Welcome to Vermont

What an incredible weekend on the way! Vermont is bursting with apples, harvest dinners, sunshine, and beautiful colored leaves. Go for a drive and enjoy the scenery! Maybe you’ll find something fun to do on your way there or on your way back – there’s an event to make anyone smile this time of year.

A sampling: Vermont Fine Furniture and Woodworking Festival in Woodstock, Made in Vermont Music Festival in Manchester, or the Northeast Kingdom Fall Foliage Festival, a series of world-famous, home-cooked, homegrown community suppers in a number of towns in northeastern Vermont.

Looking for more ideas? See the events calendars at VisitVT.com, Vermont Attractions, and VermontVacation.

It’s a sunny Friday afternoon in August and thoughts are turning to finishing off the work week! Tonight I’m looking forward to having some Woodchuck Draft Cider.

Vermont’s known for its fine beverages, and this one is amazing. This malt-free, gluten-free, adult-only beverage is a wonderfully apple-y alternative to beer and wine. Woodchuck presses fresh apples into juice and ferments them. In the finishing stage, the amber liquid is cold-filtered.

Born and handcrafted in Middlebury, Vermont, Woodchuck draft cider sells in sixpacks, and is available nationwide as the number one selling cider in the US. They also appear at events and festivals all over the country. A sunny hot weekend is almost here – check it out!

The Essex Resort & Spa (formerly “Inn at Essex”) opened its new 22,000 square foot full-service spa and salon over the weekend, complete with 10 treatment rooms, steam rooms, saunas, a 25-yard indoor pool, a full fitness facility, and relaxation lounges. Billing itself as the ultimate “Recipe for Relaxation,” Spa at The Essex encourages patrons to make a day of it, since complimentary access to the facilities is included with the purchase of a treatment.

The spa menu includes massage therapies, body and facial treatments, specialty treatments, bridal services, and more! For a complete spa menu, click: http://bit.ly/essex-spa-menu

The Essex Resort & Spa is located just off VT-289, at Exit 10.

Can’t wait to see it for myself!

This Saturday, June 13, Cabot Creamery is having a giant birthday party! Celebrating 90 years of family farming and excellent products, they’ve invited everyone to come join them and “say cheese.”

VisitVT, the tourism marketing arm of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, will be there with a display, fabulous free magazines, and a special, cow-themed, kids’ activity. We’ve gotten word of some other surprises for the littler ones (or young at heart): face painting, cheddar bounce (bouncy tents), historic games, and of course, birthday cake! Palm reading, product samples and giveaways, and tours of the Cabot plant will be available. A number of Vermont’s famous bands will put a jig in our steps, including the Radio Ranger, Banjo Dan and the Midnite Plowboys, and Patti Casey.

The village of Cabot is located in north-central Vermont, halfway between Montpelier and Saint Johnsbury, just a few miles off Route 2. Take Route 2 East, and look for Route 215 in Marshfield. Take that left, and follow signs to lower Cabot village.

I love this time of year in Vermont. Okay, long days and young children make for early nights in my house, but even at 9 pm there is a hint of light in the sky. The view is amazing in Green Mountain country; the trees and front pasture so lush and alive, and as we get ever closer to the solstice the calm light of dusk lulls one to sleep. It’s so peaceful. Between day and night, between awake and asleep; last night the last thing I heard were coyotes teaching their young to call: a sound that seems to eminate from another realm.

Luckily even those who live in busier places may experience this time in rural Vermont. Think of Vermont’s many country inns and B & Bs as your own home, and get away just for a day. Some of my favorites are the Old Tavern at Grafton, Hollister Hill Farm and B & B in Marshfield, Liberty Hill Farm in Rochester, the Mountain Top Inn & Resort in Chittenden, and the West Hill House in Warren. Plan a respite and enjoy the edge of day, where daylight extends to night.

Sure, we wish we were hiking or fishing or camping or paddling, but even in the rain Vermont is a fun place to be.

This weekend, I am planning on visiting a few Vermont bakeries (research for an article for our Vacation Guide!) and I plan on bringing along my seven-year-old boy to help me sample all the brownies, cupcakes, and fresh-baked breads we can eat!

One place we will visit is Rainbow Sweets at 1689 US Rte. 2 in Marshfield, Vermont. Open for 35 years and featured in the NY Times, Gourmet Magazine, Yankee Magazine, Vermont Explorers Guide, and 7 Nights, this bakery has it all: brunch, lunch, early dinner, brioche, smoked salmon, spanakopita, empanada, b’stilla, pastries, tortes, cakes, pies, breads – YUM! Open Mon., Wed., Thurs. 9 am – 6 pm; Fri. & Sat. 9 am – 9 pm (open for pizza and dinner); Sunday 9 am – 3 pm. Closed Tuesday.

If we’re not too full of those sweets, I’d like to stop in at La Brioche at 89 Main Street in Montpelier, Vermont’s capital city. This bakery is run by the New England Culinary Institute (NECI) and always has an exquisite selection of fresh croissants, baguettes, custom baked goods, specialty salads, soups, sandwiches, coffees and lattes, cakes and more! It is a European-style indoor/outdoor cafe in the center of Montpelier, so if it stops raining, we can eat outside and people watch! Open 7 days a week.

And then, if I make it out of Central Vermont and head up to Chittenden County, Klinger’s Bread Company awaits us with Hearth-Baked Artisan Breads & Fine Pastries Made Fresh Daily in South Burlington, Vermont, at 10 Farrell Street. Visit their website for more information, www.klingersbread.com.

So I hope to see some of you in my travels this weekend – you’ll know who I am because I’ll be the one with a fast-expanding waistline and the sugar-induced 7-year-old with chocolate frosting on his lips! Yum, it sure is fun to indulge in sweet goodies made fresh in Vermont…

Mother’s Day may be universal, but the best place to celebrate is right here in Vermont! Spring foliage is early this year, and especially in the Champlain Valley and the greater Burlington area, it almost looks and feels like summer. Many of our great restaurants are offering special Mother’s Day brunches or a unique one-time menu. One of our favorites is the brunch at J. Morgan’s restaurant at the Capitol Plaza in Montpelier. Chefs there work for a week to put on an immense, delectable buffet spread that encompasses an entire room! To find info on J. Morgan’s restaurant at the Capitol Plaza and other great dining opportunities, check out the VisitVT website at: http://www.visitvt.com/thingstodo/.

Vermont can be a unique place, and that’s why we love it! Tomorrow, May 2, is Green Up Day. Now at the end of its fourth decade, Green Up Day is a time-honored tradition in Vermont, where many citizens come out to pick up roadside trash and clean up our environment at a time when the snow is gone, mud is dried, and the greenery is just poking its way out of the earth. The leaves are coming out early this season, and the sun is predicted to shine.

Green Up Day has become a statewide event, with a staff that works all year for the big day, coordinating with sponsors and organizers in each town, town breakfasts, trash bag dropoffs, roadside safety plans, a t-shirt design contest, a poster design contest, a banquet, and awards.

From the Green Up Vermont website: “It’s about far more than picking up highway litter and cleaning up public parks. Green Up Day is about people of all ages from all walks of life joining together in community spirit to take care of Vermont. It teaches our children pride and respect.”

Pulling together with mutual respect for our people and the place in which we live – it’s what Vermont is all about! Check out Green Up Vermont at www.greenupvermont.org.

The snow is melted, the daffodils have sprung, and the mud is dry. Dry enough for Mountain Biking! Even if you don’t think you are the adventurous type, and especially if you are, plan to be here this weekend, May 1-3, 2009, for the start of the biking season.

Kingdom Trails, named the “Best Trail Network in North America” by Bike Magazine readers, announced that the mountain bike trails are in great shape after an early snow melt, and that the network on Darling Hill will open this Friday, May 1, 2009.

Some folks in the Northeast Kingdom have put together some great Mountain Biking Packages. Please visit the websites of the Wildflower Inn or the Lynburke Motel for more information.

So, go on, hit the (bike) trail!

Spring has sprung here in central Vermont!  Grass is turning green quickly, daffodils are ready to bloom, and we’re searching the garden every day for signs of the asparagus poking out of the earth in search of the sun.  Everyone’s prepping their gardens; mesclun mix, peas, and radishes are already in the ground. 

“Buying local” is big here in the Green Mountain State.  In fact, some of our businesses value our local food producers so much that they are willing to save you money when you show your own connection to Vermont’s sustainable agriculture, the local economy, and people!  To learn more about how to save 15% off  all menu items and wine bottles at Michael’s on the Hill on the Waterbury/Stowe road, visit: http://www.visitvt.com/events/calendar/buy_local_thursday_evenings_at_michaels_on_the_hill/

Chef Michael was the Vermont Chamber Hospitality Council Chef of the Year in 2008.  In their fabulous restaurant, Laura and Michael Kloeti serve up wonderful cuisine while quietly demonstrating their commitment to Vermont’s communities.