Local Treasure: Shelburne Farms
By
Elizabeth Bassett

Check it out! The book, "1,000 Places to See Before You Die,"
includes the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Masai Mara Game Reserve, and
the religious pilgrimage site of Vezelay in Burgundy. But one entry
lies just down the road: Shelburne Farms. Which may account for the
cars jamming the lot at the Welcome Center on a recent day, from
Montana, Virginia, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, New York, and of course,
Vermont.
During the Gilded Age, William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb
created Shelburne Farms. When the wool market collapsed in the
mid-nineteenth century, the Champlain Valley, once home to hundreds of
thousands of Merino sheep, fell on hard times. The Webbs acquired 32
failed sheep farms on 3,800 acres and build a grand estate. Even as
the 100-room big house served as a luxurious retreat for the rich and
powerful, the land had another purpose. Dr. Webb created a model farm
and followed the new conservation movement. Frederick Law Olmsted,
best known for designing New York's Central Park, painted the canvas
of barren sheep farms with roads, trees, and fields, strategically
creating "rooms" of three types: farm, forest, and parkland. Gifford
Pinchot, the first head of the U.S. Forest Service, began his career
at Shelburne Farms, developing a plan to maximize yield and sustain
productivity of the wood lots.
By the mid-twentieth century the Webb family struggled to maintain
the property. Refusing to sell to real estate developers, Derrick Webb
and his children created a non-profit foundation teaching stewardship
and sustainable agriculture through continued farming of the property.
Today there are many ways to visit Shelburne Farms, as student,
concertgoer, walker, devotee of cheese making, art aficionado, diner,
or tourist. General admission ($6 for adults, less for seniors and
children, and free to members) includes a wagon ride to the Farm Barn
to visit the Children's Farmyard and observe cheese making. In
addition to a stop at the Farm Barn, guided tours ($9 for adults, less
for seniors and children, and free to members), continue to the Inn
for a stroll through its public rooms and gardens. A guide discusses
the history and evolution of the property. Both admissions include
access to the property's miles of walking trails. A circuit of about
3.5 miles weaves through fields of hay, grain, and pastureland,
crosses tree-lined roads, rises to the height of land, and traces a
cobble beach along the lake. It's a great way to spend a few hours.
Olmstead's vision unfolds as walkers leave the Welcome Center. The
path dips into a cluster of trees before emerging to a vista of the
massive Farm Barn framed by green hillsides. We're in Olmstead's power.
At the Farm Barn chickens waddle, sheep meander, and fenced pigs,
goats, llamas, and turkeys wander their territory. The daily schedule
at the Children's Farmyard includes milking a goat or cow, brushing a
sheep, meeting at kid goat or a rabbit, and chicken chores. Opening
onto the Farm Barn's two-acre courtyard, the cheese operation is home
to the farm's award-winning cheddar. Each day the cheese makers
transform 5,000 pounds or nearly 600 gallons of milk from the farm's
Brown Swiss herd into about 500 pounds of cheddar. A series of panels
explains the process and a new vocabulary emerges on the daily
schedule: milling, salting, cheddaring, hooping.
The next walking destination, a mere 0.3-mile distant, is the highest
point of land on the farm, Lone Tree Hill. A stone bench offers front
row seating for views of Camel's Hump and the Greens to the east and
the Inn, Lake Champlain, and the Adirondacks to the west. White arrows
mark the route over mowed paths and through the woods, emerging time
and again to Olmsted's framed vistas of farm fields, lake, and
mountains. An arch of grapevines beckons to a lakeside perch just
above the cobble beach. The trail completes its circuit, returning to
the Welcome Center via the Garden- where organic produce is grown for
the Inn's restaurant.
Perhaps you prefer to dine in the grand dining room beside an
enormous marble fireplace. Breakfast and dinner are served daily with
brunch replacing breakfast on Sunday. Reservations are required at
985-8498. Consider afternoon tea with a garden tour on Tuesdays and
Thursdays at 2:30pm. Call ahead to reserve, 985-8442. This year the
Inn closes on October 22.
Throughout the year Shelburne Farms packs its schedule with
educational programs for adults, children, and students of all ages.
Learn about healthy foods, make a bowl from local clay, or take a
writing course for UVM credit. Educators from across the country flock
to the farm to learn about sustainability, soil, geology, and
stewardship.
While guests may no longer arrive in horse-drawn carriages from
private rail cars, each year thousands of visitors soak up culture at
the Farm. The Mozart Festival opens its season and offers a handful of
concerts in July and August. The Vermont Symphony Orchestra explodes
on the scene with its annual July Fourth Concert, concluding with
Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and its attendant fireworks. The Coach
Barn, once home to the estate's fleet of sleighs, carriages, and
coaches, is currently hosting its 19th annual art exhibition and sale,
featuring dozens of Vermont artists (including Tad Spurgeon from
Charlotte). The cost is $5 for nonmembers. A special exhibit joins the
art show and is free to all. Suspended Worlds- Historic Painted
Theater Curtains in Vermont, displays recently restored theater
curtains from town and grange halls, community theaters, and opera
houses across the state. Painted by itinerant artists between 1880 and
1940, these theatrical backdrops have been conserved in 110 towns to
date. Both exhibits close on October 22.
Thousands of members support the educational mission of Shelburne
Farms. A $50 Family Membership includes two adults and children or
grandchildren while a Supporting Membership for one adult is $35.
Members enjoy free access to the property, tours, the annual Harvest
Festival and Art Exhibition and Sale as well as a 10% discount on
purchases at the Farm Store or from the catalog (great holiday
shopping for distant friends and family!). Membership is tax deductible.
Shelburne Farms is located on Harbor Road in Shelburne.
www.shelburnefarms.org.