Despite New England’s proud tradition of maple baked beans, Jeannette Johnson of Glover observed recently that cooking dried beans is “kind of like a lost art.” Jeannette and her husband, Seth, grew about 20,000 pounds of beans last year on their Morningstar Farm, from pinto to black beans to Jacob’s Cattle to soldier beans. They…
A new year, another state has opened a regulated cannabis market for adults. That would be Illinois, where dispensaries opened their doors January 1 to big crowds. How big? The state said that more than 77,000 people bought weed products on the first day spending a grand total of nearly $3.2 million. Officials touted the…
Middlebury native loved working at Autumn Harp and creating stained-glass art
Longtime Stowe Mountain “host” also volunteered at Burlington’s ECHO and Flynn centers
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. Dozens of talented people have cycled through Seven Days in the 24 years we’ve been covering Vermont news and culture. One of them was Kate…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. I was nervous when I called Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo in July for a story about social media abuse. So nervous, I went…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. In journalism, as in filmmaking, sometimes the best lines end up on the cutting-room floor. This year, a source said something that, although astounding, I…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. Reporters are used to dealing with cagey sources. It’s annoyingly common for public officials to dodge us, and it’s understandable when the random person we…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. When it comes to burning wood, I may be a flaming hypocrite. Even as I was reporting on the climate impacts of biomass energy in…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. When I signed on to the Seven Days Burlington beat in April, I knew I’d be spending a lot of time at city hall. The…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. Most reporters would relish the chance to ditch the office for a day and go ride a bike around Montréal. I’m not most reporters. Back…
Hey, remember this time last year when I ranted about how the way in which Americans view movies was about to undergo a seismic change because a gazillion new Netflix clones were coming? Imagine my surprise when I opened up the New York Times the other day and happened on an almost identical piece announcing…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. How do reporters come up with story ideas? More often than not, I learn about my next story while reporting the one before it. In…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. When I traveled to Capitol Hill in November for the first day of the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment hearings, I was hoping to find some…
After a full year spent highlighting the works of local singer-songwriters, musicians, club promoters and producers, we thought it would be enlightening to learn what some of those same people picked as their favorite albums of 2019, local and otherwise. We also asked for their favorite tracks from each release, which should serve as good entry…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. Huntington Open Women’s Land, or HOWL, was established in 1985 as a women’s community — a refuge from men, machismo and phallocentrism in all its…
Every year, Seven Days reviews approximately 100 records from local bands and artists. They reflect the vast diversity of sounds and styles found in the Green Mountains. From folk to punk to utterly unclassifiable records, the collective 2019 output of Vermont’s music community was truly a marvel. Whittling down the horde to a concise best-of…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. I could’ve written an entire story about stargazing in the Adirondacks without seeing any stars. After all, I’ve seen plenty of night skies in my…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. In February, I was reporting on the innards of Vermont’s dairy industry — the bewildering matrix of humans, cows and economics from which those eight-ounce…
The end of the decade is nigh. In just a few days, we’ll enter the new roaring twenties. But will it bear any similarity to the oft-fetishized 1920s? I assume we’ll be inundated with “Boardwalk Empire”-themed parties and such. Hell, Burlington already has two speakeasies: Deli 126 and Lincolns. St. Albans is also getting in…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. Everyone in Orwell had the same question for me: “Who called you?” No one had. But that answer was about as convincing as my explanation,…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. My job is to look for sets of data that tell interesting stories about Vermont. Earlier this year I found one in the state’s Department…
Happy at Bradley I am writing in support of Bradley House, a residential care home in Brattleboro mentioned in your series on eldercare [Worse for Care, December 11 and November 27]. My 90-year-old mother-in-law has been happy living there for the past five years, often commenting, “They’re so good to me here.” She chose to…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. Seven Days reporters are fortunate to work with photographers who are not only talented but enthusiastic — artists who are often as excited to shoot…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. The story of how my family and I left behind our life in California to make a fresh start in Vermont begins with an image:…
On New Year’s Day 2019, Seven Days staff photographer Matthew Thorsen died from cancer — or, as we put it in our cover story tribute to him the following week, the disease “ushered” the beloved and brilliantly enigmatic artist “into his next great adventure.” Wherever it is we go once we depart this mortal plane,…
Once again we have to give a big shout-out to the multitude of artists in Vermont, to the curators who corral them into exhibitions, and to the venues — from coffee shops to museums — that provide us with visual stimulation just about everywhere we go. Indeed, artwork is so prevalent in the Green Mountain…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. In October, my editor handed me an envelope addressed to Seven Days’ post office box bearing the official Department of Corrections stamp indicating that it…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. As a lifelong Vermonter, I take pride in knowing my home state. But every now and then, I learn about a place I never knew…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. I knew my March story about a man who sends threatening messages to Jewish and nonwhite public officials would provoke a response. Journalists, including some…
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Fifteenth-century Italian metalworker Lorenzo Ghiberti worked for 28 years to turn the Doors of the Florence Baptistry into a massive work of art. He used bronze to create numerous scenes from the Bible. His fellow artist Michelangelo was so impressed that he said Ghiberti’s doors could have served as “The Gates…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. So much of the physical drama of competitive sports plays out in the field of the imagination, no matter the caliber or stage. A Little…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. Green Mountain College began the year by announcing it would cease operations at the end of the spring semester. By July, the Poultney campus was…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. My editors call it a “door knock.” But the simplicity of that term belies the courage it takes to walk up to a stranger’s front…
A couple of Seven Days reporters tracked down seven ex-priests accused of sexual molestation — and knocked on their doors. Another questioned an impeachment hearing witness in a Capitol Hill men’s room. One brave writer spent a week milking cows, and getting shit upon, to find out what it’s really like to work on a Vermont dairy…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. After a mass shooting in New Zealand in March, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) remarked on Twitter that it had taken the Kiwis “less than a…
In September, my editor heard that PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury had been banned from Instagram for posting a photo of a woman’s nipple. People get banned from social media all the time for all kinds of things, but it seemed like Instagram was an important component of PhotoPlace’s business, so I called up the owner…
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2019. Vermod is trying to remake the modular home business. But people who have purchased the Vermont-made zero-energy units have had some problems with them. Earlier…
Dear Reverend, My girlfriend and I broke up last month, and I’m going to be alone on New Year’s Eve. All of my friends are going to parties or out with their significant others. I feel like a loser. I don’t want to stay at home, but I don’t know what to do with myself.…
In a year in which “trending” has often meant climate disasters and #ImpeachmentVote, being a food writer has brought us a lot of joy. Sure, we covered our share of bad news — favorite restaurants closing their doors, floods putting farmers’ livelihoods at risk — but, for the most part, we get to tell stories…
