food economy. They use fresh eggs from their own hearty flock of non-gmo, free-range hens. Their cheese partner, Sweet Rowen Farmstead, milks a well loved herd of pasture fed VT Linebacks. When they are out of potatoes or need some green, they reach out to organic local producers, most often Pete's Greens. They use VT's trusted King Arthur flour and Cabot butter to wrap it all together, from scratch and by hand, to present a true, VT pierogi.
