On Earl Hatley’s first visit to Quechee in August 2017, he drove by the Polo Field and saw a sign for the Scottish Festival games taking place that weekend. Having a Scottish great-grandmother on his father’s side (his father was Cherokee/Shawnee) he pulled in and walked around.

“I immediately got goosebumps all over as I felt I was standing on ancient sacred ground,” Earl recalled. “I saw a vision of Indigenous Peoples dancing on that ground and thought, how appropriate. This ground could someday host a celebration of the Abenaki Nation and the Scots and in doing so, the original peoples and the settlers will be honored on the same ancient ground.” … Read More

“Food Vision” Prize Partners with Local Quechee Business and Supports Local Growers

Vital Communities, the non-profit organization working to cultivate the civic, environmental, and economic vitality of the Upper Valley and engage Upper Valley people, organizations, and communities to create equitable solutions to our region’s challenges, was recently awarded a $200,000 New England Food Vision Prize for a multi-partner project.

This prize will enable the development of a regional farm ingredient-sourcing supply channel that will help create broader markets for the region’s food growers, especially farmers from the BIPOC and immigrant communities.

The central partner in this project is our own Quechee-based Global Village Foods, an African-inspired prepared food producer.… Read More

Actually, the Quechee Times’ first edition was published 150 years ago in 1872. However, the ‘modern-day’ version began in November 1972. Please indulge me as I tell this full-circle tale.

L. John Davidson was the founding visionary of the Quechee Lakes development. He was on a quest to find the perfect setting to create a four season resort community where families could live, work and play in the beauty that only Mother Nature can provide, while still having access and relative proximity to high-level cultural amenities and city centers. Quechee was just that spot.

While it sounds nice in the movies, it’s not a given that ‘if you build it, they will come.’… Read More

Matt Pickell, food program associate at the Upper Valley Haven, succinctly sums up the work that the Haven does in five straightforward words: “Good deeds happen here daily.”

Completing its 40th year in service, the Haven has long been providing shelter and education to those experiencing homelessness and food and other assistance to those in need. “The work here is very tangible,” Pickell says, “People come here, they need groceries and they leave with groceries.”

The Haven began its work in 1980, founded officially in 1982 by a group of five Upper Valley citizens in an old farm building on Hartford Avenue, formerly Taft Avenue.… Read More

Ten years ago, my family was living in Baku, Azerbaijan, because of my husband’s job as a government contractor. I was working as a teacher and soccer coach at Baku International School. The soccer team was on its way to a match against an elite local soccer club. When we arrived, a security guard boarded the bus, looked around, and asked (in Azeri) who was in charge. My interpreter indicated to the security guard that I was in charge and he informed me my team was not being granted permission to enter the soccer stadium. Through my interpreter, I asked “Why?”… Read More

When local resident Cindy Gould retired four years ago, she reflected on ways she could use her time and professional experience as a volunteer. So, in 2019, Cindy reached out to Gail Ferney, president of the Quechee Lakes Landowners Association (QLLA) Charities, Inc. to see how she could help. It wasn’t long before Cindy became deeply and passionately involved in the organization, specifically its CHaD Gala.

“Since I’ve considered myself to be a sort of jack-of-all-trades in the development world during my working years, I thought it would be a good fit, and it has,” she said.

For the Gala, Cindy maintains its prize database by keeping track of donations; getting the word out through various social media platforms and through the Quechee Club’s website and publications; and creating such print materials as signage, the invitation package, and the program booklet.… Read More

The Ottauquechee River is the connector that has flowed throughout VINS’ (Vermont Institute of Natural Science) 50 years of educating Vermonters on the environment, from its beginnings in Woodstock in 1972 to its current day campus in Quechee in 2022. “It just seems very fitting,” Mary Graham, VINS assistant executive director, says, “We’re here on the Ottauquechee River now when we were founded in 1972 to clean up the river, so there’s that wonderful connection from the beginning until now, over the last 50 years.”

The origin of the VINS lies in a case to clean up the Ottauquechee River.… Read More

For April Lawrence and Ben Pauly, opening and operating their Quechee-based doughnut business, Farmer and the Bell, has been a serendipitous endeavor.

Now about a year old, their bakery – which doubles as their shop – attracts a long line of customers waiting for fresh doughnuts before 8 am when they open on the weekends.

“Each weekend it’s just so much fun for us to go in, and waking up super early doesn’t even matter because we just meet smiling faces (on) every single customer,” Lawrence said.

Farmer and the Bell, a name inspired by the couple’s memory of growing up in families that used a dinner bell, was an idea conceived during the pandemic and the result of picking up a new hobby to help pass the time while at home, Lawrence said.… Read More

Hello good friends. Normally you hear from us about all the great food we are featuring or the incredible producers or farmers we are supporting in our local food chain. Today I wanted to pass along some news about an incredible friend of mine who has chosen humanity over self and has flown to the border of Ukraine and Poland to help with the flood of refugees in that war-torn region.  

Mark Kovach and I taught skiing at Keystone Mountain in Summit County, Colorado years ago, and we forged an instant relationship that has lasted 30 years. Mark is a passionate entrepreneur, always getting involved in opportunities, and raising a great family with his wife Chantal and two wonderful kids in Steamboat Springs.… Read More

Each year, thousands of Upper Valley residents take part as participants, volunteers, and donors in The Prouty, the annual fund raising effort for the Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) at DHMC. This year – the 41st for the event – is no different as preparations are well underway for another successful event. Over the years, The Prouty has become a multi-generational endeavor, with entire families involved. That is certainly the case with Quechee’s Krysta Frye Kostrubiak.

“I think of us as being a Prouty family for most of my life. When I was younger, I would walk in The Prouty with a family friend while my parents did their 100-mile tandem bike ride,” says Krysta.… Read More