May 19th Music and Events Townshend, VT near Brattleboro

The Kindle Farm School and Pizza Hippo jointly present The Super Spring Community Jam and Plant Sale to benefit the Kindle Farm vocational logging program May 19^th from 10AM to 10PM.

Musical guests include: Flabberghaster, Acoustic Roots, Medicine Warriors, Black Mountain FM and Toni Atari. Flabberghaster kicks off the music from noon to 2pm. Everyone else to follow.  $5 suggested donation.

The Annual Kindle Farm Plant Starter Sale features a variety of cold weather plant starts to give folks a head start on their home gardens. Currently there are approximately 12,000 starts growing in the KF greenhouse. Varieties include: broccoli, cauliflower, kales, chards, lettuces, spinach, radishes, multiple herbs, eggplant, tomatoes, and more.

Additionally, there will be a bake sale, a cord wood raffle, and the opening day for Pizza Hippo’s Townshend Pizza Stand, serving local, organic pizzas all day long.  All activities to take place at The Kindle Farm School, #1 Route 30, Townshend, VT 05353.

Pizza Hippo and Kindle Farm have formed a sustainable partnership dedicated to transforming communities through the power of organic food. Kindle Farm will grow the lion’s share of Pizza Hippo’s organic vegetables on-site. Additionally, the Kindle Farm vocational program is building the Pizza Hippo Townshend Pizza Stand from wood grown on campus, logged by the students, milled on-site, and finally transformed into a traditional New England architectural form by students under the supervision of staff carpenter Earl Cook.

“Growing everything from the tomatoes, herbs, and vegetables to the wood for the Pizza Hippo building here at Kindle Farm and then creating value added products just feet away from where it was grown minimizes our carbon footprint in a very meaningful way. It’s a level of sustainability most farm-to-table operations can only dream about, and most importantly, the Kindle Farm students are involved in this unique entrepreneurial enterprise on every level,” says Malcolm Hood, Pizza Hippo’s founder and executive chef.  

Amber O’Reilly, Kindle Farm’s farm and vocational program manager adds, “Pizza Hippo’s operation has given new meaning to the work our students are doing as part of their education. Not only are they gaining hands on experience in farming, logging, and carpentry, they’re seeing first hand how to turn these skills into a small business enterprise.”

More details and the full music schedule can be found at www.pizzahippo.com.

Pizza Hippo at Putney School Earth Day Fest

Hello hello!

What a gorgeous week we've been having here in southern Vermont!

We're in our last week of fundraising at our Kickstarter Campaign.  Click here to contribute!

It's also only five days until Pizza Hippo opens the season at the Putney School's Earth Day celebration.  The weather is supposed to be less than stellar on Sunday, mirroring last year's auspicious start.  Hopefully we'll have more cloud and less rain!

It will be an amazing feat when we set up Sunday morning, though.  Svetlana, our 88 Volvo Pizza Wagon, needs a new transmission and will not be getting one.  She's on the auction blocks...anyone who wants a great parts car can check out our craigslist ad here.

Instead of Svetlana, we'll likely be converting Amber's Toyota to the new Pizza Wagon and saving up for a little pickup truck.  Should be a fun rest of the week scrambling to make this happen!

Pizza Hippo has also been approved vendor status for the Frendly Gathering this June 14-16 right here in Windham, Vermont!  Great line up, great people, and now great pizza, too!  Can't wait to for our Windham slash Townshend pizza to represent the local food scene in a very legit way!

Finally, Pizza Hippo is officially going to be the newest addition to the Townshend Pizza scene here in Vermont.  Opening day coincides with the Kindle Farm stand plant starter sale and a KF fundraiser.  Any bands interested in donating their playing time should call Malcolm at 802.874.0321 to make arrangements.

Vermont's Best Organic Pizza Update: The Hippopotamus is Alive

Just a quick update on Pizza Hippo dream.  It's going to happen!

As of April 3rd, our little project on Kickstarter.com has been funded to 90% of our minimum goal of $5000.  Yes, we probably need more than $5K in all honesty, and yes, we may end up raising more than that, but either way, we'll have the baseline capital to at least get this project off the ground.  Exciting!

It's nice that 51 people so far believe I'm smart enough to make this dream into a reality, and have, on average, invested $87 per person.  Hopefully more folks, specifically more local folks, will get in on the action, pre-buy some Vermont Organic Pizza and help us crush our minimum goal.  Perhaps our upcoming press piece in The Commons will push us over the edge...stay tuned Vermont.

Hey Brattleboro!  It's official!!!  Pizza Hippo has been accepted by a jury of our peers to sling organic goodness at the Brattleboro Farmer's Market this summer.  We'll be there on Wednesdays starting in May.  It was an awesome feeling to hear Martha, membership director, complement our pizza so warmly and welcome Pizza Hippo to Brattleboro.  Hopefully we'll hear more of the same from the other market's we're still waiting to hear from...come on y'all, the Pizza Hippo Pizza Wagon is nearly complete and ready to roll!

We also wanted to mention a strategic partnership in the works with Jamaica Cottage Shop.  Still working on the terms, but it feels like we should end up with a great structure for the Kindle Farm Stand location.  Hope we can work this deal out and keep it classy, Vermont.

That's all for now...sweet dreams.

Love,
Mr. Hippopotamus

Pizza Hippo, Organic Vermont Crowd Sourcing, and Long Distance Bike Riding for Hippopotamus

Hello, and welcome back to the Outlandish Dreams blog. I've got to say that un-outlandish dreams are okay, like dreaming for a dishwasher, but the bigger ones really get me going.

Today we booked our inspection with the health department. May 1 at 9AM. The inspector seems incredibly reasonable, and to boot, he LOVES the name Pizza Hippo. I even got him to say, "It Hits the Spotamus!" Yeah! Nothing is more entertaining to me than getting serious adults to say, "It Hits the Spotamus!" How anyone says it with a straight face is beyond my comprehension. Some people do, however.

This May 1 deadline means we have to buy a bunch of equipment and have everything set up in roughly five weeks. Luckily we finished our video and submitted our Kickstarter.com campaign for approval this morning. With any luck we'll start raising the capital we need early next week. Stay tuned for the link.

If you believe a national farm to table organic pizza chain should exist, you'll want to support us. Its so important for the country and the world for this to happen. This will be your chance to contribute to a feel good project that can truly change the world for the better.

On a different thread, I've been training to ride my bike from Vermont to Key West, Florida this November. Yeah, it's March 23 and I'm starting way early. Today I did 33 miles, a lot of it uphill, and it was pretty tough climbing the hills that ended my trek.

To get to Key West in a reasonable amount of time, say 30 days, I need to average 70 miles a day. Keep in mind it's going to be rough for the first several hundred miles in November with winter weather creeping in. So I need to be able to ride six to eight hours per day for an entire month by November 2. Does the superior athlete I think I can be really live inside of me? Only time will tell.

Biking, IMHO, is fantastic because, like many other sports, it is a metaphor for life. When you're climbing hills, you have to dig deep. The closer to the peaks you come, the harder you have to pedal. When you're approaching your goals in life, the time you have to focus most, strive the most, give the most, is the time when they're just out of reach. If you stop, biking or in life, you'll inveritably roll backwards. There are too many other setbacks (flat tires and Murphy's Law) to lose focus at the critical moments.

When obstacles arise, there are only four options. Go over, under, around or straight through them. Momentum must not stop! It's physics and psychology, plain and simple.

Once you reach the peaks, you're instantly rewarded with a period of coasting, shooting down the hill like a rocket, wind in your face, effortless flight, a condor floating on currents in the blue beyond, fish carving bubbles in the sea riding the riptide with reckless abandon. It's why I love riding in Vermont.

Soon, another hill rises up, smiling mockingly. Can you master your pain and keep going forward? Was the ecstasy of the last down slope enough to push you onward? Will you cower or throw your head back, mouth agape, tusks shining in the sun, Hippopotamus yawn of domination!

Just like life, the bicycling. So tell me, how fit can you get? How far can you push yourself? What kind of amazing can you accomplish today?