Art & Couples: Chard and Liz deNiord on What Works
By Joyce Marcel “We don’t collaborate,” insists Vermont’s Poet Laureate Chard deNiord, speaking about the working relationship he shares with his wife, the gifted abstract colorist Liz Hawkes deNiord. “We work separately. Liz will sometimes ask for my opinion, but I’m clueless about making paintings.” And yet. A visit to the deNiords’ art- and light-filled home, deep in the Westminster West woods, raises the questions: can you draw a...
Springtime bounty: Finding mushrooms and wild foods in Southern Vermont
By Laurie Merrigan As the canopy of leaves darkens and grows, so grows the abundance of what we can harvest just outside our door. There are tasty early leaves of dandelion greens (Taraxacum officinale) and wood sorrel (oxalis). If you have gloves you can take home versatile stinging nettles (Ursa diotica). Cook this spinach substitute well to denature the nasty sting. Nettles are abundant, rich in nutrients, make a good cleansing...
Expect the extraordinary: A new generation of farmers at The Bunker Farm
By Laurie Merrigan What a story: Helen O’Donnell and Jen O’Donnell, two gals from Maine, marry two guys from Vermont and they move to a working farm with piglets, pastured beef and poultry, flower and vegetable greenhouses, and a maple bush. It’s also an agricultural educational center for students and the community and an emerging event space. Hard work, but for some it’s the only way to live. In addition to beautiful children, a...
Smart Pad: WheelPad keeps families together
By Katherine P. Cox Joseph Cincotta and Julie Lineberger, the husband and wife team behind LineSync Architecture in Wilmington, prove design can serve a greater good. Their latest innovative venture, Wheel Pad, a 200-square-foot eco-friendly accessible bedroom and bathroom unit on wheels, can attach to a home temporarily. It’s changing lives for the better. Wheel Pad is a huge boon to people with mobility issues, as it lets them...
Welcoming Waterways: Enjoying the Connecticut River and its tributaries
By David L. Deen I am interested and involved in all things wet, whether it’s the Connecticut River as river steward, public policy as chairman of the Natural Resources, Fish, and Wildlife Committee in the Vermont House, or on a watershed river as a guide. I have been living here since 1972. That’s 46 years. How I arrived goes this way: I left Pennsylvania in junior high school for Connecticut, where I stayed through undergraduate...
Wild Women of Food: Southern Vermont’s women chefs
By Nicole Colson Most of us don’t consider who’s preparing our meal when we dine out. If we were paying attention, though, we might be surprised to learn that only 20 percent of chefs in this country are women and that they earn nearly 30 percent less in base pay than their male counterparts. And only 7 percent of those women chefs are head chefs. These statistics come from RestaurantHER, an initiative food-delivery service Grubhub...
Wine Observed: A tribute to vintner Bob Haas
By Marty Ramsburg As I write this in April, we are adjusting to the news that Robert Haas, founder of Vineyard Brands and Tablas Creek, died at his western home in Templeton, California, where Tablas Creek is. I say western home because Bob also maintained his eastern home, in Chester, Vermont. While cosmopolitan, Bob embraced Vermont. We can recognize the consistency between core values that Bob held, then embedded in the businesses...
Tourism Talk: Our take on Southern Vermont summer scene, marketing, and branding
A summer explosion of cultural events Southern Vermont’s summer awaits. Its mountains, lakes, and rivers beckon; its back roads invite bike rides and meandering walks, all nourishment for the outdoors enthusiast. For an aesthetic feast, though, check out Southern Vermont’s ever-growing menu of arts offerings, from world-class classical music to dynamic little theatre; circus, and puppetry to top-shelf drama; fine art to outstanding...
Upfront: Spotlights on notable happenings
Keep on truckin’… You read it here first! SO Vermont Arts & Living’s “Driven to delight: Southern Vermont’s top 10 food trucks” (Summer 2017) featuring Dosa Kitchen was a big hit with readers, and now we’re pleased to report that Dosa Kitchen owners Nash Patel and Leda Scheintaub have published the first cookbook dedicated to making dosas at home: “Dosa Kitchen: Recipes for India’s Favorite Street Food” (Clarkson Potter,...
At the museums
Laumeister Art Center 44 Gypsy Lane, Bennington 10a to 5p, Mon–Sun (Closed Mon) http://www.artcenter.svc.edu, 802 442-7158 Now: Native American Art and Artifacts. Native American and Southwestern artwork, which is the product of more than three decades of serious collecting more than 300 paintings, 50 bronzes, 50 Hopi Kachinas, 85 hand-woven Navajo rugs, and numerous pieces of pottery, jewelry and baskets. Currently: The Eric Sloane...
Music festivals
Next Stage Arts 15 Kimball Hill Road, Putney http://www.nextstagearts.org May 20: John Gorka CD release of “True in Time,” singer songwriter from the 1980s folk scene, 7:30p. June 8: Seth Glier and Matt Nakoa, folk and pop singer/songwriters and multi-instrumentalists, 7:30p. June 23: Lisa McCormick, ukulele, guitarist and singer/songwriter with insightful lyrics and strong voice, 7:30p. Friends of Music at Guilford Organ Barn off...
Summer stage
Dorset Theatre Festival 104 Cheney Road, Dorset http://www.dorsettheatrefestival.org, 802 867-2223 June 21–July 14: “I’m Not Rappaport,” starring Judd Hirsch. A lifelong radical and world-class kibitzer, retiree Nat Moyer spends his afternoons spinning outrageous yarns that intrigue and infuriate fellow octogenarian Midge Carter, the half-blind building superintendent with whom Nat shares his Central Park bench. July 19–Aug 4:...
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