When I adopted my daughter almost 32 years ago, no one knew George Floyd. Rodney King was the first video taping of brutal police beating that I could remember, and it never occurred to me when I looked at her beautiful brown little face peeking out of that pink fleece blanket that she would be subject to any kind of racism. I didn’t truly understand the ramifications of “racism” as we know it today; not just the overt confederate flag waving type, but the stares in the stores, the limits on her that are bred in the institutions white folks take for granted.

I didn’t see her color. I just loved her. I now know that not seeing her color severely shortchanged my understanding of how the world saw her.

When she was three, she asked me why her skin was brown and mine was “pale.” The best age-appropriate explanation I could give her was that she was born from the tummy of a woman with brown skin. Soon, her friends began to ask her the same question. She gave that response and they seemed satisfied. At the time there was no variety of skin tone crayons at her preschool.

When one particularly curious and bold boy at Burger King came over to our table and asked me if she was my daughter, she and I knowingly smiled at each other. “Is her father black?” No. “Puerto Rican?” No. He shrugged his shoulders and skipped back to the ball house.

These were benign exchanges, but nevertheless my daughter realized that she was different at a very early age. Other exchanges weren’t so benign.

In a particularly upsetting event, she was in a stroller as I pushed her around a mall. A gentleman in a wheelchair who seemed disheveled came closer to us; “Your kid is ugly!” My daughter didn’t hear him, but I left the mall as quickly as I could.

We got the question in the grocery store: “Are you together?” even though we were standing right next to each other. When she was older and we shopped together, I could see the clerk’s eyes follow her around a store. This would never happen to me.

I have always been open to discussing the “woman with the brown skin.” When I was working in NYC, I would take her on the commute from Connecticut.

I frequently caught her looking at young black women on the subway. One day, she sat next to a 30s something woman and began talking to her. The woman listened to my daughter and gently responded. I could see their lips moving. The woman exited at her stop, a slight wave to my daughter.

She was quiet. I asked her a bit about her conversation with the young lady.

“She was pretty. Do you think she might look like the woman with the brown skin you were born from?”

“Yes,” she said.

Then added. “I wonder if that was her.”

Cynthia Keenan Kosinski is the mother of 32-year-old Audrey, who works as a PA (Physician’s Assistant) in Boston. Cynthia is a member of the Quechee Club’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Counsel and splits her time between Quechee and Long Island.  She is a retired attorney with a background in journalism and nursing. She is working on a novel while managing her two older, bonded rescue labs, Jake, and Cooper.

“Our goal is to elevate lives through developing improved and sustainable food security. We are focused on infusing new technology into agriculture development, along with cultural and humanitarian exchanges, anywhere in the world.”

~ Trees and Seeds

John Hiers and Kerilyn Bristow are retired educators from Woodstock Union High School. John taught agriculture, and Keri taught French and Spanish. Keri, however, wasn’t prepared to fully retire, so she began teaching elementary Spanish, PreK to 5th grade, part-time at the Ottauquechee School in Quechee. “I absolutely love it!” says Keri.  

While at WUHS, John and Keri collaborated on service-based travel projects with students to the Spanish speaking world. They expanded to Africa with a trip to Senegal before they retired. The pair eventually created Trees and Seeds, a non-profit 501 (c) 3 so that they could continue doing humanitarian work nationally and internationally, and to further their vision of food sustainability and access to education. According to their website, their ethos is focused “on education with young people, as well as those who are young at heart that will radiate to others in their communities.”

John and Keri “travel with purpose,” and are committed to helping travelers of all ages to make a positive impact abroad. 

“We were able to travel to Malawi in 2019 with a partnership there to plant trees and work with children in rural villages helping to increase [their] English language skills,” says Keri. 

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the organization was temporarily grounded, but they have plans to travel to Peru in February 2022 with 23 participants. The group will learn about medicinal and nutritional plants, they will also plant trees along the Amazon River to help reforest the land, as well as work with local orphanages there to “play games, give the staff some time off, and make community connections.” Connections that – like the roots of trees – will no doubt last a lifetime.

To become involved with Trees and Seeds or to find our more, please email info@treesandseeds.org.

One might say that COVER Home Repair and its companion, the COVER Store in White River Junction, are among the original recycling centers in the Upper Valley. With a broad mission “to foster hope and build community in the Upper Valley,” COVER has found its niche offering home repair and weatherization programs for income eligible homeowners. Founded in 1998 with just two individuals, COVER has grown substantially over its 23 years, and the passion for COVER’s enduring mission still fuels the many volunteers and staff.

Helen Hong is COVER’s new Executive Director, recently appointed after many years as a volunteer and six years as a member of the COVER Board. Helen describes COVER’s most recent efforts at expanding the reuse and recycling efforts that provide many of the materials that fill the store and go into a typical home repair project. “We recently held a ‘Stuff A Truck’ event at Hanover High School where we put out a request to the Upper Valley community for garden & construction tools,” explains Helen. “Part of the advertising for the event emphasized the idea of giving old tools another life instead of tossing them into the landfill.” Helen notes that one of COVER’s primary values is to “tread kindly on the earth.” Fortunately, this goal aligns with Helen’s personal values as well. “This is the only place I can keep coming to that gives me hope and a sense of purpose. This is where I can be human, and where there is no division between my work and personal values.”

COVER’s many volunteers share Helen’s sense of purpose. “There are a lot of enterprising individuals who are part of our team,” says Helen. One volunteer focuses on collecting scrap metal from appliances that cannot be resold and taking them to a metal recycling center. Others manage the extensive bookstore to maintain a high-quality selection of books, which can help shoppers avoid getting books through the mail. A former lawyer, now a woodworker, helps with repairing and pricing fine furniture for resale, including a broken grandfather clock that was repaired and re-sold. Gently used mattresses are re-sold which helps individuals purchasing new mattresses reduce the environmental impact of returning their old mattress after buying a popular mattress in a box.

Revenues from the successful COVER Store support the organization’s home repair work, offering an ever-changing mix of donated home building materials, furniture, cabinets, appliances, housewares, tools, books and just about anything that anyone working on home improvements might need. COVER’s $800,000 budget is funded through COVER Store sales as well as generous contributions from individuals, businesses, and foundations. 

Local contractors also find useful building materials for their projects, and the building that houses COVER benefits from energy saving donations as well. “We had a very generous donation of solar panels,” says Helen, “and fortunately we have someone on staff who used to install solar panels, so we are trying to figure out how to add them to our roof. We’re also shifting from using oil to heat pumps.” 

In 2018 and 2019, 15 home repair and 10 weatherization projects were accomplished in the Hartford area, with several projects in Quechee previously. During the pandemic, COVER temporarily shifted its operation to Do-It-Yourself windows and door kits for weatherization projects, allowing homeowners to install their own air sealing materials. COVER uses a blower door test to measure the air leakage in a home before and after every weatherization project and has seen substantial savings in fuel consumption and heating costs after weatherization improvements are completed. “All of this work – building ramps, roofs, and weatherization projects – are just a means to fostering hope and building community,” says Helen.

In addition to weatherization projects, COVER has been exploring ways to make mobile homes more energy efficient. Mobile homes are often the only affordable means of homeownership for a person with limited economic means. Unfortunately, mobile homes, especially older ones, are not built with energy efficiency in mind. As part of a pilot project, COVER has partnered with Vital Communities to frame and insulate the skirting and roof of mobile homes. COVER staff will be collecting data to determine how much fuel savings is achieved, but there is no doubt that the savings in terms of gallons of fuel and dollars – will be significant. “Net-zero homes for everyone would be a great thing some day, but for many homeowners a mobile home is the best that they can afford. This pilot project supports affordable homeownership by insulating the roof and underbelly of a mobile home, thereby increasing the comfort, efficiency and affordability of one’s home,” says Helen. 

Volunteer Rich Acker, on the COVER scene since 2016, points to reuse and recycling as a primary motivation for joining the volunteer ranks not only at COVER, but at other Upper Valley organizations as well. When a project is complicated, chances are Rich Acker is the volunteer who gets the call. “Reuse and recycling have been my philosophy throughout my career, and it’s one of the reasons I volunteer for COVER. One of my hobbies is to put something together that wasn’t there before using materials that come into the store.” One of Rich’s creative reuse specialties is restoring bicycles that have either been donated or recovered at yard sales to get them usable and street worthy. “I do bicycle repair at home because I have a shop at home. I do the same thing with furniture and clocks,” says Rich, a former master electrician and retired Director of Facilities at both Kendal at Hanover Senior Care Facility and the Montshire Museum. “Long ago I learned never to wear good clothes when I visit people I know. Something is always broken someplace,” muses Rich, who helped convert to LED lighting at the COVER Store. When he volunteers on a home improvement project, engaging the homeowner is important. “We want the homeowner involved in the process, making lunches, swinging the hammer, or a member of the family swinging the hammer.”

Board President Kevin O’Hara, of the Hartford-based construction company O’Hara and Gercke, has been drawn to the reuse and recycling efforts of COVER since he began donating materials from his company’s building projects around the Upper Valley decades ago. “Our involvement with COVER was in trying to keep good material out of the landfill and see if it could be beneficial to somebody. I was very much on board with what COVER was doing philosophically, basically helping people be warmer, safer, and burn less fuel.” Early on, Kevin and his business partners established a relationship with COVER and sent them photos of materials from moving and demolition projects that might be sold to support COVER’s home repair and weatherization programs. 

Kevin knew from his company’s work the positive impact fixing air leaks can have on a home’s longevity, and how that contributed to reducing the overall effects of global warming. “It’s nice to be getting this kind of repair and renovation to other members of our community. COVER fills a real need in the Upper Valley for housing repair and there is no shortage of business – we typically support safety, health, warmth, and air quality improvements,” says Kevin. Often the homeowners decide to volunteer at the store, and that enhances the community aspect that’s important to COVER. Kevin’s unique position in the homebuilding industry allows his team to keep an eye out for potential donations of materials right from the start of a new construction project, as well as contribute time and skills to building projects. “All three of our project managers are in tune with what COVER does, so they are regularly evaluating the potential for recycling materials.” A recent donation of cabinets from Crown Point Cabinetry in Claremont, N.H. and possible agreements for bulk purchasing of expensive lumber are in the works.

COVER’s operation is growing and filling up the available space in White River Junction, so finding new uses for donated items is vital. Helen Hong envisions COVER Home Repair and the COVER Store continuing its work for many years to come. “I think recycling and reuse are fundamental to us as an organization.” And fortunately for Upper Valley homeowners and passionate advocates of reuse and recycling, COVER’s practice of bringing together volunteers and homeowners in fellowship and collaboration to complete urgently needed home repair projects is here to stay.

For more information about how to donate materials or volunteer, contact COVER Home Repair at 802-296-7241 or visit their website, www.coverhomerepair.org. 

Growing up in urban Massachusetts in the 1980s, Nick Tsouknakis and his older brother, Alex found themselves in the family business of making pizza. After their cousins had emigrated to the United States from Greece, they made Greek-style pizza their contribution to their adopted county. Nick arrived in Massachusetts from Koufi, Crete at the age of four, and by the time he had turned twelve he was tossing out fresh dough, just like the rest of the family.

Nick and Alex kept in touch with family in their homeland throughout their youth, who had instilled in them the deep value of food and cooking. They returned to Crete and lived there for two years, when Nick was eleven and Alex thirteen, so that they would not forget the people and their culture. This kept the memories of the old country alive in them into adulthood, an ethos which put the family table above all else. To this day Nick fondly remembers the freshness of life in Greece: raising animals, living outdoors, making wine and olive oil from scratch, and never using canned or prepackaged foods. 

When the brothers began looking for work as teenagers, there was no question as to what they would do. Making food, especially pizza, was the family tradition. By the time Nick and Alex might have been expected to make decisions about their future, they had already assumed that they would be pizza chefs, that this was their lives’ work, and that they would eventually find a place of their own to set up shop. Their cousins taught Nick and his brother how to make a traditional pan pizza with a fresh, thick crust, a blend of cheeses, and a secret recipe for their sauce. With their family’s blessing, Nick and his brother took that knowledge and set out to look for a new home.

They went north. Massachusetts felt too urban, too hectic for the kind of life the brothers wanted, a life of enjoying good food and good drink with family and friends. “That’s always been our way,” says Nick. He began to search the countryside of northern New England because he knew he didn’t want the congestion and complexity of a city. He could be happy if he was with his family, doing what he knew how to do in order to make a living. In 1990, his older brother Alex found sanctuary in Woodstock, Vermont, where he opened Woodstock Pizza Chef.  

While Nick was passing through the Upper Valley to visit his brother in Woodstock, he found a new space available near Quechee State Park. In 1994, Nick settled there and founded the Quechee Pizza Chef (QPC), where he’s been making pizzas ever since, and has become a staple to the area. 

Besides the rural setting, Nick enjoys the experience of the four seasons. He believes there’s something beautiful to be found here at all times of the year: the snows of winter, the greens of summer, the reds and yellows of autumn. “Mud season isn’t so great,” he stipulates. “Sugaring would be the good thing about mud season.” 

The space provided by the Quechee location allowed Nick to follow his ambitions beyond just pizza-making. First, he designed a highly detailed miniature golf course behind the restaurant, which went live in 1997. The course is designed to highlight the landmarks of Quechee, both natural and man-made, from the Covered Bridge down to the Gorge, and is adorned with sculptures by local artists. Nick was inspired to add to the family element of the restaurant and used the opportunity to get creative. 

Next, Nick pushed QPC to react to Vermont’s expanding culture around craft beer. The value of drinking with friends went along with the style of both his family and his business, and so the idea of going beyond the “typical bar stuff” of Bud, Miller and Coors appealed to his ambition. In 2016, Nick introduced a craft beer list to his menu, and added a beer garden out back, looking out over the miniature golf course, which during the Covid-19 pandemic became the only seating area possible for customers. The tap list at Quechee Pizza Chef reflects the flourishing number of local breweries, always preferring those closer to home. 

Nick’s imagination continued to run wild. Seeing that he could take further advantage of his entrance to craft beer, he bought and refurbished a sixty-year-old milk truck, which he now uses as a beer truck that can be hired out for events – a sort of “kegerator on wheels,” Nick calls it. Seeing him behind that old leather steering wheel, you can feel his passion and excitement for creating something that he can share with the world.

Since the colossal handicaps that the pandemic has put on the restaurant industry since March of 2020, Nick and his business has struggled like any other, first to draw crowds, and now to find committed employees to meet demand. These days he has so few staff that he hardly has time to think about what might come next for his business, and about what might become his next creative project.

Nick continues to dream, however, despite these hardships. “Sometimes I think about brewing,” he says, the next logical step in QPC’s adventure in the world of beer. “A kind of brew pub,” he’d call it, where locals and visitors can hang out with pizza, mini golf, and a beer brewed by Chef Nick himself, right here in Quechee. It’s not hard to imagine it, when one looks back at Nick’s progress over the last twenty-five years and sees that he is always searching for the next new path to explore.

As told to Jessie N. McEntee

My wife, Carol, and I met at a party before a football game at Cornell in 1962. I was a junior and she was a freshman. She came as the date of a friend of one of my fraternity brothers. I learned that she was engaged to a Swede who worked for her mother’s firm back in Rochester, New York. This piqued my interest. And, she was very pretty and feisty. 

“Could you hold my cigarettes? I don’t want to smoke anymore,” I said. I thought it was a great line, and she thought it was the dumbest thing she’d ever heard. A couple of weeks later, she needed a ride back home to Rochester, and I had a ‘48 Chrysler. She heard about my car and called me for a ride, but she didn’t remember me from the party. When I pulled up to her dorm to pick her up, she was shocked.  

We started dating, and I knew she was engaged to this Swede because all of her friends in her sorority had ratted her out. She’d say things like, “I have a friend who’s engaged to someone, but she likes this other guy better.” Of course, I was the other guy. For Parents Weekend in 1963, I told my father that she was the girl I was going to marry. We’d just started dating, and I had a girlfriend back home. My father was a man of few words, but he approved of her. We got pinned, which is more than going steady and short of being engaged, and then I asked her to get married in the late spring of 1964 when I was about to graduate. To my great shock, she said yes. I didn’t sleep that night because I realized I had done a momentous thing.  

I graduated from Cornell on a Tuesday and was commissioned in the Navy the next day. We got married on Saturday, and I went to sea the following Monday on the USS De Soto County, LST 1171 out of Norfolk, Virginia. I went on a big operation over to the Mediterranean, where I was gone from September to November. I spent two and a half years in the Navy while Carol finished her degree in education and graduated from Old Dominion University. I then went to law school at the University of Michigan, from which I graduated in 1969, while Carol taught elementary school. Simultaneous with my graduation, our daughter, Laura, was born. 

On a side note, for those of you who remember S & H green stamps, we arrived in Ann Arbor with many books of them, which I insisted on using to obtain a delicatessen bologna slicer. Carol pointed out bemusedly that we wouldn’t necessarily need to be slicing fifteen pounds of bologna at a time. We nevertheless carted this monstrosity from Ann Arbor to Rochester to Cleveland and finally Dallas, where the bologna slicer met its demise.  

I started practicing with a law firm in Rochester, NY now called Nixon, Peabody. I spent most of my two and a half years representing Kodak company in a massive lawsuit against Fotomat Corp. I left and joined the Jones Day law firm in Cleveland, Ohio. Our only other child, Justin, was born in Cleveland. I litigated a variety of anti-trust cases and other commercial litigation. I became a partner at Jones Day in 1977, and in 1982, the firm asked me to head up litigation in our new Dallas office. During this period, I spent most of my time representing Texas Instruments in patent/anti-trust litigation against Japanese and Korean silicone chip manufacturers. I also did work for Frito Lay. You could say I was the defender of chips.  

Having been successful in Dallas, the management of my firm in their wisdom sent me in 1988 to head the litigation section of our newly-opened Chicago office, where, on a more local note, I represented Victor Kiam in his server-year unsuccessful attempts to retain ownership of the Patriots. Carol was doing the hard but wonderful job of raising our children. We sent Laura off to Dartmouth and later Justin to Cornell. Meantime, at the behest of Texas Instruments, the firm sent me back to Dallas in 1994. 

Laura married Erik Bierwagen, who she met at Dartmouth, in 1992. They moved to Los Angeles and later the Bay Area. Justin married Jessie Noyes in 2003. 

We began looking for some place to escape the heat of Dallas in the summer, and we considered various locations including Cape Cod, Hilton Head, and Quechee, which we learned about from Laura, whose sorority had held a function at the Quechee Club. Laura and Erik were pleased at the idea of being close to Dartmouth, which they’d both loved, and we were pleased with Quechee, since we both played golf enthusiastically albeit ineptly.  

 We first came to Quechee in 2006, and we rented for a month and then extended our stay for six weeks. On the way out for our return to Dallas, we bought a condo on Coach Road. All of our five grandchildren have actively participated in golf and tennis lessons and enjoyed the beach at Lake Pinneo, the pool, and the camp programs. Also, Justin and Jessie and their kids have had the opportunity to use the ski facilities in winter, as they’re based in Connecticut. Like many others, whenever our family arrives at Quechee, we draw a sigh of relief, and all tension fades away.

The Quechee Hot Air Balloon Craft and Music Festival, the longest running hot air balloon festival in New England, will celebrate its 41st anniversary in 2021 when thousands are expected to flock to central Vermont, September 3 – 5, 2021 (Labor Day weekend).

Twenty balloonists will headline the event with five flights slated throughout the weekend and additional tethered rides during the day. Attendees can visit with 50 craft vendors, indulge in a variety of fare from 16 food vendors and sit back and enjoy dozens of entertainers for all ages, over the three-day extravaganza. Children’s activities include Bubble Machines, Rock Climbing wall, and more. A variety of festival favorites and new food offerings and a beer and wine garden are planned.

“After taking a hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic we’re proud to celebrate the 41st anniversary of Quechee Hot Air Balloon Festival which truly epitomizes what a community event stands for,” said P.J. Skehan, Executive Director of the Hartford Area Chamber, who hosts and manages the annual event. “Our sponsors, volunteers and the town come together and rally each year to make this a benchmark event. It truly epitomizes what we can achieve when our community comes together.”

Festivalgoers have much to choose from for the three-day event. They can start their day at sunrise and watch morning balloon list offs while indulging in breakfast pizza and coffee, spend the day enjoying stellar entertainment or visiting the various artisans and food vendors. During evening liftoff, you can grab dinner and sit hillside on the Quechee Green or consider waiting until dusk for the balloon-glow show.

Headlining this year’s three-day extravaganza of entertainers are A2VT (Friday) Dave Keller Band (Saturday) and The Tricksters (Sunday).

“The Quechee Balloon Festival is a great boost to our economy and local businesses,” added Skehan. “We are giving the thousands of locals and visitors who support the event many reasons to come to the festival and celebrate with us. This really is just a fun time for everyone.”

Hours for the Quechee Balloon Festival Hours are September 3-5, 2021 (Labor Day weekend), Friday 3–10pm, and on Saturday and Sunday 6am–10pm.

The Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce hosts the Quechee Balloon Festival and helps area businesses succeed with a mission to enhance the economic environment. Through networking, events, savings programs, and disseminating information HACC offers member businesses an advantage in the marketplace. HACC, in collaboration with the Army Corps of Engineers and the VT Department of Forests Parks and Recreation, also manages and staffs the Quechee Gorge Visitor center which is part of the 612-acre Quechee Gorge State Park that welcomes over 100,00 visitors yearly from all parts of the globe.

For more information, call 802-295-7900, visit www.hartfordvtchamber.com, or email info@hartfordvtchamber.com.

When two local companies partner to better our community, magical things can happen. JAG Productions, based in White River Junction is partnering with King Arthur Baking Company in Norwich. While a theater company and baking company seem an unlikely pair, together they are co-producing a beautiful series of performances, “Theatre on the Hill.”

“Theatre on the Hill” takes place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings between August 13 and September 12 on the grassy hill behind King Arthur Baking Company. Proceeded with food and drinks provided by Upper Valley favorites such as Munchie Rollz, Griddle and Groovy, and Wolf Tree, “Theatre on the Hill” is an outdoor theater series featuring an array of performances including workshop productions, concert musicals and staged readings. 

Jarvis Green, the producing Artistic Director of JAG spoke of his desire to give audiences “a hybrid of all the many ways in which we are thinking about producing theater.” 

JAG and King Arthur Baking Company first came together through JAG’s ambassador partnership program in which organizations or businesses interested in promoting marginalized voices and adopting anti-racist policies can find creative ways to partner with JAG and support their work. This particular program came about after about a year of building a relationship between the two companies and through Green’s desire to create in-person programming for the community before heading back into the theater in the fall. Luckily for all of us, this manifested in an outdoor theater experience not to be missed. 

So, what can we expect to see at this event? A little bit of everything. Starting off the series will be a workshop production of a play that was first featured as a staged reading at JAGFest 4.0. JAGFest is a yearly new works festival that invites up-and-coming Black playwrights from all over the country to stage their new pieces here in the Upper Valley. The play a curious thing; or superheroes k’aint fly by Jeremy O’Brian, a “90-minute queer romance exploring the universal question of parenthood in a world laden with danger,” was the hit of the 2019 festival. 

For the following two weekends, Green himself is directing a concert version of Next to Normal (Yorkey & Kitt), a Pulitzer-Prize and Tony-Award-winning musical that explores mental health and a family dealing with crises. “You’re going to get that sensation of artists connecting to a score and singing beautifully… but you’re also going to be rooted in truth and in reality.” Green speaks of the stigma surrounding mental health and how presenting these stories in a fashion that evokes empathy, such as musical theater, can help normalize dialogues around difficult subjects. “As someone who has family members and friends that have struggled with mental health, I think that’s the crux or foundation or root of why I wanted to do this piece.” 

Next up, Life in Sepia: Vermont’s Black Burlesque Revue, will take the stage. This piece builds a narrative around the history of Black burlesque in America through a variety of performers including our own local Golden Mystique. The revue will be “femmeceed” by duo Kia Warren and Liza Colby who will weave the story of American Black burlesque through eight performers, each taking on a decade in this historical burlesque journey. 

Closing the series will be a staged reading of For the Love of Jazz by playwright Raven Cassell, another JAGFest alumni. First performed as a radio play during JAG’s 2020 COVID-restricted festival, this “jazzical” follows the story of a young woman navigating life and love during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. Green lauds Cassell’s work, “She’s written this really beautiful contemporary play that’s also rooted in classic American theater.”

With this partnership in mind, where do the intersection of baking and the performing arts lie? “Baking, it’s a collective experience,” said Green. “Baking allows for conversation and storytelling. When I grew up, I was always in the kitchen with my mom and my grandmother. I remember so vividly the stories they used to tell as they would bake. Baking just allows for folks to connect in a way that removes boundaries because of this shared experience. I hope that during the “Theatre on the Hill” series, people will shop at King Arthur and then while they’re making that meal, have an experience about the work and what they saw and have conversations with their families about some of the themes we engaged with them on during the series.”

Green is incredibly enthusiastic about this work and speaks of theater as he speaks of baking, focusing on its ability to connect people. “I want to lead with storytelling because that’s where we connect as human beings,” said Green. “How do we tap into your heart because that helps us be the change that we want to see? And I think that’s the power of theater.”

Also evident is his deep love of Vermont and of our community. “I love Vermont. I love the beauty of Vermont. I feel like [the Upper Valley] is a community full of vibrant, community-driven folks.” Green is looking forward to this series continuing JAG’s relationship with the community and bringing new faces into the mix who will want to become a part of making this theater happen and join in helping ensure this work becomes a part of our community for years to come. 

Green is also hoping that this is the first of much community-based collaboration. King Arthur Baking Company is not the only local group that has helped bring this project to life.

This is truly a community project that has involved collaboration from a number of well-known local businesses such as Northern Stage, the Center for Cartoon Studies, and an army of local volunteers. 

“I think this series is going to speak to the power of partnerships,” said Green. “We don’t have to live in isolation about how we’re supporting each other’s work. It doesn’t just have to be JAG doing this. It takes all of us. I think it will be kind of an entry point for people to lean in and say ‘yes, I like what you’re doing, how can I support?’ I feel like there can be some really cool partnerships and I hope that a big institution like King Arthur gives people more permission to lean in. I want to diversify what partnership looks like.” 

Overall, Green hopes that this series is “a reminder that you can have the beauty of gathering again and enjoying glorious theater that’s rooted in reminding us of what happened and where we need to go. This is an opportunity for hearts to mend and to come together.” 

What’s next from JAG? Green is optimistic to see an outdoor summer series return in the future, and this fall and winter, readers can catch more of JAG at Juke Joint, JAG’s annual fundraising dinner-theater cabaret in November and at JAGFest 6.0 in February 2022. 

In the meantime, pull up a picnic blanket, cushion, or any of the provided seating and come take in one or more of the wonderful performances this August and September at JAG and King Arthur Baking Company’s “Theatre on the Hill.” See you there!

Tickets are $25 and are available online at www.jagproductionsvt.com/theatre-on-a-hill. Local food and beverage will be offered beginning at 6:30pm and performances will begin at 8pm.  

Before the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, most families made their living by a small-scale, decentralized manufacturing business often operated out of their homes. By far, the most important “cottage industry” – as it would eventually be called – centered on the production of yarn and textile fabrics. Key to its operation was the entrepreneur who purchased the raw materials, distributed them among working families, passed the semi-finished products from one artisan to another, and then marketed the finished products. In time, hand production methods led to the rise of the mechanized factory system in which textiles were still the dominant industry. 

In the 21st century, as the Industrial Revolution has become gradually replaced by the Digital Age, many makers are still producing their crafts through small-batch manufacturing whereby small amounts of product are commissioned from a factory that can still achieve the economies of scale necessary to make money. A case in point is Junction Fiber Mill, a new wool processing mill in the heart of White River Junction. With a goal “to promote and invigorate the local fiber shed by providing top-quality custom processing, local fiber products, and educational opportunities to inspire the community about sheep and wool”, owners Peggy Allen and Amanda Kievet welcomed their new mill equipment this past winter.

The seeds of their partnership were sown last spring on a road trip to drop off wool at a mill during the height of the pandemic. As they sat in Peggy’s farm truck, they talked and listened to each other about wool mills, partnerships, and work ethic. Peggy and her husband, Todd, run Savage Hart Farm in White River Junction, and Amanda and her husband, Cody, became sheep farm hands “extraordinaire,” moving onto the farm for a lambing season in 2019 to help Todd while Peggy was recovering from a traumatic brain injury.

In a recent interview, Peggy and Amanda reflected on their dedication to supporting small farms and fiber farms geared toward raising sheep…

QT: How did you and Amanda become interested in wool, yarn, and sheep initially?

Amanda: I became interested as a knitter looking to better understand the fiber I was working with. Initially, I just bought the acrylic yarn from the available big box craft stores in my hometown in Wisconsin. When I moved to NYC, the yarn store down the block sold many wonderful yarns made from natural wool yarn and I immediately felt the difference. After moving to the Upper Valley, I got a job at Ibex Outdoor Clothing and became a total wool convert when I experienced the difference of wool clothing: way less stinky and better feeling on the skin, great temperature regulation (a major benefit for hiking and running). I met Peggy at the Norwich Farmers Market a few years ago and bought some yarn from her made from her flock of Corriedale sheep. My husband, Cody, and I had recently bought a home with a small pasture so I was interested in getting a few sheep to keep it down. Peggy agreed to show me the ropes of shepherding and she and her husband, Todd, became our sheep mentors. We started our small flock from two of their ewe lambs and are on our third-year shepherding.

Peggy:  I’m a so-so knitter, but I have always loved wool fiber. While biking in the San Juan Islands of Washington state, my husband and I came across a small sheep farm run by a woman named, Annette who sold her yarn right there in a section of her barn. We stayed and visited with her for much of the afternoon and, as we left, my husband, who knew I joked about having a sheep farm someday, said, “If I could have a sheepdog like hers, I’d consider having a sheep farm.” We spent the rest of the vacation talking about how we could pull it off and in less than 10 months we went from the Chicago area to living with sheep in Vermont. 

QT: We understand that you both consider your new business to be a cottage industry. What makes it so?   

Amanda: Actually, we consider our mill to be small-batch manufacturing. We use extremely high-tech heavy machinery in a dedicated mill building to produce between 15 and 20 pounds of yarn per day. Compared with the large-scale fiber mills used to produce textiles and yarns for the majority of the fashion/craft economy, ours – at eight spindles – is comparatively tiny. By comparison, the wool mills of yore in our area had hundreds to over a thousand spindles each. The benefit of being a small batch mill is that we can produce yarns made from a single farm or even a single sheep’s fiber. This gives fiber farms the ability to market their unique fibers as finished yarns rather than sell their fiber to a wool pool to meet the processing minimums at large mills.

QT:  Why is there an alleged logjam and long delays in turning wool orders around the state?   

Peggy: Processing raw wool into yarn is very labor intensive. Scouring, or cleaning, raw wool alone can take several hours. In addition, there simply aren’t enough small mills to accommodate all the demand from area sheep farms.  

QT: And why is there a decline in sheep farming?  

Peggy: We’re not sure there is a decline in sheep farming. We think there is a growing interest by old and young people to experience the whole circle of raising sheep, shearing for wool, processing that wool and pursuing fiber crafts. 

QT: Please tell us about Savage Hart sheep farm in Hartford and raising a small flock?  

Peggy: Savage Hart Farm is a 32-acre farm in White River Junction and we raise colored Corriedale sheep. This spring we had 34 lambs bringing our flock up to 64. I’m not sure we consider raising sheep work; it’s just a way of life for us.  Todd has a full-time job with Mascoma Bank on their wealth management team, and I work full-time at the mill. Amanda is a brilliant web and social media developer but she too now works full time at the mill. 

Amanda: As Peggy said, I was doing web development and design previously but have stepped down from doing that entirely, other than of course putting those skills to use for Junction Fiber Mill. As I mentioned, my husband Cody and I are raising a small flock we started with Todd and Peggy’s sheep. After lambing this year, we’re now up to five and will keep it there. 

QT: When did you officially open the new mill? And where you are in the business cycle now?  

Peggy: Our mill equipment arrived at 101 Maple Street on a snowy day in February of this year. We immediately began working with raw sheep’s fleece we had acquired to ensure we understood not only how the equipment worked, but how the wool from different breeds of sheep behaved. We began taking roving orders on April 1 and yarn orders on May 1 (roving is wool that has been washed and prepared for hand-spinners).

Amanda: Currently we’re busy fulfilling custom processing orders but we have exciting plans to start experimenting with fiber we’ve acquired to create yarn we can sell directly to knitters. We’re excited to see what balance of services versus products serves us and our community as we get some experience under us.

In early February 2020, everything was looking up for Piecemeal Pies restaurant owners Justin Barrett and Joshua Brown. They had developed a loyal customer base since opening their doors in downtown White River Junction in October of 2016. Piecemeal Pies had become the go-to brunch spot in the Hartford area – a place where customers came, not just for the quality, up-scale food, but for the experience. The establishment was a vital connector, interwoven into the fabric of the local community.

Barrett projected that 2020 would be one of the most profitable years for their business. They would finally be able to offer their employees benefits, such as healthcare and profit-sharing. They would open a second Piecemeal Pies and grow to the next level – creating larger communities and expanding their offerings across Vermont.

Originally, Barrett and Brown had their hearts set on opening a second Piecemeal Pies in the neighboring town of Hanover, New Hampshire. However, once they learned that the rent rates were $95.00 per square foot, their dream of opening in Hanover was quashed.

The pair ventured up to Stowe for the day to raise their spirits. Stowe held nothing but good memories for them. They went there every September to sell their specialty pies at the annual “British Invasion” – a day dedicated to showcasing British vintage motorsports cars.

They got out of their car near the town green, turned right, and directly in front of the spot where they sold their pies – there was a sign, “for lease.” They called the number on the sign and felt a kismet rapport with the landlord. Within a week, they were signing a lease for the space that would house their dream: their second Piecemeal Pies.

Then, in March of 2020, COVID-19 hit. For any restaurant, having to close unexpectedly for a single day when usually open, creates a loss of staff wages, food waste, and debt. Piecemeal was forced to close its doors for four weeks. The erupting pandemic was on course to scorch all of their plans, not only to build a new restaurant but to keep the one in White River afloat.

Instead of throwing down his apron, boarding up his doors, and walking away, Barrett got to work.

Barrett banded together with other local restaurants and business owners in downtown White River. They shared any new information they gathered around PPP loans that would aid in each other’s attempts to stay open. They applied and petitioned the town legislature to get permits for use of the sidewalk and parking spaces for outdoor dining. The town denied them. So, Barrett garnered support from the WCAX news radio station. Finally, the town heeded their requests and the restaurants were permitted to set up outdoor dining, to survive.

“The hardest part of COVID is that in hospitality, we are in the business of creating an experience, an in-person experience. We thrive on human interaction. How do you put that in a take-out bag?” said Barrett.

Lenders pulled out of their Stowe location and their landlord no longer wanted to rent to a restaurant. All plans and construction for the new restaurant came to a halt.

Barrett refused to give up. He reached back out to a crowdfunding platform that had contacted him a year ago, Mainvest.

Mainvest approached Barrett in February of 2020. At that time Barrett didn’t view crowdfunding as a viable option to fund their expansion. His only exposure to crowdfunding had been with other, larger platforms that asked for something but promised nothing in return. Additionally, Barrett already had traditional lenders lined up to fund their new restaurant.

In the end, Mainvest meshed perfectly with Barrett and Brown’s community-based ethos and was ultimately the oil that allowed Piecemeal Pies’ wheel to keep turning.

In one month, Barrett and Brown exceeded their target raise of $50,000 and raised their maximum, $125,000 to fund their new establishment.

“Mainvest was always ready to advise, consult, and encourage – no matter what time of day,” said Barrett.

With Mainvest, Barrett and Brown remain true to their goal of keeping dollars in the local economy. Donors who contributed to the crowdfunding campaign will earn a share of revenue each quarter as the business grows. They will earn a 1.5-times return on their investment over five years. This way, if the restaurant has a slow season, which they are apt to do – hello, Mud Season – the payouts will reflect that and be lower. Likewise, if the restaurant is booming during a busy summer, the payout will be higher.

Also, by using Mainvest instead of traditional lenders like banks, Barrett won’t have to repay high interest rates. Rather, Mainvest takes a fixed commission on the amount raised, in this case, 6%. “They are so worth that fee,” said Barrett. Mainvest helped market the Piecemeal Pies campaign by creating social media advertisements. They also handled all of the legal work, investment materials, and filings with the SEC. “Mainvest’s motto ‘Invest in Main Street, not Wall Street,’ helps me believe in everything we do,” said Barrett.

Now, one year later, in a time when many restaurants and bars have been forced to close their doors indefinitely, opening a new restaurant in a new town might seem ludicrous. But Barrett and Brown are doing just that.

This June 2021, thanks to the ingenuity of Mainvest, the contributions of all of Piecemeal Pies customers, and the community, they will open the doors to their second restaurant on Main Street in Stowe.

When asked how he selected “piecemeal” as part of the restaurant name, Barrett replied, “There is a story behind everything – every ingredient, every experience is a collaborative effort.”

“It’s a daily reminder that I don’t have to go it alone.”

Thousands of miles away and over a quarter century ago, my journey to the US started. Reflecting on that journey fills me with fond memories. After graduating from Damascus University in Syria with a Master’s in Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, I decided to follow my siblings’ footsteps and move to the US to pursue a postgraduate degree, and fulfill my dream of curing cancer, the disease that killed my father.

I was not sure when I left Damascus in November 1994 that my stay in the US would be permanent; and I could not have imagined my homeland would be devastated with an endless war and civil unrest.

When I arrived in Dallas, where one of my brothers and his family lived, I was picked up from the airport by my cousin who took me directly to a few parties. I was introduced in a hurry to the Thanksgiving Holiday, which happened to coincide with my arrival day. It is a wonderful celebration, seeing friends and family. I was also introduced to American football and became an instant fan of the Dallas Cowboys.

Although I had visited the US prior to immigrating here, my impression as a child was different. I became more worried about a long-term plan; would I become more fluent in English? Would people accept me, respect my culture and religion? Would they see that I am different and look down on my education? Everything was new and overwhelming, including simple tasks such as filling up the car with gas or picking shampoo at the grocery store. So many choices and such a fast-paced lifestyle.

Fast forward many years, I am now close to fifty years old. I am thankful for the many blessings in my life. I have a loving family: great wife, Christina who grew up in New Orleans and two beautiful young ladies, Claire and Lily. With the grace of God, many achievements were accomplished including getting my Doctorate in Pharmacy, working in oncology drug development and having the privilege to own a second home in Vermont.

While we have families dispersed in cities across the world like Dubai, Damascus, New Orleans, Dallas and many others, Quechee became the center of our universe. Many of our friends are here; and our families enjoy visiting our lovely community and the many natural beauties that Vermont has to offer, including the sweet, accepting people.

One of my most vivid memories is of the day we bought our house. After dropping our little girls at ski school with Paul, Christina and I stopped by the general store, on route 4 close to I-89, to buy firewood.

The store was magical; it reminded us of a scene from the movie Frozen. The salesman offered us fresh barbecue; I asked if it was beef or pork? He paused; then asked me if I was a Muslim? I was taken back by his question and thought that it is unusual to be asked, and most people would be unaware. After some hesitation, I answered yes! He was fascinated since he had never met a “real-life Muslim;” and he let me know that he was immersed in a poem book by the Rumi about the Sufi tradition; he made the correlation. This experience moved my wife and me; fortunately, for us it was not the only time we have been moved by Vermonters.

We have been so pleased to find that people in Vermont are sophisticated and different than what we have experienced elsewhere in the US. They are more accepting and curious about what they don’t know, and not as judgmental of others. That was my dream when I chose to settle in the US. My family and I aspire to live in a world that accepts our differences and embraces our diversity. This was the US I envisioned before I stepped foot in this country. I am proud to be a Syrian American, proud of my heritage, and so happy and grateful to have my family close and far and my great community in Quechee.

About the author: Khalid Mamlouk is a member of The Quechee Club’s ad hoc committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Khalid and his wife Christina, and their daughters Claire and Lily split their time between Arlington, MA and Quechee where they enjoy the Club’s offerings and many amenities such as swimming, golf, skiing and relaxing.