the bridge, september 05, 2013

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Connecting Montpelier and nearby communities since 1993 | September 5–September 18, 2013

In thIs IssuE

Beyond WetHow farmers fared

this season

5

Harvest seasonSo many products;

so much to eat

6

Berlin PondSome local perspectives

12

notes From tHe Hill

VCFA’s Tom Greene talks renovation

14

Farmer PHotosPhotos from Peter Miller’s

latest book

22

Farmhands at Dog River Farm working hard to get the abundant fall produce off the field and to market. Photo by Amy Brooks Thornton.

harvEst

by Bob Nuner

Last month, U.S. Food and Drug Ad-ministration (FDA) bureaucrats, at the behest of New Hampshire and

Vermont lawmakers and state agriculture departments, came to a meeting in Hanover, New Hampshire. They had come to listen to food producers talk about rules the FDA is developing to enforce the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA), which the president signed in January 2011 and which is one of the most comprehensive federal food safety laws passed since the 1930s.

Vermont and New Hampshire officials and agriculture interests wanted to let the FDA’s rule writers know that the FDA’s ap-proach, no matter how well-meaning, was es-sentially a one-size-fits-all result that worked best for industrial ag practices and did not reflect the realities of diversified farming in New England.

The law came about, in part, as a result of post-9/11 security concerns and recent wide-spread food-borne illness outbreaks. One of its purposes is to proactively prevent micro-bial outbreaks and, if outbreaks do occur, to allow rapid tracking of affected foods. It also could, if executed clumsily, have serious repercussions on New England’s working landscape.

When laws are enacted, rules must then be

devised to put the law into effect. That job fell to the FDA, not the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), although the FDA is not as familiar as the USDA with how farms work. For New England’s diversified farms,

which are much smaller than industrial ag-riculture out West, the FDA’s proposed rules pose problems that could hinder the viability of local, sustainable agriculture.

The Bridge spoke with farmers in both New Hampshire and Vermont and various agricultural officials and specialists about the new rule and its potential effects. Virginia Nickerson, UVM’s Center for Sustainable Agriculture’s Produce Safety contact, pro-vides technical support to Vermont’s produce growers. Nickerson says that of the FSMA’s

five categories, two will have the most im-pact on Vermont farms: the produce and pre-ventative controls rules. (Other sections of the law deal with things like imported foods or feed grown for animal consumption).

Broadly speaking, FSMA contains thresh-olds that define at what size or under what circumstances farms will be subject to its rules. These thresholds include a farm with $500,000 average annual gross sales, a farm that sells more than half of its output to a wholesaler or distributor (on as little as $25,000 gross volume), or a farm that sells to end users more than 275 miles away. Other concerns include whether a farm gets defined as a processor, which can happen if farm-workers do anything more than, for example, strip the outer leaves off greens and wash and pack them. For instance, a farm that cuts up its Hubbard squash and wraps the chunks in plastic film would be considered a processor subject to the full brunt of the law’s rules. For the local foods movement, that’s a problem.

Nickerson says, “Here in Vermont, for a long time, we’ve been encouraging farms to diversify, to process some of their products and to create value-added products. And when farms do that, depending upon gross sales levels, that may put a lot of farms into

Battling the Goliath of Federal RegulationsSmall Vermont Farms and the Food Safety

and Modernization Act

“hErE In vErmont, for a long tImE, wE’vE bEEn EncouragIng farms

to dIvErsIfy, to procEss somE of thEIr products,

and to crEatE valuE-addEd products.”

continued on page 4

• September 5 –September 18 , 2013 The Br idge

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• reNovatioNs

• woodworkiNg

• geNeral CoNtraCtiNg

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The Br idge September 5 –September 18 , 2013 , • page 3

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published every first and third thursday

editor & publisher: Nat Frothingham

general manager: bob Nuner

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District Heat Wrinkles

Checking with City Manager Bill Fraser, The Bridge learned that the city’s piping project moves apace, and the pipes will be in place as planned, but that, in the room that’s the in-

terface between the new state heat plant and the city’s pipes—the so-called city room—there are options about hooking up the system that will have an effect on the project’s schedule.

Fraser says that the city faces “a choice point” between a faster and more expensive power plant city room hookup configuration that is less than optimal and a more time-intensive hookup that would be less expensive and is considered preferable if time were not an issue. The city is consulting with its district heat customers to determine where they are with regard to their winter heating plans as the city decides whether to hook up the system as soon as possible or to wait until next year to start the system.

A longer start-up would allow for more thorough and less rushed testing of the system and a more optimal configuration for the long term at the state power plant’s city room. Fraser says that the city will make this decision this week. While the city could decide to use the district heat system starting in mid-November as projected, the longer time frame for the cheaper and preferable piping hook-up would push system start-up into December, by which time the heating season would be well underway. That, in turn, argues for a further delay until the next heating system—if that decision doesn’t in turn provide too many downsides for customers.

As to the city’s needs, an option, if the city decides to hold off hooking up with the state until next year, is for City Hall, which already heats the fire station, to continue heating that building and to heat the police station and Union School, both of which have backup boiler systems. This plan has the city using its relatively new (and sufficiently large capacity-rated) boiler to supply hot water to the new district heat piping that’s already connected to the school and police station. An advantage would be that the city would develop some initial familiarity with the piping system’s performance before the whole system is activated.

Meeting with Hollar and Aldrich to Discuss City Budget

Montpelier residents and property owners are invited to meet with Montpelier mayor John Hollar and school board chair Sue Aldrich to hear about budget and tax issues fac-

ing City Council and the School Board. The meeting, sponsored by VAM (Vibrant and Af-fordable Montpelier), will be held from 7:30 to 9 p.m., Tuesday, September 17, at Noble Hall, Vermont College of Fine Arts. Beforehand, at 7 p.m., VAM is providing cookies and cider and a chance to meet VAM members. Bring your questions and concerns. Everyone welcome.

Montpelier Parking Survey

Montpelier’s parking committee, created to advise City Council, is assessing parking demand in town. The committee is developing recommendations for the council to im-

prove parking for everyone who lives, works and/or visits Montpelier. To do so, the committee created an online survey about Montpelier’s parking that seeks input from everyone who has an interest in the city: business owners, employees working in town, residents, consumers, students or frequent visitors. The questionnaire has been designed to capture these many relationships to the city. The parking committee asks readers to visit the city of Montpelier webpage and fill out any of the four surveys that may apply to their circumstances. The more responses the committee gets, the better it can come up with recommendations. The survey will be up for four weeks. See montpelier-vt.org.

Archaeology Events

September is archaeology month in Vermont. Giovanna Peebles, Vermont’s state archae-ologist, says a program of events has been lined up at the Vermont History Center, at 60

Washington Street, Barre. Among them: People and Pottery: An Ancient and Intimate Relation-ship on September 7, 1–4 p.m, and First Women’s Voices. Native American Women Speak About Their Experiences as First Women of Vermont on September 8, 2–4 p.m. For more information, e-mail [email protected].

nature watchThe juicy quality of spring is a distant memory. Whole universes of leaves are now

shutting down fluid intake as they continue to transpire and evaporate, and tons of water vapor is given up to the atmosphere, minute after minute, hour after hour. Up in those drying-out canopies, there are still a few red-eyed vireos singing, holding the home territory, but almost all the other birds are dispersing, drifting, getting ready. Today, we’re waiting for rain, two promised doses of one-quarter inch each. The afternoon one did not materialize, but we still hope for tonight’s soaking. Until it starts, crickets are singing, and a couple of bats are flipping over the yard, a sight we now rejoice in.

—Nona Estrin

But not everyone is lacing up to cruise the streets. Photos by Amy Brooks Thornton.

adverTise Our next issue, which comes outThursday, September 19, is our

ReSTauRanT and MuSic Venue iSSue advertising deadline: Friday, September 13. call 223-5112 for carolyn (x11) or ivan (x12) or Rick at 479-0970.

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HelP Wanted: advertising Sales Manager

The Bridge seeks an experienced marketing and sales professional to serve as advertising sales manager and join the paper’s leadership team. Will negotiate compensation based upon applicant’s track record and experience. Please send letter of application with notes on qualifications by e-mail to [email protected].


the preventative controls category, and if that happens, that’s going to mean they’re going to have a lot more record keeping. They might have to put in more infrastructure.”

And that will require larger investments by farmers who operate on extremely thin mar-gins. Estimates of possible additional com-pliance costs range from $6,000 to $20,000. Whether one qualifies or is exempt matters. That danger of crossing the line from being exempt to having to comply came up more than once in conversations about the law.

Pooh Sprague, owner of Edgewater Farm in Plymouth, New Hampshire, said, “There are so many trip wires to the exemptions; it’s like walking into a minefield in Viet-nam. They don’t want to exempt anybody. It’s inconvenient [for the FDA].” Sprague is convinced that the entire law, as currently written, is the handmaiden of industrial agri-culture interests. Says Sprague, “I have been an unwilling politician since learning about FSMA, and the more I learn, the less I like it and more cynical I become.”

Others are more re-strained, saying that the FDA simply lacks experience in dealing with agriculture. But it’s generally agreed that the rules as currently proposed will be very problematic for diversi-fied agriculture.

Virtually everyone contacted expressed con cerns about how water use will be regulated. Proposed rules say a farm must test surface water sources before using for irrigation. Realistically, that means a farmer would take a sample from a river or pond, send it to a lab and await the results—a costly process that takes about four days. By the time the results return, they would no longer be valid, given common experience in testing recreational waters.

That is, according to Vernon Grubinger, UVM extension professor and a vegetable and berry specialist, “because surface wa-ters are well known to have E. coli that comes and goes. We have that data from the recreational water monitoring programs. By the time you get your test results back, the actual E. coli in your water may be com-pletely different. . . [the FDA] picked the recreational water standard as essential when you can’t use tap water from your kitchen

anymore. And there’s no scientific basis for that. There’s no current standard for bacte-rial levels for irrigation water, so the FDA took the standards for swimming water, and there’s no clear evidence that that makes sense . . . From week to week, [the counts] go up and down like crazy. So farmers will spend a lot of time and money for tests that don’t make sense.”

It’s a matter of finding an appropriate scale, suggests Grubinger. Just as rules for testing individual water supplies differ from municipal water supplies, the rules for a small farming operation should be simple and easy to execute compared to what might be appropriate for a gigantic industrial agri-culture produce operation.

Says Grubinger, “FSMA is designed for the really big farms that pose a lot of risk. It makes sense to have complicated rules for them . . . [The FDA] tried to make it not one-size-fits-all by having these thresholds. But what we really need is something that has different levels of rigor for the amount of risk you pose.” He notes, for example, that in

his on-farm research, he’s successfully re-duced E. coli counts to zero or near zero simply by double- or triple-washing or the use of sanitized wash water.

It would likely be a different story for a giant agribusiness, notes David Rogers, Northeast Organic Farming Association Vermont (NOFA-

VT) policy advisor: “We take these greens out West, in these large operations: They come to a central processing facility, they get chopped up and comingled and washed and stuffed in a plastic bag, and then they spend their time going across the country on a truck. Any contamination that’s in there is going to affect the entire lot, and as time goes on, any organisms that are in there that could cause a problem are going to multiply . . . Bagged, chopped, prepared, ready-to-eat greens is something that’s been associated with some serious outbreaks all around the country. In fact, there’s one going on right now. That captures the attention of food safety advocates and consumers.”

David Zuckerman, a Vermont legislator and owner of Full Moon Farm in Hinesburg, offers that something like 70 percent of

food-borne illnesses, according to a restau-rant industry spokesman he encountered at a State House hearing, result from precon-sumer handling in restaurants or the home, 25 percent come from shipping and handling and only about 5 percent from the source.

“If one out of a 100 million people a year are dying from food-borne illness, you have more odds of winning the lot-tery,” says Zuck-erman. “So how much money do we spend to make that number even smaller when if we just spent fractions of that actually en-forcing the [exist-ing] law, that would be a big deal? . . . As it is, the federal inspection system is so eviscerated by budgetary concerns that the large farms aren’t even meeting current law.”

Similarly, Andy Jones, Intervale Farm di-rector and president of the Vermont Berry Growers Association, says the FSMA is “a solution in search of a problem” that will provide “not a lot of benefit, but more hoops to jump through.” For the Intervale Farm, he worries, “I’m concerned with what’s the impact of the washing. We do a lot of baby salad greens, which are often triple washed. It’s really unclear at this point whether our procedures are a product or a process.”

If the greens are an agricultural product, that’s one set of familiar regulations, but if they’re considered a process, Jones’s farm will be subject to the more onerous regulations of FSMA. Then, he fears he’d have to invest in stainless steel tubs and similar equipment for the farm’s postharvest activities.

Rogers worries that the FDA doesn’t have the ability or the interest to “wrap their heads around” smaller food production sys-tems. He fears that while the FDA came to New Hampshire to listen, it’s gotten the rule making wrong and needs to learn more: “It’s kind of scary. It’s so late in the game. It was clear that they still didn’t really understand the incredible innovations and developments in this part of the world. They were sur-prised, in a way, how their rules didn’t allow innovations in value-added agriculture.”

As to food safety, Richard Wiswall of Cate

Farm asks, “How can anybody be against food safety? It’s part of why I started farming organically years ago . . . How many small farmers cause this problem? If we caused a problem, we’d be out of business. We don’t need a federal law to do the right thing. The law is addressing these large-scale outbreaks, but everybody I know is trying to figure out

how to become exempt from the law.”

Like Grubinger, Wiswall calls for scale-appropriate regulation. FSMA has regulations for risks like keeping manure out of the food chain. But Wiswall faults it for not dealing with pesticides or geneti-cally modified organisms. In his view, while parts of the law make good sense, small farmers shouldn’t be burdened unnecessar-

ily if shippers and processors are causing the problems in their aggregation and processing activities.

Among agriculture consultants, there is urgency that the FDA needs to hear specific, experience-based suggestions for improving the regulations. Some parts of the law will have to be addressed by Congress, however, such as the Tester amendment, which lumps all agriculture products in one category, meaning, for example, that if a farm’s bulk milk sales push over the $500,000 mark, it can’t also sell lettuce at a roadside stand without subjecting itself to onerous regula-tions.

Given farming margins, expenses associ-ated with regulation compliance look to be disincentives to growth. Zuckerman says, “It’s pretty amazing to me that so much en-ergy is being put into the smallest cause and yet will have tremendous repercussions down the line for Vermont producers . . . It really stops farms from getting to a more moder-ate level size. Our farm grosses a little over $300,000, but in five or six years, it could well be up to that $500,000 point, and that means we curtail expansion, we don’t hire more people, etc., etc. That seems pretty backwards to me.”

Grubinger, too, is concerned that pro-posed rules will stymie burgeoning Farm to Plate efforts directed at institutions like colleges and hospitals, worrying that if small producers can’t afford to meet the new re-

continued from cover

“thErE arE so many trIp wIrEs to thE ExEmptIons;

It’s lIkE walkIng Into a mInEfIEld

In vIEtnam.”

Beans and potatoes at Capital City Farmers Market. Photo by Rick McMahon.

Garlic braids at Alan LePage’s very busy Capital City Farmers Market stand. Photo by Amy Brooks Thornton.

“how can anybody bE agaInst food

safEty? It’s part of why I startEd farmIng

organIcally yEars ago.”


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by Amy Brooks Thornton

Days of heat and sunshine have replaced the soggy weeks of late May and June, but Joey Klein of Littlewood Farm says he’d almost rather have the weather be “stuck on rain.” “Dry all the time is hard” on Klein and Littlewood Farm where the fields are sandy loam and retain just enough water in the deluge but dehydrate in the sun. Heavier clay soils, like those over at George Gross’s Dog River Farm, “shine in this kind of weather,” Klein explains.

But all in all, Klein says he’s “coming out OK.” It wasn’t a good start for cucurbits such as squash and cucumbers or root vegetables like beets and carrots. However, Klein says the tough growing season was offset by the demand for locally grown vegetables, which increased because “it was a difficult garden-ing year” for backyard gardeners. His sales at Hunger Mountain Coop were stronger than ever.

In the last two weeks, Gross at Dog River is finally seeing sales exceed payroll. How-ever, the six weeks of rains and resulting lack of revenue put Dog River “financially in the hole pretty deep,” Gross says. “We’re still in desperate times financially.”

But, like Klein, Gross says the market is strong. Gross sells locally and to Boston and Florida. Since “the Northeast and mid-Atlantic were hit hard, produce was in short supply,” he explains. Because Gross recovered from the rains with extra work and strategies such as refertilizing, raising beds, replanting and paying close attention to disease that comes with wet soils and high humidity, he believes “we’re going to have a strong finish.” By the looks of his perfect purple and green kale, he may be right.

His new irrigation system helped. It was sitting in a puddle in early July, but in this late summer dry spell, it’s been “going and going and going,” he says. And, normally, he’d only be turning over an acre here or there for a fall crop. This year, he’s plowed down

and replanted “every inch of soil” he owns in order for an abundant fall harvest. He got the harvest, and now, he’s running out of storage space, even though he doubled it earlier in the season. If he and his crew can get the veg-etables out of the fields and sell it for “a decent price, it will all work out,” he says.

Gross assures those Vermonters who are yearning for fresh, sweet corn that it’s “about to kick in,” later than normal but better than ever. At Fairmont Farm, corn grown in one year is feed for the next. Along with corn and hay silage and other grains, Fairmont Farm dairy cows are feeding on the bumper crop of corn meal that the farm grew last sum-mer when the rest of the country’s corn was killed by drought. Richard Hall, Fairmont Farm owner, says his bountiful 2012 corn crop now feeding his cows saved the farm a substantial amount of money. He didn’t have to purchase any cornmeal for this season, and he still has some left.

However, although his corn crop is lower than average this year due to the rains, the rest of the country is experiencing perhaps one of the biggest corn crops historically. So, while Fairmont Farm’s crop may be below average and Hall will have to purchase corn-meal, he can lock in a relatively low purchase price in the next month.

Hall is discouraged by the lack of hay and the damage to the fields. Earlier this summer, the tractors went out on the wet fields and made huge ruts, compacting the soil. Just one pass over saturated fields can cause havoc. But, Hall says, “you won’t sleep at night if you get too worked up.”

It doesn’t seem like much could shake Hall. Or Klein. Or Gross. By their attitude and relatively decent results this challenging summer, perseverance and optimism seem to be a farmer’s best friend.

“The best thing that happened this sum-mer,” Hall says, “was my daughter got mar-ried on July sixth, and we had a beautiful day” in the midst of all the rain. “I’m thank-ful for that.”

Beyond Wet Update: Rebounding from Desperate

Times?

quirements, they’ll drop out. The FDA itself acknowledges that small producers may be unable to afford compliance. And, Grubin-ger notes, the rules will have an effect on farms’ liability insurance burdens.

Is Wiswall worried about FSMA? “We’ll probably be exempt. Does that mean I want a rule that I want to be exempt from? What kind of a rule is that?” he asks.

Grubinger, Nickerson and Rogers all warn that so-called exempt farms will eventually feel the rule’s effects as the marketplace responds and demands protection from li-ability. They are emphatic that farmers, consumers—even working landscape pro-ponents—need to make informed, spe-cific, constructive suggestions to the FDA, grounded in their experience.

The deadline to comment is no later than November 15. Rogers reminds: “Woody Allen says that 80 percent of success is just showing up. We need to show up here . . . I’m sure there are going to be problems. The nature of regulation is a blunt instrument. We need a fine-grain understanding of the food system and local food production, while at the same time making sure we’re touching all the bases on food safety.”

To learn more about the law and its rules, UVM’s Center for Sustainable Ag-riculture offers an excellent web page with links and information at: uvm.edu/~susagctr/?Page=whatwedo/produc-esafety/GAPFSMA.html.

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4th ANNUAL BLUEGRASS FESTIVALSeptember 14th 12-7pm

Music by TallGrass GetDown & The D. Davis Band!Wood-Fired Pizza & A Bounce House

by Amy Brooks Thornton

“There’s a seasonality to everything,” says David Thayer of Hooker Mountain Farm. Our stereotype of the harvest is

fall and vegetables. But anyone who bottles, cans, ferments, dries, hangs, buries and gen-erally puts up and puts by knows that there are many harvests of many natural consum-ables throughout the year. If it’s not to be devoured within days, everything natural on which we feast needs to be preserved. Other-wise, it goes to waste.

Preserving food goes back thousands of years in almost every culture. To provide nourishment when the world went dormant, we dried (in climates with hot sun), froze (in climates with ice), fermented, salted, brewed and buried. Accidental alchemy happened with our food. We took note. We experi-mented. Sometimes, as in the case of beer, the product acquired religious status. We discovered food preservation.

Despite present-day Vermonters access to fresh food all year-round, the instinct to store food persists. On a tour of Capital City Farm-ers Market last week, I wondered what we Vermonters don’t preserve: We can, freeze, dry, ferment, brine, cure, root-cellar, brew, distill and bottle just about everything we can get our hands on. If we have the time

after work or on weekends and extra hands to clean, chop and handle hot lids, slippery casings and a variety of counter-top tools and machinery, we have abundance. Our cupboards, basements, fridges and freezers overflow with jars of jam, pickled or fer-mented vegetables, frozen meats and berries, dried sausage, dehydrated mushrooms, pots of cheese, bottles of wine and growlers of beer.

In the fall, we are busy as those model squirrels. The most intense harvest time is now, when we continue working our full-time jobs and spend our precious evenings putting food by. Or, if we farm and sell value-added products, we are in the fields by day, the kitchen at night. The stress of get-ting the fruit off the tree and the veggies out of the garden, before the crop rots or freezes, consumes us.

Not all of us all the time. John McCann, owner of North Branch Vineyards and pro-ducer of award winning-wines, makes ice wine from grapes picked and pressed fro-zen—after the frost. The grapes’ high sugar levels produce a sweet wine with unique flavors that make a “great pairing with any kind of cheese,” McCann says.

However, McCann is not entirely free of worry. In 2012 and 2013, viticultural-ists in Barre and Warren grew 100 percent of the grapes for his wines, including the

Frontenac gris white and his award-winning Marquette, a red. Potlicker Kitchen of Wa-terbury also takes advantage of these grapes. They make wine jellies using North Branch Vineyard’s wines. Grapes for those wines and jellies, although cold hardy, can’t freeze and will be ready soon, two to four weeks from now.

Duncan Holaday of Dunc’s Mill also de-pends on harvests at different times of the year. He makes bourbon with the maple syrup he taps from his trees in early spring. The elderflowers he grows to flavor his li-quor are ready to pick in June and July. Currently, he’s working on buying fair-trade cane sugar directly from growers in Nicara-gua and Honduras. Their harvest runs from November to May.

We don’t always associate the fall harvest with meat, but as grass-fed beef becomes more popular, farmers are raising their smaller meat animals in tandem with the vegetable-growing season. Thayer of Hooker Mountain Farm points out that traditionally you had to raise most of your meat over the summer when the grains and grasses were available. Thayer and his partner, Kempton Randolph, try to get most of their meat animals—cows, pigs and chickens—on pasture. Most of their hybrid chickens—a special breed that can get about 35 percent of its diet from the wild—

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Highland Gardens’ pickles stacked high at the Capital City Farmers Market. Photo by Amy Brooks Thornton.

Multiple Harvests, Myriads of Products

Duncan Holaday, owner of Dunc’s Mill, displays his rums made with local maple syrup and elderflowers. Photo by Amy Brooks Thornton.


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and about three-quarters of their pigs dine on the summer grasses, roots and bugs in addi-tion to feed. Growing meat animals in spring and summer means that the bulk of his har-vest—slaughter—is in late summer and fall.

For Hooker Mountain, pasture-raised meat is “primarily a cost issue,” Thayer says. He and his partner are aware of the other benefits: that rotating animals on pasture—which they do—improves it and that re-search shows pasture-raised animal meat is better nutritionally. In addition, he believes that because his chickens move around, using their muscles to forage for their natu-ral diet, they taste better. “I have restaurants waiting somewhat impatiently for our chick-ens,” Thayer enthuses. “Pasture-raised” is all over Hooker Mountain’s marketing.

But cost is paramount. When the chickens get much of their diet on their own, and the cost of heating, housing and removing ma-nure from barns is removed, expenses decrease significantly. And so, the bottom line dictates that Hooker Mountain slaughters many of its meat animals during fall harvest. The next chicken slaughter will be October, followed by the pigs, which requires working around the fall bottleneck at the slaughterhouse.

Further reducing the cost but adding to summer and fall stress, Hooker Mountain Farm grows much of its feed: barley, com-mon oats and heirloom flint corn. Thayer and Randolph harvested the oats and barley in July and August; the corn will be ready in September. Their goal is to replace 30 to 35 percent of the feed they purchase with the grains they grow.

They’ve added one more product that mostly depends on height-of-the-season plucking and picking. Thayer and Randolph are making a “craft beer equivalent in soda” from wood-fired maple syrup and sum-mer- and fall-harvested ingredients: apples, blackberries, wintergreen, mint, horehound and lemon balm. To spread out the work a wee bit, in the spring they’ll be harvesting spruce- and fir-tree tips, traditionally used to replace hops in beer, to harness their bright and citrusy flavor. “Our challenge,” Thayer says—as if Randolph and he do not have enough—is to create long-term preservation for the soda “without using preservatives and pasteurization.”

Kyong Rorison, owner of Kimchi for Ch-ingu, creates only one product: kimchi. But as a one-woman business with substantial demand for her jars of kimchi, she has her hands full also. Kimchi is a traditional Ko-rean side dish made from fermented cabbage seasoned with chili, garlic, ginger and Asian fish sauce. Traditionally, it is served over rice, Rorison explains, but “Americans use it as a pizza topping, in a burrito, on top of steak.” In Korea, she says, “We don’t eat much meat,” but here, in America, when she does eat meat, “it helps cut the grease!”

In the spring, Rorison depends on Cana-

dian greenhouses to supply her with cabbage. However, from midsummer through the fall, she buys locally and relies on a good harvest. If there is a shortage, she purchases from Boston, where she also gets her special chili powder and Asian anchovy fish sauce.

Chingu means friend in Korean, and in-deed, Rorison walks her talk. Last year she provided Korean cooking classes at Montpe-lier High School, and she likes to share her kimchi recipe (see side bar). “I love to do the teaching,” she says, “share my recipes.” She has been making kimchi for the last 30 or 40 years, she says. It’s an ancient craft, Rorison comments, similar to pottery. So even if her customers try making her recipe, she says they tell her it never tastes like hers and keep coming back for more.

Kimchi never spoils, Rorison explains, be-cause “it’s soaking in salty water.” Tradition-ally, Koreans dug holes and put their kimchi into special earthen pots that allowed the kimchi to ferment underground. “So the whole winter round they can eat,” Rorison adds. Now, you can leave your kimchi in the refrigerator for a long time. “The longer the better!” Rorison exclaims.

In Vermont, when frost can hit in early fall, September is the month we associate most closely with harvest. But for many farmers and food producers, there are several growing, harvesting and preserving seasons. The list of foods that can be grown or raised in Vermont, the times they need to be picked or slaughtered or milked and the variety of ways they can be seasoned, stashed away and finally eaten are endless. In reference to Potlicker Kitchen’s wine jellies, owner Mc-Cann exhorts: “Put them on pork, eat them with crackers and goat cheese, use it on your PB&J!”

Kimchi Recipe by Kyong Rorison, Kimchi for Chingu.

1 medium cabbage½ cup salt2 quarts water¼ cup chili powder pepper1 head fresh garlic, minced2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced2 tablespoons anchovy fish sauce2 tablespoons sugar

Mix salt into water until dissolved. Cut cabbage in bite-size chunks. Soak cabbage in salty water for two hours or until it gets soft. Wash and drain the cabbage thoroughly.

While cabbage is draining, mix together chili powder pepper, garlic, ginger, fish sauce and sugar. Put cabbage in bowl. Pour chili mixture over cabbage and mix.

Place cabbage mixture into clean jars and cap. Set jars out in a place that has a room temperature of 70 degrees for 24 hours. You should be able to see some bubbling. Put jars in refrigerator or cold storage. Refrigerated, the kimchi is good for up to two years. In fact, the longer it sits, the better.

Note: The kimchi will ferment faster if the jars are set outside on a warm day.

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Kyong Rorison, owner of Kimchi for Chingu, prepares Korean food and sells her kimchi at the Capital City Farmers Market. Photo by Amy Brooks Thornton.


Tell them you saw it in The Bridge!by Nat Frothingham

Once again during summer harvest time, the Central Vermont Medical Center

(CVMC) in partnership with the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) is sup-plying local, farm-grown vegetables to “food insecure” Vermonters in central Vermont in a program called Health Care Share.

The vegetables are grown at a VYCC farm in Richmond, and then are divided into shares and distributed to 150 recipients at a number of different locations: CVMC, Barre Internal Medicine, Green Mountain Family Practice in Northfield, Waterbury Medical Associates and The Health Center in Plainfield.

According to Monica Urquhart, a regis-tered nurse who is the employee health nurse at CVMC and who plays a leading role in the fresh food program, “The recipients . . . are identified through our satellite doctors’ offices, and some CVMC employees also participate.”

Twenty-eight youth from the VYCC farm in Richmond produce the fresh vegetables, which are distributed to people in need across central Vermont. These 28 youth include 10 apprentices and 18 at-risk youth.

A recent health care share of fresh vegeta-bles included baby beets and greens, lettuce, Swiss chard, carrots, basil and sugar snap peas. Each delivery includes a newsletter with recipes that explain how to prepare dishes made from the fresh vegetables. “Last week’s newsletter included recipes for spiced carrot muffins, rainbow Swiss chard and bacon pizza,” said Urquhart.

Fresh vegetables can lead to better health, and Urquhart talked about one patient with diabetes and a high blood sugar number who received a health care share of fresh food last

summer. “And every bit of food she received was eaten,” Urquhart said, “and her blood sugar was stabilized through the summer.”

Another participant in the fresh food program is Monica Sargeant of Plainfield. Sargeant has two kids, ages 2 and 6, and this is her second year participating in the program. She was encouraged to apply to the program by her nutritionist at The Health Center in Plainfield.

For Sargeant, the impact of the fresh food program has been life changing. “Over the past two years, through diet and exercise, I have lost 100 pounds,” she said, “and I have never seen my kids eat so well. The fruits and vegetables I get each week would be too expensive for me to buy at the grocery store.”

Sargeant has become adventurous about new food and new recipes. “My son thought eating purple peppers was the coolest thing ever,” she said. “And last weekend we made carrot muffins using one of the recipes they provide us each week.”

It was the birth of a second child that gave Sargeant an incentive to set goals for herself. “I now exercise, eat well, got a good job, and my next goal is to own my own home,” she said.

This year, like last year, CVMC employ-ees and others donated more than $15,000 to the Health Care Share program. This year’s fundraising goal is $20,000, of which $12,000 has already been raised. Anyone would like to make a financial contribution to the Health Care Share program is encour-aged to send a donation to the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. Please make your check payable to VYCC, write “Health Care Share” on the memo line of your check and mail it to this address: Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, 1949 East Main Street, Richmond, VT 05477.

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WALK or Join Our 5K RUN in Montpelier!

WE WALKBECAUSE IT SHOULDN’T HURT TO BE A CHILD

Saturday, September 14 at the State House in MontpelierWALK or 5K RUN in Montpelier!

Saturday, September 14 on the Green in Middlebury

Saturday, September 14 on the Green in Norwich

Prevent Child Abuse Vermont

2013 WALK FOR CHILDREN Register online at www.pcavt.org or 1-800-CHILDREN

Saturday, September 21 at Battery Park in Burlington

Saturday, September 21 at the Howe Center in Rutland

Sunday, September 22 on the Bike Path in Springfield

Check-in at 8:00 a.m. Walk at 10:00 a.m.

PROUDLY CELEBRATING A DECADE OF SERVICE

Getting you where you need to go!

The Montpelier LINK Express has had an amazing decade of growth and success, serving more than 640,000 passengers since 2003. We’re committed to the important role that LINK Express buses play in our transportation system, and look forward to another ten years of serving our communities.

Learn more about our routes and services at cctaride.org and gmtaride.org

Celebrate with us:

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city council meetingauguST 28, 2013

by Ivan Shadis

At the August 28 meeting, the Mont-pelier City Council began by taking a couple of items off the consent

agenda, among them one concerning a fee schedule for city licenses, pending reports from a related subcommittee, and a proc-lamation for declaring October National Cyber Security Awareness Month, which had been voted down in the August 14 meeting.

On the council’s agenda was a review of the report from the charter revision com-mittee, which had gone through the town charter and proposed changes. It was decided to put off the review as the council’s decision, during the August 14 meeting, had been to include the approved charter changes in the March 2014 general election.

Other items on the agenda included ap-proval of minor amendments to the PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) Program. The council also awarded $681,360 to Courtland Construction Company to re-place 300 feet of badly damaged sewer line on River Street and authorized the Depart-ment of Public Works to spend $16,933 on a Vivax-Metrotech HL6000X-2, which pinpoints leaks in water pipes, thus avoiding “unaccounted for” water usage from unre-paired leaks.

The council then heard a report from the parking committee.

Representing the committee were Brian Cain, general manager at the Capitol Plaza Hotel; Kevin Casey, community develop-ment specialist with the city; and Michael Clasen, deputy secretary of the Vermont Agency of Administration. Cain, first to speak for the committee, outlined the com-mittee’s findings and suggestions.

Cain first described the existing situation. He noted that a circulator bus, which had been suggested in previous parking commit-tees to get people in and around downtown without using their cars, now exists and also noted that the City Center parking garage has been closed to the public since the begin-ning of 2013 and that the Carr lot, another potential parking area, has been closed for years. Cain said the committee intended to work closely with the Downtown Im-provement District (DID), which is intent on bringing more customers and cars into Montpelier, and has met with both DID and Montpelier Alive. Cain also highlighted the committee’s valuable partnership with the Vermont state government in solving Mont-pelier’s parking problems.

Cain then stated that at the first meeting of the committee, on May 14, they soon de-termined that a new parking garage “is not financially viable” and said that the changes the committee suggests are largely within the bounds of existing infrastructure.

Cain said that the committee had iden-tified three parking “seasons”—legislative season, leaf and christmas holiday season, and the remainder of the year as the third season—and that each season requires dif-ferent decisions and solutions. “There is not just one set of answers,” said Cain. The com-

mittee further identified three areas for im-provement: better signage, which is often in-consistent and confusing; better enforcement of two-hour parking; and increased meter and permit parking fees, which have not been raised for a long time. Cain noted that City Council has already taken steps to help parking by creating long-term parking spots on East State Street and making the Carr lot available for free parking on Saturdays.

Cain noted that key to improving the parking situation is offering alternatives to single-car travel. Clasen then talked about a number of transportation alter-natives, largely incentivized toward state employees, such as bus discounts for state employees, preferential parking for car-poolers, “bike-walk rewards” programs for those who bike or walk to work, a Go Ver-mont! “commuter tool kit, which includes a carpool matching service and guaranteed ride home benefit, as well as talks between the Montpelier High School and the state about building additional parking on high school grounds for state workers to park during the week.

The committee’s first request to the coun-cil was to create four spaces for tour buses during the foliage season (September 15 through October 30). Two spots would be on Main Street in front of City Hall and the Unitarian Church, a third on the corner of State and Taylor streets, and a fourth on State Street at the far end of the State House. The council acceded to this request, with the addition that signs be hung instructing drivers not to idle. The council also agreed to improving signage at the Carr lot to encour-age people to park there weekends.

Also discussed was the creation of diago-nal parking in front of the State House by cutting into a street-side strip adjacent to the sidewalk.

“There is a space between the sidewalk and the curb that some people describe as a green strip, I describe it as a brown strip, and in the winter it is an ice strip, so the footage would be gained by eliminating those strips,” said Clasen. Creating diagonal parking on one side of the street would, said Clasen, create an additional 12 to 16 parking spaces.

The council then heard from Anthony Facos, chief of police and a member of the parking committee. The committee urged the council to empower Facos to work with them in a study of smart meters for en-hanced enforcement of parking rules. The smart meters, which could be fitted into all the existing meter spots, accept credit cards, are equipped with cameras as well as underground sensors and have the ability to remotely inform authorities of all parking violations in real time. No direct action was taken on the meters pending further research by Facos.

Finally the council looked at electing a member to be its voting delegate to the Ver-mont League of City and Town’s Town Fair, during which the 2014 Municipal Policy is adopted. Thierry Guerlain was appointed delegate. The meeting closed as councilors retired to executive session.

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by Nat Frothingham, all photos courtesy of Citizens to Protect

Berlin Pond

Berlin Pond is seeing increased boating and fishing activity in the wake of the October 2011 Vermont Supreme

Court decision that ruled that the city of Montpelier could not prohibit such activi-ties. Berlin Pond is the source of Montpe-lier’s drinking water supply.

The town of Berlin continues to be di-vided into at least two camps: those who welcome increased recreational access and use of Berlin Pond—and they are in the majority—and those who generally oppose those uses.

It should be noted that in November 2012, Berlin Town citizens strongly favored allowing public access and recreational use of Berlin Pond with 793 votes in favor and 441 votes against—an almost 2–1 margin.

Over the past several months, Berlin citi-zens concerned about protecting the pond both as a wildlife resource and as a pure drinking water supply have taken photo-graphs documenting the increasing public use of Berlin Pond for fishing and boating activities and have noted the impacts on the pond and the land that borders it from these

increased recreational uses (please see the accompanying photo spread).

Impacts on the pond and its bordering shores and wetlands include reports of as many as 75 cars and trucks parked along Mirror Lake Road at the south end of the pond during the ice-fishing season; use of gasoline-powered augurs to drive holes through the ice; increased littering, vandal-ism and loss of shoreline stability because of dragging boats into the pond from the road and back up again; and damage to wildlife areas and wetlands from aggressive public

parking of pickup trucks and cars.Because of the 2011 Supreme Court deci-

sion, any attempt to moderate the impact of public recreational use of the pond appears to have shifted from the city of Montpelier to the Vermont Legislature.

Over the past several weeks, The Bridge has conducted interviews with a focus on protecting the pond both as a wildlife re-source and as the source of Montpelier’s drinking water supply. A report taken from these interviews follows.

Morning tranquility on Berlin Pond.

Montpelier’s water treatment plant cannot handle petroleum products that could spill from a gas-powered auger.

results in shoreline erosion.Boat dragging . . .Ice fishing has attracted as many as 75 cars and pickups at one time, parked along Mirror Lake Road on a winter’s day.

Berlin Pond


John Hollar, Montpelier Mayor

Mayor Hollar spoke of his awareness of Berlin Pond as “a unique asset” in this region of the state, both as a wildlife re-source and as the drinking water supply for Montpelier. Hollar acknowledged a concern about possible petroleum con-tamination of the pond, now that the Supreme Court decision has lifted city prohibitions against fishing, boating and swimming. He commented on a possible threat to the water supply from a snow-mobile or a truck driving out on the pond on the ice in the winter. “If snowmobiles access the pond on land not owned by the city, there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said.

But Hollar described himself as a polit-ical “pragmatist,” saying, “I’m not inter-ested in a symbolic battle over the pond. He noted that Governor Shumlin and his administration would oppose any legis-lative remedy to possible threats to the pond from increased recreational usage. “The governor,” he said, “is likely to op-pose a legislative effort to limit access. I’d rather spend my time on [legislative] initiatives that are likely to be successful.”___________________________________

Warren Kitzmiller,Member of the Vermont House from Montpelier

Representative Kitzmiller took exception to the October 2011 Berlin Pond decision by the Vermont Supreme Court, saying: “I would very much like to see the pond protected for 100 years the way it was. I wish the court hadn’t seen it this way. I’m sorry they made the decision they made.”

Kitzmiller expressed surprise that he had heard practically nothing from any-one about a legislative “fix” of some sort for Berlin Pond. “I’ve been waiting to be asked. I’ve not been asked by the city. My constituents have not been deluging me. I would think that the City Council, the city manager and the mayor would be requesting a fix,” he said. “My position is that I stand ready to create legislation, but at this point I am waiting to be asked to do it. I’m not worried about a hatful of gas. I’m worried about a tankful of gas and a crankcase filled with oil.”

Kitzmiller said that zebra mussels, which could clog up the city’s water intake pipe, worried him. “I would cer-tainly like to prohibit motorized boats,” he said. “Canoes and kayak worry me much less. I have no problem with the concept of fishing in that pond. What I worry about is how they will get access to that pond to fish. If they back up a big outboard, I have a problem with that. I have a problem with a big motorboat on a trailer that is more likely than a canoe or kayak to introduce an invasive species.”

Kitzmiller feels that possible threats to Berlin Pond are not on people’s minds to the extent that they should be. “But it should be,” he said, “because this, after all, is our drinking water.”___________________________________

Mary Hooper, Member of the Vermont House from Montpelier

Representative Hooper said that in No-vember and December 2012, before the last session of the Vermont Legislature convened in January 2013, she was in touch with Montpelier city manager Bill Fraser about Berlin Pond. “We talked about whether legislation was indicated,” she said. “For the time being, the city is talking with the town of Berlin, and no new legislation is needed right now. I left it that if they required information, they would be in touch with me.”

“I believe there’s a process [the city is working through to manage this asset,” she continued. “I’m not interested in the legislature ramming through one or the other idea.”___________________________________

Roy Schiff, Chair of the Montpelier Conservation Commission

Roy Schiff is a water resource engineer by training and profession with a focus on rivers, though he has done some work on large bodies of water. Schiff said he’s been chair of the Montpelier Conserva-tion Commission for about a year.

Commenting on the 2011 Vermont Supreme Court (Berlin Pond) decision, he said, “It was a bit surprising.”

Then speaking from a large perspec-tive, he placed a value on Berlin Pond saying: “Water is perhaps the most vital natural resource.” He described the pond as “the lifeline of the city,” because, as he said, “water is essential for people to live.”

Schiff said that the commission over time has worked with land conservation efforts to take advantage of the natural filtration of the watershed and to protect the streams that flow into the pond.

“I probably wouldn’t allow people di-rectly on it,” he said. “I probably wouldn’t let people build along its edges.“

Discussing a possible boat ramp, he said, “I don’t think that’s advisable.” Schiff said he was fairly certain that on Berlin Pond issues, he speaks for the com-mission as a whole. “I think the commis-sion would do all they can to protect that resource,” he said.

When asked if he was satisfied that all that can be done to protect Berlin Pond is being done, he said that he thinks the city has pursued the readily available op-tions. Then he added, “Montpelier has taken a sideline because it’s messy and complicated. But it’s an essential resource

for the city. The city needs to do more.” At the end of the conversation he said, “In many big city settings, these reservoirs are fenced off.”___________________________________

Bill Fraser, City Manager of Montpelier

City Manager Bill Fraser said that the 2011 Vermont Supreme Court decision in the Berlin Pond case affirmed the state’s authority over use of the pond’s waters. He said that the city of Montpelier has continued to post no trespassing notices on the land the city owns that surrounds the pond.

Fraser confirmed that neither of the city’s two representatives in the Vermont House had been asked to initiate legisla-tion concerning Berlin Pond. “Mary and Warren are correct,” he said. “We didn’t ask them to do anything. That is in fact what happened.” About pursuing a Ber-lin Pond legislative initiative, Fraser said, “We believed it would be an uphill climb and would not be where our resources would be best put.”

Fraser acknowledged a concern about possible petroleum pollution, noting that the water treatment plant cannot filter out petroleum. “The treatment plant is not designed to handle petroleum,” he said. “That’s a legitimate health and water quality concern.”

Fraser said that the city has not seen any trucks out on the pond during winter when the pond is iced over. “Snow ma-chines,” he said. “We didn’t see them.”

He said that the city has been monitor-ing the pond’s water quality. “We see no substantial diffrerences [in water qual-ity] from before and after [the Supreme Court’s decision],” he said.

The other risk to greater recreational access, Fraser said, was invasive species. Typically, these invasive species, like zebra mussels, which could clog up the Berlin Pond water intake pipe, can be carried into the pond when someone brings a boat from another pond and drops it into Berlin Pond without scrub-bing the bottom.

Fraser is aware that a highway petro-leum accident along Interstate 89 could pollute Berlin Pond. But that has nothing to do with increased recreational access. And someone, conceivably, though he thinks this is far-fetched in Vermont, could introduce poison into the city’s water supply. Though this is not likely to happen, he said, “It was an easier threat to detect when no one was supposed to be [out on the pond.]”

Fraser said that the Montpelier City Council has authorized his office to pe-tition the state of Vermont for a rule change dealing with possible threats from petroleum in the pond.___________________________________

City of Montpelier’s Petition to the State

for a Berlin Pond Rule Change

according to montpelier city manager bill Fraser, the city of montpelier has filed a petition with the Watershed management Division of the Vermont Depart-ment of environmental Con-servation for a rule change “to prohibit the presence of internal combustion motors on berlin pond including tools powered by internal combustion, petroleum, and ice shanties.”

that petition, which asks the state of Vermont for a rule change governing berlin pond, was a (July 25, 2013) letter plus attachments from attorney Ste-phen a. reynes, retained by the city of montpelier, to attorney Leslie Welts of the state’s Water-shed management Division. Spe-cifically, the petition called for the following proposed rule for berlin pond:

a. the use of internal com-bustion engines, including tools powered by internal combustion, is prohibited.

b. the use or presence of petroleum-based fuels is prohibited.

c. Vessels power by motor shall not exceed 5 mph (VUpWW rule 3.2(a) (“. . . such as an electric motor . . .”).

d. the use or presence of ice shanties is prohibited.

Since the pond itself has been opened to recreational use there has been a marked increase in destruction of property and littering.

This baby goose is a casualty of increased traffic around the pond.

Vegetation is being destroyed by increased car and truck parking.

Discarded fish line is a serious hazard to all wildlife.

Trash was never much of a problem on the south end of the pond—now it is.


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by Tom Greene

It started with a small piece of wood, no larger than a football, that one afternoon

unceremoniously fell from the top of Col-lege Hall onto the Vermont College of Fine Arts campus. It was a piece of the cor-nice that rings the roof of the Empire-style edifice. Shortly after, we noticed that, when you looked to the top of the building, the brick that had been originally laid in 1868 was rippling in places.

We brought in engineers and architects, and they went up on lifts and looked at the damage that years and years of expansion and contraction from Vermont winters had caused. The news was sobering. The grand old building needed serious and immediate work. Significant and costly work. Work that had to be done before another winter set in.

If you drive by the campus today, you will see fencing around the building. This is not an art installation. It is to allow the con-struction folks to work unimpeded while we continue to investigate the damage. It also ensures that bricks won’t fall on the many people who traverse the campus every single day.

When I formed Vermont College of Fine Arts seven years ago, it was to preserve this historic campus for educational use and to save close to 150 jobs. My colleagues and I were successful, and in 2008, we created the first new college in Vermont in a genera-tion. Since then that effort has grown into a larger one, a mission to create a national center for education in the arts here in Montpelier.

We have made extraordinary progress. Three academic programs are now six. We have grown to 360 students. We are a vital

economic engine for Vermont, but more im-portantly, for downtown Montpelier, which is an extension of our campus. Our students are all ages and come from all backgrounds and might be tough to distinguish, but they fill our restaurants and our bars and shop in our stores. This past year, they spent more than $500,000 in downtown businesses.

But the mission has always been tied, as well, to the community and in particular to this great building, which a historic preservationist recently told me was one of the 15 most important buildings in north-ern New England. While I sometimes feel that College Hall is like a second home to me—I have spent most of my waking hours there off and on for the past 20 years—I am acutely aware that, more than any other part of our campus, it belongs to all of us. Assuming the stewardship of the college was a question, always, of public trust. While we are a private nonprofit, landmark buildings transcend individual people and individual organizations. Yes, we assumed the leadership of maintaining and preserv-ing it, but we did so with the knowledge that when you get right down to it, we are largely caretakers for future generations of Vermonters so that someday they may enjoy that building’s magnificence; so that they, perhaps, might one day stand on the stage in the second-floor chapel, arguably one of the finest rooms in the entire state.

Before the snow flies, we will be taking some immediate steps to ensure that we stop any further erosion of the brick on College Hall. We will be pouring resources into a temporary fix that will remove portions of the brick and replace it with plywood and new interior walls. For a time, it will look as if College Hall is under construction. Over the winter we will be working to identify funds to help us restore this great building as imagined by the craftsmen who built it brick by brick 145 years ago. To that end, we will hire a grant writer, and I know, as we have been successful in everything we have pursued as a new college, we will succeed in raising the considerable funds required to preserve this wonderful, physical treasure. In the meantime, I encourage anyone who wishes to participate in helping preserve College Hall to contact me directly. I can be reached at [email protected].

Thomas C. Greene is a novelist and the founding president of the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Illustration by Barbara Carter

A Signature Building

notes from the hill


by Bob Nuner

Lost Nation Theater’s (LNT) upcoming production Robert Frost: This Verse Busi-

ness celebrates the poet so strongly associ-ated with New England. Written by A.M. Dolan, the play stars Tony-nominee and Emmy Award–winner Gordon Clapp and is directed by longtime LNT collaborator Gus Kaikkonen. Kaikkonen is familiar to LNT audiences, having played title roles in LNT’s productions of Richard III, Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night.

Clapp has numerous film and TV cred-its, including his work on NYPD-Blue (12 seasons), Cheers, Without a Trace, Damages, Flags of Our Fathers and Eight Men Out. He was also nominated for a Tony in the 2005 Broadway revival of Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross and appeared in the stage version of Blood from a Stone with Ethan Hawke.

Clapp is a northern New Hampshire native and, like Vermont native and LNT founding artistic director Kim Bent, revers Frost and had hoped to put his story on stage. A.M. Dolan’s script provided that opportunity. Kathleen Keenan says that Kim Bent, having worked at pulling together a Frost stage piece for years, heard about the Dolan play Kaik-konen was directing in Peterborough, New Hampshire, and traveled to see it: “Kim was so moved and inspired that he immediately scrapped his own plans and began work-ing on how to get Andy/Gordon/Gus’s show here!”

Frost is an attractive subject for a one-man show. He won four Pulitzer prizes, published extensively, traveled widely and was revered during his lifetime and after. The play ex-plores “both the public and private faces” of the man. Kaikkonen, who also directs regularly for Juilliard, calls Frost “the perfect antidote to our current national malaise,” praising Frost’s “brilliance, wit and edge,” a tempting admixture for any actor to take on.

Lost Nation has planned a gala perfor-mance for the opening night, September 6. The celebratory affair with host David Bud-bill will feature a postshow dessert reception with Budbill and actor Gordon Clapp. Robert Frost: This Verse Business will run for three weekends, ending on September 22. There’s a matinee on Saturday, September 7, in addi-tion to that evening’s show. Performances are scheduled on Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. (except for the final matinee at 2 p.m. on September 22).

Throughout the run, LNT’s Lobby Gallery will feature Annie Tiberio Cameron photos, which she’s paired with Frost poems. For information and tickets: 229-0492 or lostna-tiontheater.org.

Well-known Poet on Stage at

Lost Nation Theater


Beth JacoB Synagogue

Hebrew Schoolenroll now for the fall! For ages 7-13 • Sunday mornings, Sept 22–April 2 Creative siddur-based program exploring Jewish heritage, ritual and identity. arts, service projects and stories. K’tanim program for ages 4–6 also available, meets monthly.

Contact Julia Chafets, Principal: 229-9429, [email protected] or www.bethjacobvt.org.

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Sept. 5So You Always Wanted to Be an Archaeologist. Stories from the trenches, with archaeologist David Skinas. Brown bag lunch and informal conversation, then open house. Noon–4 p.m. Vermont Archaeology Heritage Center, Vermont History Center, 60 Washington St., Barre. Free. 828-3050. [email protected]/

strong_communities/preservation/education/archaeology/heritage.

Do You Want to Learn Piano and Have Fun? Free public presentation about the Simply Music method by Nicholas Mortimer. 4–5 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St. 595-1220, [email protected] or LovePlayingPiano.org.

Sept. 6Fall Migration Bird Walks. Come for a morning walk to search for migrating warblers, vireos, tanagers, thrushes and more. Beginners welcome! Binoculars available for loan. 7:30–9 a.m. North Branch Nature Center, 713 Elm St., Montpelier. Members and kids free; $10 nonmembers.

Reiki Clinic. With Lynne Ihlstrom, reiki master. Noon–4 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St., Montpelier. $15 one-half hour. Hour sessions available. Call for appointment: 522-0045.

Do You Want to Learn Piano and Have Fun? Free public presentation about the Simply Music method. 6–7p.m. Christ Church, State St., Montpelier. 595-1220, [email protected] or LovePlayingPiano.org.

Laugh Local VT Comedy Open Mic Night. See stand-up comics do five to seven minutes of new material. Sign up 7:30 p.m.; show starts 8 p.m. The American Legion Post #3, 21 Main St., Montpelier. Free, but Dough Nation$ welcome. 793-3884.

Sept. 7Do You Want to Learn Piano and Have Fun? Free public presentation about the Simply Music method. 9–10 a.m. Christ Church, State St., Montpelier. 595-1220, [email protected] or LovePlayingPiano.org.

Rummage Sale. Kids’ clothes to size 6x, maternity clothes, toys and baby equipment. 9 a.m–noon. Quality donations appreciated; drop-off Sept. 6, 8 a.m.–noon. Bethany Church, 115 Main St., Montpelier. 244-1254.

Cassoulet Cooking Demo. Everything you always wanted to know about cassoulet with Ariane Daguin, owner and cofounder of D’Artagnan. 9:30 a.m. La Brioche Wolf Kitchen, New England Culinary Institute, 118 Main St., Montpelier. $30. 223-3188.

Household Waste Collection. Hazardous waste, e-waste, textiles and books. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. All residents of Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District may bring waste. Tunbridge Transfer Station. Haz waste is $15 per carload, all else free. 229-9383 x105. cvsmd.org.

Cooking with Herbs to Maintain Vibrant Health. Join Lisa Masé of Harmonized Cookery to learn about medicinal properties and cooking techniques for a variety of herbs. Tastings and recipes. 10 a.m.–noon. Capital City Farmers’ Market, 60 State St., Montpelier. 223-2958. [email protected]. montpelierfarmersmarket.com.

6th Annual Community Wellness Gathering. A day of workshops to restore and keep healthful balance and wholeness for ourselves and our community: yoga, homeopathy, herbs, family health and more. Vegetarian potluck lunch. Children’s activities. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Wheelock Mountain Farm (near Greensboro Bend). Sliding scale $10–$30. Preregistration: 533-9929, wheelockmtnfarm.weebly.com or Facebook for updated information. cwg.erideshare.com to offer or request a ride; password: cwg.

People and Pottery: An Ancient and Intimate Relationship. With Vermont potter Robert Compton and experimental archaeologist Charlie Paquin. Join two expert potters in demonstrations and discussions on ancient and contemporary pottery. Explore the complexity and meaning of technologies, textures, and designs from the perspectives of these two well-known experts. 1–4 p.m. Vermont History Center, 60 Washington St., Barre. Free. 828-3050, [email protected] or accd.vermont.gov/strong_communities/preservation/education/archaeology/heritage Map it.

Duck Cooking Demo. Ariane Daguin, owner and cofounder of D’Artagnan, will share the best ways to prepare the bird, from wings to legs to the delicacy, foie gras. Followed by five-course duck dinner at The Chef ’s Table. 6 p.m. New England Culinary Institute, 118 Main St., Montpelier. $65. 223-3188.

Shape-Note Sing. Ian Smiley leads tunes from The Sacred Harp. All welcome; no experience necessary. Event happens by RSVP only: please call or e-mail to confirm. First and third Sat., 6:30–8 p.m. Tulsi Tea Room, 34 Elm St., Montpelier. By donation. 882-8274. [email protected].

Contra Dance. All dances taught; no partner

musicVeNUeSBagitos. 28 Main St., Montpelier. 229-9212. bagitos.com.

Sept. 5: Colin McCaffrey and friends (swing,/jazz/country). 6–8 p.m.Sept. 6: Keith Williams (blues/jazz). 6–8 p.m.Sept. 7: Irish session. 2–5 p.m.

Chandler Music Hall. 71-73 Main St., Randolph. Tickets and reservations 728-6464 or chandler-arts.org.

Sept. 7: John Marshall in concert (vocal music, spoken pieces). 7 p.m.Sept. 22: Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas (Scottish fiddle and cello music). 7:30 p.m. $25 adults (advance); $15 students.Sept. 28: Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Jamie Laredo conducts annual Made in Vermont tour. 7:30 p.m. $27 adults; $23 seniors; $14 Vermont state college faculty and staff; $10 students.Sept. 29: Myra Flynn and Gregory Douglass. CD release party for two young singer-songwriters. $20 adults (advance); $10 students.

Charlie-O’s. 70 Main St., Montpelier. 223-6820.

Sept. 6: Funktapuss (smooth jazz).

Nutty Steph’s Chocolaterie. Rte. 2, Middlesex. 6 p.m.–midnight. 229-2090. nuttysteph.com.

Sept. 5: Andric Severance on piano.

Positive Pie. 22 State St., Montpelier. 10:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 229-0453. positivepie.com.

Sept. 13: John Demus Reggae Dancehall. 10 p.m. $5.Sept 14: Black and White Rave with GaGu (Mlađo Ga) and Jaws (Josh Bell). Girls dress in white; guys dress in black. Age 16+. $10.Sept. 21: Hot Neon Magic (80s covers). $5.Sept. 27: Kina Zoré. (afro-pop). Cover.Sept 28: Bad Dog (rock).

Sweet Melissa’s. 4 Langdon St., Montpelier. 8:30–11:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 225-6012. facebook.com/sweetmelissasvt.

Sept. 13: The Starline Rhythm Boys (honky-tonk/rockabilly).

Whammy Bar. 31 W. County Rd., Calais. 7 p.m. 229-4329. [email protected]. whammybar1.com.

Sept. 6: Tennessee Jed.Sept. 12: Al ’n Pete (Irish).Sept. 13: Chad Hollister.Sept. 20: Abby Jenne.Sept. 21: Peg and Cheryl, Naughty and Nice.Sept. 27: Big Hat No Cattle (Texas swing).Oct. 4: Katie Trautz.Oct. 11: Tim Brick (country).Oct. 18: The Woedoggies.Oct. 26: The Usual Suspects (blues).

ArtiStS & SpeciAl eVeNtSSept. 6: Coffeehouse. Enjoy live music and share your own. Fellowship, potluck snacks and beverages. First Fri., 7–9 p.m. Trinity United Methodist Church, 137 Main St., Montpelier. Free. 244-5191, 472-8297. [email protected].

Sept. 7: Everything to Me: Eliza Moore Concert. With special guests. 7:30–9:30 p.m. The Old Meeting House, 1620 Center Rd., East Montpelier.

Sept. 7: Haywire. Bluegrass standards, unique covers and original tunes. BYOB. 8 p.m. Old Town Hall, Brookfield. Free, donations benefit the Old Town Hall restoration. 276-3535. [email protected].

Sept. 8: Bill Carroll and Friends. Bluegrass/gospel performance. Coffee provided. 9:30 a.m. Bethany Church, 115 Main St., Montpelier. Free.

Sept. 8: Vermont Virtuosi. Flutist Laurel Ann Maurer, clarinetist Karen Luttik, and pianist Claire Black perform chamber music: trios by David Gunn and Gwyneth Walker, Michael Webster’s arrangement of “Carmen Rhapsody” and others. 7:30 p.m., Bethany Church, 115 Main St., Montpelier. Free. Suggested donation: $10 adults; $5 seniors and students.

Sept. 9: Mad River Chorale. Rehearsal for Dec. 14 and 15 holiday concerts. New singers welcome. 7–9 p.m. Chorus room, Harwood Union High School, 458 Rte. 100, Moretown. 496-2048. madriverchorale.org.

Sept. 14: Piano Men. Capital City Concerts presents pianists Jeffrey Chappell and Bob Winter, performing a classical and jazz repertoire from George Gershwin to Samuel Barber. 7:30 p.m. Unitarian Church, Main St., Montpelier. $10–$25. Tickets at Bear Pond Books, Montpelier, or capitalcityconcerts.org. 793-9291.

Sept. 19: Songwriters’ Meeting. Meeting of the Northern VT/NH chapter of the Nashville Songwriters Association International. Bring copies of your work. Third Thurs., 6:45 p.m. Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury. 633-2204.

Eliza Moore performs with friends at the Old Meeting House, East Montpelier, on September 7.

Vermont Virtuosi (left to right): pianist Claire Black, flutist Laurel Ann Maurer and clarinetist Karen Luttik. Performing chamber music at the Bethany Church, September 8.

continued on page 16


necessary. All ages welcome. Bring shoes not worn outdoors. First, third and fifth Sat., 8–11 p.m. Capital City Grange, 6612 Rte. 12, Berlin. $8. 744-6163. capitalcitygrange.org.

Sept. 8Paddle Big Hosmer and Little Hosmer Ponds, Craftsbury. With the Montpelier Green Mountain Club. Easy. PFD required. Bring lunch. Call leader, Joan Heller, 223-1874 for meeting time and place.

Join us for Gathering Sunday. Service 10 a.m.; children’s program 10:15. All are welcome. Bethany Church, 115 Main St., Montpelier. 223-2424. bethanychurchvt.org.

Do You Want to Learn Piano and Have Fun? Free public presentation about the Simply Music method by Nicholas Mortimer. 3–4 p.m. Four Corners Schoolhouse, East Montpelier. 595-1220, [email protected] or LovePlayingPiano.org.

Poetry Reading. Poet Sherry Olson reads from her book Four-Way Stop. 4 p.m. Cutler Memorial Library, 151 High St. (Rte. 2), Plainfield (Route 2). 454-8504. cutlerlibrary.org.

Shape Note/Sacred Harp Sing. No experience needed. All welcome. Second Sun., 5–7 p.m. Plainfield Community Center (above the co-op). By donation. 595 9951. [email protected].

Sept. 9Music and Literacy for Infants Series. 9:30–11:30 a.m. Good Beginnings of Central Vermont, 174 River St., Montpelier. 595-7953. goodbeginningscentralvt.org.

Parent Meet-Up. Come meet other parents, share information and chat over light snacks, coffee and tea. First Mon., 10–11:30 a.m. Hayes Room, Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. Free. [email protected].

Friends of Ainsworth Public Library Meeting. Planning fall fundraisers. Come help put great ideas into action. 6 p.m. Ainsworth Public Library, 2338 Rte. 14, Williamstown. 433-5887, [email protected] or bit.ly/FofAPL.

Sept. 10Bike Ride, Hardwick. With the Montpelier Green Mountain Club. Moderate. 27 miles. Rte. 14 to N. Wolcott and return on Rte. 15. Bring lunch and water. Helmet required. Contact leaders Mary Garcia, 622-0585, or Mary Smith, 505-0603, for meeting time and place.

Grandkids as Play Partners. Second of three sessions (last on Sept. 24) exploring the power of play to support children’s development, the developmental stages of play and how you can be your child’s best play partner. 10:30 a.m.–noon. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St. $15 members; $20 nonmembers for all three sessions. Register at MSAC office. 223-2518.

First Women’s Voices. Five Native American women speak about their lives and experiences: Shirley Hook, Carol Irons, Charlene McManis, Trudy Ann Parker and Rachel Whitebear.

2–4 p.m. Vermont History Center, 60 Washington St., Barre Free. 828-3050, [email protected] and historicsites.vermont.gov/vt_history/archeology Map it.

Medicare and You. New to Medicare? Have questions? We have answers. Second and fourth Tues., 3–4:30 p.m. Central Vermont Council on Aging, 59 N. Main St., Suite 200, Barre. Free. Registration: 479-0531.

Make Sense of Supplements. Gregory Giasson, DC, MSACN, MS, talks about some commonly used supplements: their importance, how to use them, what to look for while choosing them and why whole food dietary alternatives are a better long-term solution. 5:30–6:30 p.m. Community room, Hunger Mountain Coop, Stone Cutters Way, Montpelier. Preregister: sign up on the co-op workshop bulletin board, call 223-8000 x202 or [email protected].

Anima Borealis Series: Traveling in Spirit Worlds. Starting with a story from Greenland about Autdarauta’s initiation as a spirit master, we will immerse ourselves in the spirit worlds and spirit beings of the North. Presented by the Center For Circumpolar Studies. 5:30–7 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. 223-3338. kellogghubbard.org.

Tech Tuesdays. Get help with any computer or Internet questions, or learn about the library’s new circulation software and how to use ListenUp to download audiobooks and more. Bring your iPod, tablet, phone, laptop or other device. Second and fourth Tues., 5:30–7 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. Free. 223-3338. kellogghubbard.org.

Preserving the Abundance Part Two: Canning, Pickling, and Jamming. With Lisa Masé. Learn easy preservation techniques such as oven canning, blanching, freezing, pickling and fermenting. Take home handouts and recipes. 5:30–8:30 p.m. Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, 252 Main St., Montpelier. $30 members; $35 nonmembers. Fee includes a meal. Preregistration required: 224-7100, [email protected] or vtherbcenter.org.

Sept. 11Navigating the New Vermont Health Care Exchange. Learn about the Vermont Health Care Exchange and how to enroll in coverage, starting October 1, 2013. Peter Sterling, executive director of Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security, will be at the library once a week to help you find a plan that is just right for you. 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. 223-3338.

Adventure Kits. Artists/creators age 3–6 are welcome to participate in a project that will spark imaginative play. 11 a.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. Preregistration required: 223-4665.

Time Banking with Onion River Exchange.Want to save money, meet new people, learn new skills and help your community? Come learn what a time bank is and how it works. 1 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St. 552-3020 of orexchange.org.

Economic Innovation in Vermont. With

Lars Hasselblad Torres. Presented by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Program. Visit MSAC office for information on speakers and costs. 1:30 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St.

Advance Directive Assistance. Information on funeral planning. Sponsored by the Funeral Consumers Alliance of VT. 2–4 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St. Free, donations appreciated. 223-8140. Monarch Butterfly Tagging. Drop by any time after 3:30 to catch, tag and release some migrating monarchs. 3:30–5 p.m. North Branch Nature Center, 713 Elm St., Montpelier. $5 adult; $3 children. 229-6206.

Wild Edible and Medicinal Plant Walk. Join Annie McCleary for a gentle stroll to identify late summer wildflowers and fruits of wild edible and medicinal plants. 5–6:30 p.m. Wisdom of the Herbs School, 1005 County Rd., Woodbury. Sliding scale: $0 to $10. Preregistration appreciated: 456-8122.

Quilting Group. Working meeting of the Dog River Quilters. Second Wed., 5:30 p.m. Community room, Brown Public Library, Northfield. Jean, 585-5078 or [email protected].

Community Cinema: The Graduates/Los Graduados. Pressing issues today are explored through the eyes of a diverse array of Latino and Latina adolescents from across the United States in this eye-opening documentary on the challenges facing both the students and their families. Panel discussion follows. 7 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. 223-3338.

Sept. 12Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism Open House. Curious about the herbalist training program and other programs and workshops? Come meet current students and graduates, and tour the school. Yummy treats provided. 7 p.m. VCIH, 252 Main St., Montpelier. vtherbcenter.org.

Summit School Potluck Thursdays. A different presenter, musician and topic. Share a meal and music and help a good cause. Please bring a nonperishable food item for the Vermont Foodbank. Second and fourth Thurs., 6–8 p.m. Summit School of Traditional Music & Culture, 46 Barre St., Montpelier.

How to Find and Eat Humanely Raised Meat. With Carrie Abels, founder/editor of humaneitarian.org. When we buy meat, how can we determine how the animals were raised? Meat labels explained, an exploration of the word humane and a tour of the co-op’s meat selections. 5:30–7 p.m. Community room. Hunger Mountain Coop, Stone Cutters Way, Montpelier. Free. Preregister: sign up on the co-op workshop bulletin board, call 223-8000 x202 or [email protected]

Sept. 13Foot Clinic. Nurses from Central VT Home Health & Hospice clip toe nails, clean nail beds, file nails and lotion the feet. Fifteen-minute appointments. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St., Montpelier. $15. Check or cash to CVHHH. Reservations: 223-2518.

Fall Migration Bird Walks. Come for a morning walk to search for migrating warblers, vireos, tanagers, thrushes and more. 7:30–9 a.m. North Branch Nature Center, 713 Elm St., Montpelier. Members and kids free; $10 nonmembers.

Where Does the Garden End? Healing Plants of the Tended Wild. With Sandra Lory, folk herbalist and food justice educator. We will explore the fields, shaded canopy, edge habitats, and gardens gone wild for medicinal plants. 5:30–6:30 p.m. Two Rivers Center, 5 Home Farm Way, Montpelier. Meet outside the Hunger Mountain Coop entrance at 5:15 p.m. Preregister: sign up on the co-op workshop bulletin board, call 223-8000 x202 or [email protected].

Sept. 14Household Waste Collection. Hazardous waste, e-waste, textiles and books. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. All residents of Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District may bring waste. Bradford town garage. Haz waste is $15 per carload, all else free. 229-9383 x105. cvsmd.org.

Cabot Ride the Ridges. Benefit for Cabot Connects Mentoring Program. Three challenge levels: 10km Family Fun Ride, Sturdy 30 Km Back Road Ride and 60Km Extreme Ridges Explorer. Local food provided: Woodbelly Wood-Fired Pizza, Kingdom Creamery Ice Cream, Burtt’s Apple Pie and Switchel! 8 a.m. Town Common, Cabot. $25 10Km Family Fun Ride; $40 Sturdy 30Km Back Road Ride; $50 60Km Extreme Ridges Explorer; $50 Family Maximum. [email protected].

Aikido Demonstration. Aikido of Montpelier will be presenting a public demonstration. Come see what Aikido is about. 10 a.m.–noon. Christ Church courtyard, State St., Montpelier.

Gallery Talk: Italian-American Stoneworkers in Vermont. Middlebury College professor Ilaria Brancoli-Busdraghi will present the heritage and history of Italian American stoneworkers in Vermont. Visit Vermont Heritage Gallery exhibit to see examples of the tools and scenes that surrounded the stoneworkers of Barre. 2 p.m. Vermont History Center, 60 Washington St., Barre. $5 adults. 479-8500.

Film Screening: The Kids Are Alright. Joni and Laser, the children of same-sex parents, Nick and Jules, become curious about their sperm-donor dad and set out to make him part of their family unit. But his arrival complicates the household dynamics, in this warm-hearted dramedy. 6:30 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St., Montpelier. Suggested donation $3. 224-1001.

continued from page 15

performing artsDANceSept. 5: Teen Jazz Audition. Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio is looking for talented teens. Please plan to attend the entire audition. Wear comfortable dance clothes. Students must be in grades 9–12 and be currently enrolled in a high school program. Registration at 4:30 p.m. 5–7 p.m. CD&FS, 18 Langdon St., Montpelier. $18 or four punches on a CD&FS card. 229-4676. cdandfs.com.

tHeAter & StOrYtelliNGSept. 6–22: Robert Frost: This Verse Business. New work by A. M. Dolan. A showcase of Frost, the man and his work, during the 50th anniversary of his death. Starring Tony-nominee and Emmy Award–winner Gordon Clapp. Opening gala Sept. 6 with live music, hosted by David Budbill. Lost Nation Theater, City Hall Arts Center, Montpelier. $60 gala ticket. Other tickets: $30 Fri.–Sun.; $25 Thurs.; $5 off student and seniors; $10 age 11 and under. For tickets and curtain times: 229-0492 or lostnationtheater.org.

Sept. 8, 15, 22, 29: Birdcatcher in Hell. 2 p.m. Paper Mache Cathedral, Bread & Puppet Farm, Rte. 122, Glover. Free, donations appreciated. 525-3031. breadandpuppet.org.

Sept. 11: Acting Showcase. Melissa Sivvy’s MSAC acting class presents a showcase of their summer work. 6 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St. Free, donations appreciated. 223-2518.

Sept. 13, 14: Vampire Princess. Master storytellers Tim Jennings and Leanne Ponder begin a tour celebrating the release of their new live CD The Vampire Princess: Eerie Tales of Humor and Suspense.

Sept. 13: North End Studio A, 294 N. Winooski Ave., Burlington. 8 p.m. $8. 863-6713.Sept 14: Old East Warren Schoolhouse, 42 Roxbury Gap Rd., East Warren. 7 p.m. $10. 496-2474.

Through Sept. 14: Parasite Drag. 7:30 p.m. Waterbury Festival Playhouse, 2933 Waterbury-Stowe Rd., Waterbury Center. $25 advance (must be purchased by 5 p.m.); $27 door. Tickets: WaterburyFestivalPlayhouse.com or 498-3755. Schedule at website.

Gordon Clapp. Clapp performs in Lost Nation Theater’s production of Robert Frost: This Verse Business. Photo by Megan Moore.


LGBTQQ Youth Group. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning youth age 13–22 enjoy free pizza, soft drinks and conversation. Facilitated by adult volunteers trained by Outright VT. Second and fourth Fri., 6:30–8 p.m. Unitarian Church, 130 Main St., Montpelier. Free. outrightvt.org.

Central Vermont Humane Society Yard Sale. All proceeds benefit shelter animals. In addition, a certified appraiser from Boston’s Kelly Auction House will appraise items: $10 for first item; $5 each additional item. Appraisal fees donated to CVHS. 8 a.m.–2 p.m. CVHS Adoption Center, 1589 Rte. 14, East Montpelier. 476-3811 x110. [email protected].

Fall Colors Book Sale. Thousands of books, from new bestsellers to antique curiosities. Also find CDs, DVDs, music and more. Books organized by subject for easy browsing. Hardcovers $2, softcovers $1. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. 223-3338.

Storytime at Montpelier Farmers’ Market. Celebrate the winding down of the summer season. Stories and songs with Librarian Linda. 10:30 a.m. Capital City Farmers’ Market, 60 State St., Montpelier.

Hike Mt. Jefferson, NH. With the Montpelier Green Mountain Club. Up Caps Ridge trail to summit; mystery hike from there. Difficult and challenging. Contact leader, Paul DeLuca, 476-7987 or [email protected], for meeting time and place.

Sept. 14–1519th Annual Lawn and Bake Sale. Silent auction: antiques, books, videos, toys, furniture, clothing, tools and more. Rain or shine. Noon–3 p.m. Bethany Church on Main St., Montpelier.

Sept. 15Hike Moose Mountain Trail, Barton. With the Montpelier Green Mountain Club. Wheeler Mountain Rd. to Mt. Hor. Moderate. 9–10 miles. 1,500-foot elevation gain. Bring lunch. Contact leader, Kevin Ryan, 229-0236 or [email protected], for meeting time and place.

Walk to Mallory Brook, East Montpelier. With the Montpelier Green Mountain Club. Easy. 1–2 miles. Young Adventurers Club. 10 a.m. Contact leader, Mike Wetherell, 223-8493, for meeting place.

Sept. 16Falling Away. A talk on moving beyond western constructs of self, relationship and psychotherapy. With Robert Kest, Ph.D. 6–7:30 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. Free. 229-6989.

Music and Literacy for Infants Series. 9:30–11:30 a.m. Good Beginnings of Central Vermont, 174 River St., Montpelier. 595-7953. goodbeginningscentralvt.org.

Navigating the New Vermont Health Care Exchange. Learn about the Vermont Health Care Exchange and how to enroll in coverage starting October 1, 2013. Peter Sterling, executive director of Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security, will be at the library once a week to help you find a plan that is just right for you. 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. 223-3338.

Transfigured Woman. With Eva Cahill, M.A., teacher and intuitive. What does it mean to be a woman in 2013? What’s happening as we become more conscious? 6:30–7:30 p.m. Community room, Hunger Mountain Coop, Stone Cutters Way, Montpelier. Preregister: sign up on the co-op workshop bulletin board, call 223-8000 x202 or [email protected].

Plainfield Book Club. Chris Bohjalian’s Light in the Ruins discussed. Third Mon., 7–8:30 p.m. Cutler Memorial Library, 151 High St. (Rte. 2), Plainfield. Free. 454-8504. cutlerlibrary.org.

Sept. 17Washington County Stamp Club Meeting. Stamps, picture postcards or postal history are the focus of the club. Free and open to the public. First Baptist Church, School St., Montpelier. 223-2953.

Mayor and School Board Chair Discuss Upcoming Budgets. Montpelier residents and property owners are invited to meet with Montpelier mayor John Hollar and school board chair Sue Aldrich to hear about budget and tax issues facing City Council and the school board. Meet and greet with cider and cookies at 7 p.m. Discussion 7:30–9 p.m. Noble Hall, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier. 223-5191. 552-4431.

England and Italy: A Travel Talk and Slideshow. Montpelier residents Lise Markus (MSAC staff member) and Ed Linton share their recent trip to England and Italy. 6 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St., Montpelier. 223-2518.

Anima Borealis Series: Spirit Masters. Becoming a spirit master is fraught with danger to the novice, but with healing potential for the community and heavy ethical responsibilities for the master. Can we hear spirit voices ourselves by listening to a stone speak? Presented by the Center For Circumpolar Studies. 5:30–7 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. 223-3338.

Happiness Meditation. With Ginny Sassaman, MS in meditation, creator of the Happiness Paradigm in Maple Corner and cofounder of Gross National Happiness. Learn how to meditate with Ginny as she shares a variety of simple methods for you to try out. 5:30–7:30 p.m. Community room, Hunger Mountain Coop, Stone Cutters Way, Montpelier. $8 member-owners; $10 nonmembers. Preregister: sign up on the co-op workshop bulletin board, call 223-8000 x202 or [email protected].

Sept. 18History and Struggle in Egypt. With Sandy Mohlman. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Program. 1:30 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St., Montpelier. For information on speakers and costs, visit the MSAC office.

Monarch Butterfly Tagging. Drop by any time after 3:30 to catch, tag and release some

migrating monarchs. 3:30–5 p.m. North Branch Nature Center, 713 Elm St., Montpelier. $5 adult; $3 children. 229-6206.

Home Sharing Info Meeting. Find out what home sharing is all about. Refreshments served. Third Wed., 5:30–6 p.m. Home Share Now, 115 Main St., Barre. RSVP at 479-8544 to ensure ample refreshments.

Poetry Reading and Book Signing with George Lisi. Lisi, naturalist, mediator, teacher and poet living in central Vermont, reads from his book Through the Gate of Trees: Poetry of Awakening. 6:30 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. 223-3338.

Your Breath: It Happens Roughly 18,000 Times a Day! Join Amy LePage-Hansen of Emerge Yoga for this interactive workshop where you’ll learn about the mechanics of breathing, practice simple breath explorations and discover how your breath affects your body and overall well-being. 6–7:30 p.m. Community room, Hunger Mountain Coop, Stone Cutters Way, Montpelier. Free. Preregister: sign up on the co-op workshop bulletin board, call 223-8000 x202 or [email protected].

Eating Right When Money Is Tight: Part 1. Certified diabetes educator and registered dietitian Jennifer Stratton offers advice on eating healthy on a budget. 6–7 p.m. Chelsea Health Center, 356 Rte. 110, Chelsea Free. Registration required: 728-7100 x6.

Book Discussion and Poetry Swap. Copies of Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, an anthology of 180 contemporary poems, selected and introduced by America’s past poet laureate, Billy Collins, will be available to be checked out or to buy. Hosted by Waterbury Public Library. 7 p.m. Bridgeside Books, 29 Stowe St., Waterbury. 244-7036.

Sept. 19Ecumenical Group. Songs of praise, Bible teaching, fellowship. Second and fourth Thurs., 7–9 p.m. Jabbok Center for Christian Living, 8 Daniel Dr., Barre. Free. 479-0302.

visual arts eXHiBitSOngoing: Glen Coburn Hutcheson, Talking Portraits and Two-Part Inventions. An evolving show of experimental drawings, paintings and the occasional sculpture. Storefront Studio Gallery, 6 Barre St., Montpelier. Hours: Tues.–Fri. 8–10 a.m., Sat. 10 a.m.–3 p.m., or by appointment. 839-5349. gchfineart.com.

Through Sept. 8: Best of the Northeast Master of Fine Arts 2013 Exhibition. Helen Day Art Center, 90 Pond St., Stowe.

Through Sept. 10: Ronald T. Simon, Several Little Books with Big Prints. Photos of the Vermont landscape, including photos of the Bread & Puppet pageant, in small books and large prints. Woodshed Gallery, Bread & Puppet Farm, Rte 122 (Heights Rd.), Glover. 525-3031.

Through Sept. 22: Annie Tiberio Cameron, Robert Frost in Images. Photographs are paired with poems by Robert Frost, accompanying Lost Nation Theater’s production Robert Frost: This Verse Business. Reception: Sept. 6, 6:45 p.m. LNT Lobby Gallery, Montpelier City Hall Auditorium, Main St., Montpelier. Hours: Tues.–Sun. by appointment. 229-0492.

Through Sept. 29: Mark Dannenhauer and Mark Boylen, Emerging Mosaic. Multiyear multimedia portrait of the Bread & Puppet community from memories, stories and images. Boylen shows color prints from rephotographed slides of Bread & Puppet shows, 1974 and 1977. Dannenhauer shows A is for Ah! O is for Oy! A Bread and Puppet ABC and current B&P shows. Plainfield Community Gallery, above Plainfield co-op, 153 Main St., Plainfield. Open during regular co-op hours. 617-939-1925.

Through Sept. 30: Laura Hamilton. Photographs. Tulsi Tea Room, 34 Elm St., Montpelier.

Through Sept.: Ray Ferrer and Shared Horizon. Show of Ferrer’s stenciled and spray-painted works on canvas and group show of landscapes. West Branch Gallery & Sculpture Park, 17 Towne Farm Ln., Stowe. 253-8943. [email protected].

Through Oct. 5: Folk Vision: Folk Art from New England and Beyond. Selected artists including Gayleen Aiken, Merrill Densmore, Howard Finster, HJ Laurent, Theodore Ludwiczak. BigTown Gallery, 99 North Main St., Rochester. Hours: Wed.–Fri. 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Sat. noon–5 p.m. 767-9670. [email protected]. bigtowngallery.com.

Through Oct. 5: Alexis Salvino, Cinema of Surveillance. Pentel felt markers, ink, water, and colored pencils on watercolor paper. Reception Oct. 4, 4–7 p.m. Green Bean Visual Art Gallery, Capitol Grounds, State St., Montpelier. [email protected].

Through Oct. 15: Exposed 2013. Group exhibit of sculpture. Helen Day Art Center, 90 Pond St., Stowe. Hours: Wed.–Sun. noon–5 p.m. and by appointment. 253-8358.

Through Oct. 26: Carol MacDonald, Two Threads. Hand-pulled monoprints. Reception Sept. 5, 5–7 p.m. Gallery at River Arts, 2F, River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant St., Morrisville. Hours: Mon.–Fri., 10 a.m.–2 p.m. 888-1261. riverartsvt.org.

Through Oct. 27: Tracey Hambleton, Within Reach. Landscape oil paintings. Reception Sept. 13, 5–7 p.m. Blinking Light Gallery and Co-op, 16 Main St., Plainfield. Hours: Thurs. 2–6 p.m., Fri.–Sun. 10 a.m.–6 p.m. 454-0141. blinkinglightgallery.com.

Through Oct.: Richard Ambelang, Landscape into Abstraction. Photographs of the broad landscape and more intimate abstracted portions from New England and the Pacific Northwest. Pratt Gallery, Eliot D.

Pratt Center, Goddard College, 123 Pitkin Rd., Plainfield. Hours: Mon.–Fri. 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

Through Oct.: Bread & Puppet Museum. One of the largest collections of some of the biggest puppets in the world. Bread & Puppet Farm, Rte. 122, Glover. Hours: Daily, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. 525-3031. breadandpuppet.org.

Through Oct.: 40 Years of Dancing; A Photographic Retrospective of Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio. A photographic retrospective celebrating the dance studio’s 40th anniversary. Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio, 18 Langdon St., Montpelier. Hours: Mon.–Fri., 3:30–8 p.m.; Sat. 9 a.m.–2 p.m. 229-4676. cdandfs.com.

Through Oct.: Emiko Sawaragi Gilbert, Found in the Forest. Scans of leaves, sculptures from found tree branches. Reception Sept. 12, 5–7 p.m. Vermont Supreme Court, 111 State St., Montpelier. Hours: Mon.–Fri. 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Through Oct.: Marcia Hill, Cindy Griffith and Anne Unangst. Paintings. Red Hen Baking, 961 Rte. 2, Middlesex. 223-5200.

Through Nov. 10: Points of View. Exhibit of portraits by seven Vermont artists: Agathe McQueston, Lark Upson, Sande French-Stockwell, Judith Beckett, Liesi Hebert, Marcia Hammond and Joan Feierabend. Reception Sept. 7, 5–7 p.m. Chandler Gallery, 71-73 Main St., Randolph. 728-6464. 728-9878.

Through Dec. 20: Round. An exhibition of objects of circular shape, from the Sullivan Museum collection. Sullivan Museum and History Center, Norwich University, 158 Harmon Dr., Northfield. 485-2183. Norwich.edu/museum.

Through Dec. 20: These Honored Dead: Private and National Commemoration. Stories of Norwich alumni from both sides of the Civil War conflict in 1863. Sullivan Museum & History Center, Norwich University, Northfield. 485-2183. norwich.edu/museum.

SpeciAl eVeNtSCall to Artists: River Arts 5th Annual Open Studio Weekend. Visual, craft and design artists in all media are invited to exhibit and sell their work during open studio week, Oct. 5–6. E-mail at least five samples of work to [email protected] and/or send a link to website, or mail to River Arts, P.O. Box 829, Morrisville, VT 05661. Submission deadline: Sept. 20. $45 fee. More information call 888-1261. River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant Street, Morrisville.

“My November Guest” by Annie Tiberio Cameron, from her exhibit at Lost Nation Theater’s Lobby Gallery.

submit your event!Send listings to [email protected]. the deadline for our next issue, Sept. 18, is Friday, Sept. 13.


weekly Events Art & crAftBeaders’ Group. All levels of beading experience welcome. Free instruction available. Come with a project for creativity and community. Sat., 11 a.m.–2 p.m. The Bead Hive, Plainfield. 454-1615.

Life Drawing Sessions. Usually brief, dynamic poses. Wed., 7–9 p.m. Storefront Studio/Gallery, 6 Barre St., Montpelier. $15 suggested donation. 839-5349. [email protected].

BicYcliNGCycling 101. Train for a summer of riding with Linda Freeman and Onion River Sports. Build confidence, strength, endurance, road-riding skills and a sense of community with relaxed rides on local paved roads. For all abilities. Tues., 5:30 p.m., Montpelier High School. Call ahead. 229-9409 or onionriver.com.

Open Shop Nights. Volunteer-run community bike shop: bike donations and repairs. Tues., 6–8 p.m.; Wed., 5–7 p.m. Freeride Montpelier, 89 Barre St., Montpelier. By donation. 552-3521 or freeridemontpelier.org.

BOOkS & WOrDSEnglish Conversation Practice Group. For students learning English for the first time. Tues., 4–5 p.m. Central Vermont Adult Basic Education, Montpelier Learning Center, 100 State St. Sarah 223-3403.

Lunch in a Foreign Language. Bring lunch and practice your language skills with neighbors. Noon–1 p.m. Mon. Hebrew, Tues. Italian, Wed. Spanish, Thurs. French. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. 223-3338.

Ongoing Reading Group. Improve your reading and share some good books. Books chosen by group. Thurs., 9–10 a.m. Central Vermont Adult Basic Education, Montpelier Learning Center, 100 State St. 223-3403.

DANceEcstatic Dance. Dance your heart awake. No experience necessary. Sun., 5:30–7:30 p.m., Christ Church, State St., Montpelier. First and third Wed., 7–9 p.m., Worcester Town Hall, corner of Elmore and Calais roads. Second and fourth Wed., 7–9 p.m., Plainfield Community Center (above the co-op). $10. Fearn, 505-8011. [email protected].

Dance or Play with the Swinging’ over 60 Band. Danceable tunes from the 1930s to the 1960s. Recruiting musicians. Tues., 5:30–7:30 p.m., Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St., Montpelier. 223-2518.

fOOD Barre Farmers’ Market. Local produce, meats, poultry , eggs, honey, crafts, baked goods and more. Wed., 3–6:30 p.m. City Hall Park, Barre.

Capital City Farmers’ Market. 50-plus farmers, food producers and craftspeople, plus live music and cooking demos. Sat., 9 a.m.–1 p.m., through October. 60 State St., Montpelier. Carolyn, 223-2958 or [email protected].

Community Meals in Montpelier. All welcome. Free.

Mon.: Unitarian Church, 130 Main St., 11 a.m.–1 p.m.Tues.: Bethany Church, 115 Main St., 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.Wed.: Christ Church, 64 State St., 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.Thurs.: Trinity Church, 137 Main St., 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.Fri.: St. Augustine Church, 18 Barre St., 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.Sun.: Last Sunday only, Bethany Church, 115 Main St. (hosted by Beth Jacob Synagogue), 4:30–5:30 p.m.

Noon Cafe. Soup, fresh bread, good company and lively conversation. Wed., noon. Old Meeting House, East Montpelier. By donation. oldmeetinghouse.org.

Senior Meals. For people 60 and over. Delicious meals prepared by Chef Justin and volunteers. Tues. and Fri. Noon–1 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St., Montpelier. Free. Under 60: $6. Reservations and information: 262-2688.

Takeout and Café Meals. Proceeds benefit the senior meals program. Thurs., 11 a.m.–1 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St., Montpelier. $4–$8. Reservations appreciated: 262-6288.

HeAltH & WellNeSSAffordable Acupuncture. Full acupuncture sessions with Chris Hollis and Trish Mitchell. Mon. and Wed., 2–7 p.m.; Fri., 9 a.m.–2 p.m. 79 Main St., suite 8 (above Coffee Corner), Montpelier. $15–$40 sliding scale. Walk in or schedule an appointment at montpeliercommunityacupuncture.com.

Herbal Clinics. Student clinic: Mon., 1–5 p.m. and Tues., 4–8 p.m. $0–$10. Professional clinic: Tues.–Fri. $0–$100. Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, 252 Main St., Montpelier. Consultations by appointment only: 224-7100 or [email protected]. vtherbcenter.org.

Powerful Tools for Caregivers. Learn tools to reduce stress and communicate effectively. Six-week class, sponsored by CVCOA: Sept. 11–Oct. 16. Wed., 5–7pm. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St. $20 suggested donation to defray cost of The Caregiver Helpbook. To register call 476-2671.

HIV Testing. Vermont CARES offers fast oral testing. Thurs., 2–5 p.m. 58 East State St., suite 3 (entrance at the back), Montpelier. Free. 371-6222. vtcares.org.

kiDS & teeNSThe Basement Teen Center. Cable TV, PlayStation 3, pool table, free eats and fun events for teenagers. Mon.–Thurs., 3–6 p.m.; Fri., 3–11 p.m. Basement Teen Center, 39 Main St., Montpelier. 229-9151.

Mad River Valley Youth Group. Sun., 7–9 p.m. Meets at various area churches. Call Ben, 497-4516, for location and information.

Storytime at the Library. Stories, songs and special guests for children age birth to 5. Tues., 10:30 a.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. 223-4665. kellogghubbard.org.

Write On! For aspiring authors age 6 to 10. Are you full of ideas? Looking to spin a story? Willing to play with words? Be creative? Drop in once or join us for the series. Fri., 3:30–4 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier. 223-4665. kellogghubbard.org.

Forest Preschool. Outdoor, exploratory, play-based drop-off program for children age 3.5–5. Sept. 3– Nov. 21. Tues. and Thurs., 9 a.m.–12 p.m. North Branch Nature Center, 713 Elm St., Montpelier. $420 for one day, $800 for both days. 229-6206.

Forest School. Drop-off program for students, using seasonal and emerging curriculum. Age 6–8. Sept. 13–June 6, 2014. Fri., 9 a.m.–2 p.m. North Branch Nature Center, 713 Elm St., Montpelier. $1,560 members; payment plans available. 229-6206.

North Branch Trekkers. After-school program with teacher-naturalist Ken Benton. Explore the green spaces of Montpelier while practicing outdoor living skills, tracking and wildlife monitoring. Grades 4–7. Sept. 12–Dec. 5. Thurs. 3–5:30 p.m. North Branch Nature Center, 713 Elm St., Montpelier. $375, membership included. 229-6206.

Vermont History for Homeschoolers. The Vermont Historical Society offers educational sessions for homeschoolers, age 8–12, in Montpelier and Barre. Wed. and Thurs. 1–3 p.m. Vermont History Museum, 109 State St., Montpelier, and Vermont History Center,

60 Washington St., Barre. $5 per child; $4 per child for three or more participating children or VHS members. For schedule go to vermonthistory.org/homeschoolers. Preregistration required: 828-1413.

MONeYPersonal Financial Management Workshops. Learn about credit/debit cards, credit building and repair, budgeting and identity theft, insurance, investing, retirement. Starting Sept. 10. Tues., 6–8 p.m. Central Vermont Medical Center, Conference Room 3. Registeration: 371-4191.

MUSicBarre-Tones Women’s Chorus. Open rehearsal. Find your voice with 50 other women. Mon., 7 p.m. Alumni Hall, Barre. 223-2039. BarretonesVT.com. r

Community Drum Circle. Open drumming. All welcome. Fri., 7–9 p.m. Parish House, Unitarian Universalist Church, Main and Church streets, Barre. 503-724-7301.

Monteverdi Young Singers Chorus Rehearsal. New chorus members welcome. Wed., 4–5 p.m. Montpelier. Call 229-9000 for location and more information.

Ukelele Group. All levels welcome. Thurs., 6–8 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre St. 223-2518.

recYcliNGAdditional Recyclables Collection Center (ARCC). Bring in odd and sundry items for reuse, upcycling and recycling, including toothbrushes, bottle caps, cassette tapes, books, textiles, batteries and more. Mon. and Fri., 12:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. ARCC, 3 Williams Ln., Barre. $1 per car load. Complete list of accepted items at 229-9383, x 106 or cvswmd.org.

Free Food Scrap Collection. Compost your food waste along with your regular trash and recycling. Wed., 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sat. 6 a.m.–1 p.m. DJ’s Convenience Store, 56 River St., Montpelier. cvswmd.org.

SpiritUAlitYChristian Meditation Group. People of all faiths welcome. Mon., noon–1 p.m. Christ Church, Montpelier. Regis 223-6043.

Christian Science. God’s love meeting human needs. Reading room: Tues.–Sat., 11 a.m.–1 p.m.; Tues., 5–8 p.m.; and Wed., 5–7:15 p.m. Testimony meeting: Wed., 7:30–8:30 p.m., nursery available. Worship service: Sun., 10:30–11:30 a.m., Sunday school and nursery available. 145 State St., Montpelier. 223-2477.

Deepening Our Jewish Roots. Fun, engaging text study and discussion on

Jewish spirituality. Sundays, 4:45–6:15 p.m. Yearning for Learning Center, Montpelier. Rabbi Tobie Weisman, 223-0583 or [email protected].

Noon Hike and Walking Meditation. Join Alicia Feltus, integral yoga Instructor, for a walk from Tulsi Tea Room to Hubbard Park for guided walking meditation. Meet at Tulsi Tea Room. Wed.,12–12:40. 917-4012 or [email protected].

Shambhala Buddhist Meditation. Group meditation practice. Sun., 10 a.m.–noon; Tues., 7–8 p.m.; Wed., 6–7 p.m. Shambhala Meditation Center, 64 Main St., 3F, Montpelier. Free. 223-5137. montpeliershambala.org.

Zen Meditation. Wed., 6:30–7:30 p.m. 174 River St., Montpelier. Free. Call Tom for orientation, 229-0164. With Zen Affiliate of Vermont.

SpOrtS & GAMeSApollo Duplicate Bridge Club. All welcome. Partners sometimes available. Fri., 6:45 p.m. Bethany Church, 115 Main St., Montpelier. $3. 485-8990 or 223-3922.

Roller Derby Open Recruitment and Recreational Practice. Central Vermont’s Wrecking Doll Society invites quad skaters age 18 and up. No experience necessary. Equipment provided: first come, first served. Sat., 5–6:30 p.m. Montpelier Recreation Center, Barre St.. First skate free. centralvermontrollerderby.com.

Coed Adult Floor Hockey League. Women and men welcome. Equipment provided. Oct. 6–Dec. 8. Sun., 3–6 p.m. Montpelier Recreaction Center, Barre St. $58 for 10-week season. Preregisteration required: [email protected] or vermontfloorhockey.com.

YOGAYoga with Lydia. Build strength and flexibility as you learn safe alignment in a nourishing, supportive and inspiring environment. Drop-ins welcome. Mon. 5:30 p.m., River House Yoga, Plainfield (sliding scale). Wed., 4:30 p.m., Green Mountain Girls Farm, Northfield (sliding scale). Tues. and Fri., noon, Yoga Mountain Center, Montpelier. Preregister now for two new nine-week tantric meditation series, beginning Sept. 9 (Mon., 7 p.m., Plainfield) and Sept. 13 (Fri., 10 a.m., Montpelier). 229-6300 or saprema-yoga.com.

Community Yoga. All levels welcome to this community-focused practice. Fri. 5–6 p.m. Yoga Mountain Center, 7 Main St., 2F, Montpelier. By donation. 223-5302 or yogamountaincenter.com.

Falling into You. Nine weeks of yoga that could change your life. Sept. 14–Nov. 9. Sat., 10:30 a.m.–noon. The Open Space, Hardwick. $100/full series. Registration and information: lunarising.weebly.com.

A Vagueness by Alexis Salvino. Pentel felt markers, ink, water and colored pencils on water-color paper. Exhibition, Cinema of Surveillance, at Green Bean Visual Art Gallery, Capitol Grounds, Montpelier.


class listings and classifieds are 50 words for $25; discounts available. To place an ad, call carolyn, 223-5112, ext. 11.

classifiedsHelp WANteDYrc freiGHt iS HiriNG FT Casual Combo Drivers/Dock Workers! Burlington location. Great pay and benefits! CDL-A w/Combo and Hazmat, 1yr T/T exp, 21yoa req. EOE-M/F/D/V. Able to lift 65 lbs. req. APPLY: www.yrcfreight.com/careers

SerViceSArtiSt, MUSiciAN StUDiOS Solo or to share starting at $150 monthly. Larger spaces of various sizes available full-time or time-shared. Join us as we transform a historic convent and school at 46 Barre Street, Montpelier, into a unique center for the arts, music and learning. Call Paul for a tour at 802-223-2120 or 802-461-6222.

HOUSe pAiNter Since 1986. Small interior jobs ideal. Neat, prompt, friendly. Local refer-ences. Pitz Quattrone, 229-4952.

tHrift StOreSt&t repeAtS Bikes, name-brand clothes, small household furniture and more. At least two free parking spaces for T&T customers. 116 Main Street, Montpelier, or call 224-1360.

HOMe fOr SAlefOr SAle iN MONtpelier. 1 mile from downtown: unusual, versatile property: half-acre with two completely separate houses joined by deck and tiled breezeway. DETAILS: http://269mainmontpelier.webs.com. CONTACT: Soren: 802.249.0167 or 802.225.1310

fOr reNttHe StOrefrONt StUDiO GAllerY, At 6 BArre Street, seeks artists to split rent. Members would enjoy shared studio and gallery space open to the public. Each artist would keep regular studio hours, overlapping minimally with other members, so they can use the whole space while there. 839-5349, [email protected]

clASSeS AND WOrkSHOpSfAll WritiNG clASSeS Introduction to Memoir, Crafting the Story Within: Ten Mon-days, Sept. 16 - Nov. 18, 10 a.m.-Noon, $200. Guided Writers’ Group, for experienced writers: Ten Fridays, Sept. 13 - Nov. 15, 10 a.m. - Noon, $200. Classes meet at Christ Church, 64 State Street, Montpelier. Maggie Thompson, MFA, Instructor To register or for more information, call 454-4635.

clASSeS AND WOrkSHOpS At HeleN DAY Art ceNter Adult Classes: Drawing Fundamentals starts September 26th. Fall Foliage Photography workshop, September 27th and 28th. See full schedule of classes as well as Youth, Teen and Family Art Workshops at www.helen-day.com. Member discounts and scholarships available. 90 Pond Street, Stowe. 802-253-8358.

tAi cHi fOr BeGiNNerS on Tuesday evenings 7:30 to 9 PM starting September 17th. Enjoy learning these slow, graceful movements of this ancient Chinese practice that are rejuvenating and calming. Taught by Sara Norton. First class is free. In Montpelier at 1 Granite street. Pre-regis-tration is not necessary. For more information call Sara at 454-8550.

freNcH clASSeS WitH tHe AlliANce frANcAiSe Jump into French! Or pick up where you left off 1, 5 or 40 years ago. Thurs-days starting September 26. Fall term offers Beginning French A and B as well as French Out Loud, an intermediate level class to get you speaking. Full descriptions, fees, times and location, easy online sign-up, and how to reach us for placement advice at http://www.aflcr.org/classes_adults.shtml#AdultsMontpelier.

DANCE! ClassesStart

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Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio 18 Langdon Street Montpelier, VT 05602 (902) 229-4676 cdandfs.com

Dr. Gabriel Archdeacon, N.D. Welcomes

Dr. Kristin Tomko, N.D. to Tree of Life Medicine in Montpelier, VT.

Dr. Tomko studied Naturopathic Medicine and Acupuncture at the University of Bridgeport and Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Shenyang, China.

Tree of Life Medicine offers Naturopathic Primary and Specialty care to patients of all ages and accepts both state and private insurance including Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, MVP and Aetna.

174 River Street • Montpelier, VT 05602 • 802.505.0597 www.tolmedicine.com • www.drkristintomko.comTree of Life Medicine

Vermont Professional Tax & Financial Services

Ger ard M. Galvin, Jd CPa

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Want to help your children explore their spirituality?

Join us at Bethany Church a progressive church where the questions are more important than the answers.

Nurturing children’s programming in a welcoming and accepting environment. Sunday mornings 10–11:15 am. Parent participation welcome.Bethany United Church of Christ is an Open and Affirming Church 115 Main Street Montpelier • www.bethanychurchvt.org


A Tribute to Vermont Farmers from

Peter Miller’s New BookA Lifetime of Vermont People is Peter Miller’s fourth photo documen-tary book. Profiles written by Miller accompany black and white photographs he’s taken over the last 60 years. Printed in Italy and published by Silver Print Press, this large format book may be pur-chased through the website silverprintpress.com as well as in local bookstores. Below Miller writes about the farmers in his book and portrayed here, and his experience upon meeting them.

I first saw Pete Johnson’s picture on the cover of Vermont Life. (top right) He was so hand-some, so cute, so . . . I decided he didn’t belong in my book. Then I read up more and found his resolve to recover so quickly from the fire that destroyed his barn. It came up like a phoenix and I visited. There was Pete, working the fields and finishing up his new barn. He looked like what he is—a farmer, a hardworking farmer.

Jack and Anne Lazor. (top left) Jack built this barn and it reflects his character and passion. It is massive, brawny and practical. He can store his harvesting equipment in it and mill his grain. His love is the earth and what he can do to nurture it and make it grow grain. Anne takes care of the Jersey closed herd. She is a homeopath, and the cows love her like a mother. Diane St. Claire makes butter with her Jersey cow milk. (bottom left) She sent some to The French Laundry chef Thomas Keller in California, and he buys most of her weekly produce. She named one of the cows after him, and when he visited, the cow and the world-famous chef were inseparable. The Lepine sisters are the first family of women farmers. (middle and bottom right) Now retired, (Therese passed on) they had one of the best herds in America for butterfat content. It was due to Gert’s diligence in buying and breeding the right Jerseys. Gert was responsible for mentoring many young dairy farmers. What she loved was the land, farming and the great sense of freedom. “Take a vacation? Me? I’m always on vacation!”


lettersEditorial

by Nat Frothingham

In a personal letter to The Bridge dated July 27, 2013, Helen Corry Riznik—or Ba Riznik, as she signed her letter—

wrote that her sister, Margaret Corry Wilson, known to family, friends and everyone else as Peggy, died on June 28.

At the time of her death, Peggy was 92 and living in Greenport, New York – a small town of about 2,100 people way out on a finger of land called the North Fork about as far east as you can go on Long Island where the island meets Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean.

Some of us never forget the place where we grew up. Writing about her sister, Peggy, Ba said, “Over Peggy’s lifetime, while our parents were living, she always came home to spend Christmas—rain, sleet and snow.” And for Peggy, home was Montpelier. Ba said, “She loved Montpelier.”

Peggy was the eldest of three daughters born to William and Lesley Corry – Peggy and then another sister called Johnny and then Ba. In her affecting letter to The Bridge, Ba said, “Thanks for your help. I feel like the last Corry standing.”

William, or Bill Corry, was a native Ver-monter from Montpelier and his wife, Lesley, was from Brooklyn Heights, New York.

Bill Corry and his father owned and oper-ated the Wetmore & Morse Quarry in Barre. Corry was also mayor of Montpelier during the World War II era.

All three Corry girls grew up in Montpelier in a big white house at 20 Bailey Avenue, a house that’s still there and still a house. All three girls attended St. Michael’s Catholic School until eighth grade and then went on to Montpelier High School located in the same building as today’s Main Street Middle School.

About their girlhood summers in Ver-mont, Ba said,“Mother sent us to camp,” -- a riding camp called Teela Wooket in nearby Roxbury.

After Peggy graduated from Montpelier High School in 1940 she worked as a life-guard at Montpelier’s new swimming pool out on Elm Street. At the same time her father was Mayor of Montpelier and Peggy “pinch-hit for a month or two” at City Hall as one of her father’s part-time secretaries.

After two years at UVM, Peggy went on to Katharine Gibbs to become an executive sec-retary. She also met and married a man who was in the U.S. Navy who lost his life when the commercial plane that was taking him home -- crashed. Peggy’s second marriage to Glenn Fowler ended in divorce. Her third husband was William Wilson, an architect, and William and Peggy were married for 32 years until his death in 2001.

Peggy had strong social commitments and her working life reflects this. After her first husband died, she worked for the American Red Cross at a big naval clinic in Newport, Rhode Island. Next, she was secretary to the executive director of the Lighthouse for the Blind. After that, she worked with the national staff of the United World Federalists. “I met the world there – Senator Cranston, Norman Cousins – those were the days,” she told the Southampton Press in a September 2000 article.

A high point in her career was living and breathing politics for the eight years that she worked as an aide to Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. As she told the Southampton Press, “The gov-ernor attracted the most outstanding people to work for him. I took care of his calendar, his public appearances. I met the movers and shakers. There was great high-class gossip which is what politics is all about.”

After her service with Gov. Rockefeller, Peggy worked at the New York Pure Water Authority, then for the New York Division of Human Rights. She had a fling at show business when for three years she assisted Peter and Elga Gimbel who were making a film about the July 1956 Andrea Doria mari-time disaster.

Peggy loved the sea. For a time she owned a house on Fire Island. She enjoyed traveling and visited such places as the West Indies, China, Europe, Iran, Hawaii and Alaska. A notice about Peggy in the New York Times after her death said that despite her many travels Fire Island may have been her “fa-vorite destination and Gramercy Park ran a close second.” The Times added, “New York City was her home for many years and the place she loved to share with her friends and family.”

Throughout her life, social activism was a consistent theme. Her sister Ba remembered Peggy as a younger woman at family Christ-mas dinners in Montpelier. Ba said, “My uncle Frank was a Republican. Peggy was a red-hot Democrat.” Then Ba added this telling detail, “At these dinner they didn’t sit together.”

Peggy’s social activism never quit. Well into her 70s and 80s, she was an active mem-ber of the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons.

Talking both candidly and with great love and admiration for her older sister, Ba said, “There was nothing shy about Peggy. She was smart. She liked people. She enjoyed life and parties and drinking and men. She had a very great sense of humor. She knew how to take care of herself in a crowd. And she had lots of friends. “

Margaret Corry Wilson will be laid to rest in mid-September at a private burial service at the Corry family plot at the Berlin Cemetery.

Thanks to Our SponsorsOur thanks, again, to the sponsors of our Energy issue: Bolduc Metal Recycling, Catamount Solar, Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District, Energy Smart of Vermont, Guys Farm & Yard, Open Sash, Pellergy, Trono Fuels and WARM LLC.

Vermont Takes the Lead in energy alternativesTo the Editor:

I am so impressed with The Bridge’s cov-erage in the lead story of their last issue (August 22): “Energy Inertia Change.” En-ergy is a subject we care deeply about, but which seems so impossible to solve. It is a major threat to harmonious survival on oh-so-many fronts that it can easily become unfathomable to untangle. This latest Bridge issue happily brought out some of its facets by focusing on the real work of a few who demonstrate through personal effort and community commitment that a difference can and is being made.

Once again, Vermont takes the lead by example. Once again, I am heartened by its people who take on a daunting task; with personal initiative, they commit themselves to what is of enduring value. It is evident, no less, in this last issue that beauty is crucial; that aesthetics are not traded for efficiency as part of the equation particularly impresses.

The context The Bridge presents is radiant in scope, and I am endeared to the paper and its mission. The people of Vermont within its pages set the tone and direction for all regions of our land in their fight for love of country. Their love translates to figuring out thorny problems regarding conservation in the face of energy needs. This noble struggle is considered by staff writers at The Bridge, who shine light on a subject many ignore and prefer would just go away. As led by Editor Nat Frothingham, The Bridge illumi-nates the soul of a place and stirs its people to action.

—Rachelle Hall, Montpelier

Vaccination is a choiceTo the Editor:

As the school year begins, the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice is starting to hear of pressure being put on parents regard-ing vaccination choices. Most parents go along with the vaccine schedule required for school entry. However, some decide against doing so for a variety of good reasons, choos-ing instead to delay or omit some shots, or refuse them altogether.

Though some schools may not inform parents of their legal right to vaccine exemp-tions, everyone concerned with this issue should be aware that Act 157 passed by the Vermont legislature in 2012 provides for re-ligious and philosophical exemptions for all parents simply by signing a form and read-ing certain material provided on the website of the Vermont Department of Health. No other information or procedure is required. This outcome hinged on the letter (http://tinyurl.com/kp3e4v7) submitted to the Ver-mont Department of Health by our lawyer Mitchell Pearl, an expert in constitutional law.

We understand that health commissioner Dr. Harry Chen plans to spotlight vaccina-tion throughout our school system, even

possibly inciting communities to discrimi-nate against exempting parents (http://ti-nyurl.com/m3rv54c). Parents’ eroding rights further include confidentiality of immuni-zation records and provision of a Vaccine Information Statement before each shot.

Considering that over 25,000 vaccine-adverse reactions are reported annually, we highly recommend an in-depth investigation of all sides--not only the official position--on this important and complex matter, start-ing with reviewing the ingredients listed in vaccine package inserts (http://tinyurl.com/mm6b2re), then researching the science behind each. We also strongly suggest visit-ing our website (www.vaxchoicevt.com) for more information and that of the National Vaccine Information Center (www.nvic.org), a watchdog for the vaccine industry and related governmental agencies and state legislation. Anyone experiencing constraint regarding vaccine choices is invited to report to us:[email protected].

—Charlotte Gilruth, member, Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice, Montpelier

Support Paid Sick daysTo the Editor:

While working in the school system, I witnessed sick kids coming to school, staff (including food service workers) often be-coming sick, and kids that needed to stay at school lying on cots because their parents had to make arrangements for their children to be cared for. After talking to some par-ents, I realized how much they agonize over the choice of losing a valuable day’s pay or staying home with their sick child. Parents always want to stay home to take care of sick kids, but losing even one day’s pay is a sacri-fice that will mean being behind on the bills. This is especially true for single parents, rely-ing on one paycheck.

This scene has played out over and over again for the 12 years I have worked in a school. I observed fellow staff members being exposed to any and all ailments that came through the school door, and then bringing those ailments home, where family members then took it somewhere else. Thus a never-ending cycle--which could have been prevented by paid sick days. Paid sick days could be some of the best preventative medi-cine we could have in Vermont.

If paid sick days were in place, it would take care of many problems. Parents wouldn’t have to worry, and all workers would have the right to a healthy workplace. Health care is more than just going to the doctor; it means taking a proactive approach to a problem that we can solve together.

The Vermont Paid Sick Days Campaign will be officially launched Thursday, Sep-tember 19, at 10 a.m, at Red Hen Baking in Middlesex. Coming to this event is a great way to find out more and get involved in this issue that’s crucial to all Vermonters—and eat some great bread!

—Stauch Blaise, Randolph

Remembering Margaret Corry Wilson

Benefit Concert for Lac Megantic

The Montpelier Rotary Club and other regional Rotary Clubs, are sponsoring a benefit for Lac Megantic, a community of about 6,000 people located about 160 miles northeast of

Montpelier. Lac Megantic suffered an overnight train derailment July 5 and 6th, resulting in explosions and fires that claimed 47 lives and destroyed much of its downtown.

A train with 72 crude oil tank cars was parked about six miles uphill from Lac Megantic, lost its brakes, rolled downhill, jumped a curve and derailed, exploding downtown.

A benefit concert featuring Pietro Tagliaferri on clarinet and Francesco Attesti on piano with music by Saint-Saens, Rossini, Verdi and others is set for Tuesday, September 24 at 7 p.m. at the McCarthy Arts Center, Saint Michael’s College. For ticket information, visit: flynntix.org


Tell them you saw it in The Bridge!

Now Enrolling for Fall lessons and ensembles!Private Lessons: piano, Suzuki and traditional violin, viola, cello, percussion, low brass, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, guitar, and voice.

Composition and Theory studyJazz ImprovisationChamber Music CoachingYoung Singers ChorusJazz and Blues Ensemble

Deadline for scholarship applications is August 30th.

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the bridge, september 05, 2013

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