Our VermontSUMMER 2020 SOAK UP SUMMER IN BURLINGTON IN PRAISE OF MAPLE CREEMEES A TONY WINNER’S Celebrating the people, places, and traditions VERMONT ROOTS that make the Green Mountain State so original Letter from the Editor 1121 Main St., P.O. Box 520, Dublin, NH 03444 Beauty Spots 603-563-8111; newengland.com This special edition was produced by Yankee Publishing Inc. for ot long ago, a man named Bryan sent us this message: The Vermont Country Store. Coming from Long Island, New York, I have visited Select stories and photographs are Vermont over a hundred times for its wonderful skiing, excerpted from articles previously teaching our children from the age of 3. I know the published by Yankee. Nbeauty of Vermont in the winter, but sadly I have never visited in Vol. 3 No. 2 either spring, summer, or fall. Maybe this year, hopefully, this year… Copyright 2020 by Yankee Publishing Bryan, believe me when I say that summer in Vermont will Inc.; all rights reserved. surprise you with its quiet beauty. The following are some of my favorite places to be when the weather turns fine; I encourage PUBLISHER everyone to enjoy them while staying safe and practicing social Brook Holmberg distancing—or to make plans to visit them in the future, when we all MARKETING DIRECTOR are able to appreciate Vermont to the fullest once again. Kate Hathaway Weeks 1. Lake Willoughby is not only the second-deepest lake in EDITOR Vermont—with water clear enough to see fish several feet beneath Mel Allen the surface—but also one of its loveliest bodies of water. Mount Pisgah and Mount ART DIRECTOR Hor frame this glacier-carved beauty. Katharine Van Itallie 2. Just east of Woodstock is Quechee DEPUTY EDITOR Gorge, dubbed “Vermont’s Little Grand Ian Aldrich Canyon,” created thousands of years ago MANAGING EDITOR by retreating glaciers. The gorge runs Jenn Johnson a mile long and 165 feet deep, with the Ottauquechee River tumbling through. SENIOR FOOD EDITOR 3. In Manchester, you can stroll the Amy Traverso gardens at Hildene, the graceful summer ASSOCIATE EDITOR home of Robert Todd Lincoln, and reflect Joe Bills on how the great figures of American history are not all that far removed from our lives today. PHOTO EDITOR 4. In Burlington, locals make sunset into an occasion by simply Heather Marcus taking a seat on a bench at Battery Park on Lake Champlain: CONTRIBUTING WRITERS seagulls circling above, sailboats gliding over the water, and the sky turning purple over the Adirondacks. Edie Clark LeeLee Goodson 5. Peacham has been called New England’s most iconic Annie Graves village—a place where some visitors may think they are stopping for Rowan Jacobsen an hour or so but end up looking for a house to buy. Katherine Keenan 6. Roughly a dozen miles south of Woodstock is a certain cluster Julia Shipley of farm buildings that may have you thinking, I have seen this place CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS before. You probably have. Jenne Farm has long been known as the most photographed farm in New England, and in fact there may Julie Bidwell Monica Donovan/JAM Creative be no better example of beauty in repose. Mark Fleming Bryan, I hope you and your family are doing well, and when this Corey Hendrickson time of quarantining is over, please know that Vermont will be glad Caleb Kenna to welcome you back. And when you discover your own favorite Ben Moffat spots here, we’d love to hear about them. Oliver Parini Lori Pedrick Heath Robbins On the cover: Dorset Quarry, Mel Allen a favorite swimming hole in Dorset, [email protected] Vermont. Photograph by Mark Fleming 2 Our Vermont Contents Changing Seasons 22 A Simpler Time Going off the grid has been a 4 Summer’s Scent specialty at Quimby Country, There’s no sweeter perfume a family-friendly Northeast than clean clothes drying Kingdom resort, since 1893. in the sun. 26 Cooling Off Local Flavor Vermont swimming holes offer a timeless way to beat the heat. 5 Eating the Sun Juicy, field-ripened tomatoes offer 28 Out & About summer in every bite—and these A statewide roundup of some tried-and-true recipes help bring favorite late-summer events. that flavor to every meal. Plus: Tips for a tomato tasting party. Vermont Life 14 Pick Your Spot 30 The Road to Hadestown Discover a delicious harvest in To understand Anaïs Mitchell's Vermont’s bountiful berry fields. journey to Broadway fame, it helps to dig down to her 15 A Vermont Twist Vermont roots. Meet the maple creemee, a Green Mountain State original. 34 The Skywatchers For almost a century, amateur 17 Going for Gold astronomers have been making As part of our ongoing series a Springfield hillside their own spotlighting Vermont’s small “shrine to the stars.” producers, we pay a visit to Busy Bee Honey in Brandon. 37 ‘Ain’t Doin’ Right’ A memoir about loss, and the love Burlington Breakwater North Destinations that may await you afterward. Light is one of two replica 19th-century lighthouses 19 Take It Outside standing sentinel at the city of 39 Dog Heaven With Lake Champlain lapping Burlington’s harbor on Lake A creative couple’s labor of love at its doorstep, the beautiful city Champlain. Story, p. 19. in St. Johnsbury has become of Burlington is the very definition an attraction like no other place of a summer playground. in the world. A special deal for customers of The Vermont Country Store One year of Yankee Magazine for Only $19.97 SAVE Subscribe now at vermontcountrystore.com/YANKEE 52% off cover price RAYMOND FORBES LLC/STOCKSY FORBES RAYMOND Our Vermont 3 Changing Seasons Summer’s Scent There’s no sweeter perfume than clean clothes drying in the sun. hen I was growing up, my mother had At that time, in the 1950s and 1960s, everyone a clothesline a good distance from the had a clothesline, and when we were out in the car house, beside a grove of trees. This was we enjoyed pointing out particularly colorful or a matter of modesty, as both my father interesting displays. To us, clotheslines offered clues andW my mother seemed to agree that the business of to the mystery of each house we passed. One old lady hanging out one’s laundry exposed private items that lived alone, and her bloomers often puffed out in the one would just as soon not have the neighbors view. breeze in a sad, solitary sort of way. I had never seen And so they positioned the clothesline discreetly. her, but I had those bloomers to start my story about When my mother’s front-loading Westinghouse who she was and what her life was all about. Some finished its cycle, she and I would walk down to the women seemed to take pride in the way their clothes clothesline together, were arranged on the line, carrying the basket almost as if the clothing between us, and hang sent signals about order the clean laundry out in and thought. Especially the sun. My father had admirable were the ones built the frame from who hung the clothes in cedar posts and pine categories and ascending boards with several sizes, with the children’s lengths of clothesline socks gradually expanding strung between. My to the adult sizes, and mother instructed as I the underwear as well. pinned the clothes to This always amused my the white roping: hang mother, who felt there the blue jeans from their were limits to how much cuffs (after giving them time she would spend on a good shake to snap such a task. And yet we out any wrinkles) and pull the pockets inside out so enjoyed the precise, almost militaristic displays. Most they will dry too; hang the shirts from their collars; of all, we enjoyed the colors, a palette like no other. socks should be hung from the toe end. I recall feeling My mother, bless her soul, never owned a clothes connected to each piece of clothing, whether it was dryer in her long life. I, in my modern life, have mine or someone else’s in the family, as I hung it in taken clothes dryers for granted. They are handy and the hot sun. It took both of us to hang the sheets, convenient. But I’ve always maintained a clothesline, extending them tightly. And while we worked, my and use it when the weather is right. mother and I often talked in ways we did not at other When I moved to my rural farm, I noticed that times. When everything was hung, we would leave the the clothesline was in a place that was not, in fact, laundry swaying gently in the summer air. At the end particularly sunny. But like my mother’s, it was of the day, we would return to the dry and fragrant hidden. I canvassed the property for a sunnier clothing, as good as any ripe harvest. location. There was really only one place: beside the There was a special scent that came out of those horse barn, in full view of the road. On good days, clothes, especially the sheets. “Smells of the sun,” I carry the clothes basket out to the line and pin my mother would say. I wondered how anything as my laundry into the sun. By afternoon it is dry and invisible and intangible as sunlight could have an scented with summer’s warmth. I sometimes think I odor. Nothing else I could ever think of smelled like see cars slow as they pass the house, checking out the the sun.