Eric and Sonja Withington are returning to their roots. Eric grew up sugaring with his uncle in his hometown of Barnard. Thousands of miles away in Austria, Sonja spent her childhood foraging fresh greens, flowers, berries, and herbs to create herbal teas, syrups, and home remedies...
Beth Kennett welcomed her first overnight guests to Liberty Hill Farm in 1984. Back then, hosting visitors was a way for Beth and her husband, Bob, to start to diversify their income as farmers. Ever since, families and couples from the Netherlands, Italy, Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada,...
Inside a 24-by-8 trailer parked in Hardwick is the sweet smell of pulled pork, dry rubbed ribs, and smoked mac and cheese. Outside is a line of hungry customers eager to place their orders on a sunny spring afternoon before the start of a Vermont Vaudeville...
Ana Fernandez came to Vermont on a whim last year when a friend told her about a job opening at Nebraska Knoll Sugar Farm in Stowe. The Michigan native is now spending her second season sugaring at the farm, spending her days (and nights) boiling sap, changing the...
"My great-grandmother started this farm in 1918. She ran a bed and breakfast out of the house and made maple syrup on the property. When my father was a boy, she introduced him to the Vermont tradition of maple sugaring. One of the things we...
-Doug Brown boils sap at Slopeside Syrup in Richmond. The Cochran family is famous for its tiny ski hill and 70s-era Olympic champions. While the next generation of Cochrans is continuing the ski racing tradition, four family members are pouring their energy into producing Vermont maple syrup. Just...
Since launching HappyVermont.com in August 2009, I've traveled through many of Vermont's 251 cities and towns. Here are 8 beautiful places in Vermont to photograph, including some of my favorite historic churches, meeting houses, barns, and bridges. Waits River Church The tiny village of Waits River in...
Anne Tisbert is a farmer, entrepreneur, tour guide, and mother. At Valley Dream Farm, which she purchased with her husband, Joe, in 1992, she rises early each day to tend to organic produce—red beets, sugar snap peas, rhubarb, and tomatoes—that grow in the shadow of Mount...
A decade ago, Fat Toad Farm caramel started out as a simple experiment in homesteading. Calley Hastings and her family hand-milked a French alpine doe named Jupiter in their Brookfield garage to make goat’s milk caramel sauce for friends and to sell at the local...
Behind a country store on Route 100 is a tiny restaurant that is quickly making a name for itself in Vermont’s local food scene. Kevin Lasko and Katie Stiles opened The Backroom in Pittsfield a little over a year ago behind the Original General Store. The restaurant...
