Vermont has about 650,000 people. It is the second-smallest state in the country by population. And this week, it put five producers on the national Good Food Awards winners list.

The Good Food Foundation receives thousands of entries each year across seventeen categories…beer, spirits, cheese, pickles, chocolate, honey, and more. Products are tasted blind by a panel of judges, then winners are vetted for sourcing and business practices before the award is confirmed. It's not a popularity contest, and it's not “pay-to-play.” You either make something exceptional, the right way, or you don't win.

Here's who won…

Small Oven Pastries: Elizabeth Berman started baking in her thirties, got hooked on macarons after a single class at a Boston culinary school, and built a Shelburne-based pastry operation around the conviction that fancy pastries deserve to be enjoyed by anyone, anywhere. Her Vermont Maple Meringues are made with Vermont maple sugar, unheated, gluten-free, dairy-free, with just four ingredients…simple, specific, and now, award-winning.

The Tipsy Pickle: Angela Chicoine's Essex-based operation handcrafts small-batch artisan pickles infused with Vermont-made spirits and local brews, and she took home two wins this year. The sweet and fiery Demon Seed pickles, made in collaboration with St. Johnsbury Distillery, won alongside the Maple Bourbon Whiskey Pickles, made with Smugglers' Notch Distillery's maple bourbon.

Split Spirits: Based in Middlebury, Split Spirits is the country's first Climate Neutral Certified distillery, powered by solar and committed to sourcing local grains from Vermont farms. Their Barred Owl Bourbon won alongside Mythic Gin, a small-batch craft spirit that rounds out a lineup built around local sourcing and light environmental impact..

Champlain Orchards: Bill Suhr bought 60 acres of orchard in Shoreham in 1998 at age 27 with more passion than experience, and built one of Vermont's most respected fruit operations overlooking Lake Champlain. They took home the award for their Citra cider…dry-hopped and unfiltered, made from their own ecologically-grown apples with Citra hops.

Republic of Vermont: A husband-and-wife operation out of Goshen, Vermont, Republic of Vermont makes their winning Actually Raw Honey the way the name implies: never heated, never treated with chemicals, hand-bottled, and tasting “like flowers.” They've won a Good Food Award before, which tells you something about their consistency.

Once again, a group of small Vermont producers are making things at a level that holds up against the entire country.

Small Oven, Tipsy Pickle, and Split Spirits will all be on hand at the Burlington Wine & Food Festival on June 27. If you haven't tried their work yet, now’s your chance.