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Fish broth flavors up end-of-summer succotash

Fish broth flavors up end-of-summer succotash

By Jim Bailey theyankeechef.blogspot.com Not many people know — or have even heard — of jagasse. In the early 1800s, fishermen along the Massachusetts coast were also farmers in their non-fishing time. Their families had their fill of fish in meals and this dish gave them a subtle hint of the ocean while enjoying the […]

Green Mountain Middle bake sales for Washington, D.C. trip

Students from Green Mountain Union Middle School will be holding bake sales at the elections on Tuesday. Nov. 4 and 18 at Chester Town Hall, 556 Elm St.  Goodies will be available for a donation to help pay for their trip to Washington, D.C., in the spring. Students (and their baked goods) will be on […]

Golf tourney helps Springfield Hospital ER renovation; VT Race for the Cure nets $152,000

Golf tourney helps Springfield Hospital ER renovation; VT Race for the Cure nets $152,000

The 14th annual Springfield Hospital Challenge at Okemo Valley Golf Club on Thursday, Sept. 18 was a top-notch golf outing and a successful fundraiser. This year’s tournament contributed to the hospital’s Emergency Room renovation project. Twenty-nine foursomes of golfers competed for team and individual awards and raffle prizes. Thirty sponsoring organizations underwrote the tournament, which […]

Vermont Voices presents four authors in November

Vermont Voices presents four authors in November

Leading off Misty Valley Books’ annual Vermont Voices Sunday, Nov. 2  is Thomas Christopher Greene, the founding president of Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier.  Greene was a Misty Valley Books’ New Voices in 2004 with his novel, Mirror Lake. His latest, The Headmaster’s Wife, is his fourth. Greene explores the way that tragedy […]

Cheesy rarebit biscuits perfect for a game-day snack

Cheesy rarebit biscuits perfect for a game-day snack

By Jim Bailey theyankeechef.blogspot.com These great, cheesy game-day snacks are prepared easier if you do the cheese/meat mixture ahead of time so that when you make the biscuits, it will be cold and thick enough to scoop into each biscuit. A great mixture of meat and cheese, all encased in a warm biscuit. What else […]

Whiting Library offers downloadable audiobooks through listenupvermont.org

Don’t get cabin fever or stuck without some literary entertainment.  Whiting Library is now offering access to more than 1,000 downloadable audiobooks and ebooks free of charge to library patrons through a subscription to  the Vermont Green Mountain Consortium. Come to the library or call for more information or try it on your own. Go […]

Turn off the TV, share some apple gingerbread and talk

Turn off the TV, share some apple gingerbread and talk

By Jim Bailey theyankeechef.blogspot.com T his is, by far, the best gingerbread recipe you will taste. The extra scent and taste of molasses combined with the hint of apple and cloves will bring you to a time when the family gathered and shut off the television to simply talk. A comforting classic can actually bring […]

This weekend’s ‘buzz’

The Big Buzz is under way. The annual chainsaw carving event started five years ago by Chester carver Barre Pinkse has grown to 40 carvers who work their craft right in front of the crowd. With carvers coming from as far away as Germany and Sweden, the festival has become international.  Many bring finished items […]

Grafton Rescue sponsors emergency responder course

Grafton Rescue will sponsor an Emergency Medical Responder course held at the Grafton Fire Station at 711 Route 121 east, Grafton, every Tuesday night from Tuesday, Oct. 14 through Tuesday, March 10, 2015. The class will run from 6 to 9 p.m. EMR is the entry-level certification in EMS and will enable participants to volunteer […]

Craftswoman Lester blends love of crocheting and tea

Joan Lester was chosen as River Artisans’ Artist for the Month of October. Lester’s love of all things crafty began at the age of 4 when a neighbor taught her how to make shoes for her dolls out of ribbons. This sparked her lifelong passion for learning about, teaching and creating handcrafted items. Originally from […]

Simple apple coffee cake warms the autumn chill

Simple apple coffee cake warms the autumn chill

By Jim Bailey theyankeechef.blogspot.com T his recipe is simple, inexpensive and, by far, the most extraordinary apple cake you will ever have. I purposely made the cake slightly less sweet than ordinary “coffee cake”-like desserts, because I wanted the apple to shine through, and it certainly won’t let you down. Use your favorite sweet, hard […]

Committee plants bulbs for a brilliant spring in Chester

Committee plants bulbs for a brilliant spring in Chester

©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 Next spring, Chester will light up with the brilliant yellow of 1,800 giant King Alfred daffodils thanks to the Chester Beautification Committee with the help of the Springfield Garden Club and students from the Green Mountain Union High School’s Opportunities in Learning Program. Yesterday, Tuesday, Sept. 30, at least a […]

An invitation to Walk in the Woods with Chester tree farmers

An invitation to Walk in the Woods with Chester tree farmers

Jim and Ellie Gustafson of Dodge Road in Chester will be hosting Walk in the Woods: 50 Years of Stewardship and 40 Years of Tree Farming from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4. Everyone is invited to attend this morning of tours, stories and refreshments. The Gustafsons began tree farming when Jim was […]

Wilder Library awarded grant for children’s books

The Wilder Memorial Library in Weston has been awarded a Books for Children grant from the Libri Foundation. This past spring, the library wrote a Books for Children grant because its children’s nonfiction collection was in desperate need of new material. With the help of its patrons and board members, the library raised the required […]

Two-day artist workshops on plein air, photography and still lifes

The Southern Vermont Arts Center’s Fall Art Workshop Series wraps up with three two-day, all-level workshops in plein air oil painting,  High Dynamic Range digital photography and still life pastel painting. All workshops meet from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Oil painter Walt Pasko leads off on Saturday Oct. 4 and Sunday, Oct. 5 with  […]

Recently read favorites include fantasy, history and thrillers

Recently read favorites include fantasy, history and thrillers

By John Hoover ©The Chester Telegraph — 2014 If you’re a reader, a person who thinks there’s nothing better than losing yourself in a good book, you most likely have found that each new book has the potential to be the best book you ever read. We call those our “recently read Good Reads” because […]

Taste of the fall with a gingerbread-apple bar dessert

Taste of the fall with a gingerbread-apple bar dessert

By Jim Bailey theyankeechef.blogspot.com Many things set this recipe apart from every other bar treat. I took the memory of the age-old charlotte dessert and combined it with the taste of gingerbread. Apples and cheddar cheese transformed this great treat into a true New England dessert. Use stale bread if you like, but you will […]

Green Mountain Flyer Fall excursions right on track

Green Mountain Flyer Fall excursions right on track

Yesterday, Tuesday, Sept. 23 was the premier run for the Green Mountain Flyer’s Fall Foliage excursions running out of Chester Depot. About 75 passengers boarded the morning train, most coming from outside the area. Cars in the newly refurbished Vermont Railway’s parking area in front of Erskine’s sported license plates from as far away as […]

Shelburne Museum presents exhibit on Civil War era textiles

Shelburne Museum presents exhibit on Civil War era textiles

Vermont’s Shelburne Museum will contribute to the sesquicentennial commemoration of the American Civil War (1861-1865) with the special exhibition Homefront and Battlefield: Quilts and Context in the Civil War,  an intriguing and absorbing look at the most divisive period in American history. The American Textile History Museum  produced this traveling exhibition, which will be on display […]

Weston Playhouse names Bonanno development director

Weston Playhouse names Bonanno development director

Weston Playhouse Theatre Company announces that Weston resident and theater company alumna Charma Bonanno has joined its year-round staff as director of development. Bonanno will be responsible for planning and overseeing the theater company’s fundraising efforts for its annual productions, education and New Works programs and the current capital campaign for the new Walker Farm […]