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Published: October 28th 2009
Foliage
Views from the highway on the way north to NHHello Everyone!
I know it’s been a few weeks since I have updated the blog, but here it is- finally! First thing is first: my next farm is in Miami, Florida and I am leaving November 6th to head down there. I’m stopping in New York and Delaware to visit friends, and plan to be in Miami sometime during the week of November 16th. I am looking for somewhere to stop for the night along Route 95 (or close to it) in North Carolina along the way. I have friends in Savannah that will be my next stop, but between Delaware and Savannah, I don’t know anyone! If anyone has a great connection for me in NC that would open their couch up to me for one night sometime between the 13th - 16th of November, I would greatly appreciate it! If not, no worries, I’ll work something out.
The last three weeks at Home Hill Inn in Plainfield, New Hampshire have been interesting, to say the least. It has not been anything that I expected, in both positive and negative ways. I’m going to backtrack through my journal and try to write as if I did this as
I went along. (Also, FYI, there are two pages of pictures on the entry, you have to click to the next page to view the others)
Week One Oct 6th: The Inn is by no means an organic farm, nor does it have very many elements that you expect with a WWOOF location. It is strictly an Inn with a full service restaurant open all week to the public. The property dates back to the 1700s, with the Inn being remodeled several times over the years, most recently just a few years ago. The Inn sits on a beautiful property in northern New Hampshire, surrounded by farms and overlooking the Connecticut River. The only “farm” aspect to this place is the small vegetable garden out front and the two horses that graze in the pasture across the driveway. Other than that, the manager, Paula, uses WWOOFers to work in the restaurant and Inn and on the property, in the garden and with the flower beds, etc. I was aware of the non-traditional farm aspect of the Inn before I arrived, but was surprised at how little outdoor work there actually is.
As of today, there are two other
WWOOFers and an intern living here. Zach is 18 and is a paid intern in the kitchen getting cooking/baking experience before going off to culinary school in January. Edoardo is a 19 year-old Italian WWOOFer who doesn’t socialize much and does the dishes 5 days a week. Andrew is 20 and is the other WWOOFer who does a little bit of everything - grounds, front desk and kitchen help. Then there is Paula, the general manager and head chef who connected the Inn with WWOOF because she has WWOOFed all over the world. Everyone lives on the property: Zach and Edoardo in the apartment, Paula in a big house up the road, Andrew in the office, and I am living in the massage room converted into a make-shift bedroom.
So far this week I have been training on the front desk with Lloyd, the front desk/event manager. Basically, that has consisted of taking guest reservations, dinner reservations and general administrative duties. Really, a total blast, obviously. I’ve been trying to keep an open mind about this and look at it positively - I’m gaining front desk experience to add to my resume! The highlights of my days are talking
Jake and the lamb ..
sorry it's so graphic, but it was cool to see! to the guests who come to the Inn - they are from all over the country and usually pretty friendly. So far, everyone has been very excited to hear about my WWOOFing plan, so that’s exciting to talk to guests about, but that about tops the list! In order to maintain my sanity, this week I have gone on a few walks down the main road, done the dairy and recyclables run with Andrew, and driven into “town”, aka West Lebanon, to read at Borders. Thursdays are fun because Andrew and I take the truck to McNamara dairy and drop off the used glass bottles and pick up fresh milk, cream and half & half for the restaurant, then bring all the recyclables to the recycling center. I know that’s not much, but around here, it’s a blast.
October 12th: My good friend Katy and I met in the White Mountain National Forest in NH today for a hike. The drive there was incredible. The foliage around here really is breathtaking - making it almost dangerous to drive because I kept getting distracted by the scenery. The hike was awesome and just what I needed to distract me from the
Inn. We hiked two 4,000ft+ mountains; Mount Whiteface and Mount Passaconaway. We could see snow on Mount Washington and wore hats and gloves because of the cold. Despite the cold temps, the sun was shining and the air crisp - perfect hiking weather. Parts of the trails had frozen streams and we found icicles at certain points. The views from the hike, especially at the summits were incredible and the pictures I posted do not really do them much justice, but it’s a taste. The weather, the hike and spending the day with Katy made the whole week of front-desk work worth it, ha!
Saturday, Oct 17th I spent in Hamilton, MA with the Gray family. I babysat their kids, Ezra (5) and Ella (2) for almost two years while I lived in Boston, and when they moved to Hamilton and asked me to babysit for the night, I jumped at the chance to see the kids (who I miss every day!) and get out of the Inn for the weekend. The kids were tons of fun - we played legos, rode bikes and read books. When I told Ezra I might leave in the morning before he wakes
Sausage
Andrew, Zach and Jake making venison sausage..... aren't they special? up and not to be sad he said, “If you’re not here in the morning, I’ll still be sad, but it’ll be okay”. I almost died. They’re the best!
Monday, Oct 18th was the day of factory tours! I had the whole day off so I left early in the morning and headed to the Cabot Creamery Factory in Cabot, Vermont. The Cabot Creamery is a co-op that all the farmers own a share of and have equal say in what happens in the company. What a great way to run a business. Maria, the tour guide, told us that the farms range from 40 to 1,000 milking cows, but all have equal voting rights in the co-op. I had no idea how many processes and regulations there are for milk production and distribution, and it’s all taken very seriously (of course). I was impressed with the co-op as a whole, but also with little things, like the fact that they recycle their waste water to irrigate fields or process manure. Whey cooked out of the final milk product is turned into powder and sold to be used in other food products as a form of protein. When it
The Whites
9am at the trail head to Whiteface in the White Mountains, NH snows in Vermont, the first roads to be plowed are the roads with farms on them, next are the roads on school-bus routes. Vermont puts a big priority on their farms, and it shows. I have never seen so many farms - as I drove through Vermont most of the land was pasture land and every few miles there were barns and silos, more than any other type of building or industry.
The next stop was the Grandview Winery in Calais, VT. I sampled some delicious wines, including blackberry wine which was more like a port than a wine, and delicious!
I then drove to Morse Farm in Montpelier, Vermont, a maple sugarworks farm. Although it is not maple syrup tapping time, they still had tons of products for sale, information about maple sugaring, hiking trails around the property, and samples available. Most of the larger maple-sugaring farms in New England use a method of tubing to make the sap collection more efficient. The farmers string tubes from tree to tree throughout the forest, connecting them to the taps on each tree, and eventually to a large collection vat, which eliminates the need to collect buckets of sap at
each individual tree. Driving through Vermont, I saw some areas where trees had tapping tubes ready to go, even though the first sap tap isn’t until March or so. After eating a very delicious “creamy”, a maple flavored soft-serve ice cream cone and sampling the delicious maple candy, I bought some maple syrup and maple cream spread. Yum.
Last stop was the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Waterbury, Vermont. A walk through from above the factory showed us how they mix the ice cream ingredients and package it into the little pints you buy in the store. The best part of the tour was the free ice cream- sample of the day was Triple Caramel Chunk.
Visiting the factories and driving past so many Vermont and New Hampshire farms and learning about how the products are made has given me a new perspective on the things I consume. There is a lot of work that goes into everything that we buy, whether from a small farmer or large organization. It reminds me of how much work went into making the organic applesauce at the farm in Maine, for a something so small and quickly consumed. The tour reminds
me to appreciate the small farmers and the effort that goes into their products, from the care for the land, the harvest of the product, to what eventually ends up on our tables and in our bodies. This tour also points out the importance of buying local and supporting local farms whenever possible, which supports the local economy and keeps these places running- in hopes that big corporation doesn’t take over!
Oct. 22nd: This week has been a welcome change from what’s been happening at the Inn lately. The few trips to hiking spots or factory tours have kept me here, as has the promise of new WWOOFers coming to the Inn. Lilly arrived on Monday night. She is originally from Sacramento, CA and was visiting friends in New York City before she arrived here, with the hopes of learning to cook and bake in the kitchen. I am so grateful to have someone else to hang out with here. The other WWOOFers and I either didn’t have the same schedule or the same interests. Andrew left a week after I arrived, and his departure limited my socialization at the Inn. Zach and Edoardo worked nights and slept during
the day, whereas I worked during the day and slept at night (weird, huh), so we didn’t really hang out. Anyway, Lilly and I had a fun week hanging out between her shifts in the kitchen and front desk and mine on grounds. Thankfully, I’ve been on grounds all week, meaning I get to work outside! Most of the work related to winterizing the property. I removed all the potted plants and dead plants from the property, trimmed the bushes and pruned flower beds and vines, winterized the vegetable garden, mucked out the two horse houses in the field (which took 3 hours of shoveling horse manure, by the way!), and removed all the leaves from the tennis courts (with a leaf blower, so that was cool).
Friday night Lilly and I went into Hanover, where Dartmouth College is located, to check out the local bar scene. We ended up meeting two guys, Chris and Robin, who just so happen to work down the road at Edgewater Farm in Plainfield. They recommended we visit India Queen to get some local flavor. India Queen was a total dive bar with an Indian bar tender with long hair and bangs, Colt
45 beer for sale and Buck-Hunter video game available. Really, what more can you ask for in a bar? Things were going great until I lost my keys. We ended up getting a ride back to the Inn with Chris and Robin, and went back to Hanover in the morning to pick up my car with my second set of keys.
After an unexpected change of plans on Saturday, I packed up and left the Inn that afternoon. I asked Lilly if she’d like to come with me to RI for the week and she agreed. We arrived in RI that evening and have been hanging out in Middletown since then. Lilly and I get along great and have had fun checking out Newport and just putzing around the house. This weekend we are going to Boston for Halloween, and Sunday Lilly is taking a bus back to NYC. Next Friday I head to NYC, then to DE the following week, and on to Miami to the new farm. You can read about the new farm at www.naturesacre.com and see pictures, etc. I’m really looking forward to missing a New England winter and looking forward to visiting Colin in
Key West. Thanks for all your nice messages and keeping up on the blog, even after this ridiculously long post! xoxox
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Greer
non-member comment
awesome
Hey Sweetheart.. I kinda thought you were in Newport from a Facebook post...welcome home briefly! I just love reading your blog..not only are you an awesome chic but your writing is wonderful..felt like I have been there right along with you. I'm so jealous that you will miss the snow and cold...have a great time in Miami and keep us updated. Love u, Greer