Author Archive for Susan Leader
Vermont native and noted potter Susan Leader grew up on Popplewood Farm in Andover. At age 17, she was inspired to take up the potter's wheel by "a charismatic potter" from the Society of Vermont Craftsman. She spent 18 months apprenticing at pottery villages throughout Japan. She returned to Popplewood Farm, where she and her husband, fiddle player John Specker, raised their two daughters.
Left in Andover: Taking a break
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Susan is putting down the pen and taking a break for a while. Look for her return in the near future!
Left in Andover: ‘Harriet the Spy’ discovers a family treasure
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC When my daughters were young, they loved playing Harriet the Spy. In the words of Louise Fitzhugh’s beloved protagonist, “When I grow up I’m going to find out everything about everybody and put it all in a book.” Growing up in rural Andover, it was, however, impractical to […]
Left in Andover: To glory in the repair
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC When my family’s farm was sold in 1987, I rescued a stash of our old baby clothes from under the eaves. It was not immediately obvious to me why my mother had preserved certain of these items. Take for example one of the toddler size T-shirts. The vintage […]
Left in Andover: The stunning strength of Erika
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC I have yet to fulfill my cousin Erika’s expectations of me as an artist. But this is my failing, not hers. One excuse is that I truly enjoy being a craftsperson, making functional clay pots. Another reason is economic; I don’t feel free to take that much risk. […]
Left in Andover: Our thriving crafts industry
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC I forsook the craft fair circuit decades ago to go all-out for farmers markets. They are casual, fun, delicious and aesthetically pleasing. I feel at home exhibiting my wares among fresh picked produce and flowers. Craftspeople have much to offer the markets in return. The weekly farmers markets […]
Left in Andover: ‘Hippie invasion’ irritated, but ultimately benefited Vermont
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Last week I had the opportunity to sit down to dinner with Joyce Bressler. A leading member of the radical 1970s era Vermont Media Collective, Bressler arrived on the Burlington scene in 1971, a member of Gov. Deane Davis’ mythic “hippie invasion.” The seeds for her exodus from […]
Left in Andover: Auctions, both poignant and lighthearted
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Auctions were a form of family entertainment when I was a kid. There seemed to be two types of auctions. The poignant kind was held on a farm where people were still living. Often they would be just selling off livestock. But sometimes it would be the whole […]
Left in Andover: Our town’s heritage of originality
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Dated Aug. 26, 1961, Andover’s bicentennial proclamation seems contemporary in its challenge to town residents to be original in envisioning the future. The framed scroll is enshrined on the north wall of our Town Hall. It stops time for me with its alphabetized roll call of all the […]
Left in Andover: Mulch ado about gardening
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC No matter how many times I pass it by, I still get a charge out of my favorite sign. It reads “Home Groan Vegetables.” Keep an eye out for it going north on Route 5 out of Hartland. As a child I spent many miserable summers toiling in […]
Left in Andover: The Macy’s of Southern Vermont
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC New York City and Boston can keep their Macy’s and Filene’s. We had Furman’s Department Store. The brick veneer building just past the library on Springfield’s Main Street was destination enough for me as a second grader. When Grandma came to visit, it was a ritual for her […]
Left in Andover: The Grange movement takes hold in tiny Vermont towns
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Obscured by a lush screen of greenery, the long narrow building in the heart of Andover village is easy to miss. But it is impossible for me to drive by it without my brain clicking on the song, “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer due, I’m half crazy, […]
Left in Andover: When Middletown was a lively village center
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Middletown Road and Middletown Cemetery are vestiges of a once vibrant village center within the greater town of Andover. Over the course of history, Middletown boasted a substantial meeting house, a store and Post Office, a schoolhouse, several blacksmith shops and a tavern. I was born into this […]
Left in Andover: The miracle of farmers markets
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC I first experienced the magic of a traditional farmers market on a trip to Morocco’s Ourika Mountains in 1978. Farmers, potters and camel dealers converged upon a desolate high mountain plain. In an age old ritual of trade and sociability, a public square formed. Then poof, a few […]
Left in Andover: Wiggle room for college grads
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC My grade school history textbooks featured scary descriptions of indentured servitude in early America. But in our times, bankruptcy protection is available and we no longer risk jail for non-payment of financial obligations. Nevertheless, 43 million young Americans are hamstrung by a whopping one and a half trillion […]
Left in Andover: A jumpstart on a year of renewal
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC While Covid-19 has devastated us humans, it has proved modestly beneficial for the environment and wildlife. Estimates are that greenhouse gas emissions were down almost 10 percent worldwide over the past year, the result of decreases in travel and manufacturing. The pandemic has handed us an unwilling jumpstart […]
Left in Andover: A love for ‘Park-a-Lene’ food
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC In a world gone mad for pets, I am a proud but cat-free “cat person.” I got my cat Park-a-Lene in the early 1980s when we were living in our cabin in Andover. She was from a friend’s long line of fine-tempered tortoise shell beauties. Park-a-Lene was my […]
Left in Andover: A devout vegetarian savors Andover farm wives’ doughnuts
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC My dad’s zeitgeist was not an easy fit with the culture of 1950s Andover. But one local custom that he was bullish on was doughnuts. Doughnuts may have qualified as his favorite food. Andover’s farm wives were famous for them. My mother’s refusal to bake with white sugar […]
Left in Andover: After my father’s death, Mom became Young@Heart
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC My mother became a widow at age 69. It has taken my reaching that same age to appreciate the energy and creativity she then summoned, making her the last chapter in her life one of her best. By the time my father died in 1988, he had been […]
Left in Andover: The wonders of the cookstove and the very hungry granddaughter
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC On a sizzling hot day last week, I was still able to enjoy a fire in the wood cookstove first thing in the morning. My husband staged the fire box for me the night before. His homemade bomb of birch bark, twigs and paper towel impregnated with used […]
Left in Andover: A recipe for meatless living
By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC When I was growing up, my family kept barrels of whole wheat berries and soybeans for ourselves and kibble for our dog in the “honey room,” a sort of shed attached to the house at Popplewood Farm. The wheat and beans were sourced from a local feed store. […]
