Wells, Vermont • 802.325.2829
Over 125 Five Star Reviews ▪ 100% Guest-Focused ▪ 68% Repeat Guests Last Year
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Vermont... Enchants All Year Round
Photo courtesy of Abhijit Patil.
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Hello Everyone!
Thanksgiving is just two weeks away—Kay joins me in wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! This year things will be quieter for many; we’re keeping festivities contained to a small circle of nearby friends.
We are fairly well prepared to transition to the next season. Two cords of wood elegantly stacked in the garage, oil and propane tanks filled, one hundred sixty pounds of pork in the freezer, eighteen pounds of Wagyu and we still need to figure out how much of our neighbor’s 1,800 Black Angus we’re going to take later in the month. We’re ready for whatever this year’s Vermont winter has in store for us.
Thank you for reading our newsletter, last month we set a record with a 74% open rate – normally, it’s about 62%.
All our very best,
Kay & Glenn
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Lake St. Catherine
Wells, Vermont
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Fall Sisters
Pond Mountain Inn
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Our First Snow
Wells, Vermont
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Perspective Comes from Encountering Something Completely New... |
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That's Jenna, More About Jenna Later... |
The Guinness World Record for the heaviest pumpkin is 2,624.6 pounds. This year’s weigh-offs were streamed live online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Every year since 2008 has set a new world record.
This year, the largest pumpkin in North America weighed in at 2,350 pounds at the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California.
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Vermont and Nobel Prize in Literature... |
Former Vermont State Poet Louise Glück has won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. On the Nobel Prize’s Twitter page, she said, “Practically, I’ve wanted to buy a house in Vermont, and I thought, ‘Well, I can buy a house now,’” She is currently a professor of English at Yale University. |
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Smugglers' Notch • Vermont |
The famous Smugglers' Notch, is a narrow pass through the Green Mountains. Lined with 1,000-foot cliffs, the winding road is closed in winter. The notch separates Mount Mansfield, the highest peak of the Green Mountains, from Spruce Peak and the Sterling Range. Most of the notch is in Mount Mansfield State Forest. Elevation: 2,170 ft. Mount Mansfield is the highest mountain in Vermont with a summit that peaks at 4,395 ft. Photo courtesy of Abhijit Patil. Thanks again!
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Connecting Our Guests to New Experiences… |
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The "New" Silver Fork Restaurant • Manchester, Vermont |
Five guests dined here two weeks ago, and two others the weekend before... "The new interior is nothing short of stunning", said one guest. "And, the food was even better!"
A great meal is not only about the food and wine—a great meal is an emotional experience. The Sliver Fork makes it extraordinary with their new beautiful location, inside the old Mark Skinner Library in the heart of Manchester Village. Keen attention to detail, warmth, and hospitality, and with the continued singular goal of making beautiful memories for their guests, as well as ours.
Photo courtesy of Ali Kaukas | Interiors by Lu French
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Baird Farm • North Chittenden, Vermont
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Our Vermont Organic Maple Syrup comes from Baird Farm... But, that's just part of the story.
One morning this past summer, like every summer morning, we chat with our guests during breakfast and learn about their discoveries from the previous day. But this day was different, they discovered something new—Baird Farm, and met Jenna, the young owner and her husband.
We’ve been speaking with Jenna for more than a few months and finally visited the farm last week. The drive was spectacular, and the last few miles to the farm was just incredible, even with most of the leaves down.
We finally met Jenna! She spent forty-five minutes with us before the next group arrived from New Jersey. Baird Farm sits on 560 acres and has been in the Baird family for four generations. They have over 11,000 trees tapped, with over 80 miles of tubing that connects all the trees in their sugarbush. When the weather is right, the sap flows directly from the trees into the tubing system straight to the sugarhouse where it’s boiled down into maple syrup. A maple tree will yield about 25 gallons of sap in an average season. On a good day, they collect about 2,000 gallons per hour—the volume into the sugarhouse is like rushing river! And, it takes about 50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.
This was a fascinating visit—the best time to visit is during March and April. We'll keep you posted.
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Scuttleship Farm • Panton, Vermont on Lake Champlain
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We went for the lamb, stayed for the magnificent views and immersed ourselves in the story… Owners, Annie and Sean met at Middlebury College—Annie studied Environmental Science and Biology, and Sean majored in International Politics and Economics. And, now here they are running this idyllic farm on the shores of Lake Champlain – wait until you see the views for yourself!
What’s with their name—Scuttleship Farm? You can read the full story and theirs too… but, here’s the brief. In October of 1776, after suffering defeat at the hands of the British at the Battle of Valcour Island, General Benedict Arnold fled with the remainder of his battered American Navy in hopes of reaching safety at Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga to the south… find out what happened next, and the befitting name of their farm.
We probably should have led with this… The lamb and mutton were absolutely delicious, and we’re headed back for more in a few weeks. Please click on their photo above to learn more and to see their incredible product offerings. Also, their photo gallery is beautiful!
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A Look Inside Our Refrigerator… And, On Our Shelves; It's Mostly Vermont |
It's only the best for our guests... three types of organic yogurt—sheep, goat and cow’s milk yogurt • award-winning Vermont cheeses • honey from four unique local producers, one infused with organic local lavender • half & half and whole milk from Strafford Organic Creamery • new to our cupboard – Baird Farm Hand-Foraged Mint Infused Maple Syrup & Spruce Tip Infused Maple Syrup • Quebec Apple Syrup, only found at Pond Mountain Inn, and Kay’s delicious organic granola.. there’s more, a lot more. And, we just joined the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op for more incredible Vermont products! |
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Our Butter Comes From Ploughgate Creamery at the Bragg Farm |
“Ploughgate Creamery pairs European tradition with fresh Vermont cream to make small-batch, artisanal, cultured butter.” In short, it’s butter made in the European style by adding live active cultures to cream before churning, similar to cheese or yogurt. Cultured butter is tangier and richer than your everyday stick butter, with a taste reminiscent of cheese. What’s even better, Marisa, the owner’s father, lives here in Wells on Lake St. Catherine, which helps us get this sometimes-scarce commodity.
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"Quick, turn around and get a picture!" |
After visiting the Middlebury Co-op, we headed home south on Route 7 and immediately spotted what appeared to be an abandoned ice cream truck in an abandoned parking lot. A quick U-turn to snap a few photos for our newsletter, we later discovered much more about “The Scoop.”
Passionate about creating explosively flavorful ice cream; their handcrafted ice cream is made in-house, by hand, in small batches, using only the purest ingredients and locally sourced cream and maple syrup (thanks to their friends at Kingdom Creamery of Vermont and Stowe Maple). They’re are open year-round and offer rental vehicles for private events. Next time we’re in the Shelbourne area, we’re visiting this ice cream landmark. Another serendipitous discovery!
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We Meet The Most Intresting People Here in Vermont... |
That's Sally's boat, but we haven’t actually met Sally or her husband—we’re telephone friends at the moment. Sally is the Media Director for the Harris Hill Ski Jumping Competition in Brattleboro, Vermont, and I was looking for information and photos for one of our winter newsletters – a perfect fit. That was the first year. The following year I called again looking for more photos and was quickly connected to Sally. A little more conversation and again, more photos. Sally was quite generous with the number of photos and with her time, and I was grateful.
Fast-forward to this summer, I learned that Sally and her husband summer on the Maine coast for four months—on their boat! How interesting, and absolutely love the photograph taken in Penobscot Bay. The boat is a Lord Nelson Victory Tug, built in Taiwan in 1985. Only 74 were built between 1982 and 1988. They bought this one twelve years ago and are the fifth owners. The boat has always been well cared for. All owners consider themselves stewards with a responsibility to maintain their vessels until they pass them on… A fascinating lifestyle that I'm thankful Sally let me share. I just love the photo!
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Our Neighbor's View... Just Behind Pond Mountain Inn! |
Little Lake & Lake St. Catherine
Fascinated with Abhijit Patil’s work above, Abhijit and his wife will be here at Pond Mountain Inn this winter... You'll see a lot more of Abhijit’s Vermont winter photographs after their first visit to Pond Mountain Inn!
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