Island View Farm

Lynn Hazen grows dry beans up on North Hero, an island up on the northern end of Lake Champlain. Lyn has been growing dry beans for the past 30 years, a time when very few other Vermont farms have been growing food-grade beans. He says his family used to grow beans for the Burpee seed company and he just kind of slipped into the same habit, finding a market with local grocery and country stores rather than seed companies. He currently grows black beans and yellow eye peas.  Lynn says he can’t sell black beans up in Franklin County – no one buys them because no one grew up eating them. Down here in Burlington, the black beans fly off our shelves. Yellow eye beans are what sell up in Franklin – people use them for baked beans.

For more information on how to cook with dry beans, check out our brochure.