Joe’s Kitchen

We don’t know if Joe Buley is a cat person, but we do know he has lived many lives. Joe’s current role as Vermont’s Favorite Soup-Maker, a moniker bestowed by us based on the general enthusiasm we’ve experienced surrounding this soup, is one of many food-related vocations he’s held. Food and community are also what brought him back to his home state of Vermont in 1999 after years of travelling the country and the world.

Elementary-school-aged Joe did not necessarily dream of ladled soup while he was growing up, but he did spend a great deal of quality time cooking with his mother and grandmother as a way of making up for his inability to be outside during allergy season, which was most every season for Joe, who had severe asthma at a time when there wasn’t much effective medication for such a thing. But who needs to play outside when you can obsess over the infamously difficult French soufflé? The challenge and joy of making food was enough, most of the time, to keep Joe’s mind off of the fact that nature and his immune system simply did not get along.

One Christmas, Joe received the McCall’s Cookbook as a gift and his family let him cook, as they say. He made every single recipe in the book, one after the other, cover to cover. We love imagining the genuine and enthusiastic energy of young Joe commandeering his childhood kitchen until this monumental task was completed. Joe’s cookbook odyssey was an excellent prelude to all the things he would later bring to life in a similarly dedicated way.

Joe attended the University of Texas at Austin, earning a degree in Government and a minor in English Literature, briefly ignoring his culinary itch until attending L’Ecole Superior du Cuisine Francaise in Paris in the late eighties. Joe describes Paris at this time as effortlessly supportive of clean and local eating, noting that products like hand-pressed walnut oil were just a normal part of life, as was a deeply abiding respect for food. Joe was already accustomed to this attitude of respect, having grown up visiting his grandparents’ dairy farm and smokehouse, in addition to all the cooking he did. Training in the French tradition only further enhanced this for him.

Thus began Joe’s years as a professional chef. Cooking brought him to New York City, San Francisco, San Diego, and back to Austin to work in various restaurants. All of this experience, coupled with his own drive and enthusiasm, landed him a position teaching at the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, VT, which allowed him to help other people live out their dreams from his home state. After about a decade of teaching, it was time for something new and Joe decided to pursue his growing interest in vegetable farming.

As with cooking, Joe simply dove right into farming, refining his methods as he went along and voraciously reading the writings of other Northeast farmers, many of whom were also friends. He was part of the vanguard of winter spinach growers, which he did on his smaller-than-usual fields. This increasingly efficient use of his land and the ability to offer crops that were a bit rarer made the farm a huge success and supported his family for many years. In his pursuit of efficiency, Joe also spent a great deal of time thinking about how he could use the vegetables that didn’t look quite right, but were perfectly edible and nutritious. Soup entered the chat. Making soup was an excellent way to create something that was valuable and fully utilized the vegetables painstakingly grown on the farm.

The soup was greater than the sum of its parts and people bought it up quickly at the farmers’ markets. Joe was asked to start selling soup at Red Hen Bakery, which many of us are familiar with, and the Hunger Mountain Co-op, which remains one of Joe’s anchor customers. We hope the Brattleboro Food Co-op will also have the honor of this title as we begin offering Joe’s packaged soup in addition to what’s being served hot in the deli.

The soup sold fast, everywhere it was made available. These days 100 gallons of soup is gone in about two weeks, though rest assured the ingredients are still as local as possible, even though Joe is no longer farming himself. He listed the local producers he works with, and every time he thought he was done with the list, he remembered a few more, all from Vermont.

So what makes this stuff so special? The local ingredients alone make the soup worth it, but Joe also uses his French training to make soups that are nutrition dense and a joy to eat. He intentionally makes soups that are both richer and less rich than expected at the same time, using more of the unctuous ingredients like cream or bacon, while salting the soups less than other brands. Once you put salt in, you can’t take it out, so you might as well leave a little bit out. This decision honors those who need to restrict their sodium and lets the food speak for itself a little more. Of course, if you’d like more salt, you can put some in! He also avoids flour, often opting to use potatoes to thicken his soups, which creates more texture and adds to the nutrient content. Joe also strives to create as many vegan and gluten-free products as possible, saying, “Just because you have dietary restrictions, doesn’t mean food should be bad.” While not all of Joe’s soups are vegan and/or gluten-free, you will find many options that are and they are delicious.

Not only are the soups top notch, but Joe is also a strong community supporter, donating to food pantries as often as possible. During the height of the pandemic, Joe hosted Soup Wednesday all winter, where anyone could come and grab a meal, no questions asked. He loves supporting community events, like Montpelier Parks and Rec’s Enchanted Forest, bringing soup to feed community volunteers. Joe currently has three employees who all earn over $25 an hour, with paid holidays, vacation, and sick days. Joe takes care of people and he is well appreciated in his community and ours because of it. We’re lucky to be saying this all the time because our Vermont producers are incredible people, but if you get the chance to meet Joe, take it!

Written by Sarah Galgano

Come to the Co-op for a tasting of the delicious soups from Joe’s Kitchen!
Saturday, November 7, 12-2pm