November 7, 2011 is a day Vermonters and New York residents have been dreaming about for so long.
The new bridge, which had been closed for over two years, is finally open, and the ferries have gone home…
If you are in the Woodstock, VT area, you might want to check out the Sugarbush Farm. I did not get a chance to go there yet, but they seem to have a lot of interesting fun and interesting things to show you. They make maple syrup and cheese, and have a number of farm animals: a new baby calf called Oscar, our twin goats, Rhode Island Red chickens and of course Larry’s huge Belgian draft horses. Sounds like a tasty back road adventure to me!
While it’s only 3 miles off US Rt 4 in mid Vermont, those 3 miles take you from the busy town to an out of the way working maple syrup, cheese and animal farm. The town-maintained road is gravel not black top and the views of the Green Mountains are spectacular, they say.
Sugarbush Farm is a 550-acre family farm started in 1945 by the Ayres family. Their 2nd and 3rd generation children and grandchildren are now running the farm, tapping 7,000 maple trees, selecting, aging and smoking 15 varieties of cheese, and welcoming visitors from all over the world who want to learn more about farming. The 1865 farm house has become an area for cheese packaging, sampling for cheese & syrup tasting, shipping for thousands of gift packages. The kitchen and living room of the original family is now converted into a farm house store!
Folks say when you step into the back door of the cheese sampling room, you feel like long lost cousin coming back to the family farm. Each family is welcome to a personal tasting of all the cheeses, along with explanations of how it’s made, how to keep it while traveling and at home, and how to serve it. Right now they still have some of that 8-year old Super Wicked Sharp Cheddar Cheese (what a name!) and they say it’s “great”!
And there is also maple syrup sampling. You can all 4 grades and experience the difference in taste as the syrup season progresses. Maple sugaring was much better this year than the previous two and so they still have plenty of each grade.
During the warmer months of the year there is lots of learn outdoors. The maple sugar house is busy with actual syrup making in the spring and during the rest of the year it’s converted into a educational building with lots of graphics, machinery, and a video so folks can learn how syrup is made and how it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. You can also walk the maple trail to see where trees are tapped in the spring. When weather is warm, Luce’s farm animals are brought out. There is also plenty of room for a picnic and room for kids to run and play. While many farms in Vermont have been lost to development, it’s the Luce’s goal to keep the family farm a successful working farm by welcoming visitors and educating them about local products.
Sugarbush Farm is open every day from 9 to 5.
591 Sugarbush Farm Rd
Woodstock, VT 05091
1 800 281 1757
www.sugarbushfarm.com
If you have a ski resort, an attraction, a restaurant or a quaint little inn and you want to talk about it, or talk about your region, this place is here for you. Just email us your story and we’ll be able to publish it AND we will translate it and post it on the French part of the website! We get hundreds of readers visiting our site daily.
We have started this website a couple of years. There are so much fantastic things to experience in Vermont that it has become a little overwhelming to cover it all. And because we love history, we’ve decided to talk more about Vermont history. You can read us at www.kristinsawyer.com.
Last winter, we shared with you a list of places where you can go dog sledding in Vermont (see our article “Enjoy a Dog Sledding Tour“). Wants to see how fun it is? Check out this video made by Burlington’s Seven Days Magazine. For sure, something WE will add to our list of fun things to do this winter in Vermont!
If you are not living in Vermont, you may not have heard about an important story: the Lake Champlain Bridge is no more!
It all started last Fall with its closure and then its destruction early this year (see the attached news clip).
But not to worry, if your travel plans require you to cross Lake Champlain in its southern part, your plans won’t be affected too much, as there is now a temporary ferry between Crown Point, New York and Chimney Point/Addison, Vermont, where the 1920s’ bridge used to stand, a few miles north of Fort Ticonderoga. So, if you are planning to cross Lake Champlain there, plan for approximately 15 minutes more (from boarding to disembarking) … and may be more the summer though when the tourist season starts. The temporary ferry is operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until the new bridge is completed.
For more on the temporary ferry (and some footage of the blow up of the historic Lake Champlain bridge), watch this clip.
PS: There is also a ferry crossing at Fort Ticonderoga, New York.
Due to popular demand, we have gathered the list of Handel’s Messiah concerts in Vermont this December… just like last year! Let’s enjoy the music of Christmas!
The Vermont Philharmonic has two Handel’s Messiah concerts:
- In Montpelier – Friday December 4th, 2009 at 7:30 pm – at the Saint Augustine Church – and in Barre – Sunday December 6th, 2009 at 3:30 pm – at the Barre Opera House - The Vermont Philharmonic performs the Messiah with conductor Lisa Jablow.
More information at: Vermont Philharmonic
- Brattleboro – Saturday December 5th, 2009 at 1 pm - 39th Annual Community Messiah Sing - Centre Congregational Church. Conductor Terry Larsen with soloists Christine Speidel, soprano, Lisa Woods, alto, Tim Levesque, tenor and Andrew Semegram, bass and organist Bill McKim. 250 to 300 singers will join in the choruses. It is a fund raising event for the homeless.
More information at: Friends of music at Guilford
- Rutland – Sunday December 6th, 2009 at 3:30 pm and 7:00 pm – The Grace Congregational Church will have its annual performance of Handel’s Messiah.
More information at: (802) 775-4301.
- Thursday December 17th, 2009 at 7:30pm, Community Church, Stowe and Friday December 18th, 2009 at 8pm, College Street Congregational Church, Burlington: Performance of the Vermont Mozart Festival orchestra with the Oriana Singers; conductor William Metcalfe
More information at: Vermont Mozart Festival http://www.vtmozart.org/
- Middlebury - Sunday December 20st, 2009 at 2 pm - Middlebury Congregational Church - A sing-along led by Jeff Rehbach, conductor of the Middlebury College Community Chorus.
More information at: Middlebury College - Annual Messiah Sing
- Stowe – Monday December 21nd, 2009 at 7:30 pm - 17th Annual Handel’s Messiah Community Sing – Stowe Community Church – It’s also a sing-along with the soloists and the 20-piece orchestra.
More information at: Go Stowe
And finally,
- Arlington - Sunday December 27th, 2009 at 3 pm - 7th Annual Messiah Sing-along - St. James Episcopal Church
More information at: St. James Episcopal Church
Enjoy the music!
For 20 out of the past 22 years, Smugglers’ Notch Resort has opened on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
But it won’t be the case this year! But the weather has been too warm for snow making, and the resort has not received any natural snow… So they just announced that they are delaying opening until December 5th. Sad news for the skiers!
Photo: Courtesy of Stowe Mountain Resort.
Read in the December 2009 issue of Condé Nast Traveler: the results of the Readers’ Poll about 2009 Best Places to Ski & Stay in North America.
Well, the Rocky Mountains ski resorts win this time… no doubt. Too bad, because there is indeed some very fun places in Vermont to go skiing. In our article last year, The Best Ski Resorts are in Vermont, we highlighted some of the recognition they got, particularly in Ski Magazine, for best after-ski, best family places and more…
And Vermont is still a nice place to enjoy skiing. Some great hotels indeed made the “top 50 ski hotels” list in this recent Condé Nast Traveler survey:
31 - Sugarbush Inn, Warren
39 - Killington Grand Resort Hotel, Killington
42 - Topnotch Resort & Spa, Stowe
44 - Woodstock Inn & Resort, Woodstock (nice hotel indeed!)
48 - Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa, Stowe
And what is YOUR best ski hotel in Vermont?
If you missed our earlier article called “Take the Train between Vermont for $12 in 2009“, take a look at this video about the Amtrak’s Vermonter, produced by Burlington’s Seven Days Magazine. Until December 31, you can still enjoy a nice ride, and a nice visit somewhere… may be on one of the last days of foliage… or on a snowy day in December! It really sounds like fun, and a pleasant thing to do on a week-end day!
Photo: Lake Champlain from the Spirit of Ethan Allen III cruise boat.
Fall is a great time of the year to explore Vermont’s waterways!
In fact, Vermont’s rivers and lakes have been enjoyed for generations! There was a time when it even was the only way to travel in the region.
As leaves are turning red particularly quickly this year, don’t wait to come and enjoy the scenery while canoeing or kayaking, or taking a lake cruise in Vermont.
Some ideas and tips of things you can do:
- Last year, we mentioned canoeing or kayaking the wild and scenic Missisquoi river, part of the 740-mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail, and offering some of the best flat-water paddling in Vermont. It is bordered by a large silver maple forest. It is definitely recognized as a natural resource of particular interest.
More information at: The Northern Forest Canoe Trail
- Another good option (for the less sportive) is to enjoy a nice cruise on the lake: Carillon Cruises in the Southern part of the lake (across from fort Ticonderoga) offers special foliage cruises for a few hours, the Spirit of Ethan Allen III will take you out on Lake Champlain, from Burlington waterfront, and the Moonlight Lady offers overnight cruises, in one of its 16 cabins.
More information at:
Carillon Cruises
Spirit of Ethan Allen III
Moonlight Lady
- For more ideas, you can always consult a new book “A Kayaker’s Guide to Lake Champlain - Exploring the New York, Vermont and Quebec Shores”, which has received good reviews. It has caught our attention as a very practical guide, as each of the 50 chapters describes one day’s paddle, with route description, navigational charts, table of information with distances and launch points. We have not read it yet, but are definitely planning to put our hands on it. See it on Amazon.
