Staytripper, Fall 2021 by Seven Days

FALL 2021

Take a Hike

Trails off the tourist-beaten path

This Old House

A new era for Craftsbury Farmhouse

Cheers to Beers Scenic routes to new breweries

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Falling for Vermont

FA L L 2021

Staytripper is entering a new season — in more ways than one. For 15 consecutive months, this magazine has functioned as Seven Days’ road map to safely rediscovering Vermont during the pandemic. As summer changes to autumn, we’re ready to switch it up a little: With this Fall Issue, Staytripper is shifting to a quarterly publication schedule. While we certainly hope the pandemic part of our mission ends soon, we see no end in sight for opportunities to explore Vermont. Hopefully, our stories over the past year-plus have guided the way to fun and quirky recreational experiences in our own backyard — no vacation days or plane travel necessary. This edition anticipates all that’s amazing about autumn — with insider tips, of course. Cider doughnuts and leaf peeping? Yes, please, but preferably without too many tourists. Read on to find alternative fall hikes, a secluded sculpture park, a brandnew breweries trail and a haunted cornfield that might literally make you pee your pants. Off we go!

WALK THIS WAY.......................... 6 Avoid the leaf-peeping crowds with stunning alternatives to Vermont’s more popular hikes BY KEN PICARD

CA ROLYN F OX, EDITOR

ALL INN THE FAMILY.................. 10 Three sisters have transformed Craftsbury Farmhouse to offer lodging, meals and wellness BY MOLLY ZAPP

POETIC PILGRIMAGE................. 12

A Frost foray in Bennington County BY SALLY POLLAK

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THE BEER SCENE........................ 16

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New nanobreweries in unexpected places around Vermont BY JORDAN BARRY

Burlington

FIELD OF VIEW............................20 Shelburne

frames artworks in nature BY AMY LILLY

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Vergennes

TOP PICKS.................................... 24

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Monkton’s Gordon Sculpture Park

Craftsbury

South Hero

Underhill

Jericho

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Seven PYO apple orchards worth the drive

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Sutton

• •

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Danville Cabot Middlesex

Montpelier

Fayston

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Middlebury

BY CAROLYN FOX

DESTINATIONS Tour de Farms................................... 26 Dead North...................................... 26 Bristol Harvest Festival....................... 27

•

Exploring the state?

Shoreham

Rutland

Follow the pins to find the fun in this issue.

•

Shrewsbury

East Dorset

ON THE COVER: A hiker above the tree line on Mount Norris in Eden PHOTO BY JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

• 24

Dummerston 12

•

WITH SUPPORT FROM

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Walk This Way Avoid the leaf-peeping crowds with stunning alternatives to Vermont’s most popular hikes BY KEN PICARD • ken@sevendaysvt.com

A foliage hike at White Rock Mountain

SEVEN DAYS STAYTRIPPER FALL 2021

ost avid hikers in Vermont have experienced that sinking feeling after arriving at a trailhead only to discover the parking lot is overflowing. Come autumn, many of those vehicles sport the out-of-state license plates of leafpeeping tourists. Of course, Vermont has more than enough scenic terrain for everyone to enjoy, assuming you have a plan B. And if you don’t, just ask Amy Potter. For the last five years, Potter, 35, has managed the Green Mountain Club Visitor Center in Waterbury Center. She answers phone calls and emails, talks to drop-in visitors, and offers hiking and trip-planning advice to backcountry newbies and veteran Long Trail through-hikers alike. Potter has been busy since the start of the pandemic. In 2020, more than 500 people applied to the Green Mountain Club for certificates showing that they had hiked the length of the Long Trail; in a normal year, she said, the club receives 200 to 300 applications. A dramatic uptick in trail usage doesn’t just detract from hikers’ enjoyment; it causes more environmental damage, such as erosion and trampled vegetation, especially on alpine summits. “When you get on these busy trails, it’s almost like a conga line,” Potter said. “You’re very close together, and it’s really crowded.” Because the Green Mountain Club’s mission includes preserving and maintaining the Long Trail system, Potter compiled a list of lesstraveled alternatives to some of Vermont’s most popular hikes. Before you head out, though, consider a few recommendations she offered specific to autumn hiking. As the weather gets colder and wetter, fallen leaves can make the trails slicker and more difficult to

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AMY POTTER

COURTESY OF AMY POTTER/GREEN MOUNTAIN CLUB

navigate. Downed foliage can also hide hazards such as roots and rocks, so be extra vigilant about your foot placement, and follow trail markers so you don’t get lost. Come late September and October, the temperature may still feel warm down in the valley. However, trails can get icy near the summits, so remember to bring along foot-traction devices. The same goes for headlamps — even for day hikes, Potter said. Shorter days and bad weather can make navigation more difficult. And to avoid the midday rush of other hikers, Potter suggested arriving at trailheads early in the morning or late in the afternoon. “Sunrise and sunset can be a great time to view foliage. The lighting is wonderful, and the crowds are smaller,” she said. “I’m more of the sunrise [type] because I have a toddler, so we get up at the crack of dawn.” Finally, don’t forget to sign in and out of trailhead logbooks. These sheets not only help the Green Mountain Club and other trail managers document trail usage, but they also provide valuable information if hikers go missing. Potter provided the following information about five great hikes. WALK THIS WAY

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CAMEL’S HUMP ALTERNATIVE

Wheeler Mountain, Sutton 4.4-mile round trip, approximately 700-foot elevation gain

Vermont trails get busy during fall foliage season, especially on the summit of Vermont’s most iconic peak: Camel’s Hump. Often you can find more peace and quiet in the Northeast Kingdom. Wheeler Mountain in Barton provides a lovely, moderate hike to view the colorful autumn scenery. This trail climbs gradually through the woods and follows the contours of the ridgeline, then leads to an easy hike past open ledges with expansive views. From there, the trail enters the woods and follows open bedrock to the top of the Wheeler Mountain cliffs, which provide views of Jay Peak and Mount Mansfield. The trail continues through the woods past the summit to Eagle Cliff, with views of Lake Willoughby and Mount Pisgah. MOUNT MANSFIELD ALTERNATIVE

Butler Loop, Underhill 4.5-mile round trip, approximately 1,700-foot elevation gain

Butler Lodge on the south end of Mansfield Ridge is one of the highlights of a scenic, moderately difficult 4.5-mile loop. Follow the Butler Lodge Trail to the Wampahoofus Trail for 0.1 miles before turning left onto the Rock Garden for 0.6 miles. At the next junction, turn left onto Maple Ridge for 0.4 miles, then left onto the Frost Trail to return to the trailhead. This loop has excellent views, exciting rock scrambles and caves, birch forests, and Butler Lodge, one of the overnight sites along the Long Trail.

SEVEN DAYS STAYTRIPPER FALL 2021

MOUNT ABRAHAM ALTERNATIVE

White Rock Mountain, Middlesex 5.2-mile round trip, approximately 1,610-foot elevation gain

For epic views without the crowds on Mount Abraham, try White Rock via the Middlesex Trail to the Bob Kemp Trail. This route starts at a moderate grade, then quickly ascends steeply at the Bob Kemp Trail. Fun rock scrambles present themselves as you approach the summit, as well as flat, rocky areas for viewing the fall foliage.

MOUNT ELLEN ALTERNATIVE

Stark’s Nest, Fayston 5-mile round trip, approximately 2,036-foot elevation gain

Looking for a full-day hike akin to Mount Ellen without the traffic at the popular 4,000footer? Instead, hike the Stark Mountain Trail to the Stark’s Nest warming hut. This trail follows a service road from the Mad River Glen single-chair loading station. When you reach the Long Trail, head north for a short distance to reach the warming hut, which has some amazing views. KILLINGTON PEAK ALTERNATIVE

Shrewsbury Peak, Shrewsbury 3.8-mile round trip, approximately 1,359-foot elevation gain

If you’re in the Rutland or Killington areas but want an alternative to Killington and Pico, head just 20 minutes south to Shrewsbury Peak via the Shrewsbury Peak Trail. It climbs past the Russell Hill shelter, then ascends — gradually at first, before getting steep near the summit — 1.8 miles from the trailhead. At the summit, several rocky outcroppings provide views to the south and east. More ambitious hikers can continue along the ridge before connecting to the Long Trail. m

INFO © EVGENIYA MALAKHOVA | DREAMSTIME

For additional trail recommendations, digital maps and hike planning, stop at the Green Mountain Club Visitor Center, 4711 Waterbury-Stowe Rd., Waterbury Center, or visit greenmountainclub.org.

SEVEN DAYS STAYTRIPPER FALL 2021

All Inn the Family Three sisters have transformed Craftsbury Farmhouse to offer lodging, meals and wellness BY MOL LY Z A PP

whether some creative recasting of the property could keep their childhood home in the family. “Creative” was the operative word. The women formed Sedore Sisters LLC, bought the three interconnected buildings on the grounds and, by late 2019, had launched a multifaceted business. The reinvented Craftsbury Farmhouse offers overnight lodging, a full-service restaurant called Blackbird Bistro and a wellness center known as Whetstone Wellness. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to imagine the property as a business. The sisters began working at their grandparents’ B&B, in the 1826 farmhouse, when they were girls in the 1990s. Upson fondly recalled eating the leftover baked goods her grandmother prepared for guests in her bright-red AGA oven; she also helped with the

housekeeping. “My grandma paid very well,” she said. “This was all of our first jobs, cleaning those rooms,” Beer said. “And now, all these years later, I’m still cleaning those rooms.” The rooms look significantly different today. Nearly every part of the three buildings underwent major renovations. The two-bedroom guest suite, which sleeps up to four, was once farmhand quarters, Beer believes. Part of the former B&B, it’s where her aunts and uncles stayed when they visited. Today, the cerulean walls, gold-framed mirrors and wrought-iron door latches make it equally cozy and elegant. Thanks to renovations by Upson’s father and father-in-law, a formerly empty attic space in the

farmhouse is now the king suite, which sleeps two to six people. Broad pine floorboards, jade-painted walls and an antique wool spinner marry the antique

KATIE MEYER

SEVEN DAYS STAYTRIPPER FALL 2021

PHOTOS BY DANIELLE VISCO | COURTESY OF CRAFTSUBY FARMHOUSE

It’s nice to be part of the Craftsbury scene.

COURTESY OF CRAFTSUBY FARMH OUSE

n 2018, Lisa and Tom Sedore gave their four adult daughters some unwelcome news: They needed to sell their farmhouse and homestead in Craftsbury, which had been in their family since 1900. The place held a lot of history for the sisters: Their great-grandparents lived on this land in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, offering room and board to city lodgers who helped out on their working farm. Their grandparents summered on the property and returned in retirement to run a bed-and-breakfast in the farmhouse. And their parents renovated the old barn and raised their daughters there. “None of us were feeling great about the idea of this being sold,” sister Jessie Upson said. So she and two of her sisters, Lindsay Beer and Katie Meyer, decided to see

INFO Craftsbury Farmhouse, Whetstone Wellness and Blackbird Bistro, 1037 S. Craftsbury Rd., Craftsbury, 586-2247, craftsburyfarmhouse.com, whetstonewellness.com, blackbirdbistrovt.com

Opposite page: The site of Blackbird Bistro, Craftsbury Farmhouse and Whetstone Wellness; sisters Jessie Upson, Katie Meyer and Lindsay Beer. This page: The king suite; the glamping tent; the two-bedroom suite; cocktails at Blackbird Bistro

and the contemporary. A mural painted by Upson, depicting an old barn and a sunset, graces the wall behind the headboard. The indoor rooms range from $120 to $130 per night, and all stays require a two-night minimum. Guests who want an outdoor

experience with the comfort of modern amenities can opt for one of the three tepee-style glamping tents, available from June through October for $110 per night. (For those not in the know, “glamping” is a portmanteau of “glamorous” and “camping.”) A pandemic-era

addition that the sisters intend to keep, these large tents have real queen beds, propane heaters and firepits out front. Glampers share an indoor bathroom and can make use of a cozy lobby area in the farmhouse. All guests have access to an infrared sauna and whirlpool, and they may choose to round out their stay with outdoor yoga classes or treatments at Whetstone Wellness, named for the Whetstone Brook that runs along the property. On the site of the sisters’ childhood bedrooms, the center offers massage, acupuncture, facials and Tibetan sound healing therapy. Visitors can even book a massage by the water. Upson said the loss of two friends in the community to suicide was one of the factors that led her to create the wellness center. She wanted a space that supports people’s mental health and “normalizes self-care, in many different facets,” she explained. Family friend Lee Kinsey renovated and opened Blackbird Bistro on the property in November 2019. It offers memorable craft cocktails, pub food with local ingredients and an expanded dining terrace. Upson is proud that all of the businesses in the complex are owned by women, many of whom are from the area. “The biggest piece of feedback we’ve gotten from community members is that it’s nice to not have to drive 30 minutes to get a massage or go out to dinner or go to a yoga class,” Meyer said. “It’s nice to be part of the Craftsbury scene.” The three sisters, all of whom are mothers, maintain separate roles in the businesses. Meyer handles the bookkeeping and training for new Whetstone practitioners, Upson maintains the buildings and grounds, and Beer manages the housekeeping and scheduling. Beer also offers herbal teas, which she grows at Greensboro’s Wilson Herb

Farm, to farmhouse guests during their stay. The three entrepreneurs and their other sister, Megan Amell, also serve at Blackbird Bistro. Although the sisters are happy with the new incarnation of their family home, a sense of wonder at the property’s evolution sometimes sneaks up on them. “The word ‘surreal’ comes out a lot,” Meyer said. “I was clearing tables the other night at the bistro ... I’m hearing voices and laughter, thinking, This feels like any summer night of my childhood — filled with activity, watching the stars come out. Mostly it just feels like home.” As one recent guest noted in a fivestar review on Tripadvisor, “The love for the home is evident and shines through ... If you want a lovely getaway — this is the place!” Occasionally, visitors tell the Sedore sisters stories of spending time on the property when their grandparents or great-grandparents owned it. A bistro guest shared that, decades ago, he and his family used to come up from the city in the summers to participate in the work exchange program on the farm, which Beer said her great-grandparents established in the 1920s. Upson heard from a man who helped his electrician father work on the house in the 1960s, she said. Father and son found an old beam with signatures on it that the electrician claimed to have traced to the Underground Railroad. The beam remains, mounted above the bistro, but has been covered up since that story’s era. It would need to be unearthed to have its legend verified or debunked. “We would have to knock down some walls, which we’ve been wanting to do for a while,” Beer said. “It’s the last corner of the home that hasn’t been renovated.” m SEVEN DAYS STAYTRIPPER FALL 2021

PHOTOS: SALLY POLLAK

It was here in Shaftsbury — where Frost and his family lived first in the Stone House and then at a nearby farm called the Gulley — that the poet established important and enduring ties to Vermont. His connection to the state continued even beyond his death, in 1963 at age 88, because he’s buried here. The Stone House is one of three places that together comprise an illuminating Frostian excursion to southern Vermont. It should be paired with a visit to the Bennington Museum (see page 14) and to Frost’s grave in a historic cemetery in Old Bennington, a site the Vermont legislature declared a “Colonial Shrine” in 1935. Bennington College took over management of the Stone House in 2017. In addition to holding occasional educational courses and poetry readings there, it has established on-site

COURTESY OF ROBERT FROST STONE HOUSE MUSEUM

SEVEN DAYS STAYTRIPPER FALL 2021

PHOTO BY PA UL WAITT | CO

IONS

ne hundred and one years ago, Robert Frost and his family moved to an 18th-century stone-and-clapboard house in Shaftsbury. The poet, who four decades later would be named the first poet laureate of Vermont, lived in the house for nine years — writing poems, tending an apple orchard, raising chickens and walking in the woods. Today, the house and seven of the original 90 acres are managed by Bennington College and open to the public six months a year. Visitors to the Robert Frost Stone House Museum can see the room where Frost wrote one of his best-known poems, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” on a June day in 1922. They can walk on a little path posted with a handful of his poems and meander through an orchard in which four of the apple trees are descendants of Frost’s.

RARY SPECIAL COLLECT

BY SA L LY P OL L A K • sally@sevendaysvt.com

COLLEGE LIB

A Frost foray in Bennington County

URTESY OF DA RTMOUTH

Poetic Pilgrimage

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ROBERT FROST STONE HOUSE MUSEUM

programming, including student art shows and a produce dropoff for Vermonters facing food insecurity. But the Stone House’s identity is Frost’s home, and its primary public purpose is to show people the place he lived and worked from 1920 to 1929. Frost was living there when he was awarded the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book New Hampshire — the first of his four Pulitzers. At the house, visitors learn about his life through framed letters, biographical notes and timelines, drafts of poems, and other documents on display. Of particular note is a letter Frost wrote to fellow poet and longtime correspondent Louis Untermeyer about his attempt, in the summer of 1922, to walk the Long Trail with his kids and their friends. “I walked as per prophesy till I had no feet left to write regular verse with (hence this free verse) and that proved to be just one hundred and twenty five miles largely on the trail,” Frost wrote. “I slept out on the ground alone last night and the night before and soaked both my feet in a running brook all day. That was my final mistake. My feet melted and disappeared down stream. Good bye.”

Frost made it to Wolcott, according to the dateline on his letter, which he described as “nr Canada.” The younger hikers walked on without him and apparently completed the trail. “I should admit that the kids all did two hundred twenty miles,” Frost wrote in a postscript. “I let them leave me

INFO Robert Frost Stone House Museum, 121 Historic Route 7A, Shaftsbury, 447-6200, bennington.edu/robert-frost-stone-house-museum. Open Thursdays through Mondays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., through October 31.

behind for a poor old father who could once out-walk out-run and out-talk them but can now no more.” This season at the Stone House, the room in which Frost wrote “Stopping by Woods” is given over to an exhibition of work by Mary Ruefle. She is Vermont’s current poet laureate and a 50year resident of Bennington. Ruefle practices erasure art, in which she erases words from various pieces of text to form poetry. As part of the exhibition, she “erased” Frost’s masterpiece, which was painted on the wall, to create her own poem, “Stopping.” The 17-word poem by Ruefle is a stunner. “I absolutely love Frost,” Ruefle said. “I love him to death. If I didn’t love him, I wouldn’t erase him. I don’t mean any disrespect by doing it. To me, it’s a creative activity. I approach it with energy and glee.” A particularly lovely spot for walking around the property is the orchard. Set at the edge of the apple trees is Frost’s poem “Good-bye and Keep Cold.” With apple season approaching, a trip to Shaftsbury to read the poem becomes a special treat. POETIC PILGRIMAGE

» P.14

Clockwise from top left: Robert Frost Stone House Museum in Shaftsbury; “Stopping” by Mary Ruefle; “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” a poem along the Stone House Museum poetry trail; entrance to the Stone House Museum; the room where Frost wrote “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” in June 1922; Robert Frost in front of the Stone House in 1921

‘A SIMPLE POEM’ A poetry scholar’s read on “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” BY JAY PARINI

“Stopping by Woods” is one of the greatest poems Frost ever wrote — written in a spurt of creative energy while he was living in Shaftsbury. Frost himself once said that he hoped to “lodge half a dozen poems in a place where they couldn’t be gotten rid of easily.” He managed that, and this poem is one of the six. I’d myself say that Frost “lodged” more than 20 poems in a place of permanence in American literature. This poem, however, is a simple poem about isolation, nature and death — and the will to continue, which is perhaps the best definition of “life” I can muster. A man alone in the woods: That’s the scene, and it’s a typical Frost setting and theme. The setting, a horsedrawn sled, takes us back to the 19th century. The poem has some of the best lines in Frost: “The only other sound’s the sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake.” The syllables and vowels play together so perfectly, creating memorability, and poetry is nothing if not memorable language. But the speaker, like Frost himself at times, seems isolated. He is a stranger on the land, though he knows who owns the woods. A neighbor? A distant landowner? God? Everything is possible here. The poem moves in concentric rings of symbolism toward: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep.” That’s one of the high points in Frost as a poet. Jay Parini lives in Weybridge. He is the author of Robert Frost: A Life and the D.E. Axinn professor of English and creative writing at Middlebury College.

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Poetic Pilgrimage « P.13

‘AT PRESENT IN VERMONT’ Bennington Museum offers art with a “Frostian sensibility”

INFO

COURTESY OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART

“When you have figures like [Frost and Moses] who are so famous and have mythologies built around them, I think it’s really important to try to ground them and their work in the time and place in which they were working,” said Jamie Franklin, curator of the museum and the Frost exhibition. “A poet’s work comes from their lived experience,” he added. Like the Stone House, the exhibition displays some Frost correspondence, including a copy of a letter he wrote to Vermont author Dorothy Canfield Fisher in the summer of 1926. The subject is his home in Shaftsbury. “My children and grandchildren (singular) will believe it when you tell them it is an interesting old historical

SALLY POLLAK

“Robert Frost: At Present in Vermont,” on view through November 7 at Bennington Museum, 75 Main St., Bennington, 447-1571, benningtonmuseum.org.

Bennington Museum is probably best known for its Grandma Moses collection. The 20th-century folk artist captured rural life in her paintings, including scenes of Vermont in works such as “Bennington” (1953). The museum recently turned its attention to Robert Frost, another iconic figure who “was inspired by the local landscape,” the museum notes. It conceived of an exhibition to coincide with the 2020 centennial of his arrival in Shaftsbury, a small town on the Bennington border. But COVID-19 delayed the opening of “Robert Frost: At Present in Vermont” until the spring of 2021. On view through November 7, the exhibition offers fascinating context and insight to Frost’s life and work in Bennington County, including his relations with artists and writers.

From left: “The Glory of Spring” by Charles Burchfield; Robert Frost’s grave in Old Bennington; “Apple Tree and Grindstone” by J.J. Lankes

SEVEN DAYS STAYTRIPPER FALL 2021

COURTESY OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE LIBRARY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

house they live in,” Frost wrote. “If I told them they might put it down to professional poetry.” The artwork in the exhibition depicts the landscape of Frost’s New England — and of his poetry. There are woodcuts by J.J. Lankes, whose images illustrate Frost’s 1923 poetry collection, New Hampshire, as well as paintings by Charles Burchfield, an artist from Buffalo, N.Y., who wrote about visiting the Frosts at the Stone House in a 1924 journal entry. In curating the exhibition, Franklin was interested in art “that echoed a kind of Frostian sensibility.” “There’s this idea of using the natural world, and the landscape in particular, as a kind of metaphor for the human condition and our experiences in the world,” he said. In 1929, Frost and his wife, Elinor, moved from the Stone House to the Gulley, a farm two miles away. The Stone House remained in the family as the home of the Frosts’ son, Carol, and daughter-in-law,

Lillian, to whom they’d given the house and land as a wedding present. In a January 1929 letter to poet Louis Untermeyer, the text of which is on display at the Bennington Museum, Frost wrote: “I bought a farm for myself for Christmas. One hundred and fifty three acres in all, fifty in woods … The woods are a little too far from the house. I must bring them nearer by the power of music like Amphion or Orpheus … You must see us together, the trees dancing obedience to the poet (so called).” Frost is buried with Elinor and other family members in a cemetery in Old Bennington, about five miles from the Stone House. His epitaph, etched on a grave that lies flat to the ground, is a line from his poetry: “I Had A Lover’s Quarrel With The World.” “It was his resting place of choice,” noted Frost scholar Jay Parini, a professor at Middlebury College, “so it must have been deeply significant to him.” m

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New nanobreweries in unexpected places around Vermont BY JORDA N B A R RY • jbarry@sevendaysvt.com

HOW TO GET THERE: The short trip across the Route 2 causeway from Milton to South Hero is part of the 184-mile Lake Champlain Byway, which follows the lake from Addison County to the Canadian border.

here’s a trend brewing among Vermont’s newest beer producers: Think small. Over the past year and a half, several have opened with brewing systems and tiny teams that make the state’s microbreweries look huge. That scale lends itself to experimentation, whether in beer style or business model. And thanks to their size, these breweries fit in some pretty cool places: garages, reclaimed downtown storefronts and even the back of an old bagel shop. Here are three new nanobreweries off the beaten path — or at least off the state’s more established beer trail — and scenic routes to get to them. Grab a designated driver and enjoy a taste of some of the newest breweries on the map.

A beer flight at Two Heroes Brewing in South Hero; Daren Orr, Matt Bartle and Danielle Orr; cans of Dark Necessity stout and Rebel’s Reward lager

SEVEN DAYS STAYTRIPPER FALL 2021

On Island Time

Two Heroes Brewing, 1 Ferry Rd., South Hero, twoheroesbrewery.com

The team behind Two Heroes Brewing has big plans, but you wouldn’t know it from walking into the current taproom: It only has eight stools. “This is the pilot space,” said taproom manager Danielle Orr, standing between tanks in a back room of the building on the corner of Routes 2 and 314 in South Hero. Business partners Matt Bartle and Daren Orr, Danielle’s husband, started brewing together in the same small space about a decade ago, back when it was the original Wally’s Place, a popular Champlain Islands bagel bakery. (Bartle owns the bagel shop, now down the road.) “We had a little homebrew system right here,” Bartle said. “We’d fold it up against the wall. On brew day, we’d be running hoses all over the place.” The pair’s beer biz plans took shape over the years as they watched the industry change and looked at the community’s needs. After an extensive engineering and permitting process — and pandemic delays — they’ll break ground on a 3,500-squarefoot brewpub this fall at 260 Route 2.

WHAT TO TRY: Stop by in mid-September for a Vermont farmhouse ale made with local wheat, honey and hops. Later in the month, the brewery will celebrate Oktoberfest with a full slate of German beers. It will also release its own bottleconditioned cider this month — made with apples from Allenholm Farm — under the label South Hero Fermentation.

They launched the current version of Two Heroes in February, figuring it was better to start small and get their name out there than wait at the whim of the pandemic. Head brewer Daren works on a twobarrel system in the temporary space, double-brewing to yield four-barrel batches. “It’s a long day,” he said. “And that’s not a lot of beer, but it’s cool because if things don’t go the way I want, it’s not a big deal.” Two Heroes sources local grains and hops for its German, Belgian and American styles. Those traditional beers will come in handy at the new brewpub: They’re easier to pair with food than a lineup of big, hoppy IPAs — though there are a few of those, too. For now, customers can sip pints in the taproom and its rustic outdoor space — made from repurposed pallets that held equipment and grain deliveries. It’s been a busy first summer, with a mix of locals, tourists and daytrippers from Chittenden County. “It’s never going to be super developed up here,” Danielle said. “But word’s getting out that the islands are a destination.”

PHOTOS: JAMES BUCK

The Beer Scene

Corner the Market

Farm Road Brewing, 400 Main St., Bennington, farmroadbrewing.com

a small kitchen serving bar food prepped by nearby Ramunto’s Brick Oven Pizza. Barrows devotes one tap line to cider from Windsor’s SILO Distillery; for the other 11, he brews everything from cream ales to saisons. So far, the best seller has been Bronson, a New England IPA. “I think I’m on batch No. 6 of that,” he said. “But I want to have a broad spectrum. There’s a beer for everybody out there.” And, yes, he’ll probably brew a pumpkin beer. “Against my better judgment,” he said with a chuckle. THE BEER SCENE

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HOW TO GET THERE: “Route 9 over the mountain, with a stop at the lookout,” Barrows said, referring to the 48mile Molly Stark Byway connecting Brattleboro and Bennington. “That’s gotta be the perfect spot.” WHAT TO TRY: Sip a pint of Baker’s Head cream ale now. As the weather cools, look for a stout or a porter aged in whiskey barrels that previously held local maple syrup.

A full pour at Farm Road Brewing; wings, pizza and beer; the brewery’s corner spot

PHOTOS COURTESY OF FARM ROAD BREWING

While breweries, cideries, wineries and distilleries have proliferated elsewhere in the state, the southwestern corner has been comparatively dry. “Vermont has the highest number of breweries per capita, but when I was looking to open, there were only two in Bennington County,” Seth Barrows explained. Launched in February, his Farm Road Brewing is the third. And Bennington was ready for it. Farm Road’s taproom has a floor-toceiling view of downtown’s Four Corners, making it perfect for people watching — and observing the Putnam Block redevelopment project across the street. The Main Street storefront had been vacant after stints as a CBD shop and a real estate office, Barrows said. “I always looked at this spot and went, ‘This is supposed to be the corner bar.’ It’s just what it looks like. And that’s what we built here,” he added. After a 27-year career in the military, Barrows wanted to be his own boss. He’d been homebrewing for seven of those years and had fallen in love with the craft. “I totally geeked out about the whole thing,” he said. “But as a homebrewer, I knew I didn’t know what I didn’t know.” He attended the American Brewers Guild’s six-month course in Middlebury, then signed the lease on the storefront in January 2020. Farm Road’s four-barrel brewing system and 1,400-square-foot space teeter on the edge of nano, but production happens in just 400 square feet. The 40-seat taproom has a shady spot out back with more tables, and there’s

SEVEN DAYS STAYTRIPPER FALL 2021

COURTESY OF JESSE CRONIN

The Beer Scene « P.17 ’Tis the Saison Lucy & Howe Brewing, 7 Mill St., Jericho, lucyandhowebrewing.com

Now Cronin is celebrating the first hint of fall — the local hop harvest — with Grade School Ninja, a wet-hopped plum saison brewed with eight pounds of freshly harvested Centennial cones from Starksboro’s Champlain Valley Hops. Cronin makes the most of his small space by brewing double batches back-to-back. “There are lots of very easy ways to increase efficiencies and production,” he said. “But I don’t want to grow super fast, because I like being available for the kids. And with this size, I can pay attention to every detail.” m

HOW TO GET THERE: The 71-mile Green Mountain Byway runs from Waterbury to Cambridge and includes the winding ride through Smugglers’ Notch on Route 108 — at least until that closes for the season in mid-October. WHAT TO TRY: This fall, Lucy & Howe will stock local stores with Biere Maison, a Belgian-style table beer; Our Impossible Ask, a New England double IPA; and Underwater Space Helmet, an IPA. Grade School Ninja and Weeping Over the Unicorn, a British-style pub ale, will be released at the brewery.

JORDAN BARRY

Jesse Cronin has an enviable commute: It takes him less than 30 seconds to get from his house to Lucy & Howe Brewing, which he started in his Jericho garage in May 2020. Cronin’s plans for a brewery of his own had been on the back burner while he worked as a lead brewer for Magic Hat. Like so many things, that changed in March 2020 when the state shut down and work got exponentially busier for his wife, Libby Bonesteel, superintendent of the Montpelier Roxbury Public School District. “She came home and was like, ‘I’m not gonna be around a lot,’” Cronin said with a laugh. “Our kids were home, and I said, ‘Well, I guess we’re doing this thing now.’” As Cronin got the 400-square-foot, 1.5-barrel brewery up and running, the kids sat nearby so he could help them with math. Since then, he’s been brewing Belgian- and world-focused ales and lagers with local ingredients and distributing them through Vermont Beer Shepherd, the Jericho Farmers Market and the brewery behind his house on a dead-end street. “I don’t make it super easy to come here,” Cronin said, noting that the brewery is only open for tastings and sales on Friday and Saturday afternoons from 1 to 5 p.m. When visitors stop in, he offers them a seat on the steps outside and samples of the ever-changing lineup. Over the summer, customers could jump in and Learn to Float (a low-ABV sour gose brewed with staghorn sumac, red currants and sea salt) or gain a Touch of Wisdom (a Belgian strong golden ale).

Above: Jesse Cronin of Lucy & Howe Brewing; a bottle of Learn to Float sour gose

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Field of View Monkton’s Gordon Sculpture Park frames artworks in nature STORY & P HO TO S BY A MY L I L LY

“

hen we walk, we naturally go to the fields and woods: what would become of us, if we walked only in a garden or a mall?” asked Henry David Thoreau in his posthumously published 1862 essay “Walking.” What, indeed? One shudders to think. Fortunately, any dire consequences can be pleasantly avoided at the Gordon Sculpture Park in Monkton, where walkers can experience nature and artworks in tandem. Mown paths take visitors past seven works sited in a wooded vale and around an open field of rolling hills framed by stunning mountain views. One of the seven sculptures is an installation of Thoreau’s essay itself. “Walking Book,” by Genese Grill and Grace Corbett, is a series of canvases mounted on four roofed panels on which walkers can read passages from the essay, hand-painted in colorful script and illustrated in a style reminiscent of the 18th-century poet-artist William Blake.

after his grandmother’s poetically named farm, he said during a brief stroll on the land with a reporter. Schlein taught at nearby Vergennes Union High School for about six years before determining that many students needed an alternative to traditional education. At Willowell, he created the Walden Project — Thoreau’s spirit suffuses the place — for juniors and seniors who apply from several local public high schools. The program uses the outdoors as a classroom to teach arts, sciences and humanities in an interdisciplinary manner. The same approach is used with preschoolers in Willowell’s Wren’s Nest Forest program and with elementary students in the New Roots Project, a program created during the pandemic. Students gather around an outdoor fire or in structures in the woods or fields to learn. Much of their days are spent walking — and not a few lessons are taught using the sculptures.

Walkers and art enthusiasts have likely heard of Vermont’s larger sculpture parks, among them Cold Hollow in Enosburg Falls and Lemon Fair in East Shoreham. The Gordon Sculpture Park, which opened in 2017, is a project of the Willowell Foundation, an educational and community-oriented nonprofit. The park sits within the foundation’s idyllic, 230-acre parcel of farmed and wild land. Willowell was founded in 2000 by Matt Schlein, a Westchester County, N.Y., native who titled the place

Meghan Rigali, director of the sculpture park and a New Roots teacher, met with this reporter under a tree by the parking lot just off Bristol Road. Rigali has recently re-sited some sculptures and increased the number of artist residencies at Willowell, resulting in two new sculptures. New road signage is also under development, she adds. For now, look for the log piles of the Monkton Wood Bank, a heating and fuel assistance FIELD OF VIEW

INFO The Gordon Sculpture Park at the Willowell Foundation is located at the intersection of Stoney Meadow Ln. and Bristol-Monkton Rd., Monkton, 453-6195, willowell.org. On Sunday, October 17, Willowell will host Perennial Harvest Day, featuring sculpture park artists’ talks, poetry readings, live performances, nature walks, stories and more.

From left: “Sisyphus” by Maeve Doolan, “The Infinite Eye” by Engels the Artist, “Azimuth” by Marela Zacarías and local youth, and “D# Echo” by Brian Raymond and Nick Campolo

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project of Willowell and local volunteers, next to the turnoff from Bristol Road. Despite being on crutches due to a knee injury, Rigali had just finished a day of helping summer campers grow their own food in the vegetable plot. Visitors can access the sculpture park during daylight hours after 3 p.m. on weekdays, when campers and students leave, and on weekends (barring educational programming). Rigali pointed out the Edible Forest Pathway, which leads from the parking lot to the sculptures. At the bottom of the path, the first sculpture to appear is “Mobile Mural Project,” a 16-foot-wide panel collaboratively painted by Rigali and Ethiopian graffiti artist Behulum Mengistu in 2017. Mounted on the ground and partly obscured by plants and flowers (as were other sculptures), the colorful mural depicts a symbolic meeting between the two artists’ cultures. A ghostly

white winged deer chimera reaches a Michelangelo-like hand toward a dark-brown Walia ibex; their energies, depicted in blocks and swirls of color, respectively, meet in a burning cattail. The painting is “reflective of the spirit of friendship between the two artists and the act of cultural recognition,” according to the artists’ statement. Artists represented at the park came by invitation, said Rigali, though she plans to implement a call to artists in the future. In non-pandemic times, resident artists stay at the Artists’ Cabin, a winterized house located on the highest point of the sculpture field. Residencies are meant to invite full immersion, exploration and experimentation with the land, Rigali said. Farther along the path, Mexico City and New York City artist Marela Zacharías created the park’s first sculpture, “Azimuth,” with the help of students in 2012. Inspired by her native country’s pre-Columbian architecture,

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with Onion River Outdoors Mown paths take visitors past seven works sited in a wooded vale and around an open field of rolling hills framed by stunning mountain views. she set two semicircular sections of a dismantled metal silo, of Richard Serra proportions, in a shape roughly approximating an infinity sign. Each of the four sides’ painted geometric forms features a different color scheme. “The colors must have been bright and beautiful next to the background of the clouds and the trees,” Zacharías wrote in a statement of a pyramid at the archaeological site of Xochicalco in the Mexican state of Morelos. That’s certainly true of her own creation. From there, the path leads up to the sculpture field. Boston-based Maeve Doolan’s “Sisyphus,” from 2012, stands six feet tall at the start of the field’s mown paths. The sculpture’s multiplied human form is fashioned from bent rebar. It has two sets of feet and several pairs of hands, all carved from flat blocks of marble, caught in a frenzy of positions. Like a cubist painting made three-dimensional, “Sisyphus” suggests the endless motions of the mythological Greek figure who was doomed to roll a boulder uphill for eternity. Downhill to the right lies “Walking Book”; from there, a path leading left toward the Artists’ Cabin detours to a shady nook. In it stands a 2019 work titled “The Infinite Eye” by Engels the Artist, a self-taught artist who was born in Haiti and lives in Brooklyn. Engels was the first artist to participate in a five-year residency collaboration of Willowell and the Neuberger Museum

of Art at SUNY Purchase College in New York. Working with reclaimed materials such as burlap and old wooden frames, Engels often punctures and then repairs his works. His piece at the Gordon Sculpture Park features a vertical slab of concrete that is faintly pink at the center; a tangle of bent metal shards surrounds a section of pipe that punches through. At the field’s center sits “D# Echo,” made by Brian Raymond and Nick Campolo in 2017. Shaped like a giant geometric boulder that stands 16 feet high, the sculpture captures the eye and the sun with its multifaceted surface clad in reflective metal. Visitors can actually enter the sculpture — on a 93-degree day, this visitor did not — and trigger a sound installation of the artists singing in the key of D sharp minor. In fact, movement in certain interior spots sets off different recordings, allowing “the experience of the sculpture [to] become an echo of your own expression,” notes the artists’ statement. Along the path back to “Sisyphus” stands a series of rectangular metal plates mounted on rebar poles. “Phi,” a 2017 work by Ethan Mitchell, apparently illustrates the golden ratio — though exactly how may be the province of Willowell students and teachers. For everything else at the Gordon Sculpture Park, as Thoreau would say, nature is the only teacher needed. m

Left: A “page” from “Walking Book” by Genese Grill and Grace Corbett Above: “Mobile Mural Project” by Meghan Rigali and Behulum Mengistu

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COURTESY OF SCOTT FARM ORCHARD

Top Picks Seven PYO apple orchards worth the drive BY C A ROLYN F OX

Scott Farm Orchard apple picking

Allenholm Farm

Mad Tom Orchard

South Hero, allenholm.com

East Dorset, madtomorchard.com

Burtt’s Apple Orchard

Scott Farm Orchard

Cabot, burttsappleorchard.com

Dummerston, scottfarmvermont.com

Seven generations of the Allen family have tended Allenholm Farm since 1870, making it the state’s oldest commercial apple orchard. Over those 151 years, the place has grown to offer a little of everything. Visitors can expect weekend wagon rides and more than a dozen pick-your-own varieties. The farm store sells Papa Ray’s homemade pies and maple creemees made with Vermont syrup. (There are maple sprinkles, too!)

Started by a young Vermonter as a high school project in 2005, Burtt’s Apple Orchard grows 40 pick-yourown varieties on a compact 10-acre plot amid hillside farms and the Green Mountains. Visitors come for the apples, doughnuts and cider slushies — available daily at the farmstand — and stay to forge family traditions at the corn maze and pumpkin patch.

Champlain Orchards Shoreham, champlainorchards.com

From Akane to Zestar — and everything in between, including good ol’ Cortland and Empire — Champlain Orchards boasts 146 apple varieties, and counting. September and October also bring Asian pears, European plums and fall raspberries. Good thing there’s a PYO tracker on the website to keep tabs on what’s ripe. After all that picking, reward yourself with a crisp, easy-drinking hard cider, pressed and fermented right on-site. 24

SEVEN DAYS STAYTRIPPER FALL 2021

Dreamee at Yates Family Orchard

Sansa is “a good lunch box apple,” while Macouns make “great pink apple sauce, if you leave the skin on.” These are the kinds of delicious details in Mad Tom Orchard’s handy Apple Calendar, which notes the best uses and ripening schedule for its 14 varieties. Sylvia and Tom Smith’s orchard promises mountain views and a “safe picking policy,” including one-way traffic flow. Also, weekend doughnuts.

With a history dating back to 1791, Scott Farm is on the National Register of Historic Places and has an exciting array of heirloom apples — think Knobbed Russet, a lumpy variety hailing from England, and reddish-orange Esopus Spitzenburg, which Thomas Jefferson grew at Monticello. Other “fine fruits” available in autumn include plums, pears and quinces. Check the website for pie workshops and monthly Crêpe Nights.

Shelburne Orchards Shelburne, shelburneorchards.com

A 60-acre orchard with hillside glimpses of Lake Champlain, Shelburne Orchards is a scenic stop for all things apple. (Take a tour of the grounds on a wagon ride, if pandemic restrictions permit.) In addition to pick-your-own, visitors can find the fruits in fresh-pressed cider and the flagship Dead Bird Brandy, with notes of caramel, apple and butter.

D AR RCH ILY O FAM S E T F YA COURTESY O

The cider doughnuts, coated in sugar, keep locals coming back.

Yates Family Orchard Hinesburg, yatesfamilyorchard.com

You’re familiar with cider doughnuts and creemees, but how about Dreamees? The signature dessert at Yates Family Orchard is a fresh, hot cider doughnut topped with Vermont maple soft-serve. Come and get it — along with 28 pick-your-own apple varieties — at this family-owned orchard on Monkton Ridge, with Adirondack and valley vistas. Catch live music on Sunday afternoons, mid-September through midOctober. m

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Destinations

BY B RYAN PARMELEE

TOUR DE FARMS Saturday, September 18, starts and ends at Vergennes Union High School, 989-6980, acornvt.org

COURTESY FO JOSH HUMMEL

If you ever find yourself torn between spending a Saturday at a farmers market or adventuring out on an epic bike ride, Tour de Farms makes life that much easier. The annual event combines cycling through the scenic Champlain Valley with tasty treats from area farms. The ride-atAlso try… your-own-pace tour takes cyclists on • DIG IN VERMONT a 30-mile journey FARM TRAILS, statewide, that begins and diginvt.com/trails ends at Vergennes • LAMOILLE VALLEY BIKE Union High School. TOURS, Johnson area, The established lamoillevalleybiketours.com route includes • VERMONT BIKE & BREW, stops at eight farms, Upper Valley, where riders can vtbikeandbrew.com reenergize with samples of local food from more than 20 producers. All of the goods offered — from cheese and honey to empanadas and oxymel — hail from the Champlain Valley. Cyclists who purchase products from the participating farms won’t need to ride with additional weight in tow. A designated “farm van” will transport all purchases back to the starting point so riders can focus on finishing the tour. “This event really brings the whole community together to meet the people who grow our food that

we don’t otherwise have the opportunity to meet,” said Lindsey Berk, executive director of Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN), which organizes the ride. This year’s Tour de Farms has limited capacity;

while the advance registration period has closed, 50 more riders will be able to register on the day of the event. Parts of the route are on dirt roads, so road or mountain bikes with wide tires are recommended. CO U

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COURTESY OF DEAD NORTH

SEVEN DAYS STAYTRIPPER FALL 2021

what drives thrill seekers to a farm in Danville every October. For the past 21 years, Mike Boudreau and his band of “resident psychos” have brought nightmares to life at Dead North, a “farmland of terror” located at the Great Vermont Corn Maze. The annual

As any horror movie fan will tell you, the middle of a cornfield is one of the most terrifying places you can be come nightfall. It’s easy enough to get lost in a cornfield during the day, so you’d have to actively want to get scared senseless to venture into one at night. Turns out, this is exactly

Fridays and Saturdays, October 1, 2, 8 and 9, at Great Vermont Corn Maze, 1404 Wheelock Rd., Danville, 748-1399, vermontcornmaze.com

haunt, in an area separate from the maze, takes brave souls on a milelong journey through cornfields and buildings that have been carefully designed with one purpose in mind: making people scream. “A lot of people come up here and expect to see a guy in a sheet say ‘boo,’” said Boudreau. “But we’re insane. We’ve put way more into this than we ever should have.” Visitors can expect to encounter live actors, special effects and professionalgrade animatronics. So, just how scary is Dead North? “We’ve had over 600 adults wet their pants — that we know of,” Boudreau said with pride. Limited tickets are available and must be purchased in advance on the Great Vermont Corn Maze website.

The Great Vermont Corn Maze in 2014

Also try… • THE EMMONS ISLAND HAUNTED TRAIL, Grand Isle, ihtrail.org • NIGHTMARE VERMONT, Essex Junction, nightmarevermont.org • PERCY FARM CORN MAZE, Stowe, facebook.com/percyfarmcornmaze

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Nate Gusakov will perform at the Bristol Harvest Festival

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Exhibits & Activities

PHOTO BY JOHN SUTTON

In the heart of Bristol is a village green that has long served as a gathering space. Whether it’s hosting weekly Bristol Town Band concerts — a tradition that dates back to the Civil War — or an annual Independence Day celebration that has become one of the most popular in the state, the town green is undoubtedly the centerpiece of the community. On Saturday, September 25, visitors from across the state will see the green come to life during the annual Bristol Harvest Festival. Cohosted by the Addison County Chamber of Commerce and the Bristol Recreation Department, the fest is a free, family-oriented event now in its 22nd year. Nearly 50 on-site vendors will offer everything from crafts and jewelry to insurance policies and solar installations. “It’s a real mix of people from around the area,” said chamber executive director Rob Carter. Also try… Burgers, hot dogs, tacos and Mediterranean cuisine will be among the food options at the • BURKE FALL FESTIVAL, festival. The gazebo on the green will host September 25, a different musician every hour, featuring burkevermont.com performances by Mark Lavoie, Greg Ryan, Rick • CHESTER FESTIVAL ON THE Ceballos and Lausanne Allen, Nate Gusakov, and GREEN, September 18 & 19, Adam & the Atomics. chesterfallfestival.org The festival will end at 4 p.m., at which point • SMUGGS FALLFEST, attendees are encouraged to wander into the September 10 & 11, town’s historic downtown district for sidewalk smuggs.com sales and plenty of dining options.

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