Back from the brink: New life at the Retreat Farm
By Katherine P. Cox Retreat Farm, the historic farm within walking distance of downtown Brattleboro, was hopping this summer, with hundreds of people attending Thursday night Food Truck Roundups in Farmhouse Square, featuring food and beer, music, and games. Goat Yoga sessions with the farm’s baby goats were sold out. Kids and parents got down and dirty during International Mud Day, where they were encouraged to jump in mud puddles...
Farms & Couples: Doing Less…Achieving More
By Nicole Colson Emmett Dunbar’s wide-brimmed straw hat, the one he wears working his blueberry bushes, is the one constant since he began a farming life in Vermont 20 years ago. His wife, Lini Mazumdar, in her apron, divides out tiffins and walks them to the farm fridge for pickup—an everyday scene that doesn’t reflect all that’s changed on the farm over the past 20 years. Lini came to the U.S. from her native Calcutta, West Bengal,...
Taste, place, grace: An interview with the owner of the Four Columns Inn
By Anita Rafael Dining al fresco with Charles Mallory at Artisan Restaurant at Four Columns in Newfane inevitably turns into a conversation about the ways in which food in Vermont is unlike food anywhere else. Mallory is the CEO of Greenwich Hospitality Group, a company he founded in 1999, which owns Four Columns Inn and upscale, attention-to-detail properties in Connecticut and Texas. He also is celebrated for his success in his...
Putney Craft Tour at 40: A look back, a look ahead
By Margot Torrey Craftspeople have always played a part in the life of Putney, as in most New England villages. Blacksmiths, woodworkers, weavers, knitters and quilt makers made useful and beautiful objects that filled the needs of everyday life while adding aesthetic pleasure to house or wearer. The Arts and Crafts movement of the turn of the 20th century encouraged the appreciation of handmade objects and influenced the thinking of...
Total Loss Farm 50 years later:
By Verandah Porche Memorial Day 50 years ago, we posed in front of the home we’d buy that afternoon. We tried the door (locked), peeked through the windows, and figured it would be okay. Why? Because a huge peach orchard bloomed on the hilltop. Because we still believed in common dreams. Fresh from assassinations, riots, and the fracturing of political alliances, we envisioned a future on these acres, the open fields, rickety house,...
How the New Deal stimulated the creative spirit in Vermont
The days were dark as the Stock Market Crash of 1929 took its toll on the country in the early 1930s. Crash to Creativity: The New Deal in Vermont, on view at Bennington Museum through Nov. 4, sheds light on this vital state history, focusing on the role of these many government-sponsored New Deal projects. The exhibition features photography, paintings, prints of post office murals, and architectural drafts that were sponsored...
Legendarily Local: Charlie Hunter welcomes you to Bellows Falls
For Vermont artist Charlie Hunter, much of the beauty of his native New England lies not so much in its vistas and richness of color, but in the human intervention of road signs, the abandoned or transformed industrial structures, the trestle rail bridge and vintage gas stations… This is not the Vermont of fall leaves and covered bridges the tourists come to see, but the Vermont of abandoned Plymouths, lost industries and...
Bookmarks: Three recent SoVermont books
Going Up the Country: When the Hippies, Dreamers, Freaks, and Radicals Moved to Vermont Yvonne Daley (2018, University Press of New England) Journalist Yvonne Daley didn’t know she was receiving her latest assignment when a friend sent her a book about the 1960s and 1970s counterculture in the high desert of New Mexico. “You should write this story in Vermont,” came the suggestion tucked alongside. Daley seems the perfect candidate:...
Tourism Talk: Do we really need to bribe people to move here?
By Lynn Barrett, publisher Vermont is blessed with stunning beauty; a multitude of natural attractions; recreational opportunities such as skiing, hiking, boating, and fishing; small villages; cultural attractions such as craft beer and farm-to-table restaurants; and an impressive creative arts and entertainment scene. Economists call these “positive amenity values.” We call them a golden opportunity. We recently spoke to Tom Kavet,...
Recipe of the season: Apple Pie
By Sharon Myers Crust 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, chilled 4 Tbsp. vegetable shortening, chilled 2¼ cups of all-purpose flour ½ tsp. salt 4–6 Tbsp. ice water Filling 3 pounds of apples (I used Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples this time. No rules on this one, but I like apples that hold their shape.) 1½ Tbsp. fresh lemon juice 2 Tbsp. flour ½ cup dark brown sugar 1½ Tbsp. fresh lemon juice ½ tsp. cinnamon ½ tsp. allspice ¼ tsp. ginger ¼...
Calendar: At the museums
Bennington Museum 75 Main St., Route 9, Bennington 10a to 5p (Closed Wed) http://www.benningtonmuseum.org Thru Sept 16: Cambium (Into the Woods), works by Bill Botzow; Thru Oct 8: the Jane Stickle Quilt; thru Nov 4: Crash to Creativity: The New Deal in Vermont. Brattleboro Museum & Art Center 10 Vernon St., Brattleboro 11a to 5p (Closed Tues) http://www.Brattleboromuseum.org New exhibits: Emily Mason: To Another Place; Michael...
Calendar: Our partner galleries
Canal Street Gallery 23 Canal St., Bellows Falls http://www.canalstreetartgallery.com Thru Nov 2: A World Suspended in Color: Fine Art Glass. Gallery 2 and Vermont Artisan Designs 106 Main St, Brattleboro 10a-7p Mon-Sat, 11a-4p Sun http://www.buyvermontart.com Sept: Featured artist is Beth Bathe; Oct: Featured artist Paul Stone. Gallery North Star 151 Townshend Road, Grafton 10a-5p daily (Tuesday by chance) http://www.gnsgrafton.com...
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