Susan Abbott: Road Element
Oil on linen panel
13" x 50"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
In cities and suburbs, a road is just a means to an end, the way to get from A to B (often in traffic, and feeling stressed).
But in Vermont we notice our roads. From a dirt farm track to a village gravel road, from the town blacktop to a state-spanning four lane highway, each type of road here has a different personality and a distinct look, feel, and function.
Many of us live on gravel roads, and we are happy to pay our towns to tend them well, plowing and sanding in winter, grading in spring, watering and resurfacing in summer. These roads can be an adventure to drive, and at some point we will all bottom out in March mud, or find ourselves stuck in a snowy ditch, or be lost on a dwindling one lane track as summer dusk is coming on. Still, in any season, we love our Sunday drives on back roads.
From our roads we see all the varied parts of our Vermont landscape: mountain and forest, river and pond, village, field and farm. That’s the beauty of our surroundings here, that all of these forms and functions are mingled in our view. Not just miles of houses or shopping malls, or acres of forests or farmland, but a rich tapestry of all the “elements of place” unfolding before us.
And, best of all, driving away from town at the end of the day, our own road is a silver ribbon winding in front of us, leading toward home.
Bottom Image: Susan Abbott: Road Future?
Oil on linen panel
12" x 12"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Traffic congestion is a growing problem in parts of our state. More populated places than Vermont have already learned a valuable lesson about roads: they’ll fill up as fast as you can build them. Will we go back to the future, and resuscitate the public transit system that flourished in our towns and cities during the last century?
Susan Abbott: Town Element
Oil on linen panel
13" x 50"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
When I go to town, I grab my basket from the back of the car and walk the rounds of my weekly errands: bank, post office, hardware store, office supplier. I wander down Main Street and up State, stopping to look at new shoes I don’t really need, splurge on a book about landscape painting I can’t live without, then I’m on down the street to buy a watercolor brush.
It’s a short walk to the crowded farmer’s market for basil plants and fresh eggs. On to the copy store, where Glen will help me figure out how to mail a painting to France, and we talk for twenty minutes about our tomatoes--which reminds me to run over to the garden center for seeds. Then I race back to the library with overdue books.
Hungry and thirsty now: Do I want cappuccino or Belgium beer? Crepes, pizza, steak and eggs, or seitan? Duck confit? Fajitas? Chicken soup and cheese danish? And what to do this evening? Indie drama or dumb Hollywood comedy? Shakespeare’s playing at City Hall. Maybe some music: bar blues, church sonata, café folk songs, bistro jazz, house party fiddle? Or Red Sox and a beer?
That’s a lot of choice for a downtown with two streets.
From city to village, Burlington to Plainfield, our towns provide a vital mix of commerce and community. They struggle, trying to compete with the internet and big box stores. Our towns’ businesses are owned by our neighbors, and our economic fates are connected, as are the fates of the state of Vermont and its towns. As the saying goes, “They is us.”
Bottom Image: Susan Abbott: Town Future?
Oil on linen panel
12" x 12"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Big box stores and shopping malls are about one thing: selling. Vermont downtowns are about selling, too, but they also provide a wealth of experiences that intertwine with every other aspect of our lives. Will Vermonters be willing in the future to buy local, understanding that any additional money we spend by shopping in our towns will be returned tenfold in quality of life?
Susan Abbott: Water Element
Oil on linen panel
13" x 50"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Vermont is a landlocked state that’s filled with water. From rivers to lakes, from creeks to ponds, water surrounds us here.
Immense Lake Champlain first brought explorers, traders and soldiers, and now invites summer visitors to its shores and islands. Our other large bodies of water that would be “lakes” anywhere else are (with New England humbleness) inaccurately called “ponds” here. And almost every old farmhouse has a real pond, a small personal body of water enjoyed by migrating geese and local kids.
Then there are the long rivers (Connecticut, Winooski, Lamoille and Onion), roadways of both ancient peoples and the first farming settlers from the south. Vermont’s towns were built on rivers and powered by their energy. Even creeks were put to work turning our grandfathers’ mills, lathes, cranks, and saws.
Water no longer runs Vermont’s industry, but it still flows through the heart of our state, and through Vermonters’ senses and emotions. We hear the music of water in all seasons, whether chirping vernal ponds, a summer cataract’s din, or the creaking of a frozen trough. We see water everywhere we go.
Water takes so many shapes here, from high rocky falls to deep-running rills, from moose marshes to beaver swamps, from trout runs to duck wallows. We humans need water to swim, skate, paddle and fish. And, most of all, we depend on our life-giving springs and wells. In Vermont, happily for us, water is everywhere.
Bottom Image: Susan Abbott: Water Future?
Oil on linen panel
12" x 12"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Water is the first casualty of over-development. Creeks are culverted, rivers diverted, lakes, ponds and groundwater polluted by run-off. Will we protect ourselves by protecting the health of Vermont’s water?
Gail Boyajian: High Meadow Capriccio
Oil on panel
18" x 24"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Gail Boyajian: Woods Capriccio
Oil on panel
18" x 24"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Gail Boyajian: Bicknell's Thrush
Oil on panel
5" x 5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
David Brewster: Marriage: American Split
Charcoal and liquefied pastel on Mi-tientes
32.5" x 40.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
In this small and intimate state of Vermont, nature is like a church and is one of the main community centers. The controversy over same-sex marriage represents a split between Vermonters and beyond. In this drawing, technical symbols of Vermont’s native logging industry awkwardly embrace and contrast same-sex couples. The sylvan, pastoral church environment sets the stage for a wedding debate about the current bifurcation of class, education and wealth that are the real issues that challenge the future of the State.
David Brewster: Sustainability: Mountain Ridge Wind Turbines
Charcoal and liquefied pastel on Mi-tientes
40.5" x 32.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
After exploring up close the impressive eleven wind turbines situated on the mountain ridge in Searsburg, Vermont I became excited by the State’s increasing reliance on clean energy from indigenous sources. In this painting I present a dramatic portrait of a wind power facility amidst the presence of wildlife. Jet-black crows are contrasted against the brilliantly lit windmill blades as they are stirred into flight.
David Brewster: Marriage: Vermont Split
Charcoal and liquefied pastel on Mi-tientes
32" x 48"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
In this small and intimate state of Vermont, nature is like a church and is one of the main community centers. The controversy over same-sex marriage represents a split between Vermonters and beyond. In this drawing, technical symbols of Vermont’s native logging industry awkwardly embrace and contrast same-sex couples. The sylvan, pastoral church environment sets the stage for a wedding debate about the current bifurcation of class, education and wealth that are the real issues that challenge the future of the State.
David Brewster: Mountain Ridge Flying Knives
Oil on Mi-tientes
32" x 48"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
The current controversy over wind power seems ironic since civilizations have benefited from this engineering concept for centuries. The first windmills probably appeared in eastern Persia around the 9th century and were used to grind corn and draw up water. This painting demonstrates the elegant sight of blades juggled through the sky like flying knives, not unlike the painting by Rembrandt van Rijn, The Mill.
Annemie Curlin: Vergennes (a)
Oil on wood, mixed media, glass encased in wood
20" x 26" x 2.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
I asked 333 residents of Vergennes: “If you could change anything for the better in Vergennes, what would it be?” The themes shown in the four compartments, in metaphor and illustration, grew out of their answers.
•Upper Left:Eliminate heavy truck traffic on Main Street.
•Upper Right:A graphic representation of the relative importance of residents’ desires.
•Lower Left:A vibrant multi-use Otter Creek Basin.
•Lower Right:Many community gathering places.
The painting is a bird’s eye view of the Otter Creek, where it crosses Vermont Route 22A in Vergennes. Charles Feil generously gave permission for use of his photograph (from his book Vermont: A View From Above), which inspired the Otter Creek Basin painting.
Note: Vergennes (a) and (b) are alternate views of the same piece.
Annemie Curlin: Vergennes (b)
Oil on wood, mixed media, glass encased in wood
20" x 26" x 2.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
I asked 333 residents of Vergennes: “If you could change anything for the better in Vergennes, what would it be?” The themes shown in the four compartments, in metaphor and illustration, grew out of their answers.
•Upper Left:Eliminate heavy truck traffic on Main Street.
•Upper Right:A graphic representation of the relative importance of residents’ desires.
•Lower Left:A vibrant multi-use Otter Creek Basin.
•Lower Right:Many community gathering places.
The painting is a bird’s eye view of the Otter Creek, where it crosses Vermont Route 22A in Vergennes. Charles Feil generously gave permission for use of his photograph (from his book Vermont: A View From Above), which inspired the Otter Creek Basin painting.
Annemie Curlin: Intervale (a)
Oil on wood, mixed media, glass encased in wood
20" x 26" x 2.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
The front painting is an aerial view of part of the Burlington Intervale. The inside compartments reveal several of the Intervale’s features:
•Upper Left:A very limited natural history of the Intervale, depicting some of its flora and fauna.
•Upper Right:A layered pictorial map of the Intervale, showing its distant and recent past as well as its multifunctional present (supporting organic agriculture, community recreation, conservation, community gardens, New Farms for New Americans, Healthy City Kids, the Abenaki traditional garden, the Conservation Nursery and a food hub to expand market reach for local firms).
•Lower Left:The proposed Eco Park which will use waste heat from the McNeil Power plant to heat greenhouses which will be part of the infrastructure for a community food system.
•Lower Right:“Seeding the Future,” a metaphor for the organic farms, gardens, and other enterprises that are the basis of a local sustainable food system. The Intervale also serves as an incubator for future farms in other parts of the region.
”The Intervale has become one of the most successful catalysts for community food production and sustainable food system development, with increasing requests for the Intervale Center to consult with other communities across the nation. “ Will Raap, Founder, Intervale Center
Photos are courtesy of the Intervale Center, intervale.org
Note: Intervale (a) and (b) are alternate views of the same piece.
Annemie Curlin: Intervale (b)
Oil on wood, mixed media, glass encased in wood
20" x 26" x 2.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
The front painting is an aerial view of part of the Burlington Intervale. The inside compartments reveal several of the Intervale’s features:
•Upper Left:A very limited natural history of the Intervale, depicting some of its flora and fauna.
•Upper Right:A layered pictorial map of the Intervale, showing its distant and recent past as well as its multifunctional present (supporting organic agriculture, community recreation, conservation, community gardens, New Farms for New Americans, Healthy City Kids, the Abenaki traditional garden, the Conservation Nursery and a food hub to expand market reach for local firms).
•Lower Left:The proposed Eco Park which will use waste heat from the McNeil Power plant to heat greenhouses which will be part of the infrastructure for a community food system.
•Lower Right:“Seeding the Future,” a metaphor for the organic farms, gardens, and other enterprises that are the basis of a local sustainable food system. The Intervale also serves as an incubator for future farms in other parts of the region.
”The Intervale has become one of the most successful catalysts for community food production and sustainable food system development, with increasing requests for the Intervale Center to consult with other communities across the nation. “ Will Raap, Founder, Intervale Center
Photos are courtesy of the Intervale Center, intervale.org
Note: Intervale (a) and (b) are alternate views of the same piece.
Phil Godenschwager: Finally, The Decision Was Made to Go Underground
Acrylic on thermoformed kydex over urethane foam
66"H x 40"W x 2"D
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
In the process of thinking about solutions to development and growth issues, I resolved to go anywhere my imagination might take me. If you have already been thinking outside the box, then why not under it? When looking at the mountain sides and trying to visualize them covered with buildings, it occurred to me that the buildings would look much better under the mountains. Maybe it is not a viable solution today but, who knows where the future will take us. Alternative solutions need to be explored and looking way outside the box one often stumbles on the solutions that may not have otherwise been considered.
Phil Godenschwager: Standing on the Shoulders of Those Who Came Before
Acrylic on thermoformed kydex over urethane foam
82"H x 40"W x 2"D
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
One of the key tenets of planning for development is recognizing ones place in the continuum of history. We have preserved the heritage and the look and feel of the land by making conscious, careful decisions in the past. We owe it to future generations to continue that cautious approach to “building out” the land and controlling growth. Vermont is so very conscious of its architectural history and the look of its town and cities. I chose to explore the concept of development through the transformation of the states’ architecture up through time in a lighthearted fashion. Times change, styles change, needs change. How can we, as a culture and a population, preserve the past, live wisely in the present and plan accordingly for the future?
Curtis Hale: Bridge Garden
Oil on linen
23.5" x 32.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Curtis Hale: Concreamee
Oil on linen
23.5" x 32.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Curtis Hale: Checkered House with Tree
Graphite on paper
21.5" x 26.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Curtis Hale: Steel Truss Bridge in Passumpsic
Graphite on paper
21.5" x 26.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Curtis Hale: Sitework 1 (Richmond)
Oil on panel
11" x 18"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Valerie Hird: April
Mixed media, watercolor, gouache, gesso, asphaltum, colored pencil
27" x 19"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
APRIL – OLD VERSUS NEW
Generational and ethnic tensions are exemplified by the foreground figures who are never-the-less connected by a network of Vermont’s stone walls, streams and the working landscape
Valerie Hird: June
Mixed media, watercolor, gouache, gesso, asphaltum, colored pencil
27" x 19"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
JUNE – INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES
A porous interaction exists between multi–ethnic and multi-generational residents. Their community surrounds a central common for gardens and livestock. Other elements depicted are water management systems, recycling, solar energy, composting, barter, home-share and time-sharing activities. This painting was inspired by student drawings made during a collaboration between the Montpelier Co-Housing Project and students from Vermont Technical College's department of Sustainable Design and Technology under the direction of Dr. Barbara Conrey.
Valerie Hird: September
Mixed media, watercolor, gouache, gesso, asphaltum, colored pencil
27" x 19"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
SEPTEMBER – VERMONT INNOVATION AT THE COUNTY FAIR
Using the traditional venue of the county fair to bring new ideas in green innovation to the attention of Vermonters, some of the tents have been given over to highlighting home-grown solutions. Actual inventions by young Vermonters are represented below the primary image.
Valerie Hird: October
Mixed media, watercolor, gouache, gesso, asphaltum, colored pencil
27" x 19"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
OCTOBER – HALLOWEEN: ATTACK ON THE NIMBY’S (not in my back yard)
A whimsical narrative showing Bread and Puppet–esque NIMBY marionettes whose progress through Vermont’s fields is threatened by trick-or-treaters representing their worst fears; cell phone towers, satellites, windmills, and illegal aliens.
Kathleen Kolb: Learning How
Oil on panel
17" x 21"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Perhaps the most powerful aspect of our collective future is our youth. The young people in this painting were part of the forestry class at Hannaford Career Center in Middlebury in 2009. From left to right they are Amber Blodgette, Patrick McCarthy, Anthony Porter, Aaron Paquette and teacher John Bradley. These students are avid outdoors people with their own innate and learned skills. They are aware that the forest is as much the spaces between the trees as it is the trees themselves.
Tom Bachand’s saw sits in the foreground of this painting. He says “I’m an avid hunter. I enjoy being in the woods. I have since I was little. That’s why I joined Forestry, because I don’t like being in a classroom a lot, so we’re outside most the time. It’s what I like doing. I’m actually joining the marines and when I come out I would actually like to join my uncle’s logging operation. He only does selective cutting.”
Patrick McCarthy: “One of the main parts is I knew they did heavy equipment operation and I’ve always wanted to do that, but I didn’t really have a way to practice that or try it so I joined this program to operate heavy equipment. It’s been good. One main part that I like the most is being outside most the day and it’s more of a real job so it gets you prepared for the work world.”
“One of the most interesting things I’ve learned is pretty much most of the aspects of sugaring. That was pretty new. First time I saw an arch I didn’t know what all this stuff was…I learned a lot with that. Just being outdoors. The fresh air. My own future I would want my own land to have my own sugarbush, so just a lot of land with lots of maple trees and maybe have a firewood business. Operating heavy equipment, just having sugaring on the side like some people do.”
Aaron Paquette: “My dad and his brother they used to go out all the time and his brother almost cut his leg off. My dad just ended up staying away from it. And I’ve always wanted to get into it but he’s never had anything available for me to start. I started going out with my uncle and I enjoyed it a lot just cutting trees for his firewood and making a little side money, so, that’s why I got into the program.”
“In this program I mean there’s just so much freedom, the teachers are awesome, they really letcha get out and do the work. You definitely get to know the chainsaw and get to know the tree. I like to use the chainsaw. It feels good in the hands. Just being out in the woods. I mean I love to hunt, I love to fish. I’m an outdoorsman.”
“I hope that a lot of forests stay around. I just want to see it all kept pretty well, but still something everyone can make money off from. Sustainable harvest.”
“I like logging and I want to use it as just a side operation. I’m trying to get into something in landscaping for a couple years which will also include using a chainsaw, and later I’d like to go to school to be a landscape architect. I just hope that it stays around and there will always be that option for the younger people.”
Stephen Volk: “…my uncle’s a logger. I’ve helped him out a bunch of times and I wanted to get to know more about it and learn the safe way of doing things. Best thing I’ve learned is how to sharpen a chainsaw the right way. I want to become a diesel mechanic for forestry equipment. I just want to get into diesel.”
“I hope it gets logged, but I hope it gets managed right. That it doesn’t get clear cut. I mean, that’s a big part of Vermont, forests and mountains. It should be more strict than what it is. You gotta think about wildlife and their habitat. I like hunting, logging, just nature. I like the sugar maple…that’d be my favorite tree.”
Currently the average age of a Vermont logger is between fifty and sixty years. If we expect to have people to work in our forest in the coming years, what do we need to do to make this a livable profession for young people who really want to do this work?
Kathleen Kolb: Wood Chip Power Plant
Oil on panel
17.5" x 27"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
A load of wood chips from Lathrop Forest Products to the bunker of the wood chip gasifier plant at Middlebury College. The wood is conveyed to the gasifier, where it is converted into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. That gas is then fed into the boiler and ignited. The boiler produces steam, which powers heating, cooling, hot water and cooking operations throughout campus, and the plant also co-generates 20 percent of the campus’s electricity.
Feller/buncher harvesters and whole tree chippers can fill the box of the trailer with wood chips and drive it directly to the plant. This trailer has a “live floor” or “shuffle bottom” to unload the chips. It’s empowering to procure our energy needs for our daily lives from our local forests, while reducing our reliance on oil and gas shipped from thousands of miles away at enormous social and environmental expense.
Work is being done to indentify the potential of wood biomass in terms of actual production and actual consumption, as well as to improve production. One understanding is that much of the forest nutrients in plants are in the leaves and small branches of the trees, so these should stay in the woods to minimize soil nutrient depletion. Will large institutions compete with communities for biomass as the demand increases? Will local production be sufficient for our needs? For a sustainable future Vermont communities need to talk, and to learn how to balance our needs with the needs of the forest.
Kathleen Kolb: Sharpening
Oil on panel
23.5" x 29.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
This painting is of Bill Torrey, sharpening his saw in West Bolton near Mount Mansfield. Logging is demanding dangerous work - felling trees while dealing with heat, cold, snow, ice, rain, mud, bugs, metal, machinery, combustion engines, Murphy’s Laws, and all the glamour of owning your own business. Bill has been a logger all his adult life. Talking to him you get the sense that this is a true vocation - the work he’s meant to do. Like all the loggers I’ve met he is hyper-alert to wildlife and loves being outdoors. He works alone and says that independent loggers, with smaller equipment, are a better fit for smaller fragmented family-owned woodlots. (Current data shows that 85% of our forests are small family-owned nonindustrial parcels.) Bill works with a forwarding wagon instead of a skidder. He can load logs in the woods to move them out rather than dragging tree length stems through the forest. This preserves the quality of the remaining plants and trees in the forest and can have less of an impact on the soil and the forest roads. Chris Olson, the State Forester in Addison County, told me that good forestry and logging is more about what is left – the residual trees and the spaces between the trees – than it is about what is coming out.
In a state that grows trees so well, how do we create a future in which we are vigilant about continuing to harvest wood in ways that are sustainable, while also being efficient, local, and fair to the landowner, the logger and to the forest? Torrey is just one of the people working on that. As he says, “I’m an environmentalist, one tree at a time.”
Janet McKenzie: Alicia and Amy - Women of the Kingdom
Oil on canvas
39" x 51"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Many Vermont born minority residents have been here for generations yet exist under the radar, under a “veil of invisibility”. This component of my project celebrates two such residents reminding that Vermont is not as homogenous as it is perceived to be.
Alicia Plambeck of Brunswick and Amy Robinson of Newport, carry the voice of this work. Amy, draped in African fabric, referencing her ancestral heritage, offers her hands to us symbolizing the gifts she brings to Vermont – her work, her children, her dreams. Alicia tilts her head and watches us. Bull rushes found on the wetland shores here in Vermont flank them.
“It is vital to celebrate the origins and cultural expressions of Vermonters and to make it a welcoming state to all who come here. I was born in the Northeast Kingdom and have chosen to live here my entire life. I chose to raise my children here. My perspective may be unique because I am African American. I was the first and only person of color in each of the schools I attended throughout my youth. As Vermont further embraces racial difference, we will be even more united in our common goal to preserve the authentic integrity of the state.” Amy Robinson
“I am Japanese and living in Vermont with my Caucasian husband and two biracial daughters. We need to initiate conversations to build bridges across prejudice for the welfare of our future generations.” Yuko Plambeck, Alicia’s mother.
by Janet McKenzie
Oil on canvas
51" x 39"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Vermont’s economy has suffered like elsewhere in the country and often our young people have to leave the state for better work opportunities. This might include the decision to join the Armed Services as well. Losing our youth, the heart and soul of the future of this state, to a lack of opportunities, is a sad thing indeed. I can only speak on this subject personally because if my son had to leave I would be devastated. The young man in this painting is at the precise moment of leaving and turning to go but he is not quite able to completely do this. He turns back to his mother, as she reaches to touch him one last time; her closed eyes reflect the intensity of her interior journey and the emotion of his departure.
Yet, as much as this painting symbolizes that greater opportunities need to be found for our young people, it is also one of hope – because the essence of life is unstoppable. The background is a passionate sunrise because it is a new day and with this new day comes the belief that answers will come. Vermont is acknowledged by the tasseled out corn, ripe and as full of potential as the boy, and a symbol of the agricultural aspect of the state.
Janet McKenzie: Our Children - The Hope for Vermont's Future
Oil on canvas
39" x 51"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Our children are the heart and soul of the future of Vermont. Here, one is light, one dark, a boy and a girl, and each is on the brink of leaving childhood. They simply look out of the canvas to us, the viewer. These two children represent the growing and evolving cultural diversity of this state and the need to more lovingly celebrate racial difference and gender equality. This painting is pared down to the essentials, just the children and the cloth they share, and their gaze at us. It is my hope, through the innocence and purity of these children, to remind of the importance of greater acceptance of one another on all levels, especially surrounding issues of prejudice, racial bias and gender limitations.
Janet McKenzie: Study #7
Oil on board
20" x 17"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
John Miller: Vermont Working Landscape: Variation 1
Pigmented ink digital collage
20.5" x 50.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Last year we stored 180,000 pounds of storage crops! Had a hard time saying no to the potential of things that could be developed. People needed the food and we were interested in producing it (Pete Johnson, Pete’s Greens)
Pete Johnson with CSA greens and root crops – greenhouses and fields - Holland school children - Garden drawings by “Sprouts,” members of the Green Mountain Farm to School Program
John Miller: Vermont Working Landscape: Variation 4
Pigmented ink digital collage
20.5" x 50.5"
Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
I think Vermont is an incredible place to farm because there is a lot of support. I thought this is a place where a small-scale farm could really survive. (Young farmer, Rural Heritage Institute, Sterling College)
Sterling College students – Old Stone House Field Days - Lazy Lady Farm - Apple Ledge Farm – Green Industries Technologies at North Country Career Center – Hillandale Farm – Big Rack Ridge – Wild Branch Farm – Hardwick Community Garden – Craftsbury Farmer’s Market – raised beds and foragers along the Black River