Stowe Guide & Magazine Summer/Fall 2024

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Notched: Learn how the famed pass through the mountains, Smugglers Notch, came to be. by Aaron Calvin

Kasha Rigby: Friends and family remember the life and legacy of Rigby, Stowe native, adventurer, humanitarian. by Aaron Calvin

High Mowing Seeds:

How an organic seed company believes it can improve the world, one seed at a time? by Kate Carter

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Stick season stories: Photographer chronicles “time of transition.” by Paul Rogers

Not, knotweed: Gordon Miller confronts his fascination with Vermont’s most noxious invasive weed by Greg Popa

Sculpted: Women fly in artist Leslie Fry’s wonderland. by Avalon Styles-Ashley

History on the rocks: The Whip Bar & Grill keeps it fresh. by Aaron Calvin

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Dreams do come true: Manufactured home undergoes epic transformation. by Kate Carter

14 First person: Mansfield pull

Rural route 48 Stowe people: Up, up, and away

Target practice: Fish and game club

56 Milestones: Billy Kidd’s winning run

On the links: Golf in all directions

Concert hall: Music in the Meadow

Art class: Sabine Likhite 110 History lesson: Fisher covered bridge

The Current: Stowe’s center for contemporary art 128 Stowe vibe: Day Haus

132 Found in Vermont: Shopping list

Cultural campus: Stowe library 174 Real estate: Condos for sale

180 Spotlight: Sean Gyllenborg

186 Vermont lifestyle: Black Fly Festival

58 Outdoor primer: Paddle sports Swimming • In the mountains Golf • Recreation paths

94 Shop, arts, explore: Summer events Exhibits and openings • Music Music in the Meadow • Theater

136 Sip, stay, sup, indulge: Prophecy Chocolate Après Only • Aladdin

On our cover this summer is “Tranquil Sky Over Town,” oil on canvas, 36"x36", by Craig Mooney.

Mooney takes a representational approach to his work and then adds abstract touches that result in, well, let’s just say if there’s a Mooney canvas in any room, everyone notices it and makes sure to mosey over for a closer look. His work evokes an emotional response—perhaps it sparks a memory of place, or a beloved experience. He explains it this way: “My work feels familiar, it is not specific. Rather it is, on a very basic level, symbolism of what could have been, has been, or will be.” Born and raised in Manhattan, his amateur artist father helped him to create “oil paintings from discarded art supplies found on city streets,” and Mooney says he regards these early experiences his truest form of training. Mooney works full time from his studio in Stowe. More at frontfourgallery.com and

Gregory J. Popa

Bryan Meszkat, Patrick Immordino, Judy Kearns, Wendy Ewing, and Michael Kitchen

Gregory J. Popa

Katerina Hrdlicka

Kate Carter and Tommy Gardner

Leslie Lafountain

Leslie Lafountain

Gordon Miller

Stuart Bertland, Kate Carter, Orah Moore, Paul Rogers, Kevin Walsh

Mark Aiken, Avalon Styles-Ashley, Kate Carter, Nancy Crowe, Willy Dietrich, Biddle Duke, Elinor Earle, Tommy Gardner, Robert Kiener, Brian Lindner, Peter Miller, Mike Mulhern, Amy Kolb Noyes, David Rocchio, Julia Shipley, Nancy Wolfe Stead, Kevin Walsh

Cannabis Dispensary

10 RAILROAD STREET SUITE B, MORRISVILLE 802.851.8735

HOURS: MON - SAT 11AM - 7PM, SUN 11AM - 4PM

Cannabis has not been analyzed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For use by individuals 21 years of age and older or registered qualifying patient only. KEEP THIS PRODUCT AWAY FROM CHILDREN AND PETS. DO NOT USE IF PREGNANT OR BREASTFEEDING. Possession or use of cannabis may carry significant legal penalties in some jurisdictions and under federal law. It may not be transported outside of the state of Vermont. The effects of edible cannabis may be delayed by two hours or more. Cannabis may be habit forming and can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Persons 25 years and younger may be more likely to experience harm to the developing brain. It is against the law to drive or operate machinery when under the influence of this product. National Poison Control Center 1-800-222-1222.

Stowe Guide & Magazine & Stowe-Smugglers’ Guide & Magazine are published twice a year: Winter/Spring & Summer/Fall

Vermont Community Newspaper Group LLC P.O. Box 489, Stowe VT 05672 Website: stowetoday.com, vtcng.com

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Ad submission: ads@stowereporter.com Phone: (802) 253-2101 Fax: (802) 253-8332

Copyright: Articles and photographs are protected by copyright and cannot be used without permission.

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Advertising inquiries are welcome. Best Niche Publication, New England Newspaper & Press Association 2010 through 2018, 2020-2023

AVALON STYLES-ASHLEY

IN THIS ISSUE: Sculpted, p.118

KATE CARTER

IN THIS ISSUE: Color palette, p.40

Behind the scenes: I feel like I could write a whole other story about the bathroom in Leslie Fry’s art studio. Shaped somewhat like a Harry Potter closet, it is filled with tiny, beautiful shoes—Victorian, clog, sandal, heel, you name it—at least two chicken figurines, an animal jawbone, a slightly misshapen flamingo of unknown material, and a print that reads, “Balls!” said the queen. “If I had them, I’d be king.” Truly, Fry is your cool aunt who you could talk to for hours and who always has gum.

Currently: Avalon writes for Stowe Magazine and works as a domestic violence advocate in Morrisville. On your average Sunday afternoon, you might find her hiking, reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or quilting haphazardly.

TOMMY GARDNER

IN THIS ISSUE: Up, up, and away, p.48

Behind the scenes: When all is said and done, all of the reporting I’ve done for this story and a sequel in next winter’s magazine, about Stowe skier Noah Dines attempting to ski 3 million vertical feet this year, may have been conducted while wearing shorts and a T-shirt—it was pushing 70 degrees when we first met in April. Sure, skiing is a cold-weather sport, but when you’re doing it all day, 330 days out of the year, there are plenty of sunny ones. And with a changing climate, chasing endless winter is becoming harder.

Currently: Tommy Gardner is news editor for the Vermont Community Newspaper Group. He logged about 150 feet of uphill last winter—when he snowboarded past an intended turnoff and had to hike back to it.

PAUL ROGERS

IN THIS ISSUE: Black Fly Festival, p.186

Behind the scenes: There’s something about those outdoor floralscapes at the Green Mountain Inn. So creative and pretty, no matter the season. Every summer I am so mesmerized that I annoy everyone around me for driving too slowly in order to get a better look. I often wondered, who is the woman—and I was sure it was a woman—creating all this beauty? It only took me a decade to track her down.

Currently: Kate is a freelance writer and photographer, and when she’s not researching stories she is photographing homes for builders, interior designers, property managers, real estate agents, and this magazine. Contact her at vtrealestatephotos.com.

AARON CALVIN

IN THIS ISSUE: Notched and The Whip, p.64 and p.152

Behind the scenes: One character from Stowe’s past appears in two of my stories this summer: William H.H. Bingham. The name is familiar to anyone who has taken a dip at the Notch’s famed falls. Known as “The Governor” during his time in Stowe, the political power player and wealthy lawyer is perhaps more responsible than any single person for setting Stowe on the path to its status as a premier New England resort town.

Currently: Aaron Calvin is a writer and journalist in Vermont, and a staff writer for the Stowe Reporter and News and Citizen newspapers. His journalism has appeared in The Guardian, Vice, The Intercept, and more. His fiction has recently appeared in the magazines Soft Star, Arboreal, and Sequestrum. More at aaroncalvin.com.

Behind the scenes: I enjoy documenting life in Vermont, finding rich photographic opportunities at events such as the Adamant Black Fly Festival. The quirky celebration in the town of Calais checks all the boxes for me. I love a parade for the freedom it gives me as a somewhat shy image-maker, where spectators are par t of the event and cameras are expected. A bonus is that every parade has a staging area, where participants are not self-conscious, in a time of preparation before the main event.

Currently: Paul lives in his childhood home on West Hill in Stowe. When not photographing black fly festivals in the backwoods of Central Vermont, he makes images for commercial clients and fine artists, and occasionally travels abroad on assignment for faith-based nonprofits.

Isn’t there a little something in all of us who wish we’d lived just a bit of our lives the way Kasha Rigby lived hers? One adventure after another, bagging peaks, hiking days to reach places in the world unknown to even the most geographically literate, encountering diverse ecosystems and cultures, from Turkey and Uganda to Mongolia and Kamchatka, and beyond. What’s even more remarkable about Kasha—a Stowe girl who grew up on the slopes of Mt. Mansfield, exploring the woods around her home and town while her parents worked around the clock at their restaurant and inn, The Hob Knob—is that her insatiable thirst for the next amazing journey was coupled with sincerity and humility.

The thing about Kasha, it seems, is that what she was really about was love. Love for her family. Love for her friends, who, in their own words, say she always seemed to know when they needed her. And, then, was there.

Love for adventure, of course, but from all we’ve read about her life over the past months since she was tragically killed in an avalanche in Kosovo, it was not just the next peak or the next first, it was encountering and learning about the world, firsthand, with her own eyes and heart. Simply, her love for humankind. As she “matured,” her mother notes, “she focused more on aid work as opposed to adventure.”

In fact, she was in Kosovo waiting for a visa to return to Turkey to help earthquake victims when she died. She performed similar work in Nepal, Bangladesh, and other places, but Kasha’s thirst for adventure seems to have always been connected to a much deeper narrative. This A-student, after all, left college after one semester to instead help develop gardens in Mozambique. Both her wanderlust and her commitment to help others started early and lasted to the end of her much too short life.

Finally, there was her love for Stowe. Her hometown. A place where she made lifelong friends and lifetime connections. And her family, her friends, and her town loved her right back.

Our story on Kasha’s remarkable life first appeared in the Stowe Reporter, but we think it’s worth another read—or two.

—Greg Popa

We neglected to give proper credit to Jane Carlson in last winter’s edition. Our cover art by Martha Lang was an homage to an earlier work by Carlson, a former Ford fashion model and noted artist, who died in 2021.

ESSAY / David Hatoff PHOTOGRAPH / Paul Rogers

There is a real pull that Mt. Mansfield and the surrounding peaks have over me that is always present, year-round. In the winter, it’s obvious why. The snowfall, terrain, skier comradery, and overall ski stoke feed my brain daily. The more I get, the more I want.

Endorphins give me energy to face the rest of the day after a morning of bliss, whether it’s earning my turns or going for hot laps off the Quad. What’s the best ski day or ski season that I have had? In my opinion, it’s the next.

For roughly the last 25 years, my daily commute to work involves a partial or full drive up Route 108 where the mountain always comes into view. In the winter, I step out my door in Nebraska Valley and turn left onto Barrows Road. My first glimpse starts from the farm fields off Luce Hill Road, which gives you the Mansfield, Spruce, and Chin trifecta, illuminated in their glory on a sunny day.

Making another left on to Route 108 by the church, you’re near the recreation path cornfield maze and Mansfield seems to get magnified and gets even bigger. Your heart races a bit and anticipation builds. As you work your way up past Topnotch, you see the mountain with the big red barn of Mountain Ops in the foreground, a classic Vermont setting. You can see the defined snow line, the snowbanks begin to get a bit higher, and the trees sag from the weight of the snow on the now snow-covered, canopied Mountain Road as you crest Harlow Hill.

When you reach the Inn at the Mountain, the wind picks up, the trees move and the snow swirls on the road. From there you hope to see the Over Easy Gondola running overhead, a good sign that the Quad will be going too. Anticipation continues to build as you enter the parking lot, being one of the first cars there. You turn up the car stereo a little louder, amping you up to ski as you rock out to a favorite tune. If you hustle and get all your gear on quickly, maybe you can be one of the first in line for the Quad as it opens at 8 a.m.

Let’s reverse things a bit. It is 8 a.m. and you have already skied and are on your way back down the Mountain Road after an early morning skin, still reveling in the turns as you pick ice build-up from your mustache or beard. As you see the traffic line up the road in the opposite direction waiting to get into the parking lot, you have a shit-eating grin on your face

Stowe Resort Homes

FIRST PERSON

as you feel like you got the best turns of the day while everyone else was still sleeping.

A tug off your insulated coffee mug gives you an even better feeling of warmth, coziness, and satisfaction that waking up at 4:45 a.m. was well worth the effort. The stoke is still high and your cheeks are still flushed from windburn as the car heater finally warms up to take the edge off your cold hands.

That “feeling” is what makes starting each winter day that much better in the morning, and it helps carry the rest of the day, whether it's work, play, chores, or family time. More energy to get things done. An extra skip in your step. A zest for life. Ski season is in full swing, and the daily routine of drying out boots, gloves, skins, and clothing becomes a welcomed norm.

But what happens when it’s not winter? In the fall, every time I ride up Route 108, either in my car or on my gravel bike, you start to see the leaves beginning to change and a coolness settles in as you gain elevation. All those summer bike rides, hikes, or runs have your lungs and legs in good shape, ready to start another season, and provide a similar feeling to skiing in the woods, earning turns, making high-speed carves, or skiing zipper line bumps.

Every time I ride my bike either in the woods or hike to one of the many summits around here, I think of skiing. That perfect powder day deep in the backcountry, discovering new lines, nailing that trick, or envisioning dropping off that cliff you have been eyeing for years.

Will I be able to do top-to-bottom runs out of the gate when the lifts first spin? Is my fitness level and strength where it needs to be for an efficient climb up the mountain for the first time? Have I done enough training, or do I still need to keep working? Each year that passes the work gets a little harder, trying to stay ahead of the aging curve.

The pull is certainly real, for all ages and walks of life. In the summer,

it's why we jump off bridges into rivers thinking we have skis on our feet, keeping our bodies tightly coiled to stick the landing or practicing that grab, spin, or iron cross trick. It’s why in August my daughters and I put on our ski clothes, goggles, and boots, and walked around the living room imagining that first real snowfall of the season.

Once fall arrives on a crisp, cool day, we chop wood, see our breath in the air, and fire up the woodstove for the first time. It’s time for hot cider, hot chocolate, hot toddy, or dark beer while we watch ski movies and dream of skiing in remote, faraway places where the snow is deep, and the lure is even deeper. We put on puffy layers, winter hats, and await the season’s first snow.

If you are lucky enough in the fall, you get a “snow-liage” event, when it snows while the red, green, orange, and yellow leaves remain on the trees—it’s always a sight that is certainly worth photographing. You dust off your winter boots that have been stored in the closet for the last six months. You head into the garage, shed or basement and look at your skis for the first time. Why are the edges all rusty? Do I need a tune, or even a set of fresh, new sticks? Your first issue of Backcountry Magazine sits in your mailbox. Ski trips are talked about and planned.

Then as the days get shorter, the temperatures drop, the mountain begins to blow snow, and Mother Nature does her part—hopefully producing enough early season snow and a base to carry us through winter freeze-thaw cycles and climate change. Winter’s pull is getting ready to go into full swing. The question is, are you ready? n

David Hatoff is a mountain biker, skier, and dad living in Nebraska Valley in Stowe. He relishes being able to ride and ski right outside his door and enjoys how both sports have so many similarities with gravity, flow and comradery. When he’s not behind the laptop copywriting for Mountain Ops, you can find him outside sharing his enjoyment of the great outdoors with family and friends.

RURAL ROUTE

STORIED LIFE

Bob Bourdon took this photo of Mt. Mansfield Company CEO Sepp Ruschp, Ed Billings, and Ted Kennedy in 1962. Billings, director of the famous Stowe Ski Patrol, took Kennedy, then a U.S. representative from Massachusetts, skiing. “We just completed a run down Mt. Mansfield on Hayride,” Billings wrote on the back of the photo. “Ted actually kept up with Sepp and me.” During his time in officer training at Kings Point Academy.

n the evening of Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023, Edward

o“Ed” D. Billings, a longtime Stowe resident and former Mount Mansfield Ski Patrol director, died peacefully with family by his bedside in Wells, Maine. He was 102.

Born in Montague, Mass., Ed had no siblings, but he did have a very large extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins, including the famous poet, Emily Dickinson.

Raised on the family dairy farm in Greenfield, he rose to the top of his class, excelling in advanced math and science. One of his extra credit science class accomplishments was building a telescope from scratch, which included grinding down the glass by hand to the perfect shape to see the stars. From that moment on he was captivated by astronomy and the science of the universe.

At the University of Massachusetts, he became interested in architec-

tural drawing and design and during the summer he worked for a respected builder as an apprentice and learned every aspect of fine home construction.

In 1941 during World War II, Ed enlisted in the Merchant Marines and received extensive training as a hard hat deep-sea diver on base in Sheepshead Bay, N.Y. Following extensive training, he was selected for officers training at Kings Point Academy and upon graduation he was promoted to ship’s navigator and assigned to his first Liberty Ship sailing the North Atlantic.

As a twist of fate, he was late getting to his first deployment, causing him to miss his ship, and had to spend some time in the brig. Fate must have intervened as the ship was later torpedoed by a German sub, and all were lost at sea. In 1945, Ed turned down a promotion to captain his own ship, deciding that after losing so many friends, war and the sea were not for him. >>

RURAL ROUTE

TURNING 100 Ed Billings cuts the cake celebrating his 100th as his wife, Patty Soper, and those assembled, look on. Billings wearing his “Living Legend Since 1921” T-shirt at his Stowe Hollow home, at 99.

After returning home to the family farm, he took up skiing as a sport to appease a lady friend who was an avid skier. Over the years he became an expert skier and skiing became an outlet from the long days of office work and the terrible migraine headaches he suffered from.

On a whim he moved to Stowe after hearing about the great skiing and a job at the Mount Mansfield Ski Patrol. In 1957, he was hired as a junior ski patrolman by director George Wesson for a dollar an hour—a big cut in pay—but he enjoyed the comradery and people. The ski patrol quickly became his family and in 1960, after Wesson moved on, Ed was promoted to director of the patrol.

Ed held this position for many years and during his tenure as director he was credited for eliminating National Ski Patrol authority over the Mount Mansfield Ski Patrol, enacting ski ability testing for new recruits and new toboggan handling techniques, and designing new black ski patrol jackets with a red cross on a white circle, known as the Black Knights.

Ed continued to volunteer much of his time with the patrol until the 1980s.

Ed started his own business in architectural design and house con-

struction. As his business grew so did his reputation of building quality homes and businesses, including the Hob Knob, The Shed, Green Mountain Inn annex, Red Barn, and Gracie’s, to name just a very few.

In the early 1980s, Ed met Patti Soper, who became his wife of 40 years. They settled in Stowe Hollow and enjoyed many summers at their lakeside home on Vermont’s Caspian Lake.

Patti died just a few months before Ed after a brief illness. She was 87.

Read more about Billings’ life at bit.ly/49WsYry.

DEVON WILLIAMS

‘I enjoy selling women’s clothing and am a strong believer in shopping therapy’

Christmas 2024 marks the 25-year anniversary of In Company, a women’s clothing store on Mountain Road in Stowe. Clothes horse Devon Williams has been with the store since the beginning, taking over operations in 2012 and ownership in 2016. She grew up in Hyde Park, attended Hyde Park Elementary, Lamoille Union High, and graduated from Johnson State with a double major in elementary education and psychology, and a minor in math. She lives in Hyde Park with her husband, Tom Williams, two old English bulldogs, Scout (“To Kill a Mockingbird”) and Boss (think Bruce Springsteen), and a cat, Louie, after Olympic distance runner Louie Zamperini.

How did you get into women’s retail clothing?

I worked for Marc Sherman when he had The Craft Sampler, Stuffed in Stowe, and Green Mountain Pantry in Stowe Village, so I had some retail experience. Then, when I was at Johnson State, I went to work for Wendy Breeden and Pat Schwarz at Wendy’s Closet on Mountain Road. I worked there for about four years. When Wendy’s Closet closed, I joined Pat when she opened In Company. I enjoy selling women’s clothing and am a strong believer in shopping therapy. If you wear anything you like with intention, you will stand up straighter and feel better.

What are the origins of the name In Company?

It’s an equestrian term that means the horse is good to go for a ride in your company or with other horses and riders.

How many employees do you have?

Kim Whitney has been with me for over 20 years, and my mom, Yvonne Heath, fills in on Sundays. I have two pitch hitters who fill in when needed.

What type of clothing do you carry?

Mostly it’s clothing you can wear any time. I try to carry lines nobody has heard of, because who wants to wear what everyone else is wearing? Some of the more interesting lines are Johnny Was, whose signature is embroidery, Margaret O’Leary, who has great lifestyle day-to-day wear, and White & Warren, known for its gorgeous sweaters, and a slew of others. It’s always evolving. I don’t carry outerwear, shoes, bathing suits, or lingerie. I get a lot of requests for lingerie, but I just don’t have the space

Who are your customers?

The majority are repeat customers, women ages 30-70, locals and secondhome owners, who want to look and feel good and want timeless pieces. I recently had a woman come in from England wearing a sweater she bought from me 15 years ago. She saw me and said, “Remember this sweater? I’m still wearing it!”

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED & COMPILED BY KATE CARTER

GORDON MILLER

RURAL ROUTE

What is it like to share the building with a wine shop?

What’s nice about my location is I get overflow from AJ’s and Doc Ponds, both of which are next door. Being in the same space as Fine Wine Cellars is an interesting combo. At first, they were only downstairs in the cellar, but they wanted storefront space, so now they have a room next to me with miscellaneous wine-related items and check-out. It’s convenient having another person in the building. There’s a lot of crossover. Sometimes a couple will come in intending to go to the wine cellar, and the woman will spend time looking at clothes before joining her partner downstairs.

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

Planning ahead. I order six months ahead, so in the spring I’m ordering for the following fall and winter. But no one knows what the season is going to be like six months out. The weather could do anything, like what we just experienced with our very mild winter.

Do you attend trade shows?

I go to The Coterie in New York City in September and February. It showcases over 1,000 brands. I also attend the New England Apparel Club, a regional show in Manchester, N.H. Often my sales reps come to me. It’s always inspiring to attend trade shows.

What else do you carry in addition to clothing?

A variety of accessories, jewelry, handbags, belts, hats, candles. A lot of what I carry is from women-owned businesses.

What do you do in your spare time?

I love trail running at Trapps, being outdoors, music, and reading. I also like to give back to my community. For a while I was on the board of the Clarina Howard Nichols Center. I try to raise awareness for local charities, such as North Country Animal League, Lamoille Community Food Share, and others. I am filled with gratitude for everyone who has helped me get to where I am, 25 years later.

LOCAL FILMMAKER HEADS TO THE JUNGLE

In 2019, Chelsea Greene, then 26, made the first of four journeys to Brazil to gather footage and stories for a film about the deforestation and burning of the Amazon rainforest. She was propelled after hearing of the fires that were destroying the forest and knowing the importance of its survival for climate stability.

Living and traveling with the Guajajara and Tembé communities, she learned to speak fluent Portuguese and a bit of several Indigenous dialects. Her efforts resulted in a partnership with activist Puyr Tembé, videographer Edivan Guajajara of Media Indígena, who became the Indigenous co-director on the film, director Robert Grobman, and Academy Award-winning producer Fisher Stevens.

“‘We Are Guardians’ explores the human spirit and people’s collective responsibility to protect the world’s fragile environmental bal-

and science, the documentary provides an indepth exploration of the incredibly complex and critical situation—the origins and impact of which ripple out far beyond the boundaries of the Amazon itself.

Greene, who grew up in Hyde Park, debuted their verité-style documentary, “We Are Guardians,” at the Green Mountain Film Festival in March.

She is also a producer, cinematographer, and editor on the project. Leonardo DiCaprio was an executive producer.

ance,” Greene said. “The film follows the courageous Indigenous forest guardians who risk their lives to save the forest we all need to survive. My dream is that their bravery and connection with nature inspires the guardianship within us all.”

This international team collaborated on the four-year production of the film.

Weaving together politics, history, economics

The film follows several storylines: Indigenous forest guardian Marçal Guajajara and activist Tembé as they fight to protect territories from deforestation; an illegal logger who has no choice but to cut the forest down; and a large landowner at the mercy of thousands of invaders and extractive industries.

Greene attended Lamoille Union High School where she pursued a passion for video, animation, and storytelling by filming her family, friends, and school events as a youngster.

“We Are Guardians” has won awards at film festivals worldwide since its premiere in May 2023.

The film recently won the Green Film Award at the International Cinema for Peace Gala in Berlin.

LEARN MORE: weareguardiansfilm.com.

ENDANGERED SPECIES? Cougar (Felis concolor) from “The viviparous quadrupeds of North America,” 1845, John Woodhouse Audubon (1812-1862).

though catamounts haven’t been seen in the Green Mountain State for some time, one particular breed of feline has apparently been making the trek to Stowe.

“Cougars”—older women with a penchant for young men—have ranked Stowe Mountain Lodge ninth in a list of top 10 resorts for cougars, according to a poll from dating site cougar life.com.

The website pairs young “cubs” with willing “divorcees, single moms and sexy singles,” according to its homepage.

In a poll of 3,533 “seasoned” members, Stowe Mountain Lodge made the cut as a top North American destination for cougaring.

“Well-off cougars prefer active vacations that include golf, tennis, and oft-times too much fun with their instructor,” wrote author Anthony Neal Macri on the cougarlife.com blog in July 2013.

According to the poll, 76 percent of cougars participating in the poll plan on “securing a hook-up on site,” while 64 percent said they would “pounce

on hotel/activity staff members.”

—Nathan Burgess

RURAL ROUTE

LAKEFRONT Land planner Charles Burnham created this rendering of the Lowlands Project, a proposal to build a lake in the center of Stowe. The 50-acre water body would have filled the area behind Main Street, followed the contours of Mountain and Cemetery roads, and reached to Weeks Hill Road.

“A 50-acre lake in the middle of Stowe Village. Pie in the sky? A pipe dream? Maybe. But then again, maybe not.”

That was the headline in the Stowe Reporter on March 22, 1984, atop a story by the Deborah Merrill, the newspaper’s editor at the time.

The Lowlands Project, first discussed in the 1960s, was resurrected again as a “subject of study and interest in Stowe.”

As Merrill noted, there were “infinitely more questions about the project than answers. But a group of interested citizens has begun asking the questions and seeking the answers.”

Talk of a lake resurfaced with the community affairs committee of Stowe Area Association. Committee head Sol Baumrind

said, “It would provide a perfect recreation area—park area, swimming and non-power boating, recreation, maybe space for a band shell or music amphitheater ... a green belt stretching right through the center of town.”

The group zeroed in the lowlands area that stretches from behind Main Street in the village, up Mountain Road, along areas of Weeks Hill Road, and over to Cemetery Road. The projected size of the lake was 50 acres.

acres. To dredge that 50 acres to a depth of 15 feet would mean moving 1.2 million cubic yards of dirt. That is a lot of dirt.”

Oh, and the little problem of funding, she noted.

Silence is golden

Several months later, the dream died as the town selectboard deep-sixed Stowe’s lowlands lake.

Wrote Merrill in July 1984, “The silence was deafening. You could have heard a pin drop.”

To give a frame of reference for locals, Merrill wrote: “Lake Mansfield is only 39

After a brief presentation by proponents Charlie Burnham and Anne Lusk, the board refused to support a no-strings-attached grant of $15,000 to perform engineering feasibility

studies. Selectman Peter Dresser motioned to move the question ahead, but his two fellow board members, Herbert O’Brien and David Demeritt, sat silent. “There was no second, no comment, and the motion died on the table.”

That silence proved to be more of a problem than a no vote.

‘‘They probably owed somebody an explanation at least,” Burnham, a land planner, said the next day, adding that presentations about the Lowlands Lake given to several town groups were all met with overwhelming support.

“I was dumbfounded,” Lusk said. “If only they’d explained ... if they’d said, ‘come back in October.’ Or just explained that they’re overwhelmed with other things. But to say nothing ...”

The silence, admitted O’Brien later, did “look a little funny ... but no one asked any questions.”

Both O’Brien and Demeritt voiced similar feelings about the potentially enormous and costly Lowlands Project.

Demeritt, in particular, reiterated his opposition to the project to reporter Nancy Crowe, “noting the town is already involved in enough special, costly projects, which include a recreation path, a skating rink, a library project and possibly the youth center.”

Decades in the making

The idea for a lake arose in December 1965 when the Stowe Businessmen’s Association named a committee of Clem Curtis, David Bryan, and Homer Clark “to study the possibilities and problems that might be encountered in the development of a lake in the area immediately upstream from the Village Bridge on Route 108.”

“Such a lake would have to be carefully controlled by the community to eliminate any possibilities of commercial interests or unsightly installations,” stated a press release in the Reporter on Dec. 3, 1965.

The committee agreed to outlaw motorboats “to protect shoreline landowners as well as other members of the Stowe community.”

Lusk, in a letter to the editor after the selectboard killed the project with its silence, wrote, “The Lowlands Lake was proposed years ago by the late Dr. David Bryan, and imaginatively drafted by Peter Scheuermann.” —Greg Popa

1. Meg Cossaboon, a Stowe summer resident, traveled in November to Churchill, Manitoba, to take part in a great white bear tour adventure on the tundra looking for polar bears. “It was wonderful to see them in their natural habitat while they waited for Hudson Bay to freeze so they could go out and hunt for seals,” she says. 2. When Jack and Roselle Nickerson booked a trip to Cortina, Italy, in January they “had no idea that the FIS World Cup was going to held that weekend. It was a pleasant surprise!” The couple owned Classic Ski Tours for more than 25 years, and moved to Stowe in 2010. They recently migrated north to Morrisville. “Our love of skiing and outdoor adventure brought us to Vermont. We could have chosen any resort area but decided Stowe offered so many other options than just skiing. We’ve never looked back.” 3. Ali Mahra and Barbara Hamilton of Moscow attended the wedding of their youngest son, Eddie, at the Dreams Resort, Punta Cana Dominican Republic, in January. Ali, chief financial officer for Topnotch around 1999, is president elect of Stowe Rotary. “Stowe is home, and as my son says, “when paradise is your back yard why go anywhere else?”

Do you have a photo of our magazine on some farflung island or rugged mountain peak? Send it along to ads@stowereporter.com, with Stowe Magazine in the subject line. We’ll pick the best one—or two!—and run it in the next edition.

PINE AND EVENING

yellow band above the eyes. The females were silver-gray with tinges of yellow and similar coloration to males on the wings and tail. Both sexes sport a massive, conical bill—the origin of the name grosbeak—used for extracting and cracking seeds.

A member of the finch family, the evening grosbeak nests primarily in coniferous forests in northern New England and New York, southern Canada, the Rocky Mountain,s and as far south as Mexico at high elevations. These birds feed on a wide variety of tree seeds, buds, and small fruits.

Conifer and maple seeds, elm and ash buds, and the seeds of chokecherries and apples are among their favorites. Evening grosbeaks store extra food in gular sacs, stretchy areas of the throat. They ingest grit from roads to help digest seeds, and they will break maple twigs in order to drink sap. In summer, these birds feed on insects and insect larvae, especially spruce budworm.

When seed crops fail in their breeding range, or when populations of evening grosbeaks are high, large flocks may fly south or east in winter in search of food, a phenomenon known as an irruption. Chattering flocks or small groups of these highly social and gregarious birds wander about, feeding in forests and at backyard feeders.

Evening grosbeaks are numerous and widespread, but according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, populations decreased by 74 percent between 1966 and 2019. Partners in Flight, a global bird conservation network, reports that this species has experienced the steepest population decline of all North American land birds. I’ve noticed this decline firsthand: In the 1990s, evening grosbeaks came to my feeder most winters, but in the past two decades, I’ve only seen them three times.

Population declines may be due to logging and development in the boreal forest, to disease such as West Nile virus and to reduced numbers of spruce budworm and other forest insects they feed on, partially due to aerial spraying. Forest experts predict that balsam fir will recede from the Northeast over the next century due to climate change, which will likely further impact evening grosbeak populations.

Pine grosbeaks are also occasional winter visitors to the Northeast. About the same size as the evening grosbeak, this plump finch has a longer tail and a short, curved bill. Males are pinkish-red with a dark gray tail and wings, marked by two white wingbars. Females are light gray with olive-green heads and similar coloration to the males on wings and tails.

Pine grosbeaks breed further north then the evening grosbeak, into northern Canada and Alaska. They are circumpolar in distribution, ranging across northern Europe and Asia. Body size and color vary geographically. In North America, these grosbeaks nest in open coniferous forests across most of Canada and in high-elevation forests of the Rockies.

In winter, pine grosbeaks may stay in their breeding habitat or move to nearby low-elevation deciduous forests with abundant seeds. Like evening grosbeaks, in years when food is scarce, they may fly south or east. Pine grosbeaks sometimes travel to take advantage of plentiful mast crops, even when adequate food is available in their breeding range.

A 2023 study in Sweden by Svein Dale found that irruptions of these grosbeaks coincided with peaks in rowanberry crops: flocks moved south to feed on this fruit and then returned north in mid-winter when the food was gone.

The few times I’ve observed pine grosbeaks, I’ve seen small groups feeding on crab apples or cherries in ornamental trees near buildings. Their diet is predominantly vegetarian: seeds, fruit, and buds. Strong, stubby bills easily crush seeds and nip off buds. Flocks often stay near a tree with abundant fruit until it is all consumed. In summer, pine grosbeaks catch insects and spiders, especially to feed to their young.

Pine grosbeaks seem to be faring better than evening grosbeaks. According to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, their populations held steady between 1966 and 2019, and Partners in Flight ranks this species as low conservation concern.

Evening grosbeaks have been sighted in Vermont and New Hampshire this year, so keep your eye out for these colorful winter finches.

Susan Shea is a naturalist, writer, and conservationist based in Vermont. Illustration by Adelaide Murphy Tyrol. The Outside Story is assigned and edited by Northern Woodlands magazine and sponsored by the Wellborn Ecology Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, nhcf.org.

RESTORATIVE · RELAXING · REHABILITATIVE

Therapeutic Massage • Deep Tissue • Prenatal Massage Myofascial Cupping • Reiki • Acupuncture

The Current: ‘Members’ Show’

November 9, 2023

Supporters of The Current check out artwork during the opening of the Members’ Show.

GORDON MILLER PHOTOGRAPHY

Elaine Percy, Amy Kresloff, and Sara Opel.

Sculpture by Susan Wilson.

Diane Arnold.

Courtney Percy, Beth Gadbois, and Chip DIllon.

Jamie Rauchman with a self-portrait.

A guest ponders Ann Young’s “Everybody’s Shopping.”

Rachel Moore, executive director of The Current, Stephanie Drew Sheldon, and Sue Gilkey.

SENSE OF PLACE Mt. Mansfield dominates the landscape in Pleasant Valley, a series of roads that links Cambridge and Underhill underneath the backside of Vermont’s highest peak. A man drives a team of horses through the valley.

PLEASANT

A covered bridge. Green pastures. Mountain views. Cows grazing on hillside fields, colorful spring flowers and fall foliage, red barns, silos that reach up to touch clear blue skies, and country stores.

Those are just a few of the scenes that come to mind when one thinks of Vermont, and one small area, Pleasant Valley in Cambridge, features them all and offers a must-see scenic setting.

“If I had to pick just one road in Vermont as the ultimate scenic drive, it would be Pleasant Valley Road in Cambridge,” Erica Houskeeper, a longtime Vermont resident and a popular blogger at happyvermont.com, said.

Maureen Walsh, a frequent traveler to the Cambridge area, agreed, saying, “Pleasant Valley is like it was made to be photographed or painted. It offers a pleasant, relaxing drive where you see an iconic slice of Vermont.”

Pleasant Valley is just off Route 15 in Cambridge Village. Just around the corner from the Gates Farm Covered Bridge, look for the Cambridge Village Market—that’s the place to start.

From the market, drive through Pleasant Valley on either Lower Valley Pleasant Road or Bryce Road. Better yet, drive up and down both roads for a complete, 360-degree view of the valley and surrounding mountains. The drive down Bryce Road is especially captivating as you pass farms on a hard-packed dirt road that leads right into the back side of Mt. Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak, which looms large as you drive toward it. Mt. Mansfield is so tall— 4,393 feet—that it can be fall in the valley and winter at the top.

When you reach the end of Pleasant Valley, buy some organic produce at Valley Dream Farm, or, if you’re lucky, stick around for one of its fresh-food, farm-to-table dinners.

Everything seems more vivid in Pleasant Valley. In the summer, cows graze in lush, green hillside fields. Fall foliage brings a riot of color, and in winter snow covers the mountain peak with white that, on a bluebird day, contrasts perfectly with the color of the sky. But spring might be the loveliest of all as red, yellow, and spring-green-colored tree buds sparkle in the sun, punctuated by the greenest of green farm fields.

About 30 minutes is all you will need to tour the valley, but why rush? Slow down, soak it in, but don’t forget to move over for locals trying to get to work or back home ...

—Kevin M. Walsh

KEVIN

M. WALSH

flashback

RECORDED FOR PROSPERITY: Mr. and Mrs. Parker Perry prepare to sign a contract with Stowe realtors Barbara Williams, Pall Spera, and Bob Kirby to list for sale the Green Mountain Inn. The signing was a somber affair as the entire staff of 103 persons from the Inn (including the dumb-waiter and the dumb bartender) gathered outside the windows of the plush oval office of Spera Real Estate, tearfully—and for the most part dripping with shampoo—humming the refrain, “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair.” Their other comments were unintelligible. History in the making! Will we ever again experience the never-to-be-forgotten almost sensuous thrills of “Garden Spinach,” “real (but not sweet) whipped cream,” and “Parker Perry?” (The above appeared as part of an ad in The Stowe Reporter, and later as a sidebar to a news article by Deborah Merrill on Sept. 13, 1979.)

The theatrical Perrys—seen here smoking and fainting—sold the historic inn, opened in 1833, to Pat and Becky Tursi of Moorestown, N.J., for $700,000.

“This November, Dottie and I are going to put an ad in the paper saying, “The Perrys are in residence. For the first time in 35 years we will be able to accept holiday party invitations. I’ll put the phone number in, too.” Holidays are hectic times for innkeepers, Merrill noted.

Parker worked for the Office of Price Administration during the war, charged with setting up

all the rationing boards in Vermont and visiting the state’s 274 towns and villages in the process.

After the war ended and the OPA closed up shop, “My friend and advisor, old Gale Shaw, said, ‘Why not buy the Green Mountain Inn?’” Parker told the newspaper. The pricetag was $22,500. He got a loan of $200 from a Montpelier bank and sold preferred stock for 7 cents a share to the likes of Stowe pioneers Roland Palmedo, J. Negley Cooke, and Lowell Thomas (Google them!), and lassoed the “rich chairman of the rationing board in Burlington, Jack Goss, to take a first mortgage.”

A few years into his second career, Parker put an ad into a ski magazine looking for an “exceptional secretary” and “paragon,” he said. “Dottie answered the ad and became my secretary and also my wife.”

—Greg Popa

HERE, PLEASE Barbara Williams, Pall Spera, Parker Perry, Bob Kirby, and Dottie Perry.

PHOTOS BY KATE CARTER

COLOR PALETTE

‘GARDENING ISN’T WHAT I DO, IT’S WHO I AM’

Anyone who has walked, driven, biked, or run through the town of Stowe sees the stunning, colorful window boxes and planters at the Green Mountain Inn. Every season and every year, the display is different. Sometimes the colors are deep and rich, other times soft pastels. But they are always beauty on display.

The credit for the extraordinary floral craftsmanship goes to Becky Dawson, owner of Elmore Mountain Gardens. She is a magician at outdoor floral arrangements, along with the help of her employee, Zoë Murphy. The two have been responsible for adorning the Green Mountain Inn since 2016.

Dawson, who is from the Finger Lakes Region of New York, took a circuitous route to her gardening career. She planned to study interior design but decided to take a gap year and joined AmeriCorp’s outdoor program. Later, she attended college for parks and recreational planning and in the summer took a job with

Vermont’s Green Mountain Club on its trail crew—and never left.

Instead, she went to Johnson State College (now Vermont State University-Johnson) to study environmental science. Looking for a summer job, she found gardener Mary Ann Raymond at a local garden center, and they worked together for four years.

Then her life took another turn. “I thought I needed a real job, something with security and health insurance,” Dawson said. “I worked for an assortment of businesses in the area. One of them was part-time at the Flower Basket in Hardwick. I started on Valentine’s Day in 2003 and the owner became my floral-design mentor. When she sold the business in 2015, I went out on my own.”

Design choices for the Green Mountain Inn’s exterior plantings start a year in advance.

“I get the basics down, starting with a color palette, texture, height, and scale. In the fall, I sit down with Julia Gill, co-owner of Green Mountain Gardens (where Raymond now works) and put together a special order of what

I need for the following summer. Gill orders the plants and keeps them healthy in their greenhouses until it’s time for them to be installed. I alternate between a darker palette one year and a softer palette the next.”

Dawson notes that the key part comes at planting time. “I add Espoma Bio-Tone under the roots and Jack’s ClassiCote time-release fertilizer at the soil surface. Then I water them in with plain water. It’s important that no rocks or other foreign material are in the bottom of the pot. That particular drainage theory has been disproven. During the season I fertilize weekly with JR Peters water soluble. I also deadhead and prune aggressively.”

Of course, as a gardener, you’re dealing with real live plants, and anything can happen: crop failure, too much rain, not enough rain, insects, fungus, the list goes on. “There’s a lot of problem solving. Sometimes, after a plant is installed, I see that it’s not working and switch it out,” Dawson said.

For the Green Mountain Inn, Dawson is always looking for something of appropriate scale

DESIGN CHOICES Becky Dawson chose a bold color palette for the window boxes fronting Green Mountain Inn on Stowe’s Main Street. The boxes are always a crowd pleaser, as were last year’s castor beans.

for the front of the inn as well as the side alley. Last year she did castor beans in the alley that added a whole lot of drama to that narrow space.

“Before, I had planted castor beans near the general manager Ken Biedermann’s office. He loves castor beans and the entire flower program. He’s very supportive, and if he likes something, he gets it,” Dawson said.

There won’t be any castor beans this summer, because they don’t go with the intentional softer color palette. “I’m planning on lime green, pale blue, and pale pink—soft and serene, not like the rambunctious castor bean. The alley needs tall plants, so it will probably be grasses, such as zebra grass,” Dawson said. Dawson, of course, has a few favorites in the gardening spectrum:

• Favorite tool: Korean hoe, followed by Felco pruners.

• Favorite petunia: Petchoa Petunia Million Bells, a new hybrid of petunia and calibrachoa. “It takes the best features of both and combines them into a gorgeous, compact plant that flowers like crazy.”

• Favorite customer problem: A woman who could not understand why a raccoon was digging up her potted plants. “It turned out she was using real peanuts as a filler at the bottom of the pots, instead of packing peanuts.”

—Kate Carter

RURAL ROUTE

Stowe, Vermont, is not the only town in the world named Stowe. Across the pond there’s a civil parish and former village with the same name. It’s located in Buckingham, England, about 75 miles northwest of London. Both are eminent towns in their respective countries, but how much do they have in common beyond a name? Well, let’s see how the two Stowes compare.

POPULATION

5,223 (2020 Census)*

COUNTY

Lamoille

LATITUDE

44.4654° N

ELEVATION

968 feet

ESTABLISHED: 1763

REPUTATION

One of the nation’s first ski towns and Ski Capital of the East.

FLICKS

“The Four Seasons” with Alan Alda. The winter scenes were filmed at Stowehof Inn and Baggy Knees.

SCHOOLS

Mount Mansfield Winter Academy, a coed high school ski academy founded in 1993; North American Hockey Academy, a girls’ hockey academy founded in 1998; Stowe elementary, middle, and high schools.

HOTELS

Innumerable hotels, motels, and private rentals.

RESTAURANTS

Approximately 48

STROLLING

Has the world-famous 5.3-mile Stowe Recreation Path that parallels the Mountain Road and has 10 bridges that cross the West Branch of the Little River.

ICONS

Stowe Community Church, located on Main Street in Stowe Village, is one of the most photographed churches in the United States.

POPULATION

874 (2021 Census)*

COUNTY

Buckinghamshire

LATITUDE

52.0330° N

ELEVATION

385 feet

ESTABLISHED: circa 1086

REPUTATION

Home to Stowe House and Stowe Landscape Gardens, one of England’s first landscape gardens.

FLICKS

Because of its picturesque surroundings Stowe has been the setting for many films, including “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” the Bollywood film “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham,” “Proof of Life,” “Stardust” (2007), and “The World Is Not Enough” in the James Bond series.

SCHOOLS

Stowe School, a public school, founded in 1923, with 99 schoolboys. Now a coed school, it has approximately 550 boys and 220 girls. The school has been based since its beginnings at Stowe House, formerly the county seat of the dukes of Buckingham and Chandos.

HOTELS

About 22 in nearby Buckingham.

RESTAURANTS

1

STROLLING

Winding paths and lakeside walks in a timeless landscape, reflecting the changing seasons.

ICONS

Stowe Parish Church, circa 1270, is situated in the midst of the Stowe Estate. It’s intentionally hidden by evergreens, planted by Lord Cobham to conceal the church from the mansion, and is all that is left of the medieval village that stood there.

—Kate Carter

Photo credits: England, from top: National Church Trust, National Trust, and Stowe School. Vermont: Glenn Callahan, Stowe Mountain Resort, Glenn Callahan. * Updated since original publication

Stowe House. Stowe Mountain Resort.

Landscape gardens at Stowe

Stowe Recreation Path.

THE ONE-ROOM ELMORE SCHOOLHOUSE

Less than 100 years ago, there were more than 150,000 one-room schoolhouses across the United States, including quite a few in Vermont. Such schools are rare today, but one of the country’s few remaining one-room schools, and the only one left in Vermont, operates in the small town of Elmore.

The 1,200-square-foot school opened in the 1850s and has been educating Elmore’s children steadily since. Currently housing about 18 students in grades one through three, the Elmore School occupies a central spot in the community on Route 12, right across from the Elmore Store and Lake Elmore.

While it might seem to some that the school is an archaic leftover from the days of rural education practices, that is a misconception. According to all involved, Elmore’s one-room schoolhouse is considered an important compo-

“The school’s small and unique environment is important for students,” said Ryan Heraty, superintendent of the Lamoille South Supervisory Union and principal of the Elmore School.

Heraty noted that the teacher often starts with a group launch activity to get all the students thinking about the same principle, and then the teacher and aide give intensive topic attention to the smaller, age-based groups, while the other students perform individual learning activities geared more specifically to each age group.

These one-room school students also seem to benefit greatly from having a teacher who really knows each student well. “It has been so helpful to have the same teacher over multiple years,” parent Jen Schoeberlein, who has had two children attend the school, said.

nent of the town’s educational system.

The secret behind its success seems to be a matter of scale, which big schools in large communities have trouble matching. Rather than 20, or 30, or more students in one classroom, think three grades in one room, with each grade having about six students, one teacher and one teacher’s aide. This type of personalized attention is the hallmark of the Elmore School’s success.

This unusual one-room, multi-grade environment also translates into academic success. According to Heraty, “Students in Elmore’s oneroom school do well. They make educational progress per local and national norms.”

In fact, Heraty said the school’s current teacher, Diane Nicholls, “has some of the highest test scores in the district.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, many parents are also quite involved in the overall educational process. They sometimes help chaperone outdoor nature field trips, help with special projects, and even join to provide a special hot lunch program for students each Friday.

As social, cultural, and economic issues evolve, there have sometimes been concerns that Elmore might need to close its one-room schoolhouse and move its students into a larger school within the district. But as recently as 2020,

An additional benefit to having this educational continuity is that the students help each other. Schoeberlein noted that “it is helpful for younger kids to have older mentors to look up to, and to have the older kids take younger kids under their wings.”

Heraty echoes this thought and notes that the children “bond with each other, and they learn skills to resolve interpersonal conflicts, skills which stay with them for years.”

Elmore residents chose to keep the special school operating.

“The school’s future seems bright,” Heraty said. “The school is a special place filled with tradition and is associated with such traditional Vermont values as independence and freedom.” Noting the combined effort of all who make the school succeed, Schoeberlein says that education at Elmore’s one-room schoolhouse “has been a pretty special experience.” —Kevin M. Walsh

KEVIN

WALSH;

VERMONT TRADITION Elmore’s one room schoolhouse. For the current year, about 18 students in grades 1 through 3 learn together.

TOP DOGS Tommy Gardner, Corey McDonald, Kristen Braley, and Liberty Darr hold their awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association Better Newspaper Competition.

TOWN NEWS

The annual Better Newspaper Competition, held each year by the New England Newspaper and Press Association, awards the top newspapers from all six New England states in 85 editorial categories and 35 advertising categories. In recent years, the best college newspapers have also been honored.

The Vermont Community Newspaper Group publishes five community weeklies in Lamoille and Chittenden counties—the Stowe Reporter, News & Citizen, South Burlington’s The Other Paper, Shelburne News, and The Citizen of Charlotte and Hinesburg—and two glossy magazines, the Stowe Guide and Magazine and Stowe/Green Mountain Weddings. All seven publications took home awards at this year’s competition.

“We’re small but mighty,” said publisher and editor Greg Popa. “I’m continually amazed by the talent of this crew and the serious news coverage and solid reporting they provide for our readers. I hope the 16 communities we serve appreciate the work they provide to report the news week after week.”

Newsroom awards

The newsroom also won a slew of second- and third-place newsroom awards. Stowe magazine got knocked out of the top spot for best niche publication, placing second this year, but took first in the overall design and presentation of a niche product in the advertising category.

Rob Kiener won second place for his profile of painter Luigi Lucioni. Calvin took second for a magazine story about how Idletyme restaurant and brewery weathered the pandemic and for his series on the dismissal of a Stowe police offer. He joined forces with news editor Tommy Gardner for second place for their coverage of last July’s flooding in Lamoille County.

The newspapers took home 20 awards for reporting, photography, and overall presentation, including five first-place prizes:

• Human interest feature story, by Aaron Calvin, for his piece about the death of a homeless veteran.

• Pandemic coverage, by Corey McDonald, for his piece about a well-known businessman grappling with the death of his son.

• Arts and entertainment reporting, by Avalon Styles-Ashley, for a profile of local artist Sue Gilkey.

• Serious columnist, by David Rocchio, for a story about snow and another about his memories of his father.

• Sports action photo, by Al Frey, who also won second and third place in the same category, for three different photos of high school basketball games.

Carole Vasta Folley won second for both her wit about tech trauma and kitchen freezers in the humor columnist category, and in the serious columnist category for a piece about gender pronouns.

Stowe Reporter and News and Citizen photographer Gordon Miller won several second-and third-place awards, including for a shot of Stowe’s Spear Barn, at left.

Tamara Burke took third in the serious columnist category for pieces about marginalized people and school choice, while Gardner’s sports feature about the Stowe soccer team with five sets of siblings also took third.

Advertising and design

Vermont Community Newspaper Group performed particularly well in the advertising categories winning eight first-place awards, including:

• Overall design and presentation of a niche product, by Popa, for Stowe magazine.

• Advertising in a niche publication, for the wedding magazine, by production manager Katerina Werth.

• Audience building, automotive display ad, and creative use of small space, by designer Kristen Braley; local display ad and special section for the annual RIDE mountain biking supplement by Katerina Werth; and the two designers combined on a first for integrated ad campaign for Ferro Jewelers.

The design team won nine other awards, placing second and third.

—Tommy Gardner

STOWE SKIER AIMS TO LOG 3 MILLION VERTICAL

STORY / TOMMY GARDNER PHOTOGRAPHS / GORDON MILLER

four months into the year, Stowe skier Noah Dines already skied the equivalent of 41 trips up Mount Everest. And he still had 1.8 million more feet to go this year before he rests.

Dines, a former instructor at Mount Mansfield Academy, is trying to break the world record for the most humanpowered vertical skiing feet done in one calendar year. Dines hopes to hit a cool 3 million feet by Dec. 31.

For those counting, that’s more than twice the distance between the Earth and the International Space Station.

Although part of the challenge involves also skiing down—no lifts or snowmobiles or other mechanical means of conveyance—only the uphill efforts count in the slow, steady tally. Not that Dines would have it any other way.

“I’m doing this because I love to ski. I love to ski a lot,” he said in April, basking in the warm sun on a cloudless 60-degree day, sitting on the tailgate of his old Toyota pickup truck in the Midway parking lot near the base of Mt. Mansfield. “I don’t think of it as I have to go up to go down. When I’m going up, that’s skiing to me. Sometimes the going down is heinous and the going up part is much more pleasant.”

The challenge started literally the minute 2024 began. While other revelers were clinking glasses to welcome in the new year, Dines was clicking in to his bindings, all by himself. He got 2,000 feet in that initial midnight foray, went home and slept for a bit and came back and did another 10,000 feet.

As of late April, he had logged more than 1.2 million feet.

Chasing the record

Dines grew up outside Boston and learned to ski as a child at Nashoba Valley, on all 240 of its vertical feet.

“It ain’t Stowe, but it’s sure as hell skiing,” he said.

He began ski touring in the 2018-19 ski season at the Camden Snow Bowl, about four miles inland from the central Maine coast, where he lived for a few years after college. The following fall, he moved to Stowe.

Uphillers—especially cyclists and runners— use the term “Everesting” to show off their vertical prowess. That refers to cumulatively climbing 29,029 feet, the height of Mount Everest, the tallest peak in the world. With Dines’ pace so far this year, he’s been notching

more than two Everests per week.

Put another way, that’s 241 Nashoba Valleys every week.

While vertical uphill skiing feet is not one of the innumerable entries in the Guinness Book of World Records, the mark that Dines is chasing is well documented. And it was set in 2016 by another Stowe skier that Dines knows well.

Aaron Rice documented exactly 2,510,924 feet of vertical that year—he revealed the precise number in an October 2023 Catamount Trail Association podcast in which he and Dines were interviewed together, ahead of Dines’ big adventure.

Rice said instead of trying to set a Guinness Book of World Records milestone, a “corporate” route that he said can cost upwards of $100,000 to essentially buy into, he and Dines operate under FKT (fastest known time) “etiquette guidelines.” That means that, if you’re aiming to beat someone’s record, you do it under the same basic guidelines as the person before you.

“I followed his guidance, but stricter,” Rice said.

Rice himself was chasing another person’s record, whom both he and Dines acknowledge originally laid down the gauntlet. Canadian skier Greg Hill climbed just over 2 million

RECORD BOOK On p.48, Noah Dines starts yet another trip up Mt. Mansfield in late April. Dines, who is attempting to log 3 million vertical feet of uphill skiing this year, said Mansfield features a nearly uninterrupted upward trajectory, making it a very efficient route to accumulate maximum elevation gain.

STOWE PEOPLE

of

vertical feet in 2010, a quest that took him to 71 peaks in four countries in one year.

Dines admits that Hill and Rice probably had more varied adventures during their record-setting years, while Rice acknowledged on the podcast that Dines is the more athletic among them.

A month in, skiing every day in Stowe, Dines had attained 378,000 total feet of elevation, just making laps, six, seven, eight times a day or more. He said that was a single month record, based on the two men whose tracks he is following.

He said although Hill’s largest singlemonth tally of 238,000 feet is smaller, Hill did it without skiing the same line twice.

“Mine is maybe more impressive athletically, but his is cooler,” he said.

Training, eating, chatting

To reach his milestone, Dines estimates he will ski 330 days this year, averaging 9,000 feet per day. That’s not a feat someone approaches lightly.

of precious days on the slopes. He noted Rice broke an arm during his year, although both agree that was far better than breaking a leg. Since his endeavor doesn’t leave much time for a job, Dines will have to find ways to fund his further adventures, especially as North American snow in the Rockies and Cascades— his next stop—dwindles and he heads to South America for a spell. Although he’ll be sleeping quite a bit in a tricked-out pickup truck bed, he still must eat.

Dines spent some time last fall building his body up for the challenge, with a lot of running up the work road to the top of the gondola. He added some extra muscle because he knew he would lose that mass throughout the challenge.

Like how a marathoner differs from a sprinter, he doesn’t ski uphill as fast as he can because he wants to conserve energy over the course of 2024. However, he’s still a downhill skier at heart, and has little compunctions about simply sending it on the way back down. In the waning days of April, a week after the resort stopped spinning the lifts, Dines was reporting good snow in the Nose Dive woods and recent routes down Hell Brook.

“Ski touring is super low impact,” he said when asked how his body is holding up after 1.2 million feet. “Also, you’re skiing different places and there’s different steepness, so it’s engaging muscles differently, and that’s kind of a key. You mix it up, you ski different things, you don’t ski that trail the same way every time.”

He is cautious about injuries, knowing even the most minor hotspot on his ankle could turn into a nasty blister and rob him

After his epic Stowe January, he spent two months in the Alps, which he found unseasonably—and somewhat disappointingly—hot.

He was gifted untold snacks and meals last season by fellow skiers who know him and his truck very well after seeing him and it at the mountain every day.

“A lot of people have been giving me truck treats,” he said. “They’ll just put food on the front seat of my truck.”

Dines acknowledges he’ll have to get better at chasing sponsorships or fund-raising opportunities as the year progresses. A GoFundMe he set up to help finance his adventure— bit.ly/3V23Quf—had raised almost $8,000 as of late May.

His gear is already taken care of by Fischer, but he noted in a blog post that he would like to land a sponsor by some energy gel company so he wouldn’t have to subsist on Haribo gummy candies, like the sour worms he was scarfing down before taking a breather to talk about his adventure.

Skiing upwards of 9,000 vertical feet every day also doesn’t leave much room for a social life, at least off the slopes. On the hill, though, there’s a ton of chit-chat, especially in the spring, when more and more locals turn to people-powered laps on the mountain.

“Friend vert is free vert,” he said, gesturing at the still-ample avenue of snow headed up Mansfield and adding, “This is my living room. n

Will Dines reach his goal? Look for the conclusion of his saga in next winter’s edition.

UPHILL CLIMB To reach his record

3 million vertical feet in 2024, Dines has 1.8 million more feet to go.

• Fly Fishing Adventures 1/2 & Full Day

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TARGET PRACTICE

HIDDEN GEM, JUST DOWN THE ROAD

When you think of Stowe, visions of world-class ski slopes, pristine hiking trails, and breathtaking fall foliage come to mind. But nestled between Stowe and Waterbury is a lesser-known treasure for outdoor adventurers—the Waterbury-Stowe Fish & Game Club—which offers a variety of recreational activities that connect people with nature and Vermont’s rich outdoor heritage.

The sprawling grounds feature a trap field, two skeet fields, a 100-yard rifle range, pistol range, and an archery course that winds around 23 acres of the property’s border.

Imagine a blue sky, New England day, the air filled with the scents of local flora as you raise your shotgun, track a bright orange clay pigeon arcing across the sky, and squeeze the trigger. The satisfying crack of the shot echoes through the trees as the disc shatters into a puff of smoke. It’s thrilling and—consider yourself warned—highly addictive.

But the club is far more than just a place to practice marksmanship. Sports shooting often leads to an insatiable interest in exploring other clubs, participating in competition shoots and sports shows, meeting new people, sharing tips and favorite gun shops, and shopping—new guns, old guns, ammunition, gun safes.

It’s truly a hobby that lends itself to lifelong discovery.

The club is home to both members who have been shooting for over 70 years and beginners who have never held a gun before. Club veterans are always generous with guidance and instruction.

The club’s hospitality extends beyond members to visitors and families, as well, who are encouraged to participate in its various shooting and archery sports.

A conservation mission

The club’s mission goes beyond recreational shooting. Founded by a group of local outdoorsmen and women in 1949, it was established with the goal of promoting conservation and responsible stewardship of Vermont’s natural resources. This commitment remains strong today, with members actively working to maintain the Shutesville Hill Wildlife Connector, a crucial wildlife crossing that links the Green Mountains and the Worcester Range.

In keeping with its mission, the club offers educational programs, including hunter’s safety courses, fishing classes, first aid training, and an annual kids’ fishing derby, established in 1950, that introduces young anglers to the joys of casting a line. Members also collaborate with organizations like the National Wild Turkey Federation to promote habitat conservation and sustainable hunting practices.

But perhaps the club’s greatest draw is its sense of community. People come for the shooting, but they stay for the friendships and the stories shared in the clubhouse. Wandering the grounds, one can’t help but feel a sense of connection to Vermont’s rugged beauty and the earlier generations who walked these lands. Club history is woven into the very fabric of the surrounding landscape, and its members are the stewards of a legacy that stretches back over seven decades.

There’s no substitute for being outside, watching wildlife, and taking in the peace and quiet of nature. Sometimes, if you’re really lucky, the wildlife watches you back. n

— Kelley Spear, Tanya Kateri and Kirk Moyes

ESSENTIALS: Waterbury-Stowe Fish & Game Club, 5365 WaterburyStowe Road (Route 100), Waterbury Center. Skeet and trap shooting, archery course, private groups, more. Go to wsfgc.com for hours, fees, and membership, or reach out to wsfgclub@gmail.com.

established in 1950.

PULL! Skeet shooters get ready for a little friendly competition at the Waterbury-Stowe Fish & Game Club in Waterbury Center. A historic photo of the club’s annual fishing derby,

‘COAST INTO 80’ Clockwise from left, Olympians Billy Kidd and Jimmy Heuga made the cover of Sports Illustrated, Feb. 5, 1968. Kidd with another Stowe skiing legend, Tiger Shaw, at the Stowe Challenge in 1983. Kidd speaks at the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum in Stowe.

KIDD CELEBRATES 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF WINNING RUN

The United States didn’t win its first Olympic medal in alpine skiing until Gretchen Fraser brought home a gold in 1948 at the 5th Winter Olympics. Women would keep America in medals with stars like Andrea Mead Lawrence, Penny Pitou, and Betsy Snite. But what about the men?

It wouldn’t be until the 1964 Winter Olympics that the men would win their first alpine skiing medals. And, of course, it was Stowe’s Billy Kidd, who won the silver, with teammate Jimmy Heuga winning bronze.

William Winston Kidd was born on April 13, 1943, in Burlington. His family would move to Stowe in the early 1950s to run the Buccaneer Motel on the Mountain Road. The family claims the legendary buccaneer Captain Kidd as a descendant—hence the name!

Kidd says his father was a good skier, but was more interested in being a

stylish skier. Billy just wanted to go fast. He began racing for the Mt. Mansfield Ski Club in 1953. With influences like Stowe’s Marvin Moriarty, who was already on the U.S. ski team, Kidd had high aspirations. His racing ability caught the eye of Bob Beattie, who was coaching the University of Colorado ski team. Kidd would head for college in Colorado. In 1961, Beattie became head coach of the U.S. Ski Team, and Kidd was named to the team.

At the 1962 World Championships, Kidd showed he belonged on the world stage with an 8th place finish in slalom and 15th in giant slalom. Injuries hampered Kidd during the 1963 season, so he was a dark horse coming into the 1964 Olympics. Those Olympics were held in Innsbruck, Austria, and in those days there were three ski events and

most competitors skied in all three.

Kidd’s first event was the downhill, where he would finish 16th. He says that being in the Olympics in front of 50,000 screaming Austrians affected his nerves and his results. In the next event, his nerves calmed, he finished the giant slalom in a respectable seventh. That set the stage for the slalom, where Kidd put together two strong runs and would lose to Pepi Stiegler by only .14 seconds.

Last Feb. 8 was the 60th anniversary of that slalom. The Colorado Snowsports Museum hosted a special event to recognize that anniversary with Billy Kidd and the Heuga family in attendance. Heuga died in 2010 after a long struggle with multiple sclerosis. In one of those remarkable coincidences, he died on Feb. 8.

As an example of how skiing and particularly slalom has changed, I recommend going on YouTube and searching for “Billy Kidd 1964 slalom.” You’ll find videos of both runs and take a gander at those long skis. For that matter, look at those old slalom flags. Then look up any video of Mikaela Shiffrin skiing a slalom.

But let’s get back to the 1960s. Kidd would compete in the 1968 Olympics with reasonable results but no medals. After winning the gold in the combined at the 1970 World Championships, Kidd retired from FIS competition. He traded his Stowe Moriarty hat for a Stetson and became the director of skiing at Steamboat in Colorado, where he still resides and skis.

Kidd turned 80 in April 2023 and good Steamboat conditions allowed him to celebrate his birthday with a ski tour that included hundreds of skiers. In his earlier days at Steamboat, you could take a tour with Kidd every day at 1 p.m. He was the ultimate host, offering technique suggestions, sharing stories from his racing days, and telling you how to get the most out of your visit.

A reporter for the Steamboat Pilot asked Billy, “What’s the secret of skiing at 80?”

Billy’s response? “Be really, really good at 79 and 9/10 and then you just coast into 80!” n

Read more of Greg Morrill’s ski stories at retro-skiing.com.

STOWE’S LOCAL BIKE SHOP

MTB & GRAVEL BIKE EVENTS

STOWE TRAILS PARTNERSHIP

The outfit you want to join for all things MTB in Stowe. Rides, events, trails, more. stowetrails.org.

JULY 20: Raid Lamoille

Long and short rides. Craftsbury Outdoor Center. grvl.net/raid-lamoille

JULY 26 - 28: Flow State MTB Festival

Ascutney Outdoor Center, weekend of rides, family fun. flowstatemtbfestival.com.

AUGUST 25: Race to the Top of Vermont

4.3-mile hill climb, bike or run up Mansfield’s Toll Road, 2,564 vertical. rtttovt.com.

GOLF: DON LANDWEHRLE. HIKING: KATE

Golf

More than a dozen courses are within an hour’s drive, but two of the state’s most spectacular are the 6,213-yard, 18-hole Stowe Country Club, and the private Stowe Mountain Club. Other courses options abound, from Copley Country Club in Morrisville, to options in the Mad River Valley, Burlington and beyond.

Adventure mountains

Hiking options abound in the Greens. Access the Long Trail from the top of Mansfield and the extensive trail network from the summit area. Routes up Vermont’s highest peak come from all directions— Nebraska Valley, Ranch Camp, Smugglers Notch, and even Underhill, on the mountain’s backside. In addition to Mansfield, the mountain trails around Stowe are too numerous to list, from the Sterling Pond Trail in the Notch to Belvidere Mountain. A good place to get oriented is at the Green Mountain Club headquarters in Waterbury Center. Looking for an adventure? ArborTrek on the Cambridge side of Smugglers Notch offers ziplining, a treetop obstacle course, and more.

Paddle sports

Local outfitters offer river trips on the Lamoille and Winooski rivers, where you can canoe past dairy farms and through quintessential Vermont villages, all the while soaking in sweeping views. Or if you prefer, launch a kayak on Lake Eden, Lake Elmore, Caspian Lake, Wolcott Pond, or Waterbury Reservoir. Canoes and paddleboards are welcome everywhere, such as Long Pond in Eden, Green River Reservoir in Hyde Park, and Little Elmore Pond.

Swimming holes

Innumerable mountain streams meander through the Green Mountains, serving up a Vermont-style swimming experience and a unique kind of solitude. Some are a cinch to find: A walk up the Stowe Recreation Path to a spot on the West Branch River, or the well-known Foster’s swimming hole. Better yet, find your own!

Bike in the woods

Whether you want a gentle ride along the 5.3-mile award-winning Stowe bike path with its views of Mount Mansfield or a teeth-chattering, lung-burning trip through Cady Forest or Adams Camp, strap on your helmet and get riding. Varied terrain and hundreds of miles of trails make the region a perfect biking destination. To get started, stop into a local bike shop or go to stowetrails.org.

Stowe Recreation Path & Rail Trail

Stowe’s nationally recognized 5.3-mile walking and hiking greenway starts in the village behind the Stowe Community Church. While never far from civilization, the path offers scenic views of the West Branch River and Mt. Mansfield. Other access points are on Weeks Hill Road, Luce Hill Road, on the Mountain Road across from Well Heeled, and at the path’s end on Brook Road. The Lamoille Valley Rail Trail meanders through several of the towns north of Stowe. It’s a great biking, running, and walking path—93 miles in all. lvrt.org.

AXE THROWING in the NEK!

PUBLIC COURSE Mountains are ever present at Waterbury’s Blush Hill Country Club.

GOLF IN ALL DIRECTIONS

“Golf is a good walk spoiled” has long been an expression of frustration many golfers utter in exasperation when their actual scores don’t match their desired one. But Stowe-area golfers might be less likely to feel that way, as the region’s courses are so wonderfully scenic views that they make playing a joy, for both low and high handicappers alike.

BLUSH

STORY / KEVIN

M. WALSH

Golfers leave a green at the Copley Country Club in Morrisville.

For those wanting to make golf the main event during a vacation here, the Stowe area offers several courses of varying layouts and skill levels. And they’re all set amid gorgeous scenery and views that might almost make golfers forget about their terrible scores.

The Stowe region offers courses in three areas: south of Stowe in Waterbury, in Stowe, and just north in Morrisville.

Those approaching Stowe from Interstate 89 will pass two Waterbury courses: the nine-hole public Blush Hill Country Club and the Country Club of Vermont, an exclusive, 18hole private club. While much different, each offers its own special charms.

Located high on a hill, Blush Hill’s fairways follow hilly terrain, making level lies a somewhat unusual occurrence. From its hilltop location, “we have amazing views of Mt. Hunger and the Worcester Mountain range,” Susan Seymour, a longtime member of the club’s board of directors, said. And, as at most area courses, encounters with wildlife are always possible. Seymour noted that last year, end-ofthe-day golfers enjoyed the regular appearance of a group of deer that congregated near one of the holes, unbothered by the golfers.

Because Blush Hill is only nine holes, a

round there can still leave much of the day for enjoying popular family spots such as Ben & Jerry’s, Cold Hollow Cider Mill, where fresh, cold cider and warm cider doughnuts are a must treat, and various cheese and chocolate stores along Route 100. Once you visit all these spots, don’t expect to drop any pounds, even if you did walk the hilly Blush Hill course.

A little further north is the private Country Club of Vermont. This par-72, 6,788-yard layout is plush and challenging, although reasonably flat. Natural beauty surrounds golfers at every shot. But visitors here must hope to make a friend who belongs to the club if they have any chance of playing.

Stowe

In Stowe, two other fine courses off Mountain Road in Stowe are just a short drive from the center of town. Established in 1950, the Stowe Country Club is a semi-private, 18-hole course. A long-time favorite of Stowe area golfers, this course is, as of this writing, undergoing changes in the rules for who can play.

The other Stowe course is The Mountain Course, an 18-hole gem at the Spruce Peak Resort carved into the side of a mountain. Built

in 2007, play there is marked by scenic mountain layouts, rock ledge outcroppings along the fairways, high elevation, abundant wildlife, and to-die-for views of the Stowe valley and the man-made Peregrine Lake. To play this course, one must be a qualifying guest at the resort, a member, or a member’s invited guest.

A third Stowe course is quite new, but private. Built in 2022, this nine-hole, 3,255-yard, par-36 course is nestled into the woods along Weeks Hill Road. Knowing the right member is likely your only hope of playing here.

Morristown

North of Stowe are two additional courses, both public, nine-hole tracts that offer a fairly flat and low-key style of play. Located along Route 100, Morrisville’s Ryder Brook Country Club offers a 3,037-yard, par-36 layout. A second Morrisville course is the par-35, 2,775yard course at the Copley Country Club.

While the Stowe area is internationally known as a winter ski destination, golfers will enjoy the summer months in a setting of natural beauty, along with the vibrant colors of the area’s beautiful fall foliage season.

No good walks at these Stowe-area courses will be spoiled. n

COPLEY CHARM

KEVIN WALSH

How Vermont’s most iconic roadway came to be

STUCK AGAIN A tractor trailer tries to navigate through the boulders at the top of Smugglers Notch in Cambridge—and gets stuck. Depending upon the year, stuck trucks can be a frequent occurence, closing the road for hours. Next page: An old linen postcard of The Notch from the 1930s. Opening spread: Paul Rogers captures the night sky at the top of the Notch, a few trees illuminated by the a passing car—or the moon?

Regular travelers of Smugglers Notch Road— the narrow mountain pass that joins the towns of Stowe and Cambridge—arrived this May on the day the road opened for summer, only to be confronted with a novel contraption.

Temporary chicanes—tight artificial curves meant to replicate conditions at the road’s highest point, necessitated by massive boulders that have fallen into the gap from Sterling Mountain and Mt. Mansfield—have been erected by the Vermont Agency of Transportation at both of its entrances on state highway 108.

The chicanes are the most recent effort from the state to curb the number of tractor trailer trucks that get stuck among the boulders, long an annual occurrence exacerbated in recent years by the rise of GPS-dependent out-of-state drivers.

Two days after the chicanes went in, a truck bypassed them and drove into the Notch, and the dance between the state and rogue truckers goes on.

Over the past few years, the Notch averaged five stuck trucks, each taking hours to get unstuck. This was an improvement over 2013, 2014, and 2017, a reduction achieved through

the state’s installation of copious signs, in both English and French, warning truck drivers to stay out of the passage and levying hefty fines against long haulers who ignore them.

While the chicanes may seem a novel attempt to manage one of Vermont’s most popular scenic destinations, it marks just one more alteration in a road that has evolved, not just over decades, but centuries.

As a site of remarkable natural beauty and a crease between two popular peaks, the Notch Road has a long history of drawing those looking to capitalize on it, eyeing its

many economic and scenic possibilities.

It wasn’t easy building a road through Smugglers Notch. It took thousands of dollars in public and private investment, the advocacy of business owners and governors, the tireless efforts

STORY : aaron calvin

‘A DEAD HORSE’ A very early photograph of Smugglers Notch, before an official road was built. The Notch is a popular destination in all four seasons.

of road crews and an unflagging vision that passage through these mountains could only be forged in harmony with its pure mountain splendor.

The road to create this passageway was winding, but by its end, Vermont would change forever.

In 1863, an anonymous traveler’s account of a visit to a particularly remarkable region of Vermont was published in the Boston Daily Advertiser.

He stayed at the Summit House, a hotel near the very top of Mt. Mansfield owned by William H.H. Bingham, who owned several other hotels in the area, including the massive Mount Mansfield Hotel on Stowe’s Main Street (destroyed by fire in 1889), the Green Mountain Inn in the village, and the Half Way House on the side of Mansfield.

The traveler came to Stowe by stagecoach from the train station in Waterbury, as most visitors did at that time, and then proceeded down a “brook road”—a precursor to the present-day Mountain Road—before being led up to the Summit House along a bridle path. Bingham, a wealthy Stowe lawyer and lifelong political operator, wasn’t the first to see the town’s potential as a resort destination, but he was the one best positioned to capitalize on it. A man named Stillman Churchill converted his home into what became the Green Mountain Inn, one of the earliest hotels in Stowe, but ran out of funds, and Bingham, the holder of his mortgage, swooped in.

Bingham may have lost the gubernatorial races he ran in, but he was known as “The Governor” in Stowe for a reason.

A few years before the Boston traveler visited the Summit House, in 1855, Bingham built the Half Way House and “induced the town to lay a road to it,” according to a history published in 1920 by Carrie Straw, a Stowe correspondent for Burlington Free Press. The original Half Way House was moved to the Mansfield summit a few years later, as Bingham continued to push for a road between Stowe village and the mountains.

mostly inaccessible to all but the most intrepid hikers until Bingham forged a road into it, which terminated at one massive boulder that, when it had fallen from a nearby mountain, “caused a shock like an earthquake.” It became known as Bingham’s Rock, and he established a summer house in the vicinity where he welcomed “Notch parties” and secured a couple hundred dollars each year out of the municipal budget for the road’s maintenance at each annual town meeting, according to Straw.

On the other side of the Notch, Cambridge was contemplating its own road. The town began to discuss financing a road into the gorge in the 1850s. In 1865, the Lamoille Newsdealer reported that Cambridge residents had voted to approve the building of just such a road into the Notch.

Bingham had big plans. As the Notch continued to grow in popularity through the 1870s, with Fourth of July picnics and hikes organized by churches, he tried to encourage the development of a railroad.

In 1870, he put a notice in the Newsdealer that he would petition the state to survey a rail line through the area. But it became clear that a carriage road was the most feasible option, and efforts were undertaken from both the sides toward the effort, with Stowe and Cambridge splitting the cost of the road—$20,000, or about a half a million dollars today.

The first true road through Smugglers Notch was completed and christened on Sept. 29, 1894. Picnickers from Cambridge and Stowe met one another in between. With baskets bulging with food and plenty of water from the nearby spring, leading citizens from both towns formally greeted one another before the Cambridge band struck up a rendition of “Nearer My God to Thee,” the hymn echoing through the mountain pass.

Just a couple weeks later, Bingham died at his home in Stowe following an extended illness. Remembered foremost at the time as a titan of 19th-century Vermont politics and a champion of the Democratic Party, then the eternal underdog, the back half of his obituary was dedicated to his leadership in Stowe’s burgeoning hospitality scene.

In 1859, Bingham secured a charter from the Legislature and formed the Mount Mansfield Company, a vehicle to draw outside investment into his hospitality ventures. By 1870, a carriage path was completed, signaling more accessible travel.

The pass through the gorge between Mansfield and Sterling had already developed its legend as the “Smugglers Notch” by the Civil War era. In his travel account, the visitor from Boston observed the caves where, according to “well-authenticated accounts,” “smugglers in 1812 and 1815 concealed ammunition and stores brought from the Canada line.”

According to The Stowe Messenger in 1902, the smuggling was not so patriotic. “Many good and true citizens of New England did not approve of the War of 1812, particularly among members of the old Whig party was the spirit of disapproval shown” wrote the publisher. “The necessities of war laid heavy duties upon imports, and naturally enough, many attempts, and usually successful ones, at smuggling followed.”

Smuggling thrived and developed into “an occupation if not a profession” for some. The Notch provided a natural highway through the mountains, just as it did for “the French and Indian raids of a generation earlier.”

Though it contained some so-called “Indian trails,” The Notch was

“Out of an exceedingly rough locality (Bingham) made a charming neighborhood for the visits of tourists,” his obituary read. “His undertaking drew thousands of strangers to Vermont and made the name of Mt. Mansfield familiar as a household word in the homes of multitudes belonging to other communities.”

Aroad may have been finally made through the Notch, but it was not a path of ease for those who sought to travel it.

“A dead horse and top buggy badly wrecked” were found at the base of a particularly steep hill within the Notch in 1895, according to the Burlington Free Press. The horse was found “with its neck broken” and “blankets, whip and pieces of harness lay scattered in sight with no visible owner in sight to be heard from.”

Recent attempts at highway robbery in Winooski prompted fears of such banditry on the isolated road. The man who hired the team was found unharmed, but the incident quickly metastasized into folklore and earned that section of the Notch Road the name “Dead Horse Hill.”

“While grand it is equally lonely and its passage makes the nerves of the timid tremble with fear,” the report read, speculating that bandits could be hiding in old smugglers’ caverns. “In these times it seems safe only to those who are able to protect themselves.”

Another Free Press columnist praised plans made by the Cambridge

PAINTED CANVAS A variety of scenes of Smugglers Notch through the years. Insets: Photographer Paul Rogers uses a long shutter to capture the movement car lights at night, and the Vermont Agency of Transporation now uses an actual gate on both sides of the Notch Road when it closes for winter to prevent poaching.

Selectboard in 1896 to try and adjust the road to avoid the steepest hills, “as many would avail themselves of the pleasure of a drive through that delightful scenery, who are now deterred by the frightful conditions of the roads.”

With the turn of the 20th century came the advent of the automobile, and the beginnings of the nascent conservation movement. Advocates for ease of travel and for preserving the natural beauty of Smugglers Notch would find common cause in the years to come.

The Montpelier Morning Journal published one of the earliest calls for state ownership of the Notch Road and its development as an auto road in 1911.

“At the present time Smuggler’s Notch is one of our most neglected scenic assets,” the editor wrote. “If it can be made available for a reasonable sum, then we ought not to hesitate to make the investment and thus add another first class attraction to our list.”

It was at this time that the Green Mountain Club began carving out trails in the Mansfield and Notch area for the use of hikers and the eventual development of the Long Trial.

A 1914 column in the Burlington Free Press called upon the state to “save” Smugglers Notch on the way to building an accessible auto road through it, its writer calling for its quick preservation as the axe was “already at work there and in a short time in place of its green forest-clad

slopes which are its glory will remain only aching ground and stumpage.”

Timber was being harvested in Notch at that time, primarily by William Barnes, whose Barnes Camp still lends its name to a hiking base camp at the entrance to the Notch Road on the Stowe side.

In August 1915, Gov. Charles Gates, along with selectboard members and prominent residents from Stowe and Cambridge, drove up into the Notch in their cars for a meeting in which they took the initial steps toward funding a road capable of accommodating regular vehicle traffic.

The next year, the state bought 2,000 acres on Mt. Mansfield to add to the thousands it had already bought on the Underhill side of the mountain, according to news accounts. Gates held a similar summit the next year, this time joined by the Cambridge and Barre engineer Harvey Varnum, who would lend his talents to the construction of the road.

In 1917, as Vermont grappled with a spending deficit and the United States’ entrance into World War I loomed, an initial sum was set aside to begin constructing the auto road through Smugglers Notch following wellattended appropriation hearings in the Legislature, with testimony and editorials from advocates for the road’s promise as a tourist attraction and from detractors concerned about the cost of its ongoing maintenance.

Construction of the road began that fall.

As it took shape, early drivers sought to test the road even before it was completed. There are a few different claims as to the “first” members of the public to make it all the way through the Notch. One of the earliest accounts in the Waterbury Record details the account of a group from Massachusetts and Waterbury that drove through the unfinished highway from the Stowe side in a Ford Model T touring car and a Ford Model T runabout. The drive was a treacherous one, and the parties had to repair their vehicles once they made it to Jeffersonville.

As construction of the road went along, it eventually necessitated the smoothing out its steeper areas, including the legendary Dead Horse Hill, and other of the road’s wildest passages.

In the late summer of 1921, the auto road was finally finished. Just shy of 27 years since the first “road” was built, 200 cars drove through the Notch on its opening weekend, according to a report from the News & Citizen.

Even before it was completed, new development on the Stowe side of the Notch for hotels and other attractions began in earnest, setting the

PAUL ROGERS

groundwork for the explosive popularity of skiing that would change the Vermont tourism landscape just a few decades later. New hotels, including a new summer resort called The Lodge, opened at the road’s entrance.

On Labor Day in 1922, 400 people and 40 cars climbed to the top of Mt. Mansfield to celebrate the opening of the old Summit House carriage road—today, the Auto Toll Road. According to the Newport Express and Standard, a moment of silence was paid to the now long-departed Bingham, “whose genius and vision” made the road possible.

It was a particularly wet fall in 1927.

October rains caused by a landslide temporarily closed the Notch Road. In early November, catastrophic flooding hit Lamoille County particularly hard. The corpses of people and livestock clogged the Lamoille and Winooski rivers in Cambridge, Johnson, and Waterbury as the waters inundated their villages and fields.

The state was still decades away from construction of the I-89 interstate. Suddenly, the road through Smugglers Notch, completed just a few years earlier, became more than just a scenic route for tourists, it was a lifeline for emergency services in Chittenden County, allowing ease of access to hard-hit Waterbury and passage to the eastern half of the county after high water made the road through Johnson impassable.

“When the call came for assistance for the flood-stricken people of Waterbury on Saturday afternoon of November 5th, the only available road was through Smugglers Notch,” a Burlington Free Press columnist reflected a year after the flood. “This though very slippery in some places, proved conclusively that a road maintained by the Highway Department so efficiently during the summer months, stood up under the great downpour of rain when the valleys were deluged.

In early July 2023, nearly a century after that catastrophic flood, Vermont was once again struck by a devastating downpour, and the road through Johnson impassable, leaving the Notch Road as the only connecting route from western to eastern Lamoille County.

Though the storm caused a foot of snow to fall in the highest elevation section of the road, it was vital when a young Johnson resident named Richard Sinclair had to be rushed to the hospital in Burlington for an emergency operation on a stomach abscess the morning after the flood. The normal route to Cambridge was impassable, forcing him to go around the mountain and through the Notch.

The road through the Notch was eventually paved in 1964, the year after Bingham’s Summit House, many owners and expansions later, was torn down. Editors of Stowe’s newest weekly newspaper, The Stowe Reporter, opposed such modernizing changes.

“We understand that there are some Stoweites who favor the paving the ‘dirt’ section of this road,” they wrote in a 1960 editorial. “After careful consideration we find that we cannot agree. This road is not only a scenic drive, it is an experience harmonious with the terrain, and safe to careful drivers.”

All this modernization began to have its own consequences. A couple decades later, stuck trucks in the Notch had become a sure sign of summer.

“The annual rites of spring were played out in Smugglers Notch again last week, when a tractor trailer became stuck between in the narrow curves there,” read an entry in the Reporter’s police blotter in June 1982.

And the rites go on. n

PHOTOS BY GORDON MILLER

GLENN CALLAHAN

Stowe native, adventurer, humanitarian, extreme skier remembered

Kasha Rigby

‘NATURALLY GOOD’ Opposite page: An Ace Kvale portrait of Kasha Rigby in Boulder, southern Utah. Below: Rigby climbs through the Rwenzori mountains of Uganda toward the glaciated summit of Mount Stanley’s Margherita Peak (16,762 feet), the highest peak in the country, but not before making friends with the locals at the outset of the six-day hike to summit. Opening spread: Mary McIntyre grabs a shot of Rigby booting toward the summit of Osorno in Chile on a multiweek volcano tour while filming for an ESPN adventure called “Chicas y Volcanos.”

kasha Rigby—a Stowe-born legend of telemark skiing, a globe-trekking adventurer and humanitarian aid worker—died in an avalanche at a ski area in Kosovo last winter.

Rigby, 54, died at the ski resort in Brezovica. She had been skiing off piste in an area called Eagle’s Nest, known for its avalanche risks, according to Ski.

Rigby dropped in for a run in the area despite the rain, high wind, and snowmelt, which she observed in her final Instagram post, triggering a 25-meter-wide avalanche that dragged her into a stand of trees.

She was reached within moments by her fiancé, Magnus Wolfe Murray, who attempted to save her, but the severe injuries she suffered in the event proved too great to overcome.

Though apparently dangerous terrain in risky conditions, it was, in many ways, no different a run than the countless Rigby had made in her globe-spanning, death-defying life, differing only in that it happened to be the final one she took.

As news of Rigby’s fate trickled out of Eastern Europe, the ski world erupted in mourning.

in a caption for a photo of Rigby atop Denali, where the two once shared a tent for a month. “Losing her is a cruel blow.”

By all accounts, Rigby was the kind of magnetic personality that made a remarkable impact on everyone she met, no matter how briefly or infrequently. Always on the move and always looking for the next adventure, she was transient to the extent that she took on the nickname “flight risk.”

As she matured, those who knew her well say she began to focus more on her lifelong penchant for service through her work with humanitarian aid groups like the World Food Group and in disaster response.

“She could just show up somewhere and just make anyone feel good, no matter who it was,” lifelong friend Jesse James Davenport said. “From the kids in Bangladesh to whoever—she was a great friend; she was just good at that.”

Stowe born

Rigby may have led a restless, itinerant adult life, but it was always Stowe from which she came, and it was always Stowe to which she returned.

Her otherworldly charisma was, according to Davenport, evident from the moment they first met in kindergarten at Stowe Elementary School to

“The love, sparkle, and joy you brought to everything you did, and the people you cared about, and the world you cared about, is something I will remember and aspire to for the rest of my life,” wrote professional skier Mary McIntyre.

“Kasha was a brilliant big-mountain skier who inspired many younger female skiers to live out their dreams,” wrote travel writer Jon Krakauer

the moment in third grade when Rigby asked her to sit next to her and their lives became irrevocably intertwined.

“Kasha was just so naturally good at everything she did, from athletics, to not having to study for a test and getting straight As, to just being able to show up when you needed and didn’t have to tell her—she was just very good at doing everything.”

PHOTOGRAPHS : mary mcintyre and ace kvale

MARY MCINTYRE; NEXT PAGE, ACE KVALE

TRADEMARK KASHA Below: Rigby appeared on the cover of the premier issue of Women Outside in a story where she was christened “the best female telemark skier in the known universe.” Rigby in the midst of a familiar gear explosion scenario in Iceland—”what the heck did I bring and do I even need any of it!”

Next page: With a smile, glow, and radiance Rigby rides toward Boulder on the Hogback, a scenic route between Boulder and Escalante, Utah. Rigby and her friend, Mary McIntyre, on the summit of Mount Stanley, the third highest peak in Africa, in the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda.

Rigby’s parents, George and Debbie Rigby, owned the Hob Knob Inn for nearly 38 years, and with her parents busy working, Rigby was left to roam the verdant forests and steep mountainsides, though Davenport remembers that George always ensured they were well fed.

It was this childhood, which Debbie described as essentially “feral,” where Rigby whetted an early appetite for daring and adventure. Though outside of the ski school institutions like the Mt. Mansfield Ski Club, Rigby and Davenport honed a passion for skiing on Mt. Mansfield and surrounding peaks that would shape the rest of their lives.

By the time she entered high school, Rigby was already developing a skill in telemark skiing, a combination of alpine and Nordic skiing with skis that feature a backless binding. In skiing as with much of life, Rigby could not help but gravitate toward the unique.

“I remember her coming into school with bruises, and she was like ‘I telemarked down Nose Dive, and I made it this time,’ ” Kristina von Trapp Frame said. “She was just always pushing herself.”

“In my high school, where almost all the skiers were (alpine) racers, people thought I had become a freak of nature,” Rigby told Powder in the early nineties.

back nine hours to New Mexico,” Davenport said. “That’s how she was, just wanting to keep moving and visiting people and having those adventures.”

Her globetrotting began early as well. She declined to return to New Mexico after a semester and instead decamped to Mozambique where she helped develop gardens, and then returned stateside and to Crested Butte, Colo., to make her name in skiing history.

Extreme career

After winning a sponsorship from Grand Butte Hotel where she worked as a waitress in 1993, a 23-year-old Rigby entered the U.S. Extreme Skiing Championships—“as sort of a joke,” she told the Stowe Reporter—and took third overall in the women’s division. She was the only telemark competitor of either sex to make it to the final day of the competition.

“That kind of allowed her to punch her ticket as a professional athlete,” said Adam Howard, a Cambridge-based Backcountry Magazine editor who knew Rigby. “From there, she kind of embodied what tele-

“Alpine skiers look like their feet are stuck in cement,” Rigby told Outside in 1996 after she established herself as an extreme skier. “Telly skiing is about mobility, rhythm, balance and, of course, speed. I love to go fast—really fast.”

Rigby was, apparently, unstoppable. Despite being a passenger in a car crash on Stowe’s Mountain Road that killed two others, including a fellow member of the close-knit Stowe High School Class of 1988, Rigby survived as she was the only one involved wearing a seatbelt.

After high school, Rigby followed Davenport out west to New Mexico and university.

“We would drive through Colorado, drive north and pick up friends from other universities like Boulder, and then we’d end up in Laramie, Wyo., where at least three to five kids from Stowe were going to school at the University of Wyoming, party for the weekend, and then drive

mark skiing was about, which was just that free heel, free mind sort of way.”

After establishing herself as a name in the extreme skiing movement, Rigby’s star only rose. She joined The North Face ski team in 1995 and began traveling the world, making first descents on some of the world’s tallest peaks. In 1998, she appeared on the cover of the premier issue of Women Outside in a story in which she was christened “the best female telemark skier in the known universe.”

Among many accomplishments, she’s credited with the first ski descents of Mongolia’s five holy peaks, including Khüiten, the highest peak in Mongolia, first descent of the RFHP, an 8,202-foot couloir in the Himachal Pradesh region of India, first ski descent of Mt. Udina and Mt. Zimina, both in Russia, and the first telemark descent of Cho Oyu in Asia. She skied everywhere, from the highest peaks in Siberia to the

MARY MCINTYRE; NEXT PAGE, TOP: ACE KVALE; MCINTYRE

CLASS OF 1988 Below: Pioneer extreme telemark skier Kasha Rigby lived in Salt Lake City but in recent years was helping earthquake relief efforts in Turkey. Rigby shares a ride with a group of refugee girls while working for the World Food Programme in Bangladesh. Next page: Rigby climbs up for a sunset run above a sailboat in the Westfjords of Iceland.

Cotopaxi and Chimborazo volcanoes in Ecuador, and trekked into the frozen Zanskar River in Ladakh, India.

Through it all, she always did it her way, and with few of the pretensions one might expect from a world-class athlete.

Davenport met her husband, U.S. Ski Hall of Fame member Chris Davenport, in the extreme skiing milieu in which Rigby came up. The couple settled near Aspen, where she’s been a member of the ski patrol for more than 30 years.

Though their paths differed, Rigby had a knack for always returning to Davenport’s life when she most needed her.

“We did an all-girls expedition for the North Face in Kamchatka, Russia,” Davenport said. “We were there for over a month. She was telling me, ‘You’re coming,” and I said, ‘I don’t know, I’m not a North Face athlete.’ She would just always include people in everything.”

“The thing that’s notable to me about Kasha is she could have kept doing that stuff. She could have been that career pro-athlete, but I don’t know that it fit her perfectly well,” Howard said. “Kasha was more comfortable traveling the world on her own terms.”

Life of service

Having grown up around the service industry, Rigby never shied away from waiting tables and washing dishes to save up money for her next trip. For a time, she settled down in Boulder, Utah, with her friend, skierphotographer Ace Kvale, and lived among the slot canyons. Davenport remembers driving up with her family and finding her at work at the Hell’s Backbone Grill & Farm Restaurant.

As she aged from her youth in extreme skiing, her travels increasingly included a more explicit service element.

“As she matured, she focused more on aid work as opposed to adventure,” her mother Debbie said.

After having skied the eastern Himalayas, she returned in 2015 after a devastating earthquake killed and injured thousands.

“She went on expeditions to Nepal, and then when the earthquake happened, she went to work there for six months, because she felt like she wanted to do something for that country,” Davenport said.

She went on to work for the World Food Programme for three years in Bangladesh, where she helped Rohingya refugees who were forcibly displaced from their homes in Myanmar. It was there she met Wolfe Murray. The couple planned to marry in September.

At the time of her death, the couple were in Kosovo awaiting approval of visa paperwork that would allow her to continue helping the victims of the earthquake that tore apart Turkey a year ago.

She was also, increasingly, drawn back to Stowe, first by the death of her brother in 2017 and then by the death of her father in 2019, and again when Debbie fell ill last year. In her return, she found time to catch up with old friends, hiking the Pinnacle Trail with chiropractor Kirsten Alexander and skinning up Mansfield with builder Chapman Smith.

“She really had found a new appreciation for Vermont and coming back to Stowe,” Smith said.

While Rigby may have touched countless lives with her charisma and made her name as an unapologetic and fearless skier of the world’s tallest peaks, it may be back in her hometown, with Davenport and the rest of the Stowe Class of 1988, where her legacy is richest.

“While being a total badass and so strong and so amazing, she also was super feminine and just owned her femininity and her beauty,” von Trapp Frame said. “You were just kind of in awe of her, she just was uninhibited and didn’t hold anything back and just did everything to her utmost.” n

Contribute to a Kasha Rigby “Transport, Memorial, and Charity Fund” at bit.ly/3JZTi9N.

ACE KVALE; MAGNUS WOLFE MURRAY; NEXT PAGE: MARY MCINTYRE

high mowing

“it is our goal to leverage the power

s a young man in his teens, Tom Stearns started growing seed crops in his backyard. Soon he was selling his seeds to other growers and making friends with anyone who would talk about anything related to seeds. He attended the American Seed Trade Association annual convention and met other seed growers and sellers willing to discuss the business of seed cultivation.

As Stearns continued to expand his inventory, fast forward to 1996 when he opened High Mowing Organic Seeds, the only 100-percent certified organic seed company of its size in North America. There are numerous smaller organic seed companies, but nothing on the scale of High Mowing.

Committed to only producing organic seeds, Stearns contracted with organic seed growers across the U.S. and Canada and the business grew. The staff now fluctuates between 55 to 70—and Stearns, being an entrepreneur, brought in a manager who grew the company into a blooming business. He eventually stepped away from daily operations but remains on the board of directors.

The company now offers over 700 organic vegetable, flower, and herb varieties.

“Seed crops need a longer growing season than plants that are harvested for food,” Andrea Tursini, CEO of High Mowing Seeds since 2022, said. She has been with the company since 2011, starting in sales before moving into the position of chief marketing officer, and now CEO.

“Vermont’s growing season is too short to let most plants go to seed without getting moldy or simply not developing fully, so we have contracts with smaller seed growers with longer growing seasons to provide the seeds we sell.”

But those seeds must first go through a rigorous process of determining which varieties are best to bring to market. High Mowing has trial fields in Hyde Park where they grow up to 10 varieties of the same plant and do that for any plant under consideration.

Take beans, for example. The company will grow 10 varieties of beans and analyze them for yield, growing time, flavor, disease resistance, temperature tolerance, and whether they are appropriate for commercial growers. They home in on the winning species, such as Compass French Filet, and contract with

of seed to transform our world.”

other organic seed crop growers across North America to grow that bean specifically for its seeds.

“We watch market standards. We want new products to be better in disease resistance, yield, and flavor,” explained Taylor Maida, the Hyde Park farm manager and product and trials manager. “We are always looking for material we’re missing in the catalogue. I talk to sales reps and seed suppliers for feedback. We recently added Celine, a purple waxed bean that people are excited about. It’s fun and fascinating to look at plants that might be something for us to carry.”

Maida has been working with vegetables since she was 15 and is interested in where her food comes from. “I’ve worked on farms and wanted some hands-on growing. This is my 12th growing season with High Mowing.”

In summer, Maida spends about 75 percent of her time in the trial fields evaluating plants and collecting data. She and her team of two full-timers and one part-timer trial about 750 varieties each year. They grow plants to full

SEEDS OF CHANGE Jill Rotondo, Jenn Detweiler, and Zach Leonard, the wholesale sales team. Charles Gill checks in on the beans. Chard. Monique Gerbex with Bopak boy choy in the growing fields. Opening spread, High Mowing Seeds founder Tom Stearns. Taylor Maida, produce and trials manager, harvests Badger Flame beets.

maturity and evaluate them for market value. And that’s where it stops since they are not growing for seed.

So, who gets all that produce?

“We have a staff CSA, and we also work closely with Salvation Farms, which is essentially a food bank in Lamoille County. They distribute to food shelves and pantries. They love our produce because it’s not seconds, it’s firsts,” Maida said.

Growers usually ship their seeds to High Mowing in late fall to early winter where they undergo meticulous quality control.

“Usually seed growers prepare and clean seeds before shipping, but we still run them through our state-of-the art cleaning and sorting equipment,” Tursini said. “We have strict pest protocols. All seeds that come in get cleaned and debearded, which removes any fuzziness. Some seeds, like sweet corn, come with moths, so we freeze the seeds to kill the moths. All are stored in the bulk room in a cold, low-humidity climate.”

After leaving the cold room, seeds are tested for germination rates and timing. Hundreds of seed-growing trays under growing lamps line walls in the long, narrow germination room. Every sprout is monitored and recorded, and that information appears on the seed packets. What happens to all those sprouts? They are sacrificed to the compost bin to make room for the next round.

Once the pertinent information has been recorded, the seeds move into the packaging department, where they are “pulled and packed.” Aisle after aisle of shelving units are lined with narrow filing boxes filled front to back with packets. Each box contains only one species, but there may be 10 or more varieties of a single plant, such as tomato, sunflower, or peas. This adds up to row after row of colorful seed packets. The location of every species is computerized, so the staff knows exactly where specific seeds are when filling orders.

“January and February are our busy months, when farmers are buying bulk seed and home growers are ordering from our catalogue,” Tursini said. “Half of our orders come from gardeners and half come from farmers. Seeds are packaged by weight or count and sorted into three different-sized packets. We sell over a million packets a year.”

The folks at High Mowing Organic Seeds believe in a deeper understanding of how food systems support health on all levels—environment, economy, communities, and our own bodies—and are striving to provide an essential component in the rebuilding of those systems: the seed. They believe they can improve the world, one seed at a time.

For more information about High Mowing Organic Seeds, go to highmowingseeds.com.

TRIALS A variety of

SEED

seeds pose for a photo. High Mowing Seeds’ CEO, Angela Tursini. A seed rack for packing seeds. Monique Gerbex harvests chard.

PHOTOGRAPHER CHRONICLES ‘TIME OF TRANSITION’

STICK SEASON STORIES

While there may be no calendar dates to mark the beginning or end of Stick Season, we know it when we see it. Hillsides we recently adored now stand bare. We were there for the transition: the falling of leaves, the wind sweeping across the landscape, the gathering of beauty at the feet of those majestic trees once full of color and pop. The breeze of foliage glory is at our back, with winter’s wind dancing in the corners of our mind.

The landscape has changed to hues of brown and we now live at a threshold.

Liminal is the term sometimes used to describe the changing of the seasons, both on the land and in our lives. Late autumn has always been that way for me. In 2008, with a busy summer and fall behind me, November presented itself as a time to document Vermont. It would be a photographic observation during a time for quiet, for preparations, for locals and for pondering.

For me, it was a time to find beauty in a landscape that whispers more than shouts: humility from corner to corner. The project I was about to undertake proved not to be one-off, for it continues to this day. And the project certainly didn’t confine itself to photographing landscapes, which would be the obvious choice.

Staying close to home on my first photo outing for this project—now, 16 first outings—kept me within the borders of Lamoille County: Morristown, Johnson, Waterville, Belvidere. It was in this last village of Belvidere Center that I stopped to photograph the porch on Tallman’s Store. The building was threadbare and paintthirsty (something photographers can exploit if not done sensitively).

Large jack-o-lanterns proudly lined the elevated porch, one day past their prime when Halloween had brought them profound glory. The monumental pumpkins would have been enough of a cherished subject at the store, where its own, literal threshold was stickered with brands of the day.

I’ll admit to being somewhat shy, somewhat self-conscious, camera in hand like a visitor. How could someone know that I lived not far and had come to celebrate the place?

Luckily for me, I had brought along a photographer friend from Waterville on that first dedicated stick season adventure. Being less shy, Robert spoke on my behalf when a local man—in a parka too warm for that day—happened by. Paul can take your picture with the jack-o-lantern, I remember Robert prophesying. (Or maybe he just asked.)

Clayton Miller was happy to hug that pumpkin, cozy in his green parka, wool hat,

bearded face, and smiling eyes. My flash was at the ready, tethered to the camera, should there be any deep shadows from the late afternoon sun. There was a big smile. And character. Vermont character.

The resulting photo has become a favorite of both that day and of my first photographic stick season, but I can no longer bear to preESSAY & PHOTOGRAPH / PAUL ROGERS

A VERMONT PORTRAIT Clayton Miller, Belvidere Center, 2008. “Miller was happy to hug that pumpkin, cozy in his green parka, wool hat, bearded face, and smiling eyes,” photographer Paul Rogers writes.

sent the photo in that most documentary of choices, black and white. As classic, as definitive, and as tonally charming as monochromatic images can be, this photo needs to reveal the color of the day, the color of the season, the color of the man. I tell myself that it’s just as documentary in color and hopefully more than a mere snapshot.

Clayton’s portrait with the pumpkin is now part of a body of work that, for me, is approaching a portrait of Vermont. This metaphorical rendering, this likeness of our state during an unadorned time of year, will

never be complete. But each subject—whether people, landscapes, events, remembrances of the past or hints at the future—adds a little more to this portrait that’s larger than any one image.

Each photo, yours and mine, adds to our state’s sense of place and tells a bit more of its story. But sometimes there is an interesting story to go with the photo, especially during stick season.

Paul Rogers lives in Stowe.

not knotweed, please

No doubt about it. Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) is nasty. It’s invasive. It threatens native plants and insects and waterways and is almost impossible to eradicate.

Don’t plant it. Don’t try to destroy it unless you know what you’re doing. Before you try, get the facts at vtinvasives.org.

Japanese knotweed is on the Vermont Noxious Weed Quarantine list, and it is illegal to purchase, plant, or transport. Eradication is difficult. Once removed it must be bagged because it easily reestablishes itself. Stems can reach heights of up to 10 feet tall and its rhizomes can potentially spread 23 to 65 feet.

That all said, local photographer Gordon Miller is fascinated with Japanese knotweed for its ability to play with light, and he’s literally shot hundreds and hundreds of pictures of the much-loathed plant. Why? It offers abundant—no pun intended—opportunities for ethereal-like photographs as light dances around, on, and through its delicate blossoms and heartshaped leaves. Flowers emerge as small white to off-white racemes, or panicles.

“Knotweed has altered our riverscapes, but there is beauty to be found in its lifecycle. Backlit blossoms have a snowflake quality that attracts bees and other insects and their transparent seed pods dangle like earrings, catching the sun’s rays.”

Miller understands the destructiveness of the plant, but also cannot help being beholden to its beauty. —Greg Popa

not knotweed, please

not knotweed, please

Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts."

— Sigmund Freud

SHOP • ARTS • EXPLORE

Sculptor and artist Chakaia Booker will have a solo show at The Current, Stowe’s center for contemporary art, this summer and fall. With Tara Sabharwal and Justin Sanz, she also curates a concurrent exhibition, “Climate Imprints,” and her work will also be part of The Current’s 33rd annual outdoor sculpture exhibition. Find out more on p.116. Inset: Holly Friesen, Earth River, 40"x40", acrylic, Bryan Memorial Gallery.

EXHIBITS & GALLERIES

ARTISAN GALLERY

20 Bridge St., Waitsfield. Daily 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. (802) 496-6256, vtartisansgallery.com.

Showcase of 150-plus Vermont artists.

BRYAN MEMORIAL GALLERY

180 Main Street, Jeffersonville. Summer hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 11 - 5, (802) 644-5100. bryangallery.org.

Through July 7

New England Waterways

Through August 25

40 Years Together

Through December 22

Legacy 2024

July 10 - August 25

Interpretative New England

August 28 - December 22

2024 Land & Light & Water & Air

August 28 - October 20

Nocturnal New England

THE BRYAN—STOWE

Main Street. Wednesday - Sunday, 11 - 5. (802) 760-6474. bryangallery.org.

July 17 - September 8

Northern Vermont Watercolor Society Show

THE CURRENT

90 Pond St., Stowe Village. Tuesday – Friday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Free, donations welcome. Visit thecurrentnow.org for monthly public events. (802) 253-8358.

See The Current, p.116.

LITTLE RIVER HOTGLASS STUDIO

593 Moscow Rd., Moscow. littleriverhotglass.com. (802) 253-0889. Nationally recognized art glass studio, features Stowe artist Michael Trimpol’s studio.

NORTHWOOD GALLERY

151 Main Street, Stowe. (802) 760-6513. northwoodgallery.com. Work by Vermont artisans: jewelry, fiber, wood, pottery, glass, sculpture, illustration, soaps, paintings, photography, more.

FRONT FOUR GALLERY

Baggy Knees Shopping Center, 394 Mountain Rd., Stowe. (802) 253-7282. frontfourgallery.com. Original paintings, sculpture, photography from dozens of noted artists.

July 6

Plein Air in the Village

See first hand how five world-class painters approach the canvas as they set up about Stowe. Charcuterie, drinks, conversation, and paint sale. In collaboration with The Bryan— Stowe.

VISIONS OF VERMONT ART GALLERIES

Main Street, Jeffersonville. (802) 760-7396, visionsofvermont.com.

Works of 15 master landscape artists. June 1 - 30

Northern Vermont Artists Association

GOINGS ON

JULY 4

STOWE FOURTH

n ONGOING

THROUGH OCTOBER 20

Stowe Farmers Market

Enjoy breakfast, lunch, live music on the field. Take home local produce, meat, cheese, herbal products, crafts, and jewelry. 10:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. Topnotch field, 3420 Mountain Road. stowefarmersmarket.com.

JUNE – OCTOBER

Club Racing at Stowe Yacht Club

Watch yacht sailors in action. Monday and Wednesday afternoons, 4 - 5:30 p.m., weather permitting. Commodores Inn, Route 100 South, Stowe. stoweyachtclub.com.

JULY 12 – AUGUST 23

Art on Park

Featuring delicious food from local food vendors, agriculturally-based products, and a broad selection of art from Vermont fine artists and artisans. Musicians entertain. 5 - 8 p.m. Village green, Stowe village.

SELECT FRIDAYS

Weekends on the Green

Artisan market, music, food, lawn games, more. On the village green, Spruce Peak at Stowe. Fridays, 4-7 p.m. sprucepeak.com.

n JUNE

JUNE 15

Rattling Brook Bluegrass Festival

Regional bluegrass bands in all-day festival. 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Admission. Belvidere Center stage, Route 109.

JUNE 21 – 23

Joe Kirkwood Memorial Golf Tournament

Amateur event honoring Joe Kirkwood, worldfamous trick-shot artist who lived in Stowe. Stowe Country Club, Cape Cod Road. kirkwoodgolftournament.com.

JUNE 29

Catamount Ultra Marathon

25k & 50k courses through pastures and forest. Trapp Family Lodge trails, Stowe. 7 and 8:30 a.m. starts. catamountultra.com.

JUNE 29

Oxbow Music Festival

Toby Kniffin, Seth Yacovone, Bri Lauri, Marty Marooney, Kevin Shapiro, Les Dead Ringers and Cedar. After party at Moog’s with Seth Yacovone Band. Music at 3 p.m. Oxbow Park, Morristown. oxbowmusicfestival.com.

JUNE 29 – JULY 21

Stowe Free Library Giant Book Sale Community book sale on the porch. New stock daily. Daily dawn to dusk. Stowe Village. stowelibrary.org.

Symphony Orchestra

n JULY

JULY 7

Music in the Meadow—Vermont Symphony Orchestra Summer Tour

7:30 p.m. Gates open at 5:30 for picnicking. Trapp Family Lodge concert meadow, Trapp Hill Road, Stowe. stoweperformingarts.com.

JULY 4

Moscow Parade

World-famous shortest 4th of July parade. Starts promptly at 10 a.m. in Moscow Village. World’s Shortest Marathon 11 a.m. at the entrance of the Stowe Recreation Path in the village. Run in honor of US. Marine Lt. Ryan Casey.

Vermont

GOINGS ON FIELD

JULY 19 – 21

DAYS

Stowe Fourth of July Parade & Fireworks

Great eats from an array of food vendors, entertainment for the whole family, and live musical performances from 11 a.m. - noon and 1 - 2 p.m. on the village green. Watch floats parade down Main Street at noon. At 6 p.m. head to the Mayo Farm events field, Weeks Hill Road, for more festivities. Fireworks at dusk. stowevibrancy.com.

JULY 5

Spruce Peak Independence Day Day filled with live music, entertainment, games, kids activities, food, and fireworks, noon-10:30 p.m. On the green at Spruce Peak village. sprucepeak.com.

JULY 13

Craftsbury Antiques & Uniques Festival with antiques, vintage items, crafts, food, and music. Held on Craftsbury Common in July for over 50 years. More than 100 vendors. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. craftsburyantiquesanduniques.com

JULY 14

Gardens of Stowe

Self-guided tour of some of Stowe’s most interesting gardens and landscapes. More at stowevibrancy.com. 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Rain or shine.

JULY 19 – 21

Lamoille County Field Days

Agricultural fair. Horse, pony, and ox pulling, draft horse show, gymkhana, midway, much more. 9 a.m. Route 100C, Johnson. lamoillefielddays.com.

JULY 27 – AUGUST 11

Phlox Fest

Dozens of varieties of phlox displayed at Summersweet Gardens. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday. Brick House Road, East Hardwick. summersweetgardens.com.

JULY 28

Music in the Meadow—Catherine Russell 7 p.m. Gates open at 5:30 for picnicking. Trapp Family Lodge concert meadow, Trapp Hill Road, Stowe. stoweperformingarts.com.

n AUGUST

AUGUST 2 – 4

Stowe Jazz Festival

Musical acts play at eight venues around Stowe. Afro-Cuban, Gypsy, and Brazilian jazz, big band, smooth, soul, swing, more. Festival main stage is The Alchemist, Cottage Club Road. stowejazzfestival.com.

AUGUST 3 – 4

Soling 1M Invitational

Watch yacht sailors in action. Commodores Inn, Route 100 South, Stowe. stoweyachtclub.com.

AUGUST 18

Music in the Meadow—Ozomatli Gates open at 5:30 for picnicking. Trapp Family Lodge concert meadow, Stowe. stoweperformingarts.com. 7 p.m.

AUGUST 22 – 25

A Taste of New England Region’s best chefs come together for food, spirits, and wine celebration. Spruce Peak at Stowe, sprucepeak.com.

>>

Stowe fireworks.

GOINGS ON

SEPTEMBER 20 – 22

BRITISH INVASION

AUGUST 25

Race to the Top of Vermont

A 4.3-mile hill climb up Mount Mansfield Toll Road in Stowe—2,564 vertical feet. BBQ, music, prizes. rtttovt.com.

n FALL EVENTS

SEPTEMBER 20

British Invasion Block Party

The British invade Main Street, Stowe. From 69:30 p.m. dance to Joey Leone’s Chop Shop and mingle among beautiful British cars. Food court and beer garden. $5. stowevibrancy.com.

SEPTEMBER 20 – 22

British Invasion Car Show

British classic sports car and motorcycle event. Cultural activities, crafts, auto jumble, car corral. Stowe Events Field, Weeks Hill Road, Stowe. britishinvasion.com.

SEPTEMBER 21

Trapp Family Lodge Oktoberfest

All things Austrian, all things von Trapp! Trapp Family Lodge Bierhall, Trapp Hill Road, Stowe. Ticketed event. trappfamily.com.

SEPTEMBER 22

Trapp Cabin Trail Races

5k, 10k and half marathon to Trapp cabin. Party, prizes, bib raffle, food. 7 a.m. greenmtnadaptive.org.

SEPTEMBER 29

Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin’ Festival

Send the pumpkins flying. Music, kids’ activities, 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. $10, free under 4. Mayo Farm events field, Weeks Hill Road, Stowe. vtpumpkinchuckin.blogspot.com.

OCTOBER 5

Indigenous Peoples’ Day Rock! Native American culture, full lineup of music and Indigenous educators, exhibits, crafters and food. Noon - 5 p.m. The Current, 90 Pond St., Stowe village. Ipdrocks.com.

OCTOBER 5

Copley’s Moxie Gravel Grinder 25-mile and 50-mile courses or shorter e-bike routes. Lost Nation Brewing, Morrisville. Registration (bikereg.com) includes prizes, lunch.

OCTOBER 11 – 13

Stowe Foliage Arts Festival

150 artists—fine art, craft, cuisine. Wine tasting, music, craft demos. Under heated tents. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. $12. Topnotch field, Mountain Road. stoweartsfest.com.

OCTOBER 20

Trapp Mountain Marathon

13.1-mile loop up Round Top Mountain, highest point at Trapp Family Lodge. trappfamily.com.

OCTOBER 20

Heady Trotter

Four-miler, food and music festival, 10 a.m.2 p.m. Alchemist, Cottage Club Road, Stowe.

NOVEMBER 3

Vermont 10-miler

Benefits Stowe Land Trust. 9 a.m. Mayo Farm Events Field. vermont10miler.com. n

GORDON

Pumpkin Chuckin’.

CONCERT

A SIZZLING SUMMER SEASON

Stowe has a reputation for outdoor activities—skiing, mountain biking, trail running, hiking, fishing, the list goes on. Well, move over sportsters, Stowe also has a reputation as a concert destination, and music lovers may soon outnumber sports enthusiasts. Stowe Performing Arts is the belle of the ball, having held its very popular Music in the Meadows series for decades every summer at Trapp Family Lodge.

In keeping with tradition, the season kicks off July 7 with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra as part of the orchestra’s Summer Festival Tour, “Symphony of Stars.” The orchestra also celebrates its 90th birthday this year!

Music in the Meadow has been part of the

symphony’s summer tour since 1976. “The VSO always draws a huge crowd,” Lynn Paparella, executive director of Stowe Performing Arts, said.

This summer, join the orchestra for a spectacular evening of music by Sufjan Stevens, Margaret Bonds, Vermont’s own Erik Nielsen, John Philip Sousa, John Williams—his “E.T.” score—and more, accompanied by VSO musicians.

Music director Andrew Crust leads the ensemble, featuring solos by principal percussion D. Thomas Toner, principal clarinet Kelli O’Connor, and principal cello John Dunlop.

With an off-the-beaten-path song selection, sparkling acoustic swing, and a stunning vocal approach, Catherine Russell has joined the ranks of the greatest interpreters and performers of American popular song, with a repertoire featuring a selection of gems from

COMING HOME Clockwise from top left, Catherine Russell, Vermont Symphony Orchestra music director and conductor, Andrew Crust, and Ozomatli.

the 1920s through today, vital interpretations bursting with soul and humor. She plays the Meadow on July 28.

A native New Yorker, Russell was born into musical royalty. Her father, Luis Russell, was a legendary pianist, composer, bandleader, and Louis Armstrong’s long-time musical director. Her mother, Carline Ray, was a pioneering vocalist, guitarist, and bassist who performed with International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Mary Lou Williams and Sy Oliver.

Russell’s debut album “Cat,” received rave reviews, paving the way for her next release, “Sentimental Streak.”

NPR says she has “a voice that wails like a horn and whispers like a snake in the Garden of Eden.”

Ozomatli’s collaborative, energetic blend of multi-cultural music and activism has earned it three Grammy Awards. The Los Angeles-bred band’s messages, sung in both Spanish and >>

- WEDNESDAY 10-6 | THURSDAY - SATURDAY 10-7

CONCERT HALL

English, need no translation. Like other L.A.based artists, Ozo takes cues from the city and unearths its movements, reaching from the city’s curbs to its high-rises.

If the City of Angels had a soundtrack, it would be Ozomatli’s music. As founding members Jiro Yamaguchi and Uli say, “You drive down Sunset Boulevard and turn off your stereo and roll down your windows and the music that comes out of each and every different car, whether it’s salsa, cumbia, merengue, Hip Hop, funk or whatever, it’s that crazy blend that’s going on between that cacophony of sound is Ozomatli, y’know?”

Ozomatli ends the Meadow series on Aug. 18. Here’s the lineup in a nutshell:

MUSIC IN THE MEADOW

Trapp Family Lodge Concert Meadow, Trapp Hill Road. Bring a picnic and low chairs—or blanket. Adults 18 and over: $35 in advance, $40 at the gate; children 5-17, $25; under five free. Meadow opens at 5:30 p.m. for picnicking. Info: stoweperformingarts.com.

July 7

Vermont Symphony Orchestra

Part of the Summer Festival Tour with solos by the symphony’s principal cellist, percussionist and clarinetist, 7:30 p.m.

July 28

Catherine Russell

American popular song by one of the best, 7 p.m.

August 18

Ozomatli

Eclectic blend of music inspired by the City of Angels, 7 p.m. n

VSO principal clarinet Kelli O’Connor

FOUND OBJECTS Waterville artist Sabine Likhite stands with her sculpture "Holding" in her studio made from a converted sugarhouse. Next page: Likhite brings together found objects and scavenged relics that resonate in surprising ways. Gathered objects from nature, like feathers, play a prominent role in Likhite’s work.

ARTIST SABINE LIKHITE COMES INTO HER OWN

Stumbling upon Sabine Likhite’s property in Waterville, a stranger could be excused for confusing her home studio with a shrine to some forgotten pagan god.

The path from home to studio, converted from an old sugarhouse during the pandemic lockdown, is lined with artifacts made from found objects and reconfigured hardware scattered among a sugarbush composed of ancient and rotting maples.

Beneath the branches of one of these maples, a set of feathers seems to levitate, swaying occasionally in the breeze. Upon closer inspection, this cloud reveals itself to be the molted feathers from Canada geese, each one individually strung to rusted fencing.

Surrounding the sugarhouse are variously staged pieces melding

unrecognizable hunks of faded farm machinery—Likhite calls them her “relics”—with jawbones from cows, a finial bursting with so many carpenters nails it looks like Pinhead from “Hellraiser” on a pedestal wrapped in barbed wire. A wrought iron bed frame creates a border for a hip bone placed upon a pedestal, blending in so well that it appears nearly invisible, as if part of the sugarbush.

Inside the studio, Likhite has staged “Holding,” a statement piece that encapsulates her artistic sensibilities. A piece of iron fencing, bent upward by ropes, suspends itself in the air on a pulley. Floating just above the ground are nearly 400 goose feathers bound to the fencing, the gradient of each one, from its downy white hilt to its gray or brown blade, creates the effect like a field of soft knives hovering above the earth.

STORY / AARON CALVIN PHOTOGRAPHS / GORDON MILLER

Each of Likhite’s pieces—but “Holding” in particular—works off the tension between the heavy and light, firm and soft, organic and inorganic. She scavenges chains and rust out of the ground, bones and feathers from the fields and holds them up, allowing the natural force of gravity to create its own tension.

When “Holding” was included as part of an exhibit at the Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville in 2023, it was chosen by curator Stephen Gothard as a piece that fit with the gallery’s mission to feature landscape >>

Visit an 8th generation sugarhouse using traditional maple sugaring methods!

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ART CLASS

AHA MOMENTS Likhite walks through a sculpture made of feathers on her Waterville property. Her reputation for incorporating found objects in her work has her friends and neighbors always on the lookout for new material to give to her.

work while challenging traditional sensibilities about what a “landscape” piece looks like.

A high school art teacher in Lamoille County with several decades of experience under her belt, Likhite is only now, in her fifties, coming into her own as an artist.

1005 VT Route 14N East Montpelier, VT 05651 MAIL ORDER 802-223-5757 • 800-376-5757 braggfarm.com The Coburn Covered Bridge is nearby!

“It takes a long time to figure out what I like,” she said. “I’m a processor. A lot of these things I have— like that big piece of grating—I had it for 10 years, and then it came together. There’s aha moments.”

Instrumental in her development as an artist has been Vermont Studio Center in Johnson. Likhite has participated in multiple artist residencies with the program and benefited greatly from the community she’s found there. She currently maintains a studio at the center, which allows her to work through the winter.

“I used to think I was an art teacher making art, and now I really identify as being an artist,” Likhite said, a sensibility that has helped her increase her commitment to making art despite the demands of her day job and being a single parent. With the support of the studio center and local gallerists like Gothard, Likhite’s ambition continues to grow along with the technical proficiency of her work. n

Sabine Likhite’s work will next be shown at Art at the Kent, the annual exhibition of Vermont artists in historic Kents Corners in Calais that runs through September and October. Learn more at kentscorners.org.

A HISTORY LESSON OVER THE RIVER

Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the Fisher Covered Bridge in Wolcott is a relic from the golden age of the railroads, and a complete renovation has allowed the span to find new life as a noteworthy historic structure on the new Lamoille Valley Rail Trail.

In the 19th century, the United States had thousands of covered bridges, quite a few of which carried train traffic. Today, however, very few railroad covered bridges still stand, and “only two railroad covered bridges remain in Vermont,” Laura Trieschmann, state historic preservation officer with the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, said.

Built in 1908 to carry trains across the Lamoille River, this 103.5-foot-long bridge has a unique architectural feature—a nearly full-length cupola. The cupola’s design allowed steam and ashes from old steam engines to escape out of the top of the bridge, a safety feature that greatly reduced fire hazards.

Located just off Route 15 in Wolcott, the Fisher Covered Bridge was named after a nearby farm family. The bridge once served as an impor-

tant link in what was a 93-mile rail line used by the St. Johnsbury & Lamoille County Railroad to cross northern Vermont from St. Johnsbury to Swanton.

A train last crossed this bridge in the 1990s, and despite occasional maintenance work, the covered bridge was largely ignored and fell into disrepair and non-use. Weeds grew in and around the bridge and barriers at each end of the bridge denied access to all but those on foot.

But when the state opened an area near the bridge in the early 2000s as a parking area for fishermen, the bridge gained more attention. The recent construction of the cross-state Lamoille Valley Rail Trail along the old railbed encouraged further bridge renovations and cemented its bright future.

“The fact that the bridge was restored to allow it to be part of the rail trail is important to the Division for Historic Preservation,” Trieschmann said.

Although rail traffic is a thing of the past, the current rail trail has revived interest in the bridge and should serve as a catalyst for its regular

STORY / KEVIN WALSH

ON TRACK The newly renovated Fisher Covered Bridge spans the Lamoille River in Wolcott. The bridge’s double-lattice design style promotes t he structural integrity of the bridge. Inset, the trains are long gone, but the tracks remain.

use. As part of the new rail trail, people from various state agencies and other interested stakeholders in the historic bridge’s survival joined together to design new bridge decking meant to mimic the bridge when it still served trains, said Judith Williams Ehrlich of the Vermont Agency of Transportation Historic Preservation Office.

Today, the Fisher Covered Bridge is fully restored and serves as an important and historic piece of this four-season, multi-purpose 93-mile rail trail. n

ESSENTIALS: Explore all the region’s covered bridges in Lamoille County, from Stowe to Waterville (bit.ly/3ULcoXg), and in Montgomery, the Covered Bridge Capital of Vermont, at bit.ly/3wi2pPT.

J. LANGDON Antiques and Art

On historic Langdon Street in Montpelier, Vermont

Wednesday-Sunday 11-5 · jlangdonvermont.com · @jlangdonantiquesandart

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: KEVIN M. WALSH,; WALSH; PAUL ROGERS

Mid Century Modern · Vintage · Sheepskins · Rugs · Jewelry · Oil Paintings · Curiosities

MUSIC & THEATER

SPRUCE PEAK SUMMER CONCERT SERIES

Village green opens at 5 p.m., with opening acts at 6 p.m. Featured artists at 7 p.m. Spruce Peak at Stowe Mountain Resort. sprucepeakarts.org.

June 28

Singer, songwriter, and musician David Shaw looks to continue his solo sonic exploration. Special guest Pete Kilpatrick.

July 11

Chelsea Cutler

An American singer and songwriter whose debut studio album, "How to Be Human," hit No. 23 on the Billboard 200 chart.

July 25

Jamestown Revival

American folk duo Zach Chance and Jonathan Clay merge Southern country, Americana, and Western rock. Special guest Kat Wright.

August 7

Ripe

Ripe’s newest album, “Bright Blues,” is a collection of 12 songs full of sleek grooves and bold melodies the Boston quintet put together to help ride out tough times, an anthem for better days ahead.

August 29

Brandy Clark

Clark is one of her generation’s most esteemed songwriters and musicians. Special guest Stephen Kellogg.

CHAMBER MUSIC STOWE

Mozart Room, Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe. 6 p.m. chambermusicstowe.com.

July 13

Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K.493 and Dvorák’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 87. Rachel Lee Priday, violin, Tanner Menees, viola, Jia Kim, cello, and Euntaek Kim, piano.

CHAD HOLLISTER ACOUSTIC QUINTET

June 16

In the famous concert meadow, the quintet returns for its third concert. Bring a picnic, chairs or blanket, and your own beverages. 6 p.m. Trapp Hill Road, Stowe. trappfamily.com. Rain date is June 17.

MUSIC IN THE MEADOW

Stowe Performing Arts summer music in the Trapp Family Lodge Concert Meadow, Trapp Hill Road, Stowe. stoweperformingarts.com for times and tickets ($35/$40).

Meadow opens at 5:30 p.m. for picnicking.

See p.104 for the musical lineup.

STOWE ART ON PARK

July 12 – August 23

Fridays through July and August on Park Street in Stowe village. Market features food from local vendors, agriculturally-based products, and a broad selection of art from fine artists and artisans. Music. 5 - 8 p.m. stowevibrancy.com.

STOWE JAZZ FESTIVAL

Musical acts play at eight venues around Stowe and on the festival main stage at The Alchemist, Cottage Club Road. Free. stowejazzfestival.com.

August 2 – 4

Afro-Cuban, Gypsy, and Brazilian jazz, big band, smooth, soul, swing. BREAD & PUPPET THEATER

Route 122, Glover. Tickets at breadandpuppet.org.

June 2

Museum opens with an afternoon of music and puppet shows, 2 p.m.

June 13 – August 31

Sideshows start at 2 p.m., followed by The Principle of Hope Circus and mass in the Paper Maché Cathedral, Saturdays, 3 p.m. >>

From left, Jamestown Revival, Brandy Clark, and Chelsea Cutler.

MUSIC & THEATER

June 9 – July 7

Show titles to be announced. In the Papier Maché Cathedral, 3 p.m.

July 14 – August 25

Sideshows start at 2 p.m., followed by The Principle of Hope Circus, Sundays, 3 p.m.

October 6

Political Leaf Peeping

Last event of the season with music and puppet shows, 2 p.m.

CRAFTSBURY CHAMBER PLAYERS

World-class musicians with music director Frances Rowell. ccpvt.org or (802) 586-0616. Wednesdays, Ellen-Long Music Center, Colchester. Thursdays, Hardwick Town House. $25. 7:30 p.m.

July 10 – 11 Mozart, Loeffler, Schumann

July 17 – 18 Mozart, Martinu, Brahms, Rachmaninoff

July 24 – 25 Wiancko, Beethoven, Andrée, Vieuxtemps

July 31 – Aug. 1 Gershwin, Ravel, Schulhoff, Milhaud

Aug. 7 – 8 Schubert and Mendelssohn

Aug. 14 – 15 Alwyn, Poulenc, Brahms

FRANK SUCHOMEL ARTS CENTER

At QuarryWorks in Adamant. Free. Directions and reservations at fsmac-quarryworks.org. 7:30 p.m.

June 8 Matthew Evan Taylor, composer, multi-instrumentalist

June 29 Elizabeth Reid, solo viola

July 20 Jane Boxall, solo marimba

August 10 Adam Tendler, Grammy-nominated pianist

August 31 Champlain Trio, violinist Letitia Quante, cellist Emily Taubl, and pianist Hiromi Fukuda

LAMOILLE COUNTY PLAYERS

Hyde Park Opera House, 85 Main Street. Adults $20, seniors/students $15. Thursday - Saturday, 7 p.m.; Sunday matinees, 2 p.m. (802) 888-4507. llcplayers.com.

July 18 – 21 & July 25 – 28

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical

October 3 – 6 & October 10 – 13

The Mel Brooks Musical: Young Frankenstein

December 6 – 8 & December 13 – 15

Inherit the Wind

OXBOW MUSIC FESTIVAL

Oxbow Park, Portland Street, Morrisville. Food trucks, full bar, vendors. Kids 12 and under free. oxbowmusicfestival.com

June 29 Oxbow Family Band

Featuring Toby Kniffin, Seth Yacovone, Bri Lauri, Marty Marooney, Kevin Shapiro, Beg, Steal or Borrow, Les Dead Ringers and Cedar. After party at Moog’s Place with the Seth Yacovone Band. Music starts at 3 p.m.

ON STAGE AT QUARRYWORKS

Frank Suchomel Memorial Arts Center at QuarryWorks in Adamant. Free. Directions and reservations at fsmac-quarryworks.org.

July 11 – 14 & July 18 – 21

Cinderella

Thursday to Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m.

July 27 – 28

Roxaboxen

Saturday, 2 and 5 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.

August 8 – 11 & August 15 – 18

Dracula

Thursday to Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m.

October 5 – 6 & October 12 – 13

The Last of the Living Legends

Saturday, 2 and 6 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.

RATTLING BROOK BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL

11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Admission. Belvidere Center stage, Route 109.

June 15 Regional bluegrass lineup

ROCKTOBERFEST

Portland Street, downtown Morrisville. Most events free. morristownvt.org.

September 28

All-day street festival featuring live music, food, games, puppet shows, crafts, vendors, chair auction, more. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

RUSTY PARKER PARK CONCERTS

Waterbury Rotary concerts, Rusty Parker Park, Main Street, Waterbury. Free, Thursdays 6 - 8:30 p.m.

June 13 Waterbury Community Band

June 20 John Packard Blues Bland

June 27 Mango Jam

July 4 No concert

July 11 Maple Run Band

July 18 Lewis Creek Band

July 25 Prydein

August 1 Kyle Chadburn / Earthbound Spirits

August 8 The Steppes

August 15 Red River North

WEDNESDAY NIGHT LIVE AT THE OXBOW

Wednesdays at 5:30. Weekly music at Oxbow Park, downtown Morrisville. morristownvt.org.

June 19 Soulstice

June 25 Blackwolf

July 3 No concert

July 4 Parade at 11 a.m. Live music, John Lackard Blues Band, 6:30 p.m., fireworks at dusk.

July 10

Soulstew

July 17 Lesley Grant Band

July 24

July 31

Buckhollars

The Shady Trees

August 7 Les Dead Ringers

August 14

Dave Keller & Johnny Rawls

August 21 Lawless and Morrisville Food Coop free corn roast. n

Adam Tendler.

‘CLIMATE IMPRINTS’ Rie Hasegawa, ‘to-go or not to-go. Inset: Chakaia Booker, “Muse,” 2007, rubber tire, wood, steel, 65"x63"x54".

A CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART

THE CURRENT

Exhibitions of acclaimed international and Vermont artists and public programs, adult and children’s art classes and private lessons, school tours, student shows, and summer art camps. The Current is made possible through the support of the town, members, and sponsors. 90 Pond St., Stowe Village. Monday –Friday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Free, donations welcome. Visit thecurrentnow.org for details. (802) 253-8358.

June 22 – October 19

Climate Imprints

Artists examine their responses to the climate crisis utilizing various printmaking techniques like lithographs, etchings, monotypes, digital prints, collagraphs, woodcuts, chine collé, and screenprint. All the artists in this exhibition are members of the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in New York City. Curated by Chakaia Booker, Tara Sabharwal, and Justin Sanz, other artists include Edward Fausty, Anna Fiacco, Rie Hasegawa, Shervone Neckles, Mohammad Khalil, Essye Klempner, Sarah Sears, Yasuyo Tanaka, and Ethan Tate. Opening reception, June 22, 4 - 7 p.m.

June 22 – October 19

Taking Time: A Solo Exhibition by Chakaia Booker

Booker’s work has spanned decades with an intention ality of practice and pur pose. She chooses discard ed tires to create beauty from detritus, and elegance from industry that evokes strong underpinnings of social and environmental justice. Her exhibition at The Current, both inside and out, highlights beauty and hardship, tradition and caretaking, and dives deep into her practice, highlighting a monumental outdoor installation for Stowe. Inside, her photographs, prints, and indoor sculptures fill the galleries. The work asks viewers to take time to listen, lean in, contem plate, heal, work, create, and just be. Opening, June 22, 4 - 7 p.m.

June 22 - October 19

Exposed: Outdoor Sculpture

Sculptures are sited on both public and private land throughout the village and at The Current. Artists include Chakaia Booker, Christopher Curtis, Clark Derbes, Woody De Othello, Justin Kenney, John Matusz, Oren Pinhassi, Don Porcaro, Jonathan Prince, Jackson Tupper, and Hank Willis Thomas.

November and December

Members’ Show + Sale

Members of The Current exhibit their artwork for sale.

Spring 2025

The Gala

The Current’s popular spring gala and Stowe’s most popular party. Lodge at Spruce Peak. Tickets: thecurrentnow.org.

n “Release, Receive,” cast bronze on powder-coated aluminum, 56.5"x25"x25". Leslie Fry in her sculpture garden at her Winooski home. m

Women fly in Leslie Fry’s wonderland

Oh, climb up if you can, if she offers you the chance. Take hold of the rickety wooden ladder—watch your head now—and peer into the rafters of Leslie Fry’s old barn in Winooski where whimsical sculptures hum with life.

Spindly forms, part-human and part-flower, a lounging sphinx, sculpted casts of faces and feet, hands cupped over a sunken chest, a tower with sculpted cabbage-leaf doors and peanut-shell walls. Bask in the wonderful weirdness. Let a smile escape. Bend your head to the side as your mind questions form— human, animal, vegetable—and the mutable boundaries of nature.

Fry, a Stowe-born sculptor whose rich career spans decades and across the globe, invites imagination to run wild, arch its back like a cat, and stretch in strange directions.

“A lot of things that I think are witty or somewhat humorous other people find creepy,” Fry said, smiling. “I’m not afraid of the dark side.”

In some ways, it’s easy to describe her art as whimsical. However her sculptures are not quaint nor fickle; they flirt with whimsy, with humor and the fantastical, while striking a critical balance between thoughtful composition and themes such as connection, nature and the constructed world, metamorphosis, fragments, and wholeness.

PORTRAIT: GORDON MILLER; LINDSAY RAYMONDJACK

“Apex,” detail, ceramic, wood, 52.5"x16"x15". “Alice 2,” hemp, plaster, steel, glue, illustrated pages from “Through the Looking Glass” from the original book read to the artist by her father throughout childhood, 50"x22"x6". Leg sculptures, detail, “Totter,” cast resin, paint, steel, wood, 78"x15"x26". m

Familiar figures

Many of the same faces and figures appear in her work repeatedly, often female or intersex, sometimes melded with real or imaginary animals or growing out of architecture.

“Ancient art and architecture have always inspired me. World religions and philosophies, Jungian thought, the connection of all things ecological and mythological are all part of the influences that have formed my art,” according to Fry.

Next to her barn and art studio at her home is a semi-public sculpture garden she’s cultivated since the

1990s, featuring some of the creatures, sculpted hands and faces, and other figures from her collection.

Two double-headed sphinxes, their faces tilted to the sky, guard the entrance, leading visitors to approach “Nestbuilder,” a lofty bronze sculpture of a curved column seemingly composed of hands, leaves, bricks, windows, saws, hammers, and nails. A female creature is perched at the top—or is she part of the tall nest she’s created? The curvature of her found treasures feels almost precarious, yet the statue is firmly balanced. New details unveil themselves at every angle, looking close up into the woman’s face or gazing at her from afar.

LINDSAY RAYMONDJACK

“For me in sculpture, if it’s big and you see it from a distance, you see just the shape first,” Fry said, noting this is where she starts with every sculpture to ensure that it’s effective not just on close inspection or from a certain angle. In this way, her art becomes an experience in multiple layers, even as she places her sculptures in different settings, studio versus garden, semi-hidden among plants or at the center of an open space.

Nurturing a public art resource like this is important to Fry, who offers tours by appointment and welcomes visitors whenever she hosts open studios. Before buying her home in 1991, her work was geared mostly for indoor and gallery spaces but since becoming a homeowner and creating her own outdoor gallery of sorts, her approach has shifted to outside and more public permanent art, she said. Other iter-

ations of her public artwork can be found across the U.S. and as far as South Korea.

Closer to home, 20 cast-concrete sphinx-like sculptures can be found in Pomerleau Neighborhood Park in South Burlington, a circular “oasis located in the midst of a commercial area with heavy traffic,” according to Fry. “The design solution wed sculpture and space to form a sanctuary combining landscaping, sitting areas, a bus stop shelter, and guardian sphinx figures. Vines are growing on the columns, and the atmosphere, trees, and plantings change each season.”

More than one of her friends and fellow artists noted they see Fry herself in her transmogrified women.

One of those friends, Jacob Albee, also assisted her on the Pomerleau Park commission in 1999.

“I like how she shows up in her work. That’s true for a lot of artists but in her case it doesn’t feel self indulgent at all. It feels very personally expressive—they’re traits in her personality, her aspirations, or fears,” said Albee, a jewelrymaker in Burlington, who first met Fry in 1995 as a freshman art student in one of her classes at the University of Vermont.

They “clicked right away,” he recalled, and stayed friends after he graduated; they worked together on some projects and she mentored him in other ways, even letting him live above her studio after college when he was getting on his feet.

“It was magical and very, very helpful to me. I have always had a tremendous amount of respect for her and her work,” Albee said.

As a mentor, he described Fry as someone who always invested in herself and her vision and encouraged him to do the same. “That has definitely stuck with me and affected my career greatly. She taught me that if you make some-

n Cuffed series, in bronze, home studio.

Leg sculptures, studio view with the artist, “Family Tree,” “Totter,” and “Kick.” Inset: “Sybil,” detail, ceramic, wood, steel. 84"x28"x28". m

FINE ART GIFTS DECOR FURNITURE JEWELRY

thing you love, someone will love it too. She’s artistically and technically unafraid,” Albee said.

Local inspirations

At just 15 years old, Fry created her first bird woman. She carved the figure out of soapstone—a medium she’s learned is not her favorite—and the figure now lives on a shelf in her barn.

“That’s the thing about my work is that I would say the themes and the imagery haven’t changed extremely,” Fry said. “When I was an undergraduate at UVM, I studied a lot of psychology and the idea of a collective unconscious and also that we’re all part male, part female, part animal, part y’know—those things still influence me today.”

Fry received a Bachelor of Art degree from the University of Vermont in 1975 before she went on to study at the Central School of Art and Design in London, then to earn her master’s degree at Bard College.

Janie Cohen, an artist and the former director of the University of Vermont’s Fleming Museum, has felt lucky as a curator to see the evolution of Fry’s work

“Building Stories,” plaster sculpture casts with bronze sculpture, “NestBuilder,” variable dimensions, Kent Museum, Calais, Vermont. “Arise,” cast bronze, “Exposed!” outdoor sculpture exhibit, The Current, Stowe, 82x24x16, and detail, inset. The artist’s sculpture garden at her home and studio. Pomerleau Neighborhood Park, South Burlington, 10x60x60 feet, circular park with 20 cast-concrete, sphinx-like sculptures, 1999.

m

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP:LESLIE FRY; “ARISE” AND INSET: PAUL ROGERS; FRY; BURK UZZLE

since they first met in the early ’90s. Cohen had just moved to Vermont at the time and Fry became her first friend in town, she recalled.

“Leslie has taken some side routes over the years but thematically, her art always relates to some clear themes that have been at the forefront, interweaving of figures, mythology, architecture, etcetera,” Cohen said. “Her work is such a great combination of intellectual research and whimsy and her perception of the world around her. You can always recognize a Leslie Fry.”

Like the themes that have enthralled her for decades, Fry has always been attracted to sculpture as a medium, experimenting with that and many different forms of art throughout her life.

“I think one of the reasons that I’m a sculptor is growing up at the foot of Mt. Mansfield and seeing that profile every night. Mountains are so sculptural, and not just mountains, but everything when covered with a thick blanket of snow is like a big sculpture,” said Fry, who was raised in Stowe.

She noted the same sentiment in a speech when she was awarded the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2023, one in a long list of awards and honors that stretches over 40 years.

Fry recalled a childhood spent “getting lost in a good way” in her wooded backyard, making art and being surrounded by stories, as her mother was an English professor at what was then Johnson State College. Her father would read to her

“Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” over and over again, always the same two books (though she never got sick of them), and upon her mother’s death about 12 years ago, Fry found herself inside her childhood home surrounded by perhaps 3,000 books.

In homage, Fry selected titles with embossed covers to create molds, found pages of significant stories, including “Through the Looking Glass,” and sculpted more books filled with leaves instead of pages to create an installation titled “Archeology Through the Looking Glass” that was showcased at the McIninch Art Gallery at Southern New Hampshire University. >>

1593 Pucker Street (Route 100N), Stowe 802-253-4157 stowefamilydentistry.com

Motifs

Fry has always been drawn to the human form: In the 1970s she was casting body parts and setting them up in surreal ways; in the 90s her figures were often androgynous, taking inspiration from stylized medieval art that focused on spirit rather than gendered form; and in more recent years she’s felt particularly fascinated with shoes.

Hands, a long-time motif in her work, are a large focus of her recent bronze foray, in which she plays with touch and gesture, balance and openness.

“Release/Receive,” a bronze cast of two hands connected as if at the wrists, one facing up, the other palm down, evokes both the act of letting go and accepting something new.

There is both a vulnerability and strength to the hands, similar to Fry herself. Being an artist requires the guts to put yourself, what you love, what inspires, and what scares you, on display—yet Fry is not asking for anyone’s validation. This is what she loves, full stop. Take her as she is, flying in the most marvelous shoes, to wherever the wind brings her next. n

Meanwhile, small hands ice the tips of wings on a bronze bird woman, dubbed “Arise.” Flowers bloom from her eyes and pepper her locks, among which are nestled tiny faces. Perched atop a column of more flying bird-women, sporting some fantastic stylized boots, she looks hopefully to the sky.

While much of her work can be striking in its size and shape, the smaller scale of the bronze hands creates a quieter, almost delicate feel. Slightly open or closed, each feels caught mid-gesture, perhaps asking to be caressed, perhaps to be released.

Some of Fry’s 2-D art can be viewed at the Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery in Shelburne, and she will show her work in a group show at The Phoenix art gallery in Waterbury opening on Aug. 2. To walk amongst the creatures in her sculpture garden, and for news about her summer open studio, reach out at lesliefry.com.

DAY HAUS SERVES NEEDS OF REMOTE WORKERS

there are a lot of people in Stowe working remotely in solitude, and many of them moved to town during the pandemic, when getting to know people was difficult.

Enter Day Haus, a new venture that is part hangout spot, part shared work space and very, very Stowe. Proprietor Hannah Mitrani was born and raised in Stowe but only recently moved back with her family.

“I really missed the small tight-knit community I grew up in. It feels the same in many ways, but also, really different,” she said. “I can appreciate the change after living away for a while, but also love the feeling of nostalgia I get in so many spaces where I created memories as a kid.”

Mitrani said that, for people new to Stowe, one of the only ways to get truly involved in the community is to have kids in the schools.

“A lot of people moved here during Covid so they could work from home, but they don’t know anyone in the community because they’re not working from an office,” she said.

When it comes to the shared space universe, compared to the behemoth WeWork on one end of the spectrum, Day Haus is the other end. Small, personalized, exclusive, Stowe. Mitrani calls it a social co-working club.

“If your favorite coffee shop and your favorite hotel lobby had a baby, that baby would be Day Haus,” Mitrani said. “Just a really cozy space for you to post up for as little or as long as you want.”

In the Haus

and comes with the most perks—five hours a week of conference room use, the ability to host private parties or mixers and, an extra membership for a spouse or business companion. There are short-term options, too.

Mitrani is capping memberships at 40 at any given time, and it doesn’t appear she’ll have trouble starting a waiting list.

There are a lot of little perks that come with being a member, and the perks are sourced from some of Stowe’s more high-end business-

Velte has placed plants, including cute succulents and a sprawling fig tree. Chairs are cloth and, paired with a long, wall length banquette, will provide seating for a line of bistro tables for the laptop-tapping set.

“Molly is the magic behind all this design,” Mitrani said.

The Store to Stowe

Mitrani grew up in Stowe’s Sterling Valley but left for several years, doing multiple stints out West with her husband—snowboarder and X Games host Jack Mitrani—before settling in Burlington.

As befits the social club aspect of Day Haus, membership is a commitment, even as the co-working spirit of the model keeps it from completely floating into the ether on a plume of cigar smoke and cognac vapor.

The base membership, dubbed Worker, is $2,000 a year, and gets the member full access during working hours, plus two hours of conference room time per week. A lower-speed annual membership is called Social and runs $800 a year. Members get all the perks of the higher-tier plans, but just for an hour a day.

The Founder membership is $4,000 a year

es, such as the Roastery, which provides the complimentary coffee for Day Haus.

Day Haus is big on small things, and the design of the place has been carefully planned by Burlington designer Molly Velte, whose studio, Sora, offers interior styling services for homes, hotels, and commercial real estate.

Velte’s work in Day Haus mixes natural, elemental tones and materials in a style she calls “mid-century meets mountain modern.”

There is ample light streaming in from the large windows on one end of the space, where

Now, she and Jack and their two young children are back in Sterling, putting down roots and readying to build a house. Her dad, Bob Rose, is an avid skier and coaches the Stowe High School alpine teams. Her mom, Susan Fisher, was a longtime school nurse at Lamoille Union and Stowe High.

Her grandmother, though, might be the secret to what makes Mitrani and Day Haus tick. Jackie Rose was the longtime proprietor of The Store in Waitsfield, and, according to Mitrani, one heck of a socialite. A former New Yorker, Jackie Rose was good friends with silver screen actress Ann Rutherford and singer Rosemary Clooney—she served as the singer’s publicist and traveling companion.

But Vermont social is a different bag than Big Apple social, and The Store was the place to see and be seen, even if it was also the place to go to find high quality French cookware.

“She greeted everyone with a cup of coffee who walked through the door and would remember their name if they walked in 20 years later. It was definitely a place that felt like community.” Mitrani said. “I don’t even know how many people bought stuff, because it was just a cool place to be.” n

FOUND IN VERMONT

WHAT’S WHITE, SQUARE, AND PILLOWY?

Marshmallows! But not those off-the-shelf, store-bought marshmallows. These are boldly flavored marshmallows from Vermont Marshmallow Company, and they are insane! Marshmallow Alexx Shuman is a classically trained pastry chef, Vermonter, and founder of the company, and she dishes up a rotating collection of magical, handcrafted, fluffy, pillowy-as-heck marshmallows in assorted flavor combos. The dulce de leche marshmallow is sweet and swirled with golden caramel. The key lime mallows explode in your mouth with a bright burst of citrus. The poppy seed mallow is a zingy bomb. One bite and you’ll float off to marshmallow heaven.

INFO: Online at vermontmarshmallow.com and Stowe Street Café, Commodities Market, Morrisville Co-op, and Woodstock Farmer’s Market

WOULD YOU WEAR WOOD?

You sure would, especially if it were Jewelwood of Vermont’s one-of-a-kind wood jewelry. Artist Cindy Weed began her woodworking career in the early 1970s at the Montgomery Schoolhouse, making wooden toys for children. Those early days grew into a love of designing and making jewelry and barrettes from local hardwoods and recycled wood from woodworkers’ cast offs. All her unique creations are accented with semi-precious stones, sterling silver, copper, brass, and gold-filled embellishments. Her work, including earrings, barrettes, pins, necklaces, and an assortment of men’s bolo ties, tie clips and tacks, sells nationwide at fine gift shops and galleries.

INFO: Northwood Gallery in Stowe and online on Facebook

AMERICA’S OLDEST ARTISAN CHEESE

You really haven’t had cheddar until you’ve had Plymouth Artisan cheddar cheeses. Col. John Coolidge, a dairy farmer looking to extend the shelf life of his milk, built the Plymouth Cheese Factory in 1890. It’s been in the Coolidge family ever since (yes, President Calvin Coolidge’s family), and not much has changed. The cheese factory is the same today as it was then, cheddar recipe and all. Each of the eight cheddar varieties has its own unique story, and all come in eight-ounce waxed blocks. As one reviewer wrote, “Use this cheese to make old-fashioned Vermont Yankee mac ‘n cheese.” Found in specialty food stores throughout Vermont or take a road trip to Plymouth for a self-guided tour, which includes viewing windows into the cheese rooms, the retail store, and the upstairs antique cheese equipment display.

INFO: plymouthcheese.com

ATTENTION BEARDED MEN

Your beard is a sign of your manliness, and you should be paying attention to how it looks and feels. Is it shaggy and itchy or nourished and healthy? (Think Kurt Russell in “The Christmas Chronicles.”) Feared Beard VT has everything you need to keep your beard Santa-like. Its natural balms and oils will encourage healthy growth and smell good, thanks to the ingredients they use—coconut oil, shea butter, jojoba oil, baobab oil, moringa oil, and other unusual ingredients—all blended into Champlain Valley Apiaries beeswax for a smooth, soft feeling all day long and into the night. The company also makes soap and lip gloss for guys, and it all makes the perfectly unexpected gift for any beardy.

INFO: Healthy Living in Burlington and Williston and online at fearedbeard.com

CARRY YOUR CARGO IN LUXURY

Red House’s sumptuous handbags, totes, laptop bags, day-trip bags, overnight bags, wallets, and purses are stylish, sturdy, and will surely elevate your selfesteem. Made of 100-percent cotton twill weave, their wax finish matures into a beautiful, vintaged appearance over time. Leather handles, brass clasps, and grommets, and heavy-duty antique brass zippers take them to whole other level. Some come lined, some have interior and exterior pockets, some have shoulder straps. All Red House products are 100 percent made by hand in their Weybridge studio. They are, well, gorgeous. n

INFO: Check out these beauties at redhousevt.com

CULTURAL CAMPUS

HORRORS! Halloween light show at Stowe Free Library, the popular “Pet Pawty,” and the even more popular library book sale, this year from June 29 to July 21.

WHERE ADVENTURE BEGINS

Step into a literary world, more captivating than the sprawling dreamscape of Narnia itself, at the Stowe Free Library this summer.

The theme for this summer’s collaborative library reading program, for children and adults alike, is “Adventure Begins at Your Library,” and The Friends of Stowe Free Library have conjured up a program as entertaining as the whimsical journeys penned by C.S. Lewis.

First, grab your deerstalker cap and channel your inner Sherlock Holmes for the Stowe Scavenger Hunt. Free maps are available at the library on its website, and at select hotels and businesses through Oct. 14. Follow a trail of playful clues to explore Stowe history and collect stickers to complete a scavenger map. There’s a lucky winner every week thanks to prizes donated by local merchants—or take home the grand prize of a two-night stay in one of Stowe’s destination hotels.

And, book lovers, it’s time to clear some space on your shelves. The 39th Friends book sale returns, June 29 to July 21, with rows and rows of children’s books, fiction for teens, adult bestsellers, and nostalgic

reads. All the proceeds support invaluable library programs like museum and state park passes—including some Boston museums—children’s reading and literacy programs, children and teen events and programs, adult book clubs, community events, and more.

When autumn’s cool breezes start to blow in this October, the library will summon all creatures great and small for its legendary “Pet Pawty” Halloween bash. You paws-itively won’t want to miss this litter-ary event featuring a pet costume contest, lawn games, a pet caricature artist, and homemade treats. Check the Stowe Free Library’s social media in October when the date will be announced.

As All Hallows’ Eve draws near, join the library for a cinematic screening under the stars on the front lawn. Bring a cozy blanket, huddle together, and double-double-toil-and-trouble your way through a familyfriendly Halloween movie. Mother Nature often picks the date so stay tuned on the library’s social media.

Also in October is a Halloween light show. Join the crowd in the

STORY / TANYA KATERI & KELLEY SPEAR

library’s gazebo for a toasty cup of “witches’ brew” (delicious local cider) and share in ghoulish oohs and aahs as the library transforms into a spectacle of illuminated pumpkins and headstones dancing to your favorite spooky songs.

And on Oct. 31, all trick-or-treaters—big and small, goblins and Gandalfs—descend on the library for one last Halloween hoorah and a tasty treat.

Whether you’re a lifelong resident or a first-time visitor, The Friends of Stowe Free Library hope you’ll let them sprinkle a little of our fairy dust on your time here. There is so much happening every day in Stowe’s quaint yet bustling library, so stop in and stay a while. n

ESSENTIALS: Stowe Free Library, 90 Pond St.

Open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday, noon - 7 p.m.; and Saturday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. (802) 253-6145 or stowefreelibrary.org and on Facebook and Instagram.

May-October, Tuesday-Saturday, 10 to 4

Explore exhibits, walk the museum grounds, enjoy the views along the Stevens Branch of the Winooski River, climb the indoor bouldering wall, play bocce ball, or tour the museum grounds by pedal car.

The Stowe area boasts a variety of cuisines and dining atmospheres, from swanky bistros that embrace the local food movement to fine-dining establishments featuring award-winning chefs and busy pubs with the latest microbrews—and everything in between! Check out the area’s great places to stay, as well, from full-service resorts to quaint country inns. Our guide to dining and lodging outlines the myriad choices from which to choose.

Wood Fired Neapolitan Pizza Home Made Pasta | Prime Wood Fired Steaks | Fresh Seafood

HARDWICK CULTIVATES COMMUNITY THROUGH CACAO

We’re a little in love with chocolate, aren’t we? We devour books and movies about it, associating the tempting confection with desire, joy, and nostalgia. Our characters are consumed by it—eccentric entrepreneurs in flying elevators, younger daughters who cook love into magical food, mysterious chocolatiers in the hills of Burgundy.

It’s no wonder that Prophecy Chocolate, a tiny shop and cafe on the second floor of an unassuming building in downtown Hardwick, would create a portal to another world. Or rather, a door to what feels like the living room of your oldest friend.

On a Friday evening in early spring, the cafe is so full of people that they stand shoulder-to-shoulder waiting to order, strangers offering smiles and soft hellos that grow into genuine conversation—welcome, nice to meet you, sit here, we can all fit, do you also miss the sunshine?

Four young friends crowd together on the sofa, laughing and bumping knees, while someone sporting

CACAO, ANYONE?

Prophecy Chocolate founder Mateo Block in his Hardwick cafe. Inset: A block of swirled cacao and macambo, made from heirloom beans.

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HEIRLOOM BRAND

After coming out of molds, Prophecy’s chocolate bars are hand-wrapped for sale or shipment. Copoazú and Macambo beans.

feathery earrings dozes in a rocking chair nearby. A rosy-cheeked baby waddles around, greeting people in line with a tiny wave and toothless smile. The hum of a mandolin, banjo, and fiddle weave together from a back corner, more than one musician sporting huge buck knives, while staff clothed in earthen tones juggle heavy, steaming pots. A mix of sweet and peppery smells cling to the humid air.

Prophecy Chocolate breathes and begs for connection.

Behind the actual and metaphorical counter is founder Mateo Block, whose wide, easy smile is occasionally obscured by a frolicking beard. For Block, creating connection and community are integral to the mission of his business and are touchstones by which he strives to live. It’s even built into the name, which is inspired by the eagle-condor prophecy embraced by Indigenous cultures in South America, including Peru, where he lived and first learned about cultivating cacao, the plant from which cocoa butter and chocolate are produced.

Europeans began colonizing the “New World,” and the eagle, representing the industrious mind, dominated the skies, leading to the destruction of and disconnection from nature. This pushed the condor, which embodies compassion and empathy, from the sky.

“The prophecy goes on to say that 500 years later, which is kind of where we’re at now, is the time where the eagle and the condor can fly in the same sky together. It’s not saying it will happen, but that it can happen, so it’s sort of up to us to bring this prophecy into fruition,” Block said.

Part of the message is about healing the external world, balancing the energy of our industrial, cerebral society with a heart-centered awareness, he said. But for him, it also guides how he finds internal balance.

“It’s kind of a call to each and every one of us in the heart, to be in touch with that energy, while still embodying that balance,” he said.

According to the prophecy, Earth was thrown off balance when

He first heard of the prophecy while living in South America, working on organic farms, and learning about growing various crops, including

EDIBLES

PICK-ME-UP

coffee and cacao, from generations of campesinos and friends. He began his chocolate-making journey there, on his friend’s land in the Eyebrow of the Jungle region of Peru, later growing his knowledge of Europeanstyle chocolate-making as an apprentice at Somerville Chocolate in Boston.

The message stuck with Block— literally, often keeping in his pockets a silver dollar with an eagle on it and a cacao seed engraved with a condor—and began to steer much of his psyche, so much so that when he first told his mom he wanted to start a chocolate company, she suggested the name, Prophecy Chocolate.

Sweet relationships

Maintaining close relationships with friends throughout South America and with the cacao farmers Block works with is part of that balance and another important facet of the business.

All Prophecy Chocolate business is conducted using direct trade, meaning Block meets personally with farmers, they set their price together (usually at or higher than Fair Trade minimum), and the costsaving from cutting out the middleman generally goes back to the farm-

Block dries blueberries, one ingredient in his energy bars, shown below, which also includes dried apples, figs, macambo, and maple syrup.

ers. Pictures of many of the farmers he works with, in lush, green jungle, hang on the cafe’s walls and show the beginning of the story of each mug of chocolate.

Block also believes these relationships lead to better quality products.

“For example, these beans are really small,” he explained, scooping up a handful of heirloom cacao beans called chuncho. “The minute scale of these beans in a commercial factory, they would be like, ‘Oh, this is rubbish’—they’re just harder for them to deal with. But these beans are so much more flavorful. It’s like eating an heirloom tomato versus the tomato that’s harvested green and forced to ripen.”

Dalena Tran, another member of the Prophecy Chocolate team, noted how this direct trade relationship with farmers complements their core values.

“The chocolate that we get feels very special,” in part because of that connection, she said.

Tran, whose job titles include Chocolate Drink-Master and Social Media Wizard, began helping Block when he first started the company in Boston in 2018. They became fast friends after running into each other at

EDIBLES CONNECTIONS

a local vegetarian restaurant and then at an ecstatic dance meet-up— which is exactly what it sounds like. Her role grew from some friendly help here-and-there to joining the full-fledged business and moving up to Vermont when Block opened the cafe in Hardwick about a year ago. With a background in graphic design and love for all things creative, she uses her skills in more ways than one, and often is the friendly face behind the counter if you drop by the cafe.

For Tran, fostering community is one of her favorite parts of her job.

“It just feels very fulfilling, creating that space for people to gather and connect. That’s really important to me, in my personal life too—and I mean, the bonus is chocolate,” she said, likening cacao to medicine for the heart.

“There’s a really interesting diverse mix of people here in Hardwick. It’s cool because even though maybe they have different belief systems or faiths, people seem to get along really well. Sometimes we get people who’ve been in Hardwick for 30-40 years come in and they’re like, ‘Ooh, what is this?’ They’re very curious. That’s also really cool, to be able to open up a whole new world for people,” she said.

The menu

Prophecy Chocolate’s cafe is only open on Fridays. The rest of the week staff are in production mode, preparing chocolate bars and other products, packaging, shipping. and managing their popular online ordering business.

They have many regulars who Tran has gotten to know, and one of the benefits of doing most of their production and cooking out of the same space is that customers see an intimate view of the chocolate-making process. The room itself invites curiosity.

Books about South America, cacao, chocolate-making, and other things line low shelves around the room, waiting for customers to peruse. If books aren’t your thing (and if you’re not in a hurry), ask

Block about the differences between cacao and its cousins: macambo, copuazu, and cupui. He also loves sharing his knowledge of the plants’ nutritional and medicinal values, in addition to its history and Indigenous traditions. He’s given talks at the Jeudevine Library in Hardwick, hosted a Community Cacao Circle at Retribe in Underhill, and he hopes to continue offering more education opportunities to the community.

The cafe menu features hot or iced beverages made from cacao, macambo, and copoazú, each one with distinct flavors that range from a nutty, almost pumpkin-esque taste, to a sweeter, more timeless taste— try the Copoazú Creamsicle or the Macambo Chai. For a hot chocolate that’ll melt down to your toes, order the Classic, traditionally spiced with cinnamon and chile pepper. Heartier treats include homemade spaghetti squash tamales, delicious date bites, and energy bars—a nottoo-sweet mix of dates, dried blueberries and apples, figs, macambo. and maple syrup.

Products can be found at the Prophecy Chocolate cafe, in its online store, and in stores around New England and beyond, including Buffalo Mountain Co-op in Hardwick, Morrisville Co-op, Humble Heart Homestead in Morrisville, and the Montpelier Co-op, among others.

“I really wanted to be in a place where there’s organic farming, a good connection with the land, clean air, and good community, and so Vermont always kind of felt like the right place. It took a while to find this spot, but now we’re really blessed to be here,” said Block. n

ESSENTIALS: Prophecy Chocolate, 39 South Main St., Hardwick. Open Fridays, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. prophecychocolate.com

Block in South America, where he learned about cultivating cacao. This bar of swirled macambo and cacao makes a delicious hot mug of chocolate. Inset: Beans.

Which came first, the hummus or the pita?

At Aladdin, it could be either. Its hummus is intensely rich, creamy, and irresistible; the pita is soft, warm, and robust.

So, it doesn’t matter which came first, as they are meant to be together. Both are deeply satisfying and crazy delicious. Just like everything else on Aladdin’s menu.

When Victor and Novia Russell decided to open Aladdin on Stowe’s Mountain Road in 2022, it was because they wanted to bring something different to Stowe’s restaurant scene. “There was no Middle Eastern cuisine in town. Ours is healthy, vegan, and vegetari-

an, made freshly daily, with all the mid-Eastern flavors,” Novia said. Victor smiled, nodding. “Everything we make has a connection to the land. We want people to love our food.”

Originally from Jamaica, the couple came to Vermont many years ago on the H-2B program and soon became U.S. citizens. Victor was an executive chef at Stratton Mountain Resort for 10 years before they moved to Stowe, where he worked as the pastry chef at Spruce Peak. Novia has learned the restaurant business by working at his side. They have two grown children and three in the Stowe school system, and they love being part of the community.

HEALTHY, VEGAN, VEGETARIAN, FRESH

MADE TO ORDER Aladdin head chef and manager Victor Russell with a freshly made falafel pita sandwich.

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The Russells also own a coffee, pastry, and sandwich shop next to Aladdin at Gale Farm Center, whimsically named GiraKofi for the giraffe outside and the coffee inside. In summer, they open the doors at Red Barn Ice Cream across the street for sundaes, cones, cookies, and shakes.

At Aladdin, the signature sandwich is the pita falafel, and it’s a handful! Bulging with veggies, tahini, spicy sauce, and falafel or shawarma cauliflower—your choice—it’s bursting with Middle Eastern flavors—tahini, pickled cabbage, hummus, paprika.

Next are the hummus dishes, served, of course, with pita, and by the way, you can buy their awesome pitas unadorned.

Other high demand delectables are the eggplant moussaka, a hot dish served with rice or quinoa, and the potato kibbeh, potato and bulgar rolled out in an oval, folded over, stuffed with veggies, deep fried, and served warm or at room temperature.

ALADDIN CREW Erica Richards, chef Errol Silvera, manager Novia Russell, Analee Larmond, and chef and manager Victor Russell. Inset, Putting the finishing touches onto the restaurant’s homemade hummus with chick peas.

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PLATE FULL OF GOODNESS

What’s not to like! Your heart will love this

Got a sweet tooth? Check out the baklava, it’s amazing, and for those who need to watch their sugar intake, Victor sometimes makes it sugar-free.

Since opening, locals and tourists have been discovering—or rediscovering—the complex flavors of Middle Eastern food, and their customer base has grown steadily. Aladdin has a clientele of loyal locals during the off seasons, and when it gets busy it’s a combo of locals and tourists looking for something different.

“Our typical customers are into healthy eating,” Novia said.

When you’re ready to try something different, not just your plain-old sliced meat and cheese on bread, check out Aladdin. Get the falafel pita. Or get the homemade creamy hummus and pita. Dive in. Then ponder which came first. n ESSENTIALS:

aladdinstowevt.com.

Middle Eastern salad with cauliflower.

history, on the rocks

The whip keeps iT fresh

OPEN AIR Steven Truso, chef and food and beverage director at the Green Mountain Inn and Whip Bar and Grill, behind the line. The grill has an open concept, making the kitchen part of the dining experience. Inset: The pan-roasted, ginger-tamari-maple glazed Faroe Island salmon is encrusted in pumpkin seed to seal in the flavor, and served with stir-fried vegetables and jasmine rice.

When a patron sidles up to the dark, wood bar at The Whip in the Green Mountain Inn and orders a drink—whether it’s the signature old fashioned or a draught beer—they’re playing a small role in a grand historical drama that stretches back nearly three quarters of a century.

After all, that cocktail was made, and that beer was poured, with the permission of Stowe’s first ever liquor license.

But let’s back up a bit.

The Green Mountain Inn to which The Whip is attached goes back a century further. It was originally converted from the home of Stillman Churchill, who initially called it Mansfield House. The original structure was built in 1833, and it’s been hosting guests since 1850.

GORDON MILLER

Your one stop shop for great food, unique treasures and affordable lodging! Our market has a great selection of antiques, furniture, gifts and more! The newly renovated guest rooms provide a comfortable place to rest following your Stowe adventures!

Breakfast and lunch served all day, every day!

SCAN for Guest Rooms

SCAN for Cafe Menu

CASUAL ELEGANCE A server gets the popular patio at The Whip ready for lunch service. The vibe is decidedly cozy, cool, and wood-grained. The historic Green Mountain Inn first started serving guests in 1850.

Unable to fund his dream of turning Stowe into a mountain resort town, Churchill, the Inn’s original owner, had to give up ownership to “Governor” William H.H. Bingham, a lawyer, politician, builder, and foremost developer of Stowe’s nascent hospitality scene in the latter half of the 19th century.

The Green Mountain Inn was eventually dwarfed by the construction of Bingham’s 300-foot-long Mount Mansfield Hotel in 1863, which dominated the village’s Main Street for decades until it burned in 1889.

The fortunes of Stowe as a resort town ebbed through the first decades of the 20th century. The Green Mountain Inn changed hands a few different times until eventually, gaining additions along the way, it landed with Parker Perry around the time C.V. Starr

CREATIVE SPIRIT Previous page, from top left: The inn’s homemade New England corn chowder, a signature soup for over 30 years. Prince Edward Island mussels are steamed in a garlic butter white wine and herb broth and served with a perfect grilled baguette. Vermont maple créme brûlée, anyone? The Starr, a simple, yet tasty, staple of The Whip for decades: fresh roasted turkey breast, Swiss cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise on homemade bread with fries. Inset: Crispy calamari is prepared with roasted garlic aioli, peperoncino for a bit of kick, parmesan, and lemon, served with marinara for dipping.

and Sepp Ruschp were building lifts and ski trails and expanding the ski area on Mt. Mansfield.

But Perry had a problem. He was about ready to undertake 35 years of expanding the Green Mountain Inn, riding the wave of Stowe’s growth as the Northeast’s premier ski mountains. Part of his plan was a bar, to be called “The Whip,” named for his wife, Dorothy “Whip” Perry, née Whipple.

But Stowe was a dry town.

Prohibition may have ended in 1933 with the passage of the 21st Amendment, but Vermont allowed the public sale of alcohol only after approval through public referendum. According to historical material from The Whip, a local taxi company would make daily trips to Waterbury, a socalled wet town, to buy alcohol for visitors to Stowe.

In 1950, Perry organized a get-outthe-vote campaign, paying taxis to provide transportation to the polls. He got the results he wanted, and The Whip was the first application on the selectboard’s agenda for a liquor license that fall.

BAG OF DECADENCE The Whip’s signature dessert: sac de bonbon for deux. It’s a chocolate “bag” filled with chocolate mousse, fresh fruit garnish, and dessert sauces.

patron doesn’t enter The Whip from the Green Mountain Inn, they descend.

In this way the restaurant-bar keeps its own mood and aesthetic distinct from its meandering parent. While the inn is bright stateliness, the bar is dark and subdued, warm and enveloping in the winter, cool and cavernous in the summer—that is, if you don’t opt to dine al fresco on the patio.

You can sidle up to the bar for a drink, step over the black marble flooring, quar-

ried from Vermont. The details of the dining area are particular and deepen the experience through their authenticity, from the beams above salvaged from a 19thcentury barn torn down the year Perry opened his watering hole. A sign that once adorned a covered bridge in Stowe hangs over the bar, and the fireplace is made from the narrow sort of brick that has long ceased to be manufactured.

For a restaurant like The Whip, attached

MIX IT UP From top: Bees and the Herbs mixes Barr Hill Gin, a local favorite, with rosemary basil simple syrup and lemon juice—up. The Smoke and Spice, mezcal, gochujang, and grapefruit pompelmo soda over ice. Bartender’s Choice is Tom Cat Gin, Campari, antica, and a dash of orange bitters.

to a hotel like the Green Mountain, history can be both a draw and a weight. It’s not just the pedigree, but the families that return to dine, drink, sleep. They expect a consistent experience, but they also want the option of trying something new. They want to be comforted by the familiar, but they don’t want to grow bored.

This is the challenge that Steven Truso, food and beverage director at the inn and restaurant-bar, must approach with a well-calibrated sensibility. Truso first came on board in 1997 and found a menu and a consistent customer base with distinct expectations.

“Over the years, I kind of tweaked a few things here and there, but there were certain things that people would come to the hotel every year looking for, so it was like, ‘Oh, we can’t take this off, or we can’t take that off,’” Truso said.

Truso found a way to challenge his diners on the margins, offering new variations using daily specials as a way to stretch out the culinary expectations of his bread-and-butter customers. It also allowed him to be a little flexible, keeping core offerings while shifting with the seasons.

Truso also caught on a little earlier than some others that Stowe, though landlocked, was close enough to the Atlantic that it was feasible to truck in surprisingly fresh fish and expanded the menu in that direction.

“It’s been hugely successful,” he said. “We sell a lot of fish, and now we’ve kind of shifted a little bit where we put some of the more popular fish on the menu.”

of course, there are still items that will never come off the menu. A time when corn chowder was not available by the cup or bowl is outside of living memory, for example. At one time, Truso tried to take the classic turkey dinner off the menu. There was nearly a riot.

Another challenge for The Whip, being the main culinary appendage of a popular hotel with an ever-returning customer base, is serving a diverse clientele.

Pita Sandwiches • Homemade Falafels

Hummus Bowls

Young couples in town for a romantic leaf peeper weekend, families making a trek to Stowe over summer vacation, older couples who have seen the many expansions and renovations conducted by the Gameroff family since it took ownership of the hotel in 1985.

The result is an accessible menu that straddles the line between old and new American. There’s that turkey dinner, a maple-brined pork tenderloin, burgers cooked to order, but there’s also Faroe Island salmon in a mapleginger-tamari glaze, crusted with pumpkin seeds.

There also must be a signature steak on a menu like this, and The Whip’s steak au poivre captures everything about Truso’s timehoned ability to offer a recognizable dish stylishly elevated.

The Black Angus strip steak is crusted with shards of peppercorn that seal in the flavor of the cut, while a traditional cognac sauce also incorporates mushrooms, leaning into an umami twist on the modern classic. A bed of mashed potatoes supports the dish, soft and buttery but still firm enough to provide the perfect foundation.

The Whip makes good use of its hardearned liquor license with an extensive wine selection and beer list. Cocktails range from the classic old-fashioned to creations like the smoke and spice—mezcal, gochujang, and grapefruit pompelmo soda. Move over classics and try this curveball.

“That’s the balance, in the confines of the space we have,” Truso said. “It’s a New England pub feel. It’s a casual place where you could have a very nice dinner, or you could pop in for a burger or a sandwich.”

And always, a cup of corn chowder. n

ESSENTIALS: The Whip at the Green Mountain Inn, 18 Main St., Stowe. greenmountaininn.com, (802) 253-7301.

Linda Valentine.

EDIBLES

COOL BAR, COOL VIBE, COOL TUNES

STORY / KATE CARTER

GORDON

MILLER

EDIBLES

ON A LARK Après Only at Field Guide aims for the ski lodge kitsch—vintage ski posters and prints, comfy sofas, a carefully curated collection of books, and an overall aesthetic that spans the decades from the 1950s to today. A flight of bourbon. Three friends enjoy a late afternoon cocktail at the bar.

Après Only. It means exactly that.

“We didn’t want to open a full restaurant and staff it, so we decided to limit the offerings to après only, and that’s how it got its name,” said Rob Blood, who bought Ye Olde England Inne in 2014 and reopened as Field Guide a year later, and the three-decade-old Pickwick’s Pub became Picnic Social.

That worked fine for a time, but according to Blood, they realized Mountain Road didn’t need another burger joint. So, they rebranded to Après Only.

Blood’s vision is a low-labor model at the same level as Field Guide. “It’s simple and easy. There are plenty of restaurants and bars with creative and unique cocktails. Ours come in a can, and unless it’s a full bottle, wine comes from a tap.”

They also have beer on tap and in cans and bottles, as well as Vermont bourbons and beers. They serve a limited menu—basic and good. Think deviled eggs; baguettes adorned with prosciut-

to, cheddar, and mustard; steamed organic hot dogs; Swedish meatballs; chili; and more. A favorite with the kiddos is SpaghettiOs topped with a hot dog and served in a large colorful mug, probably not something they’ll ever get at home.

Blood comes from a long career in hospitality. He and his wife and another business partner own Lark Hotels—a chain of 53 hotels and restaurants in 11 states. He and his family recently purchased a home in Stowe, where they come on most weekends.

>>

EDIBLES

ROCK ON The popular band Guster played at Après Only this winter. A vintage Ezra Brooks Kentucky whiskey decanter adorns the lodge.

Blood grew up skiing at Sugarloaf in Maine, his daughters joined the Mount Mansfield Ski Club, and his son is just learning to ski. It was a natural fit for Lark Hotels to add Field Guide and Après Only to their hospitality quiver.

“The inn was easy. It was all ready to go. But the restaurant had been dormant for a while. We reactivated the space. It was like an unlit fireplace,” Blood said. “We wanted to create a space that’s comfortable and approachable, where kids can stay and be loud and everyone has fun.”

Après Only gets more of a family crowd when it opens at 3 p.m. Customers aren’t just skiers and mountain bike riders, many wander over from the day care across the street. As the evening progresses, the clientele gradually changes over to all adults, both locals and visitors.

On Fridays and Saturdays Après features live bands and local musicians, sure bets that Blood brings from his other hotels.

“Music has always brought people together. During and right after

Covid, live music was non-existent. Every great ski resort should have live music. Local jazz musician George Petit is the house band every Saturday night,” Blood said.

During colder months, bands play in a large area next to the bar, but when it starts to warm up, they move to the 1,350-squarefoot heated deck, with plenty of space for dancing. And when summer arrives, awnings are rolled up and the music gets everyone moving.

“We set out to create a cool bar,” Blood said. “It will continue to evolve, but our clients will come back for all the same reasons. Tasty food and drink, good fun, good music.” n

ESSENTIALS: 433 Mountain Road, Stowe. At the Field Guide lodge. (802) 253-8088, apresonly.com.

REAL ESTATE LIFESTYLE &

Are you searching for the perfect home or vacation getaway? Looking to update your 1970s kitchen, add a great room, or find a stone mason to redo your uneven terrace? Well, the search is over. Our guide to real estate and homes is your one-stop shop to find a new home or connect with the finest architects, interior designers, builders, and other craftsmen and suppliers for everything home-related. Our newspapers and websites—Stowe Reporter (stowetoday.com, and stowereporter.com, and vtcng.com) and News & Citizen (newsandcitizen.com)—are great community and real estate resources.

For this issue we present three very different condominiums for sale in Stowe, from the village to mid-Mountain Road to the base of Spruce Peak.

STOWE VILLAGE

/ $649,000

1,191 square feet • Built in 2003 • Taxes: $6,659 • Agency: Shauna Larson, Coldwell Banker Carlson Real Estate

Located on the outskirts of town, this lovely condo is a rare opportunity to own a 2-bedroom, 2-bath corner penthouse in Palisades Village. The open floor plan in the main living area has a propane fireplace, sliding doors to a balcony, large windows, and a thoughtfully designed kitchen. Parking includes one garage space and another space in the back lot. Store all your outdoor gear in an owners’ storage closet in the basement. HOA fees are $1,200 quarterly and include landscaping, plowing, and trash removal.

Outside: It’s a short walk on a sidewalk to the grocery store, shopping, bike path, coffee shops, restaurants, ski shuttle, library.

>>

MOUNTAINSIDE

Upper Mountain Road living

/ $399,000

1,100 square feet • Built in 1971 • Taxes: $2,275 • Agency: Christiana Pepin, Vermont Life Realtors

The open floor plan living area of this second-floor condo has sliding doors to an oversized deck with views of the Worcester Range. Two en-suite bedrooms, gas stove, and a mini-split AC add to the comfor t. Conveniently located midway between Stowe Village and Stowe Mountain Resort and within walking distance to the town shuttle. This condo is suitable for full-time residency as well as shor tterm rental. Shopping and all conveniences are close by.

Outdoors: The Alchemist Brewery, Picasso restaurant, and Stowe’s world-famous recreation path are within walking distance. Hiking, biking, skiing, snowboarding, hot air ballooning, cross-country skiing at Trapp Family Lodge. >>

SPRUCE PEAK / $6,000,000

Slopeside living!

2,860 square feet • Built in 2021 • Taxes: $43,602 • Agency: Kevin D’Arcy, Spruce Peak Realty

Ski in, ski out of this premier 4-bedroom, 4-bath condo on Spruce Peak, with views of both Mt. Mansfield and Spruce Peak ski trails. This well-appointed, fully furnished unit comes with an abundance of conveniences. It’s warm, welcoming, and well-maintained, with a living area suited for large gatherings. Other features include a cathedral ceiling, gas fireplaces, balcony, patio, central AC, a heated garage space, and so much more. Close by are world-class golfing at the Club at Spruce Peak, the Alpine Club for private dining, a spa and fitness center, two pools, Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, restaurants, Adventure Center, climbing wall, skating rink, walking trails, and lots of skiing.

Outside: Skiing, snowboarding, hiking, mountain biking, golf, cross-country, gondola rides ... it’s all right here! n

SPRUCE PEAK AT STOWE

COME SEE OUR NEW SHOWROOM!

Redesigned to provide you a simplified, organized, customer-friendly shopping experience!

>> Sean Gyllenborg’s first job in construction was with Breadloaf Construction in Middlebury while he was a student at The University of Vermont. He worked during the day and attended classes at night. In 1999 he started Gyllenborg Construction when he moved from Burlington to Morrisville to be with his future wife, Pam Cushman. The couple lives in Morrisville, where the business office is located above a large garage, both of which he built, along with a fabulous stone she-shed for Pam. Their headquarters in Hyde Park has a custom cabinet shop, spray-paint booth, and plenty of storage to allow them to pre-purchase building materials for clients to avoid supply chain issues.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL This welcoming entrance with a blend of board-formed concrete walls, natural cedar siding, glass, and standing seam roof blends very nicely with the natural beauty that surrounds the house.

How did you end up in Vermont?

I was in a ski club in New Jersey, and we came to Vermont to ski. When I was thinking about college, I decided on UVM so I could be close to skiing. I’m still here!

What was it like working full time and taking night classes?

What made you decide to go into the construction business?

Growing up in Elizabeth, N.J., I had an interest in cars and motorcycles. When I was 18, I worked for Ferrari North America in northern Jersey. That’s where I learned attention to detail, and I became passionate about quality and developed an eye for detail. I’ve always liked working with my hands and that carried over to construction.

It was tough. My roommates were Jen and John Kimmich, now the owners of The Alchemist Brewery. Jen convinced me to transfer my credits and work experience to Johnson State College. I went full time and was able to speed things up. I majored in sociology and anthropology and graduated in 1999. From there I went straight into the construction business. My first client was Peggy Donahue.

What is your scope of work?

Our specialty is high-end residential homes; it’s what we’re geared to do. I keep a small crew to control quality and morale. We like doing quality work, from framing to end details and working with local craftsmen and artists. We work primarily in Lamoille County. Our most expensive houses have been in Morrisville. I love the high-performance New England modern mountain home vernacular.

How big is your staff?

We have a diverse staff of 11, from framers to finish carpenters and cabinetmakers, and a few young people who are fantastic. It’s so great to see young people going into the trade. Five years ago, I hired Kelley Lyons to be the office manager and project manager. Before that I would work on site all day, then come home and do book work all evening.

What’s the hardest challenge?

Finding qualified applicants with experience and reliable subcontractors. We have vetted a lot of subcontractors over the years, and now we only work with the best. >>

DIVINE EXECUTION The interior of this mountain modern home, shown on the previous spread, features loads of natural light, clean lines, and spacious rooms and blends perfectly with its natural surroundings, offers panoramic views and minimalist architectural details. Inset: With its stone base and cedar shingles, the outside of the Stone Cottage has a cozy, almost European look. A flare where stone meets shingle ensures water runoff will drip away from the edge of the building. The cottage is a passive house, and the builder says it’s “one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the state.”

How did the pandemic affect your work?

Covid was interesting. We’re in a whole new world now. We thought things would slow down and be tough, but it was exactly the opposite. So many people moved here to get out of cities, and it put a strain on carpenters. There just isn’t enough trade help. Fortunately, all the people we work with are team players. However, building lot options are becoming more and more challenging, as the easy lots get bought up and the difficult lots with steep land and other challenges are all that’s left.

What changes in the home-building industry have you seen over the years?

Energy efficiency is the big one. We’ve always been on the edge of high-performance homes and we’re now on our third all-electric home. The problem becomes infrastructure being able to keep up with the demand. We’ve put in more air-conditioning units in the past three years than my entire time in business. We built a true passive house that met or exceeded passive house standards. I was impressed with how well the house performed under the standards, but it’s a challenge keeping up with new building concepts and designs. I’ve seen that product, technology, and best practices for

energy efficiency and the direction of performance levels really improve. Also, I’m seeing bigger windows and views, and landscaping that works with a house has become much more important.

Where are your clients from?

A lot are from out of state. Now we have weekly Zoom meetings to discuss where things stand, progress, and goals. Face time evolved during Covid when we used it quite a bit. It’s a great way to communicate and make decisions quickly.

Tell me about one of your favorite jobs. There have been so many of them, but there is one, well, three, that really stand out. Since I’m longtime friends with the Kimmiches, they asked me to do the Alchemist Pub & Brewery in Waterbury. Then we went to the Alchemist Cannery in Waterbury, and then the Alchemist Brewery in Stowe. We also built their house five years ago. It’s exciting to reflect on how the three of us grew from when we were roommates in a very simple house in Burlington’s North End 25 years ago!

What do you do in your spare time?

Wrench on project cars, like my 1974 International Scout 2. I also like to cook, and I enjoy spending time with Pam on Lake Champlain in our Egg Harbor, a convertible sport fishing boat. It’s the perfect live-aboard boat and we love checking out the little coves and harbors on the lake. I also enjoy skiing with my granddaughter, Ella. What does the future look like workwise?

I figure we have another 10-15 years, but I have no plans to retire. n

TINY TOWN, TINY FLY

black fly noun (1)

1 a small black fly, the female of which sucks blood and can transmit a number of serious human and animal diseases. Large swarms sometimes cause distress to livestock and humans, except in Adamant, Vermont, where townsfolk fire up the grill and celebrate the pesky pest with ... grilled meats, polka, and a parade! >>

Legend goes that after a long, cold winter in Adamant, something is needed to celebrate, and everyone knows Adamant, a small, unincorporated part of the town of Calais, has plenty of blackflies.

Enter the Adamant Blackfly Festival, the community’s annual, free, family-friendly, bug-centric celebration at the Adamant Co-op, held every June.

This year’s celebration featured a nature walk with local naturalist John José, a craft workshop using egg cartons and colorful bug body parts for the kiddos; live music with Tim Jennings, Bob Sassaman, and David Gaillard playing traditional Irish and Americana tunes, and later, Over the Waterfall offered traditional dance tunes with Susan Reid and Franklin Heyburn on fiddle, Pam Boackes on guitar and Rick Winston on the squeeze box. Rounding out the music were the Lingonberries—waltzes, polkas, hambos, and other staples of haunting and harmonious Swedish music.

The coop offered grilled foods, salads, and baked goods for sale, Michael Sabourin, president of the Vermont Entomological Society, answered questions and shared his awesome bug collection and, of course, there’s a silent auction.

Then the mayhem began as the blackfly parade traveled down the main drag with costumed locals and interlopers, local tractors, and fabulous floats. “Not to toot our own kazoo, but past parades have been described as the ‘Macy’s Day Parade of the Insect World,” organizers brag.

“At 3, the grill closes. The festival ends. Blackflies all die.”

With gratitude to the Adamant Cooperative for the repurposing of their humorous prose. (adamantcoop.org/blackfly-festival)

manufactured home undergoes epic transformation

ometimes a dream comes together in the most unexpected way.

That was the case with a major renovation of a 50-year-old manufactured home into a farmhouse with a modern design concept that takes advantage of stunning mountain views and single-level living.

The dream for one couple from Houston was to find a second home to escape to—one in a completely different climate. They looked at different parts of the country, but family connections kept drawing them back to Vermont, where the husband’s father originally owned a farm in Waterbury Center, and where his brother still lives in the family farmhouse.

Much to the couple’s surprise, a house next door came on the market. They loved the location, not only because of the proximity to family, but also for the amazing views of the Worcester Range and the established perennial gardens.

story, p.212 photographs, p.196 >>

MOUNTAIN VISTA

OPEN LIVING

SLEEPY TIME

GOOD COOK

MUD ROOM

TABLE SET

STORAGE UNIT

The house, however, was a different story. A Huntington manufactured home built in the 1970s, few improvements had been done over the years. The couple made an offer but were outbid.

A few weeks later the other party backed out and it didn’t take long for a sale to transpire, and a virtual dream team came together to undertake a whole-house renovation. The couple hired a neighbor, architectural designer Rob Colbert of RMC Design in Waterbury Center, to help flesh out their vision.

“They spoke to a few other architects and liked that I was in sync with their ideas and close by so I would be able to have eyes on the project during the build process,” Colbert said. “The original home was very compartmentalized. The rooms were small and you had to go through narrow openings to get from room to room. It felt closed off and dark.”

“The owners wanted to open the spaces up as much as possible and create a flowing modern farmhouse feel, with more light and higher ceilings,” he said. “There was no real mudroom, so the owners were willing to sacrifice garage space for a mudroom that includes a laundry and powder room.”

Next on the scene was Sisler Builders, located just down the road in Stowe.

“When we met Steve Sisler, he exuded trust and confidence,” the wife said. “It didn’t take long to know Sisler was the crew we wanted for the job.”

Bryan Kelley, project manager for the builder, remembers his first impression of the property. “The house, although dated on the inside, had a nice exterior and a beautiful landscape. A major renovation would revitalize the house and enhance the entire property.”

Change inside and out

Colbert recommended interior designer Amber Hodgins of Amber Hodgins Design to the owners. “I brought Amber in early on to form a team right out of the gate. The homeowners had many solid ideas and Hodgins brought great cohesiveness. We were able to be expedient about design decisions because the team was already assembled.”

Ryan Bent Photography

Added Hodgins: “I worked on all the interior design requirements. The owner had a strong sense of what she wanted, and we spent a lot of time together. I did numerous drawings, working from Colbert’s floor plan. I looked at everything cohesively. Textures and tones all have to be part of the same story.”

The renovation retained the original footprint, but that’s about it. All interior walls were removed in the main living area to create an open concept, with several beams spanning the length of the space. A powder room was removed from one end of the house and a new one was created near the mudroom at the home’s entrance.

“Removing the walls required relocating a few essential rooms,” Kelly said. “We reconfigured the main entry walk-in from the garage to the mudroom by taking some square footage from the garage, creating space for a laundry room at one end, custom cabinetry for storage, and a new powder room.”

With unused attic space above the kitchen, Sisler tore out the ceiling and converted it to a vaulted one with antique beams to add volume to the desired open floor plan.

The transformation continued with Merillat cabinetry, stainless appliances, and an island with quartz countertops. White oak floating shelves created by Sisler’s woodworking team gives the kitchen a smart, crisp, modern look.

“We went with Merillat because they have a great product line and are easy to work with, and we purchased them through Country Home Center in Morrisville,” the owners said.

New oversized sliding glass doors open from the living room and primary bedroom to a large deck that spans the east side of the house, where the mountain and pond views are best. A new fireplace with a raised stone hearth and mantel made of a live-edge beam

that Hodgins found was created in a living room corner, and Sisler’s woodworking team designed and installed custom builtins on one side of the fireplace.

“One of the biggest challenge was creating the entire fireplace, hearth, and entertainment center that shared a wall with an audio-visual niche in the primary bedroom,” Colbert said. “There was a lot going on between the walls—chimney flue, switches and outlets, an electrical and plumbing chase to the newly created upstairs bathrooms, and getting the stones placed properly for the hearth. We wanted to sacrifice the least amount of space for the guts of the layout, so a ton of coordination went into executing the design.”

A hallway leading to an office featured windows on one side and built-in shelving the entire length of the hallway on the other. Sisler installed barn doors that close over the built-ins, creating a country look.

The owners wanted to keep a bedroom on the main floor, so beyond the living room is the primary suite, with enlarged closets, custom built-ins, and an en suite bathroom with Jack & Jill vanities.

Originally, two upstairs bedrooms shared a bath, which was converted into two separate bathrooms, one for an en suite bedroom, the other an entirely separate space.

Out went the old carpeting, replaced with

seven-inch-wide French oak flooring. New windows and fresh coat of paint completed the

rejuvenation. And it all took place during the pandemic.

“It took much longer than expected. Materials were delayed and the garage became a staging area so that when things arrived, we had a place to store them. The one good thing was we could take advantage of low interest rates,” the owners said.

Hodgins said the timing during the pandemic featured all the usual glitches.

“There were so many delays, hiccups, and frustration along the way, but the result is stunning. It’s beautiful and on point. I love that house and I’m very happy about how it came together. It’s such a huge difference and it looks like a brand-new home!”

Colbert agreed. “We created a space that is bright and open and suitable for entertaining. We brought their vision to fruition and it transitioned from a mediocre house to a statement.”

The following summer, Sisler Builders returned to install an outdoor shower and enlarge the deck that overlooks the stunning views of the Worcester Range.

Thanks to clear vision, a great team, patience, collaboration, and flexibility, what started out to be not exactly the owners’ dream house, became a dream come true.

“It exceeded our expectations,” the couple said. “We love it!” n

S TOWE MAGAZINE BUSINESS DIRECTORY

ANTIQUES

BITTNER ANTIQUES

Third-generation Vermont antique dealer Brian Bittner: broad experience with pocket and wristwatches, jewelry, silver, artwork, coins/paper money, historical/military, older collectibles, heirlooms. Free house visits. 2997 Shelburne Road, Shelburne. (802) 489-5210, bittnerantiques.com.

J. LANGDON

A dignified mix of early antiques, mid-century modern and vintage curiosities. Persian rugs, taxidermy, textiles, quilts, and locally made candles and cards. On historic Langdon Street, Montpelier. jlangdonvermont.com, @jlangdonantiquesandart.

ARCHITECTS

ANDREW VOLANSKY, AIA / VOLANSKY STUDIO ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING

The term studio speaks to an open process of collaborating with our clients and general contractors who execute our designs. This respectful approach has proven to contribute significantly to project success. (802) 793-4999, volanskystudio.com.

BROWN + DAVIS DESIGN

We are a small architecture firm dedicated to the belief that good design matters. We specialize in thoughtfully crafted and energy efficient residential design throughout Vermont. (802) 899-1155. brownanddavis.com.

ECK MACNEELY ARCHITECTS

Home is a place where comfort is found and given. Since 1976, we have considered every design detail an opportunity to create the spirit of home. 560 Harrison Ave., Suite 403, Boston 02118. (617) 367-9696. eckmacneely.com.

ELD ARCHITECTURE

Creating thoughtful, site-specific designs in response to each client's unique goals. We provide the opportunity to experience your home three-dimensionally and are committed to creating enduring relationships with our clients. eldarchitecture.com. (802) 521-7101.

ELIZABETH HERRMANN ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN

EHA+D is an award-winning residential architecture firm based in Central Vermont. We specialize in designing exceptionally beautiful, well-crafted, energy-efficient homes. (802) 453-6401, eharchitect.com.

HARRY HUNT ARCHITECTS

Modern green homes—true to the spirit of Vermont. Member American Institute of Architects. Certified passive house designer. harryhuntarchitects.com, (802) 253-2374.

J. GRAHAM GOLDSMITH, ARCHITECTS

Quality design and professional architectural services specializing in high-end residential development. Member Stowe Area. (800) 862-4053. jggarchitects.com. Email: vt@jggarchitects.com.

LEE HUNTER ARCHITECT

Stowe-based architectural firm offering a personal approach to creative, elegant design. Residential, commercial, and renovations. leehunterarchitect.com. (802) 253-9928.

METHOD ARCHITECTURE STUDIO PLLC

A Stowe-based architectural studio specializing in energy efficient, modern timber frame, custom home designs. View our process, portfolio, and client stories at methodarch.com. 259 Summit View Drive, Stowe. (802) 585-3161.

SAM SCOFIELD, ARCHITECT, AIA

Professional architectural services for all phases of design and construction. Residential and commercial. Carlson Building, Main Street, Stowe. samscofieldarchitect.com. (802) 253-9948.

TRUEXCULLINS ARCHITECTURE & INTERIOR DESIGN

Designing luxury-custom homes that connect with their natural setting and meet the desires of our clients. View our homes at truexcullins.com. (802) 658-2775.

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

CUSHMAN DESIGN GROUP

Architectural, interior, and landscape design featuring beauty, craftsmanship, and excellent energy efficiency. Creative, intuitive, functional, efficient. (802) 253-2169. cushmandesign.com. inquiry@cushmandesign.com.

ART GALLERIES

ARTISANS’ GALLERY

An inspired collection of fine art and craft from Vermont’s established and emerging artists. A must-see destination. Gifts and cards for every occasion. 11-6 daily. Historic Bridge Street, Waitsfield. (802) 496-6256. vtartisansgallery.com.

BRYAN GALLERY

Vermont’s premier gallery for landscape artwork with over 200 regional artists displayed annually. One gallery, two locations, Jeffersonville and Stowe. Visit bryangallery.org for more information. (802) 644-5100.

THE CURRENT

A center for contemporary art and art education, established in 1981. Exhibitions of acclaimed artists. Art classes. Cultural events. Schedule: Tuesday-Friday 10-5, Saturday 10-3. 90 Pond St., Stowe. (802) 253-8358, thecurrentnow.org.

FRONT FOUR GALLERY

An outstanding selection of original paintings, sculpture, and glass by locally, nationally, and internationally acclaimed artists. 394 Mountain Road, Baggy Knees Shopping Center, Stowe. frontfourgallery.com. (802) 253-7282.

NORTHWOOD GALLERY

Gallery exclusively featuring Vermont artisans. Jewelry, pottery, prints, local photography, woodwork, cards, stained glass and more. 151 Main St., Stowe. (802) 760-6513. info.northwoodgallery@gmail.com.

VISIONS OF VERMONT

We feature Eric Tobin, Aldro Hibbard, Thomas Curtin, Emile Gruppe, Alden Bryan, and many more. A century of painting history is made on the Jeffersonville side of Smugglers Notch. (802) 760-7396. visionsofvermont.org.

AWNINGS

OTTER CREEK AWNINGS

Expand your outdoor living space with the help of Otter Creek Awnings. Providing custom outdoor shading solutions since 1976. Free onsite estimates. Showroom at 19 Echo Place, Williston, or othercreekawnings.com. (802) 864-3009.

BAKERIES

BLACK CAP COFFEE & BAKERY OF VERMONT Croissants, danishes, muffins, scones, tarts, cakes. Everything made in house. Gluten-free/vegan options. A fun place to work, meet, or hang out. Open daily. Stowe and Morrisville downtowns, Waterbury Train Station. blackcapvermont.com.

BIKE SHOPS & INSTRUCTION

HITCHHIKER BIKE SHOP

We are Stowe’s premier mountain and gravel bike shop offering service, new bikes, parts, clothing, and accessories. We can get you back out on the trails in no time. 394 Mountain Road. hitchhikerbikes.com. (802) 585-3344.

MOUNTAINOPS

High-quality bikes and best location guarantee—exclusive access to the Stowe Recreation Path across from Topnotch Resort. Hiking information, trail maps and accessories, extensive line of camping gear. Daily at 9 a.m. (802) 253-4531. mountainops.com.

TRAPP FAMILY LODGE OUTDOOR CENTER

Over 25 miles of mountain biking trails in woodlands and meadows with spectacular mountain views. Trails to von Trapp Bierhall. Private, group instruction, rentals, retail shop. (802) 253-8511.

BREWERIES & CIDERIES

THE ALCHEMIST

A family owned and operated craft brewery specializing in fresh, unfiltered IPA. Open for retail sales and onsite consumption, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., 7 days a week. Order online at shop.alchemistbeer.com. 100 Cottage Club Road, stowe.alchemistbeer.com.

ROCK ART BREWERY

Brewing beers we love for you to enjoy. Visit our brewery tasting room and Vermont artisan gallery. Come over and celebrate our 25th anniversary with us. (802) 888-9400. rockartbrewery.com.

VON TRAPP BREWING & BIERHALL

Located at Trapp Family Lodge, the von Trapp Brewing Bierhall is situated on the lodge’s cross country and mountain bike trails. Fresh lagers and a selection of freshly prepared Austrian lunch and dinner selections. (802) 253-5750. vontrappbrewing.com.

BUILDERS & CONTRACTORS

BEACON HILL BUILDERS

A family owned and operated custom-home building company. Over 30+ years of experience building and managing fine custom homes, additions, remodels, and energy efficient upgrades in Stowe and beyond. (802) 244-6767. beaconhillvt.com.

DONALD P. BLAKE JR INC.

Handcrafted quality in building, offering experienced and reliable contracting services since 1985. Specializing in custom home new construction, renovations, commercial construction, construction management, property services. (802) 888-3629, stowebuilder.com.

GYLLENBORG CONSTRUCTION

Recognized for high-quality craftsmanship. Our priority is to encourage and promote environmentally friendly living. Individualized customer service and attention to detail for custom homebuilding, renovations, and additions. Since 1995. gyllenborgconstruction.com. (802) 888-9288.

MOUNTAIN LOGWORKS, LLC

Handcrafted log homes. Specializing in Scandinavian Full Scribe and Adirondack-style log structures with log diameters up to 30 inches. In-house design service available. (802) 748-5929. mountainlogworks.com.

RED HOUSE BUILDING

Full-service, employee-owned building company with an emphasis on timeless craftsmanship. Meeting the challenges of unique and demanding building projects, from contemporary mountain retreats to meticulously restored historic buildings and high-efficiency homes. (802) 655-0043. redhousebuilding.com.

SISLER BUILDERS INC.

Custom home building, remodeling, woodworking, home energy audits and retrofits, quality craftsmanship, resource efficient construction, modest additions to multi-million-dollar estates. 40 years in Stowe. References available. sislerbuilders.com. (802) 253-5672.

VERMONT FRAMES

Vermont Frames has been handcrafting traditional timber frame homes since 1976. We design, cut, and install our frames across the United States, and are proud to be a veteran-owned company. vermontframes.com, (802) 453-3727.

WINTERWOOD TIMBER FRAMES, LLC

Hand-crafted, custom-designed timber-frame structures and woodwork, SIPs insulation, sourcing local timber and fine hardwoods, building in the Vermont vernacular. Cabinetry, flooring, butcher-block tops, and staircases. (802) 229-7770. winterwoodtimberframes.com.

BUILDING MATERIALS

CAMARA SLATE

National supplier of roofing slate, slate flooring, flagstone, countertops, and other structural components. Committed to delivering a standard beyond our competitors’ abilities with excellent service and quality-valued products. Fair Haven, Vt. (802) 265-3200, camaraslate.com, info@camaraslate.com.

CLOSE TO HOME

Celebrating 25 years as Vermont’s only independently owned and operated luxury plumbing and architectural hardware showroom. From style selection to technical Knowhow, our team offers guidance tailored to your wants and needs. closetohomevt.com. 257 Pine St., Burlington. (802) 861-3200.

LOEWEN WINDOW CENTER OF VT & NH

Beautifully crafted Douglas fir windows and doors for the discerning homeowner. Double- and triple-glazed options available in aluminum, copper, and bronze clad. Style Inspired by You. loewenvtnh.com, (802) 295-6555, info@loewenvtnh.com.

RK MILES

Founded in 1940, rk Miles is a family-owned company providing services and materials for all types of building and design. Six locations serving Vermont and western Massachusetts, including Stowe and Morrisville. rkmiles.com.

CANNABIS DISPENSARY

CRAFT CANNABIS COMPANY

Locally curated cannabis products, tested by us, for you. Deli-style bulk flower, high-end edibles, and great prices. Vinyl records, glass, dab rigs, beverages, and more. Cannabis Company, 46 Hutchins St., Morrisville. 21 and over only.

HIGHER ELEVATION LLC

Enjoy a private one-on-one experience with one of our budtenders! Friendly and knowledgeable staff to guide you through very large selection of recreational Vermont cannabis products. See our menu at higherelevationvt.com.

WILD LEGACY CANNABIS

Wild Legacy Cannabis Dispensary is a woman-owned small retail business. We carry a unique inventory. Our amazing staff will guide you to products that suit your preferences. Located at 10 Railroad St., Morrisville.

CANOEING

VERMONT CANOE & KAYAK

Rent canoes, solo and tandem kayaks and paddleboards at one of three launch locations on the Lamoille River. Shuttle with us or join us for one of our many guided tours tailored to your spirit of adventure. vtcanoeandkayak.com, vtcanoes@gmail.com, or (802) 644-8336.

CERAMICS

STEPHANIE GRACE CERAMICS

Handmade, one-of-a-kind porcelain vases, bowls and tableware to elevate your every day living. Custom pieces and bridal registries available. Shop hours: WednesdaySaturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Email to schedule a studio visit at stephanie@stephaniegraceceramics.

CHURCHES & SYNAGOGUES

BLESSED SACRAMENT CATHOLIC CHURCH

Mass schedule: Saturday, 4:30 p.m., Sunday, 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. See bulletin for daily masses. Confession Saturday 3:30-4 p.m. Father John Schnobrich, Pastor. 728 Mountain Road, Stowe. (802) 253-7536.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF GREATER STOWE

For information regarding services, holiday gatherings, classes, and workshops: JCOGS, Stowe, Vt. 05672. 1189 Cape Cod Road, Stowe. (802) 253-1800 or jcogs.org.

ST. JOHN’S IN THE MOUNTAINS EPISCOPAL

At the crossroads of Mountain and Luce Hill roads in Stowe. Holy Eucharist Sundays at 10 a.m., in person and online. St. John’s is wheelchair friendly, visitors and children welcome. Rev. Rick Swanson. (802) 253-7578, stjohnsinthemountains.org.

STOWE COMMUNITY CHURCH

The iconic church on Stowe’s Main Street is multi-denominational, inclusive, and welcoming. Services are held every Sunday at 9:30 a.m., in person and livestreamed, and the building is home to many public and private events, including weddings. Please join us. stowecommunitychurch.org or (802) 253-7257.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP

Sunday services at 4:30 p.m., St. John’s in the Mountains Episcopal Church, Mountain and Luce Hill roads, Stowe. Weekly September to June. All welcome. For information: UU Fellowship of Stowe on Facebook.

WATERBURY CENTER COMMUNITY

Route 100 next to the Cider Mill. We warmly welcome visitors. (802) 244-6286. Sunday worship 10:30 a.m. Handicapped accessible. Church is a National Historic Place. Pastor Shirley Nolan.

CLOSETS & STORAGE SOLUTIONS

INSPIRED CLOSETS

Vermont’s largest and most experienced custom closet company. Our professional staff will help you design and install closet and storage solutions to transform any space in your home. Visit our showroom in Williston. (802) 658-0000, inspiredclosetsvt.com.

CLOTHING & ACCESSORIES

ARCHERY CLOSE

Clothing boutique with a curated collection of emerging designers, trend-setting styles, and cult brands. Women’s downstairs and men’s upstairs. 25 S. Main St. Stowe. archeryclose.com, @archeryclose @archeryclosemens. (802) 242-0448.

BOUTIQUE AT STOWE MERCANTILE

Fabulous contemporary fashion for women. From casual to professional, Boutique can make you feel beautiful any time. Lingerie, dresses, skirts, tops, jeans, sweaters, more. We’ll dress you for any occasion. Depot Building, Main Street, Stowe. (802) 253-3712.

COCO GOOSE BY GREEN ENVY

On-trend luxe clothing, shoes, handbags, accessories. Veronica Beard, Ulla Johnson, Rag & Bone, Mother, Nili Lotan, Herno. Over 250 brands. Premium denim. 1800 Mountain Road and 2023 Mountain Road, Stowe. In Burlington and Manchester, and Providence, R.I. (802) 253-2661, shopcocogoose.com.

FORGET-ME-NOT-SHOP

Treasure hunt through our huge selection of famous label off price clothing for men, women, and teens at 60 to 80 percent off. Route 15 Johnson, just 1.5 miles west of Johnson Village. Open 10-7.

IN COMPANY CLOTHING

Celebrating 24 years. Specializing in personalized service and top designer labels. Come see what’s in. 10-5 daily. Sunday hours may vary. 344 Mountain Road, Stowe. (802) 253-4595. incompanyclothing.com, @incompanyclothing.

JOHNSON WOOLEN MILLS

Home of famous Johnson Woolen outerwear since 1842, featuring woolen blankets, and men’s, women’s and children’s wool and flannel clothing. Great selection of Pendleton. Route 15, Johnson. (802) 635-2271, johnsonwoolenmills.com.

MOUNTAIN ROAD OUTFITTERS / MALOJA (MAH-LOW-YA) FLAGSHIP STORE

Made for the mountains. A European outdoor sport, lifestyle, apparel, and accessories brand. Winter: Nordic and alpine ski. Summer: mountain and road bike. 409 Mountain Road, Stowe. (802) 760-6605. mountainroadoutfitters.com.

ROAM VERMONT

Adventurous footwear and apparel for men and women. Explore in style with Patagonia, Kuhl, Birkenstock, Prana, Dansko, and Blundstone. Located on historic Langdon Street in downtown Montpelier. Open Monday to Saturday. (802) 613-3902. roamvt.com.

WELL HEELED

Sophisticated collection of shoes, boots, clothing, and accessories for an effortlessly chic lifestyle. Stylish interior combined with personalized service and by appointment shopping available—a #mustdoinstowe. Daily 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (802) 253-6077, wellheeledstowe.com.

YELLOW TURTLE

Clothing, toys, and gifts for babies, kids, and teens. 1799 Mountain Road in Stowe. yellow-turtle.com, @yellowturtlevt.

S TOWE MAGAZINE BUSINESS DIRECTORY

COFFEE HOUSES

BLACK CAP COFFEE & BAKERY OF VERMONT

Locally roasted coffee. Lattes, smoothies, teas, chais. Fresh pastries, breakfast, lunch. Gluten-free/vegan options. A fun place to work, meet, or hang out. Open daily. Stowe Village, Morrisville downtown, Waterbury Train Station. blackcapvermont.com.

GIRAKOFI

Coffee your way. Locally roasted espresso and drip coffees. Customizable breakfast sandwiches and freshly baked pastries. Lunch options. Heated indoor and patio seating. Wi-Fi, knowledgeable staff, and Vermont gifts. 1880 Mountain Road, Stowe. girakofi.com, (802) 585-7710.

STOWE STREET CAFÉ

Discover our community-oriented cafe featuring local coffee, food, and art, including breakfast, lunch, and take and bake meals. Shop our unique collection of art and gifts made in Vermont and beyond. 29 Stowe St., Waterbury. stowestreetcafe.com.

VERMONT ARTISAN COFFEE & TEA CO.

Stop by our state-of-the-art coffee roastery and coffee bar. Delicious coffee espresso drinks, whole bean coffees, and premium teas. 11 Cabin Lane, Waterbury Center, vtartisan.com.

CONTRACTOR SERVICES

NEW WEST BUILDING COMPANY

Specializing in innovative construction solutions, focusing on excellence and accuracy. Exceeding client expectations through expertise, reliability, and exceptional customer service. (802) 777-0707, newwestbc.com.

DELICATESSEN

EDELWEISS MOUNTAIN DELI

Farm-to-table prepared foods. Delicious deli sandwiches, salads, baked goods. Craft beer, wine, and local spirits. Daily 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. 2251 Mountain Road, Stowe. (802) 253-4034. We are all about the local.

DENTISTRY

STOWE DENTAL ASSOCIATES

Christopher P. Altadonna DDS and Jeffrey R. McKechnie DMD. (802) 253-7932. stowedentalassociates.com. stowedentist@gmail.com.

STOWE FAMILY DENTISTRY

Creating beautiful smiles for over 40 years. Always welcoming new patients. 1593 Pucker St., Stowe. (802) 253-4157.

DISTILLERIES

GREEN MOUNTAIN DISTILLERY

Vermont’s No. 1 organic distillery. Vodkas, gin, maple liqueur, and small-batch whiskey. 171 Whiskey Run. Route 100 between Stowe and Morrisville; turn on Goeltz Road. (802) 253-0064, greendistillers.com.

SMUGGLERS’ NOTCH DISTILLERY

Come taste our award-winning spirits. Tasting rooms in Jeffersonville, Stowe, Waterbury Center, Burlington, Manchester, and Williston for samples, sales, and more. Daily. (802) 309-3077, smugglersnotchdistillery.com.

E-BIKE TOURS

LAMOILLE VALLEY BIKE TOURS

E-bike, regular, and gravel bike rentals for riding the 93mile Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. Curated day tours and multiday bike tours. Ride the Rail Trail bike shuttle. E-bike sales. In Johnson, 20 minutes from Stowe and Smugglers’. lamoillevalleybiketours.com.

ENGINEERS

MUMLEY ENGINEERING INC.

Civil engineering services for residential and commercial land development, including subdivisions, site plans, wastewater and water systems, and stormwater management. Permitting for local zoning, state, and Act 250. Contact tyler@mumleyinc.com, (802) 881-6314.

EXCAVATING

DALE E. PERCY, INC.

Excavating contractors, commercial and residential. Earthmoving equipment. Site work, trucking, stone, top soil, sand, gravel, soil, sewer, water, drainage systems, and supplies. Weeks Hill Road. (802) 253-8503.

FARMERS MARKET

STOWE FARMERS MARKET

Every Sunday, May through Oct. 20, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. New location on the Stowe Recreation Path. Enjoy breakfast, lunch, live music, local produce, meat, cheese, herbal products, pottery, jewelry, and more. 3420 Mountain Road. stowefarmersmarket.com.

FISHING & HUNTING

FLY ROD SHOP

Vermont’s most experienced guide service. Guided fly fishing, ice fishing and family tours. Weekly taste of Vermont tours. Fly tackle, fly tying supplies, spin and ice fishing tackle. Route 100 South, Stowe. flyrodshop.com, (802) 253-7346.

FLOORING

FLOORING AMERICA

Customize your home with flooring that compliments your space while honoring your style. Choose from our leading collection of hardwood, carpet, tile, laminate, vinyl, and rug selections. Williston, 802-448-4771, flooringamerica-vt.com.

FURNITURE

BURLINGTON FURNITURE

From modern and contemporary to classic and Vermont traditional, we are passionate about bringing the perfect style to your home. Sofas, dining, lighting, and rugs—our design team can help you pull your space together. Showroom: 747 Pine St., Burlington. burlingtonfurniture.us, (802) 862-5056.

POMPANOOSUC MILLS

Celebrating 50 years of handcrafting timeless, sustainable, forever furniture in Vermont and the USA. We design, build, and deliver fewer, better home furnishings to ensure quality and affordability. 4 Market St., South Burlington and throughout the Northeast. pompy.com.

STOWE LIVING

Welcome to your new favorite store. Unique home décor and take-home furniture for the entire home. Gourmet kitchenware, gadgets, specialty foods, bedding, bath, clothing, jewelry, gifts. Ship and deliver. 1813 Mountain Rd. (802) 253-8050. Shop online at stoweliving.net.

GIFT & SPECIALTY SHOPS

BLACK CAP COFFEE & BAKERY OF VERMONT

Fun selection of gifts and cards within Stowe’s favorite coffee shop and bakery. A fun place to work, meet, or hang out. Open daily. Stowe Village, Morrisville downtown, Waterbury Train Station. blackcapvermont.com.

THE BODY LOUNGE

A natural body and bath shop with an additionally large selection of whimsical gifts, cards, beautiful artisan jewelry and local art. Red Barn Shops, 1799 Mountain Road, Stowe. (802) 253-7333. bodyloungevt.com.

BUTTERNUT MOUNTAIN FARM & MARVIN’S COUNTRY STORE

A country store focused on all things maple. Shop a thoughtfully curated selection of celebrated local products including specialty cheeses, honey, jams, Vermont-made products, crafts, and gifts. (800) 899-6349, marvinscountrystore.com.

THE COUNTRY STORE ON MAIN

Luxury bedding, dreamy candles, kitchen gadgets, children’s items, pet goods, rugs, frames, clocks, greeting cards, and more. Located in the former Lackey’s building next to Stowe Community Church. 109 Main St. (802) 253-7653, countrystorevt.com.

GREEN MOUNTAIN DRY GOODS

A well-curated collection of Vermont-designed, Vermontmade, Vermont-inspired gifts for all ages. We’re the gateway to your Waterbury-Stowe Road shopping experience. 132 Waterbury-Stowe Road, Waterbury.

MOSS BOUTIQUE

Artist-owned boutique featuring contemporary Vermont oil paintings by Jennifer Hubbard alongside crafts by other independent designers, as well as beautiful and unique home furnishings, decor, gifts, and jewelry. Portland Street, downtown Morrisville. (802) 851-8461, mossboutiquevt.com.

NUSANTARA

Travel the world through our world marketplace. Explore a curated collection of handcrafted and artisanal goods from the esoteric to beautiful: jewelry, furniture, clothing, architectural salvage, accessories, deities and ephemera, books, and oddities. @nusantara_essex. 21 Essex Way, Essex.

STOWE MERCANTILE

Fabulous old country store, Vermont specialty foods, penny candy, clothing, bath and body, wine, craft beer and cider, and toys. Play a game of checkers or a tune on our piano. Depot Building, Main Street. (802) 253-4554. stowemercantile.com.

STOWE STREET CAFÉ

Discover our community-oriented cafe featuring local coffee, food, and art, including breakfast, lunch, and take and bake meals. Shop our unique collection of art and gifts made in Vermont and beyond. 29 Stowe St., Waterbury. stowestreetcafe.com.

TANGERINE & OLIVE

Independent makers from across North America. Clothing, jewelry, letterpress cards and stationery, maple syrup, and inspired gifts for the outdoor lover. Downer Farm Shops, 232 Mountain Road. tangerineandolive.com, (802) 760-6692.

TRAPP FAMILY LODGE GIFT & SPORT SHOPS

Trapp Family Lodge books, music, clothing, and food. Austrian specialty gifts, gourmet products, Vermont-made products, and maple syrup. Visit our two locations or shop online: trappfamily.com. (802) 253-8511.

GLASS SHOP

HIGHER ELEVATION LLC

Check out our extensive collection of hand-blown glass smoking accessories, as well as a great selection of CBD. Vermont products made for your skin, pets, more. Knowledgeable staff can find just what you’re looking for. Stop by today. higherelevationvt.com.

GOLF

STOWE COUNTRY CLUB

Experience a challenging and rewarding test of skill at the heart of the Stowe Village. stowecountryclub.com, (802) 760-4650.

HEALTH CARE

COPLEY HOSPITAL

Nonprofit community hospital serving the area for 92 years. Services include 24-7 emergency, Mansfield Orthopaedics, general surgery, cardiology, neurology, diagnostic imaging, oncology, rehabilitation, Women’s Center., more. (802) 888-8888 or copleyvt.org to schedule an appointment.

MANSFIELD ORTHOPAEDICS

Our team of orthopaedic surgeons and podiatrists provide patient-centered care close to home or vacation, sports medicine, and rehabilitation. Locations in Morrisville and Waterbury. More at or mansfieldorthopaedics.com or (802) 888-8405.

HEALTH & FITNESS CLUBS

CURATED PILATES + MOVEMENT

Boutique Pilates studio. Small group classes and private sessions on all Pilates apparatus. Regain ownership over your health and well-being and gain strength, energy, and resilience to pursue your passions. 1880 Mountain Road, Stowe. curatedpilates.com, (802) 304-0480.

ELEVATE MOVEMENT COLLECTIVE

Multi-sport training facility promoting health and wellness through physical education and community engagement. Camps, classes, and open gyms for kids and adults to train parkour, trampoline, climbing, ninja warrior, and much more. Mountain Road, Stowe. (802) 585-0579, elevatemovementcollective.com.

THE SWIMMING HOLE

Nonprofit community pool and fitness center. Olympic-sized lap pool, toddler pool, waterslide. Learn-to-swim classes, masters swimming, aqua-aerobics, personal training, group fitness classes, yoga. Memberships, day guests, and dropins. (802) 253-9229, theswimmingholestowe.com.

HEATING/AC & PLUMBING

FRED’S ENERGY

Experienced, licensed professionals. Quality plumbing, heating, AC installation/service; heating oil, propane; generators; water heaters/softeners; sewer pumps; bathroom remodels; 24/7 emergency service. Morrisville: (802) 888-3827, callfreds.com.

INNS & RESORTS

AWOL STOWE

AWOL Stowe is your private alpine retreat featuring an outdoor sauna, cedar hot tubs, cold plunge pools, communal fire pits, an on-site library, and gear storage. Mountain Road, Stowe.

BLUEBIRD CADY HILL LODGE

Bluebird Cady Hill Lodge is your launch pad for Vermont adventure with indoor and outdoor pools, a playground, shuffleboard court, game room, and cozy bar and lounge. Mountain Road, Stowe.

EDSON HILL MANOR

Enjoy a tranquil escape at Edson Hill: 38 private acres with 22 individually inspired guest rooms. Experience our commitment to genuine service, casual luxury, and topnotch hospitality.edsonhill.com, 802-253-7371.

FIELD GUIDE LODGE

Field Guide Lodge is a stylish basecamp, centrally located in the heart of downtown Stowe, featuring pet-friendly rooms, an outdoor pool, hot tub, and onsite bar and tasting room.

GREEN MOUNTAIN INN

In the heart of Stowe village, over 104 accommodations featuring classic charm and modern comfort. Year-round outdoor pool and Jacuzzi, health club, sauna, firepits, Stowe Village Massage. Two restaurants, Whip Bar and Grill and 18 Main. (802) 253-7302. thewhip.com.

SMUGGLERS’ NOTCH RESORT, VERMONT

America’s Family Resort. Mountainside lodging. Award-winning kids’ programs. Zipline canopy tours. Winter: Three interconnected mountains, 2,610 vertical. FunZone 2.0 entertainment complex. Summer: 8 pools, 4 waterslides, disc golf, mountain bike park. (888) 256-7623, smuggs.com/sg.

TÄLTA LODGE, A BLUEBIRD BY LARK

Tälta Lodge is designed with the adventurer in mind. Featuring rooms, suites, and cabins, gear storage, a pump track, indoor pool, hot tub, sauna, and onsite bar and restaurant. Mountain Road, Stowe.

TOPNOTCH RESORT

Stowe’s only luxury boutique resort wows with contemporary rooms, suites, one-to-three-bedroom resort homes, an airy bar and restaurant, world-class spa and tennis center, and indoor/outdoor pools. topnotchresort.com.

TRAPP FAMILY LODGE

Mountain resort in the European tradition. 96 rooms and suites, panoramic mountain views and over 28 miles of biking/hiking trails. European-style cuisine, fitness center, shops, climbing wall, yoga, von Trapp family history tours. (800) 826-7000. trappfamily.com.

INSURANCE

STOWE INSURANCE AGENCY, INC.

Stowe’s premier multi-line insurance agency since 1955. Our pricing and service are second to none. Glenn Mink, Robert Mink, and Renee Davis. (802) 253-4855.

INTERIOR DESIGN

BRENNA B INTERIORS

Our mission is to help transform your space into one you can’t wait to get home to. Bringing client inspirations into functional, comfortable, and beautiful interior design. Monday to Saturday, 10-5, Sunday, 12-5. 132 Mountain Road, Stowe. (802) 760-6499, brennabinteriors.com.

DESIGN STUDIO OF STOWE

Creating beautiful interiors from classic to modern with respect to client’s taste, property, budget, deadline. New construction, renovations, and updates to existing spaces. Residential to light commercial projects. Allied Member ASID. 626 Mountain Road, Stowe. (802) 253-9600. designstudiovt.com.

STONELEDGE FARM + HOME

A full-service interior design studio with projects in the tristate area, Florida, and Vermont. Email us at info@stoneledgefarmhome.com to discuss working with us. stoneledgefarmhome.com.

STOWE OUTPOST INTERIOR DESIGN

Boston-based interior designer Marc J. Langlois, captivated by Stowe, established Stowe Outpost Interior Design Studio to design exceptional interiors, providing full-service solutions spanning from classic to contemporary styles. 4285 Mountain Road. (617) 959-1908, marcjlangloisinteriors.com, Instagram: @stoweoutpost, @marcjlanglois.

JEWELRY

FERRO ESTATE & CUSTOM JEWELERS

Stowe’s premier full-service jeweler since 2006. We specialize in estate jewelry, fine diamonds, custom design, jewelry repair, and appraisals. In-house repair studio. American Gem Society. 91 Main St. (802) 253-3033. ferrojewelers.com @ferro_jewelers_stowe.

VON BARGEN’S JEWELRY

A second-generation family business with five locations in Vermont and New Hampshire, including a jewelry making studio. Specializing in ideal cut diamonds, fine handmade artisan jewelry, and custom jewelry creation. (802) 253-2942. vonbargens.com.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

KNAUF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

We transform landscapes into beautiful outdoor living spaces that ignite the senses and seamlessly connect inside and outside with balance and harmony. Member ASLA. (802) 522-0676. cynthiaknauf.com.

LANDSHAPES

Serving Vermont’s residential and commercial landscapes with design, installations, and property maintenance. Projects include unlimited varieties of stonework, gardens, water features, and installation of San Juan pools and spas. (802) 434-3500. landshapes.net.

SITEFORM STUDIO

Landscape architect who combines an understanding of people, place, and the environment to craft resilient, sitespecific landscapes for projects throughout New England that blend the user, site, architecture, and ecology. Member ASLA. (617) 458-9915, siteformstudio.com.

WAGNER HODGSON LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

The process of uniting program, context, form and materials provides the basis for our work, crafting modern sculptural landscapes expressing the essential inherent beauty of natural materials. Vermont, (802) 864-0010. Hudson Valley, New York, (518) 567-1791. wagnerhodgson.com.

LAWYERS

BARR LAW GROUP

Complex litigation and commercial transactions, including class actions, securities litigation, EB-5 fraud, arbitrations, trials, appeals, criminal defense, corporate mergers/acquisitions, Native American/tribal matters, real estate, aviation, personal injury/wrongful death. Licensed in Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts. Offices at 125 Mountain Road, Stowe, (802) 253-6272; 100 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y., (212) 486-3910. barrlaw.com. More lawyers l

S TOWE MAGAZINE BUSINESS DIRECTORY

DARBY KOLTER & ROBERTS, LLP

General civil practice: real estate (commercial and residential), business formation, family law, estate planning/probate administration, personal injury, worker’s compensation, and mediation services. Waterbury, main office: 89 S. Main St., (802) 244-7352. Stowe office, by appointment only: 166 S. Main St., (802) 253-7165.

LAJOIE GOLDFINE, LLC

General practice including family law, civil litigation, personal injury, real estate, corporate, estate planning/estate and trust administration. Located in Stowe’s lower village, 638 S. Main St. (802) 760-6480. lglawvt.com.

OLSON & SEABOLT, PLC

General law practice: commercial and residential real estate, business representation (formation, maintenance, and asset purchases/sales), estate planning and LGBTQ matters. 188 S. Main St., Stowe. (802) 253-7810, olsonplc.net.

MARKETS & GROCERIES

THE BUTCHERY

Butcher shop, fishmonger, fromagerie, sourcing prime beef, all-natural pork, free-range chicken and game. Artisan sandwiches, soups, and prepared foods. Local beer and wine. 504 Mountain Rd., Stowe. (802) 253-1444. butcheryvt.com.

COMMODITIES NATURAL MARKET

One-stop grocery shopping featuring organic and local produce, groceries, artisanal cheeses, fresh bread, local meats, phenomenal beer and wines, gluten-free galore, wellness products, bulk section, more. Open daily. (802) 253-4464. commoditiesnaturalmarket.com.

MASSAGE & BODYWORK

BRAD HIGHBERGER, LMT, RCST

Integrative pain assessment and support. Specialized treatment and referral options available. Free 15-minute phone consults. 25-plus years of experience in Stowe. See vtpaintreatment.com. (802) 730-4955.

KATE GRAVES, CMT, BHS

Relaxation, deep tissue, moist heat, facilitated stretching, Thai, energy work (Brennan Healing Science graduate 2000), sound work. In practice over 35 years. Competitive rates. Stowe Yoga Center, 515 Moscow Rd. stoweyoga.com. kgravesmt@gmail.com, (802) 253-8427.

TRAPP FAMILY LODGE FITNESS CENTER

Massage therapists use a blend of techniques including Swedish, deep tissue, acupressure, and Shiatsu. Other treatments include reflexology, salt glows, and hot stone therapy. Appointments available daily. trappfamily.com.

MATTRESSES

BURLINGTON MATTRESS

Restorative sleep is crucial for your health and well-being. Visit our store and talk to our sleep experts for guidance to a more restful night of sleep. Your wellness journey starts here. Visit us at 747 Pine St., Burlington. (802) 862-7167, burlingtonmattress.us.

NURSERIES

SUMMERSWEET GARDEN NURSERY & TEA ROOM

Stroll through beautiful display gardens, shop for flowers and herbs. Enjoy English cream tea in the tea room, browse for hats in the gift shop. Free Sunday garden tours at 1 p.m. East Hardwick. (802) 472-5104. summersweetgardens.com.

OUTDOOR FURNITURE

BURLINGTON FURNITURE

Vermont’s largest resource for quality outdoor furniture. Large in-stock position and special-order capabilities. We welcome both residential and commercial projects. Let us help you enjoy outdoor living. Showroom: 747 Pine St., Burlington. burlingtonfurniture.us, (802) 862-5056.

PERSONAL CHEF

SWEET & SAVORY PERSONAL CHEF SERVICES

Sweet & Savory’s goal is to prepare and deliver high-quality, healthy, and delicious meals to locals and visiting out-oftowners. Personal chef services, weekly meals, catering for all occasions. Easier than takeout. (802) 730-2792, sweetsavorystowe.com.

PICTURE FRAMING

AXEL’S FRAME SHOP & GALLERY

Providing quality picture framing and art sourcing to the central Vermont community for nearly 40 years. Affordable framing is just as important to us as providing incredible customer and design service. 5 Stowe St., Waterbury. (802) 244-7801. axelsgallery.com.

PRINTING

THE UPS STORE

From blueprints and banners to business cards and brochures, we print it. Shipping, scanning, and every other business service you can think of, we are your locally owned business partner. 998 S. Main St., Stowe. (802) 253-2233. store2614@theupsstore.com.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

RURAL RESOURCES

Comprehensive property and household management services. Full-service professional management team specializing in the details of preserving your investment. Concierge/ housekeeping, vendor management, design/remodels, much more. (802) 253-9496, admin@ruralresourcesvt.com.

REAL ESTATE & RENTALS

COLDWELL BANKER CARLSON REAL ESTATE

Real estate services representing Stowe and surrounding communities. Our talented team leads the industry in technology, innovation, and expertise. Located at 91 Main St., Stowe (802) 253-7358, and 74 Portland St., Morrisville, (802) 521-7962. cbcarlsonrealestate.com.

ELEMENT REAL ESTATE

Element Real Estate is a boutique firm out to transform the real estate experience from one of sales to one of service, one transaction at a time. Please visit us on Stowe’s Mountain Road, at realestatevt.com, or call us at (802) 253-1553.

FOUR SEASONS SOTHEBY’S

Our Stowe office showcases the charm and allure of the town, known for its beauty and community. With diverse listings and expert agents, we unlock the door to your best life. fourseasonssir.com (802) 253-7267.

LOVE2LIVEINVT TEAM

Award-winning Realtors passionate about VT. Helping buyers open doors to the Vermont lifestyle and guiding sellers every step of the way. Let us help you navigate the market with ease. love2liveinvt.com. Brooke, (802) 696-2251, and Karen, (802) 793-2454.

SPRUCE PEAK REAL ESTATE

Elevate your lifestyle amid stunning vistas and world-class slopes. Your dream home awaits with Stowe’s premier onmountain brokerage. sprucepeak.com, (877) 977-7823.

STOWE COUNTRY HOMES

Locally owned and operated, we offer a curated collection of short-term and seasonal rental homes, unique for their individual character. Each home is privately owned, immaculately maintained, and well-stocked. (802) 253-8132, stowecountryhomes.com, info@stowecountryhomes.com.

STOWE RESORT HOMES

Luxury vacation homes for the savvy traveler. Book some of Stowe’s best resort homes—online. Well-appointed, tastefully decorated homes at Topnotch, Spruce Peak, and throughout Stowe. (802) 760-1157. stoweresorthomes.com.

RESTAURANTS & NIGHTCLUBS

ALADDIN

A taste of the Middle East. Sourcing traditional and original recipe to create the most diverse and authentic vegetarian dishes. A cuisine Stowe has been longing for. Catering available. 1880 Mountain Road. aladdinstowevt.com. (802) 760-6383.

ARANDAS MEXICAN CUISINE

Authentic Mexican food now in Stowe. Try our burritos, tacos, quesadillas, tortas, and more. We have takeout and delivery through DoorDash. 745 S. Main St. (802) 253-7249. arandasmexicancuisine.com.

BENCH

Unique to Stowe, wood-fired comfort food including pizza. Local ingredients in a relaxed, rustic modern Vermont atmosphere. Enjoy après ski or dinner with family and friends. 28 taps, craft beer, cocktails, and extensive wine list. Daily. 492 Mountain Rd., Stowe. benchvt.com or (802) 253-5100.

BLACK CAP COFFEE & BAKERY OF VERMONT

Serving breakfast and lunch. Breakfast burritos and sandwiches, quiches, lunch sandwiches. Gluten-free/vegan options. A fun place to work, meet, or hang out. Open daily. Stowe and Morrisville downtowns, Waterbury Train Station. blackcapvermont.com.

BLACK DIAMOND BARBEQUE

Located just five miles from Stowe. Craft beer and cocktails, indoor and outdoor dining. Open Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays, pickup/drop-off catering, full-service custom food and bar catering. blackdiamondbarbeque.com, (802) 888-2275.

BLUE DONKEY BAR

The Blue Donkey Bar is a low-key bar complete with pool table, kick ass burgers, and a fabulous cocktail and beer menu. 2160 Mountain Road, Stowe. (802) 253-9333.

EDSON HILL MANOR

The Dining Room & Tavern at Edson Hill offers casual fine dining in an elegant setting and seasonal menus with locally sourced ingredients. Open Tuesday to Sunday. Reservations required. edsonhill.com/menu, 802-253-7371.

FARMHOUSE TAP & GRILL

Dine downtown Burlington at Farmhouse Tap & Grill, right off Church Street. Award-winning gastropub serving farmto-table burgers and craft beers from Vermont and beyond. Reservations available. farmhousetg.com.

HARRISON’S RESTAURANT

In historic Stowe Village serving elevated takes on American dishes with wine, craft beers, and cocktails in a unique, parlor-like space. Patio dining in summer and fall. Reservations accepted. (802) 253-7773, harrisonsstowe.com.

IDLETYME BREWING COMPANY

Small-batch craft lagers and ales. Lunch and dinner daily from 11:30 a.m. Innovative cocktails, extensive wine list, family friendly, fireplace dining. Outdoor patio. Perfect for special events. Beer to go. 1859 Mountain Road, Stowe. (802) 253-4765, idletymebrewing.com.

MICHAEL’S ON THE HILL

Enjoy the ultimate Vermont dining experience in a relaxed, warm atmosphere with spectacular views from our 1820 farmhouse. Events. Wine spectator award. Dinner from 5-9 p.m. Closed Tuesdays. 5 minutes from Stowe. Route 100, Waterbury Center. (802) 244-7476. michaelsonthehill.com.

PIECASSO PIZZERIA & LOUNGE

New York-style pizza, eclectic music, great vibes. A local favorite. Creative entrees, craft beer, gluten-free menu, online ordering, takeout, delivery. (802) 253-4411, piecasso.com.

THE RESERVOIR RESTAURANT

In the heart of downtown Waterbury. We specialize in local Vermont based comfort food and some of the best beers available. Private second floor events space for up to 50 people. Dinner daily, lunch Saturday and Sunday. (802) 244-7827, waterburyreservoir.com.

THE ROOST AT TOPNOTCH RESORT

The Roost has long been one of Stowe’s best tables— whether inside or fireside—where the local food and drinks are as inspiring as our views of Mt. Mansfield. topnotchresort.com.

ROUND HEARTH CAFÉ & MARKETPLACE

Breakfast and lunch daily, with shopping while you wait. Check seasonal hours at roundhearth.com. Located at 39 Edson Hill Road, Stowe. (802) 253-7223.

SALUTE STOWE

Chef owned and operated. Scratch kitchen, authentic Italian cuisine. Homemade pasta, wood-fired Napoletana pizza, prime steak, fresh seafood, daily baked bread, specials, gluten free vegetarian options. Catering available. 18 Edson Hill Road, Stowe. (802) 253-5677, salutevt.com.

STOWE CIDER

Hard cider, hand-crafted in Vermont and made for outdoors. Visit our taproom and barbecue restaurant to try all our delicious offerings. (802) 253-2065, stowecider.com.

10 RAILROAD STREET

10 Railroad Street serves American comfort foods and all manner of cocktails in the lovingly restored historic Morrisville train station. Enjoyed by locals and visitors alike. 10 Railroad St., Morrisville. (802) 888-2277.

TRAPP FAMILY LODGE KAFFEEHAUS

Offering a variety of European pastries, soups, salads, sandwiches, wine, and our von Trapp lagers. Open daily. For hours call (800) 826-7000. trappfamily.com.

TWO SONS BAKEHOUSE

Our Johnson and Hyde Park locations offers a carefully crafted breakfast and brunch menu from local farms and ingredients. Fresh bread and pastries available daily, specialty orders welcome upon request. Main Street, Johnson. 246 Main St., Hyde Park. (802) 851-8414, twosonsbakehouse.com.

WHIP BAR & GRILL

Patio dining, fresh seafood, hand-cut steaks. Takeout. Reservation recommended at thewhip.com or (802) 253-6554. 18 Main serves a full breakfast featuring homemade baked items daily, 7-11 a.m., (802) 253-7301. At the Green Mountain Inn, Stowe village.

RETIREMENT COMMUNITY

WAKE ROBIN

A vibrant non-profit life-care community located on 136 acres just south of Burlington in Shelburne. Residents enjoy independent living in cottages and apartments and comprehensive, on-site health care for life. wakerobin.com, (802) 264-5100.

THE WOODLANDS AT STOWE

Come home to Stowe, where retirement living is easy. Spacious condos, fine dining, activities. Available for adults 55+. The Woodlands at Stowe, 125 Thomas Lane, Stowe. (802) 253-7200. woodlandsstowe.com.

SHOE STORES

WELL HEELED

Unique collection of shoes, boots, handbags, belts, clothing, and jewelry in a chicly updated Vermont farmhouse halfway up Stowe’s Mountain Road. Shoes are our specialty and effortlessly chic our motto. Daily 11 to 5, private appointments. Insta: wellheeledstowe. (802) 253-6077, wellheeledstowe.com.

SNOWBOARD SHOP

NEON WAVE

Snowboarder and surfer owned and operated. Specializing in hard and soft goods to support you through all four seasons. We look forward to moving forward. 2160 Mountain Road, Stowe. thisisneonwave.com, @thisisneonwave.

SPA

TOPNOTCH RESORT

Bring mind, body, and soul into better balance. Enjoy fitness classes, a selection of over 100 treatments, indoor/ outdoor pools with a cascading waterfall, and men’s and women’s lounges. Memberships. Mountain Road, Stowe. topnotchresort.com.

SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS

ARBORTREK CANOPY ADVENTURES AT SMUGGLERS’ NOTCH

Family-friendly, treetop adventures including an award-winning zip line canopy tour, treetop obstacle course, and climbing adventure. Adventures from serene to extreme. Ages 4 and up; Good to moderate health. Reservations recommended. (802) 644-9300. arbortrek.com.

BRAGG FARM SUGARHOUSE & GIFTS

8th generation sugarhouse, using traditional sugaring methods. Free daily tours and tastings, walk the maple trail. World’s best maple creemees, farm animals, large gift shop, mail order. 1005 Route 14N, East Montpelier. (802) 223-5757, (800) 376-5757.

COLD HOLLOW CIDER MILL

Experience Vermont. Independent, authentic, and charming. Uncover your inner Vermonter with family or friends. Visit our working cider mill, Route 100, Waterbury Center. (802) 244-8771, coldhollow.com.

CHURCH STREET MARKETPLACE

Downtown Burlington’s historic and vibrant pedestrian mall with over 100 local boutiques and national brands, casual and upscale indoor and outdoor dining, year-round events, live entertainment, and more. churchstmarketplace.com.

LITTLE RIVER HOTGLASS STUDIO

Walk into the studio and experience the art of glassblowing up close. Adjacent gallery features work of resident artist Michael Trimpol. Thursday to Monday 10-5. (802) 253-0889. littleriverhotglass.com.

MASTER FIN'S AXE THROWING

Master Fin’s Axe Throwing is a four-lane venue attached to Caja Taqueria. Beers, tacos, and axe throwing. Special events. It's a great time. Route 15 in Hardwick. masterfinsaxethrowing.com.

MONTPELIER ALIVE

American’s No. 1 small town for shopping is just a half an hour’s drive from Stowe village. Visit downtown Montpelier and experience the joy of shopping. Exit 8 off Interstate 89.

SPRUCE PEAK ARTS

The Stowe region’s premier, year-round presenter of professional performing arts including music, theater, dance, film, education, and family programs on stage, on screen, and across the community. (802) 760-4634. Visit sprucepeakarts.org for more information.

SPRUCE PEAK SUMMER CONCERT SERIES

June 28, July 11, July 25, Aug. 7, and Aug. 29. Celebrate the summer with amazing music by world-class artists in a magical outdoor setting. At Spruce Peak at Stowe. sprucepeak.com.

STOWE HISTORICAL SOCIETY & MUSEUM

Preserving Stowe’s rich history. Museum at the West Branch and Bloody Brook Schoolhouses, next to Stowe Library. Wednesday to Saturday, 1-4 p.m., and when the flags are out. (802) 253-1518. stowehistoricalsociety.org, info@stowehistoricalsociety.org.

STOWE PERFORMING ARTS

Great music in beautiful settings. Classical, jazz, Americana, orchestral, vocal, country, pop, and chamber music. Music in the Meadow; Noon Music in May, May through August. Free and ticketed events. stoweperformingarts.com.

STOWE VIBRANCY

Dedicated to boosting social, recreational, and cultural activities in Stowe Village, and strengthening the town’s economic and physical characteristics, this nonprofit produces and co-produces five events and series annually. stowevibrancy.com.

A TASTE OF NEW ENGLAND

August 22-25: The region’s best chefs come together for a weekend of amazing food, world-class wines and spirits, camaraderie, and more. At Spruce Peak at Stowe. sprucepeak.com.

VERMONT GRANITE MUSEUM

Explore history, art, science, technology, and people of Vermont’s granite industry. Create a clay sculpture, climbing wall, pedal cars to explore the grounds. May to October, Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 7 Jones Brothers Way, Barre. (802) 476-4605. vtgranitemuseum.org.

SPECIALTY FOODS

LAKE CHAMPLAIN CHOCOLATES—STOWE

Handcrafted chocolates made in Vermont using local ingredients and fair-trade certified chocolate, including truffles, caramels, clusters and more. Plus, hot chocolate, espresso drinks and award-winning house-made ice cream. (802) 253-9591. lakechamplainchocolates.com.

LAKE CHAMPLAIN CHOCOLATES—WATERBURY

Premium, handcrafted chocolates made in Vermont using local ingredients and fair-trade certified chocolate. Plus, a hot chocolate and espresso café, award-winning housemade ice cream and plenty of factory seconds. 802-241-4150, lakechamplainchocolates.com.

S TOWE MAGAZINE BUSINESS DIRECTORY

SPORTING GOODS

ONION RIVER OUTDOORS

Gear, clothing, and expert advice for all your outdoor adventures. Friendly, knowledgeable sales and service of bikes, skis, and car racks. Visit onionriver.com or find us at 89 Main St., in beautiful downtown Montpelier.

OUTDOOR GEAR EXCHANGE & GEARX.COM

Vermont’s local, neighborhood gear shop since 1995— now in three locations. Excellent prices, service, and selection of gear for camping, climbing, biking, and paddling. Downtown Burlington. New second location in Essex. Bike shop in Waitsfield. (888)-547-4327.

UMIAK OUTDOOR OUTFITTERS

Let the adventure begin with Umiak. Offering kayaks, canoes, and SUPs for purchase or rent. If you’re never paddled before, join our staff for a lesson or demo boats at our store. 849 S. Main St., Stowe. (802) 253-2317, umiak.com

TENNIS

TOPNOTCH RESORT

Vermont’s premier tennis resort featuring over 30 tennis and pickleball programs perfect for aficionados, beginners, the young and young at heart. Six seasonal outdoor and four indoor hard courts, as well as a USPTA-certified international staff. Mountain Road, Stowe. topnotchresort.com.

TOYS & GAMES

ONCE UPON A TIME TOYS

Make every day a play day with Airfort®. Test your agility on a ninjaline. Traditional toys like Lego® to eclectic ones like loveable monsters. Vermont’s most exciting store for 47 years. Birthday? Get a free balloon. (802) 253-8319, fun@stowetoys.com, stowetoys.com.

TRAVEL & TOURS

4 POINTS TOURS

Let 4 Points help you enjoy our local attractions. Brewery, artisan, scenic, or custom tours. Perfect for bachelor or bachelorette parties, reunions, corporate outings. Call Rick at (802) 793-9246, 4pointsvt.com.

SAVOR VERMONT

Explore the region’s best beers, ciders, wines, spirits, and cuisine with Savor Vermont. We’ll take you from one tasting to another or sightseeing to the area’s stunning waterfalls, covered bridges, and more. (802) 917-6656, savorvermonttours.com.

WEDDING FACILITIES

EDSON HILL

Edson Hill offers you an exclusive, quintessential Vermont country estate with picturesque views, 22 luxurious guestrooms, and a talented culinary team to help create the wedding of your dreams. edsonhill.com, (802) 253-7371.

STOWE COMMUNITY CHURCH

Stowe Community Church is non-denominational, open, and affirming. All are welcome. 9:30 a.m. Sunday services are in-person and livestreamed. The iconic building hosts public and private events, including weddings, vow renewals, and memorial services. Visit us at stowecommunitychurch.org.

STOWE MOUNTAIN CHAPEL

Nestled on the side of Mt Mansfield, the Stowe Mountain Chapel is the perfect location for an intimate event in natural surroundings. Inclusive of all faiths and weddings. Ski-in, ski-out during winter or simply enjoy the magic of a Vermont wedding anytime. stowemountainchapel.org.

WELLNESS

SAGE COLLECTIVE

We are a passionate group of local independent wellness practitioners offering therapeutic massage, bodywork, and acupuncture. Our goal is to meet you on your healing journey, designing treatments that specifically meet the needs of your body. Book online sagetherapeutics.net.

WINE, BEER, & SPIRITS

BOYDEN VALLEY WINERY & SPIRITS

Just seven miles from Smugglers Notch scenic byway. Stop in and sample our award-winning wines and spirits in our restored carriage barn. Tasting room. Expanded summer hours. 64 Vermont 104, Cambridge. boydenvalley.com, (802) 644-8151.

FINE WINE CELLARS

Fantastic wine selections from around the world. Great prices. From the rare to the exceptional value. Under $10$100-plus. We’re nuts about wine. Please see our ad on page 2. (802) 253-2630. finewinecellars.us.

STOWE BEVERAGE

Full-service wine, beer, liquor, mixers, snacks. Stowe’s best wine and beer selection. Best price in town on Vermont maple syrup. Cigars. Free local paper with wine purchases. Monday through Saturday 10-7; Sunday 11-6. (802) 253-4525.

YOGA

PEAK YOGA

Peak Yoga classes help to build strength in body and mind. We provide grounding and uplifting classes for all levels in our beautiful and bright Stowe studio. Located in The Swimming Hole, 75 Weeks Hill Road, Stowe. Book a class at peakyogastowe.com. Follow us on Instagram: @peakyogastowe.

STOWE YOGA CENTER

Practice yoga in a beautiful space with natural light and high ceilings. Beginner friendly, weekly schedule online. Specials: Stowe sound immersion, chakra art, prenatal, chair yoga, meditation. Privates available. Kate Graves, 515 Moscow Road. kgravesmt@gmail.com, (802) 253-8427, stoweyoga.com.

Wednesday to Sunday, 1-4 p.m.

And when the flags are out.

90 School St. next to the library