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Monday 10am - 2:30pm Wednesday 10am - 2:30pm

Building A Local Economy (BALE)

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Building A Local Economy (BALE)

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BALE - Building A Local Economy - is a community resource center for local economy initiatives in th

BALE (Building A Local Economy) is a community resource center for local economy initiatives in the White River Valley of Vermont. Our strategy is engagement; and the tools of engagement are education, communication and networking. Our goal is to build a resilient economic, social and cultural foundation in the White River watershed.

10/21/2026

Mending a torn piece of clothing may seem small. It’s a way to care for something, keep it out of the waste stream, and take part in an old tradition of gathering to make repairs.

Artful Visible Mending
A Mending Our World gathering with Sue Schlabach and shelby kalm
Sunday, October 25, 2–4pm
BALE Commons, 35 S. Windsor St, South Royalton
Free and open to all

Bring jeans, tees, sweaters, woven shirts or cloth housewares that need repair. Sue and Shelby will have thread, needles and a few easy stitches to teach. Beginners and seasoned sewers welcome. All genders welcome. Kids welcome with an adult.

PS: Have you mended something you’re proud of? We’re taking submissions of artfully mended textiles for our winter exhibition through November 13. Contact Sue Schlabach to submit More details on our site balevt.org

10/19/2026

Stitching, mending, reweaving. There’s no lack of textile metaphors for tending our fraying social fabric.
We’re proud to be one of this year’s recipients of the Vermont Community Foundation Arts & Social Cohesion grant, for next summer’s Free Summer Arts Series on the South Royalton Green. The 2027 theme is Imagining Our Collective Future.

2026 season ended with a preview of what’s to come: Sophie Wood sharing the story of Stone Soup Royalton Farmers Market invoking the magic of a community remembering what it means to come together (photo of Sophie by Tim Calabro / Herald)

This fall and winter, we’re taking those mending metaphors into our hands at the Commons and making them real with opportunities to come together through art and form deeper community:

TOMORROW: Intuitive Collage with Misch Beck of SafeArt Inc. Tuesday, October 20, 6–7:30pm. SafeArt workshops continue the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays through December. $20, less when you register for more than one.

SUNDAY: Artful Visible Mending with Sue Schlabach and shelby kalm
Sunday, October 25, 2–4pm. Free.

EVERY MONDAY: Creative Co-Working Hours with Sue Schlabach Sue
Mondays, 10am–1pm. Free coffee, wifi and company. Quiet work only.

10/19/2026

Stitching, mending, reweaving. There’s no lack of textile metaphors for tending our fraying social fabric.

BALE is one of this year’s recipients of the Vermont Community Foundation Arts & Social Cohesion grant, for next summer’s Free Summer Arts Series on the South Royalton Green. The 2027 theme is Imagining Our Collective Future.

We closed out the 2026 season with a preview: Sophie Wood and her Root Sisters telling the story of Stone Soup on the bandstand at the Royalton Farmers Market sharing a story about a community remembering what it means to come together.

This fall and winter, we’re taking those mending metaphors into our hands at the Commons and making them real with opportunities to come together through art and form deeper community:

TOMORROW: Intuitive Collage with Misch Beck of SafeArt Inc.
Tuesday, October 20, 6–7:30pm. SafeArt workshops continue the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays through December. $20, less when you register for more than one. Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScj3WMF18N7uwAI616ikwn0jbbnaa4UBZZEtrE1Ic94YVuo0Q/viewform?usp=send_form

SUNDAY: Artful Visible Mending with Sue Schlabach Art and Shelby Kalm Sunday, October 25, 2–4pm. Free.

EVERY MONDAY: Creative Co-Working Hours with Sue
Mondays, 10am–1pm. Free coffee, wifi and company. Quiet work only.

Photo of Sophie @ Stone Soup: Tim Calabro / The Herald

10/07/2026

The 2026 market season is over. Huge thank you to everyone who came out: community, vendors, musicians and artists.

We're planning for next year and want to hear from you, whether you came every week or never made it.

This community survey takes about 2 minutes:
https://forms.gle/CQwuWZ7UEGxc684K7

We'd like to know:
- what you came for
- what you'd like to find that wasn't there
- whether 11 to 2 on Sunday works for you
- whether you'd come to a winter market

Please fill it out and share with neighbors!

PS we have a separate vendor feedback survey email us [email protected] if you need that version!

09/24/2026

STONE SOUP: this Sunday 9/17 we’ll feed our community some soup, some story and a little taste of magic!!!!

The time has come for our last Royalton Farmers Market of the season! Last year we began what we hope will be an annual tradition of marking the end of the season with a Harvest Celebration — uplifting the abundance of land and the generosity of our community.

Stone Soup is an old European folktale about strangers who arrive hungry in a community seeking food and shelter but each individual they approach says they don’t have enough to share. The strangers work some magic to bring everyone together to make a feast that feeds and dazzles all.

We will be bringing that magic to life by brewing a GIANT cauldron of soup made from donated veggies. Chopped and stirred by our community members, under the guidance of our cauldron keeper Fiddler Joe Bob aka Randy Leavitt of E. Barnard.

2pm before we eat we’ll local artist and harder SOPHIE WOOD will lead us on an uproarious new journey through the old tale with some help from the audience and her collection of vegetable puppets!

2:30pm Everyone is invited to eat!
You are also welcome to take.soup home! We plan to make a lot of extra soup and freeze it in quart containers to distribute through the 24/7free food pantry to feed our community throughout the winter.

09/22/2026

It's time to wrap up Royalton Farmers Market season with the Stone Soup Ritual -- a celebration of harvest, generosity and the magic of community this Sunday 9/27!

Come at 11am to donate veggies from you garden, chop and stir the pot and tend the fire with cauldron keeper Randy Leavitt, enjoy free horse drawn wagon rides and a hilarious retelling of the age-old Stone Soup folktale by Sophie Wood at 2pm before free soup, bread and cheese is served for all at 2:30pm.

Extra soup will be frozen to stock the Building A Local Economy (BALE) 24/7 free food pantry all winter.

Come see what happens when we put together the sum of our parts!

09/09/2026

2nd to last market of the season and it's gonna be a fun one! We're teaming up with VLGS Environmental Justice Law Society again this year to co-host the Meet Our Community Fair. There will be many special guest vendors and organizations joining this weekend plus the following programming from Building A Local Economy (BALE) free summer arts series:

11am - 2pm: FREE natural dye workshop for all ages and abilities. Dip in the Community Dye Pot with local artist and forager Katie Rose Spencer!

12-2pm: an eclectic all vinyl DJ set by Sarah Yetter (Royalton Community Radio) in the genres include italo disco, afrobeat, and misc. psychedelia

You won't want to miss it!

Address

35 South Windsor Street
South Royalton, VT
05068

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 2:30pm
Wednesday	10am - 2:30pm

Telephone

+18024988438

Website

http://www.balevt.org/

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