Happy Vermont

Margaret Loftus is a former public defender.  She’s now a farmer.

She and her husband Jonathan left Brooklyn for Vermont in 2006 in search of a better place to raise their kids—Keelan, Tobin and Wendell—and grow their own food.

After years of learning about farming, growing organic vegetables, and raising animals for beef, pork and lamb, the family-run Crossmolina Farm—named after a town in Ireland—became a full-time enterprise in ...

Chris Wilcox is vice president of Wilcox Ice Cream in Sunderland. Chris was my first friend when my family moved to Vermont in 1979. 

Not only were we friends, we were neighbors, too. I would zig zag my way through a couple of fields and cross a dirt to get to her house.

The farm you see just south of Equinox Valley nursery on Route 7A, where Chris spent her childhood. But 24 years ago, on May 7, 2001, a fire tore through the farm ...

The town of Stratton is best known for the popular ski area, Stratton Mountain Resort. But beyond the 3,000-acre ski area, the town has 30,000 acres and about 300 full-time residents.

At one time in the 1930s, the population was so small that there were fears the town would go the same way as the unincorporated communities of Glastenbury and Somerset. 

Town Clerk Kent Young talks about Stratton's tiny population, the fire tower on ...

Cochran’s Ski Area in Richmond is tiny but mighty. 

The ski area was started in the early 1960s by Mickey and Ginny Cochran. 

Their children, Bob, Barbara Ann, Marilyn and Lindy, came to be known as the “The Skiing Cochrans.” They represented the U.S. in the Winter Olympics, with Barbara Ann winning the gold in 1972.

In this episode, Barbara Ann talks about the ski area's early days, her racing career and what makes Cochran’s an ex...

You can learn a lot about a town and its history by visiting the local library.

The Goodrich Memorial Library in Newport has a taxidermy collection that includes an alligator, bob cat, porcupine and birds.

The Rutland Free Library originally served as a post office and courthouse. There are also jail cells in the basement.

In this episode, Jessamyn West, a library technologist from Randolph, talks about what makes Vermont libraries...

Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley was the first person to ever photograph a single snowflake. 

On January 15, 1885—at age 19—he used photographic plates to capture his first snowflake image at his family's farm in Jericho. His images of snowflakes are on permanent display at the historical society in the Old Red Mill in Jericho.   "He had the mind of a scientist and the soul of a poet," says Sue Richardson, Bentley's great-grand-niece, wh...

Susan Leader is a well-known potter based in Andover, where she grew up at the base of Terrible Mountain. 

In 1950, Susan's parents moved to Andover and settled at Popplewood Farm, where she spent her childhood. 

Today, she lives on a piece of land her parents left her just up the road from her childhood home. 

In this episode, we talk about Terrible Mountain, Susan's unconventional upbringing, and how she has found community in th...

Steve Farrow grew up in Holland, Vermont and now lives in Newport in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

Steve studied at UVM in the 1980s and his master’s thesis focused on Vermont place names. He now teacher geography at Community College of Vermont.

In this Happy Vermont podcast episode, Steve and host Erica Houskeeper talk about Vermont place names and lost names like Elysiana, Hurricane and Jefferson County. They also explore Vermont...

Mike Snyder of Stowe was Vermont’s Commissioner of Forests, Parks and Recreation for over a decade before leaving his post in December 2022.

He’s now working as an independent consultant. Mike and host Erica Houskeeper met up at Brownsville Forest in Stowe to talk about fall foliage, forest health, and what it's like living in a popular tourist town.

Glenn Fay of Burlington is an author, historian and seventh-generation Vermonter. He’s also a descendant of one of the Green Mountain Boys.

Glenn wrote Hidden History of Burlington Vermont and has a new book out, Ambition of the Remarkable Family of Ethan Allen. On a sunny day in July, we met at the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum in Burlington, where Glenn serves as a board me...

Traveling east on Route 118 along the Trout River is a nostalgic scene with covered bridges, barns and mountain views. After a few bends in the road, a clear view of the Montgomery Center for the Arts unfolds.

The Greek Revival building was empty the first time Sebastian Araujo saw it when he and his partner moved to town from Provincetown, Mass. The iconic building, perched at the intersection of Main ...

Artist and entrepreneur Stacy Harshman was living in New York and looking for a change. She Googled "nature, therapy, community, work and mountains" and landed in Vermont. 

Seven years ago, she started the Sparkle Barn in Wallingford, which has become a wildly popular destination in this small town in Rutland County. The Sparkle Barn is a gift shop and art installation locat...

Outdoor recreation is breathing new life into Poultney, which is home to Lake St. Catherine, the Poultney River, the Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail and Slate Valley Trails.

James Johnson lives off the grid in a yurt on land once owned by his grandmother. He's also the founder of the Fifth Season Race and Ride, a quirky mud season ride where participants ride around to local sugarhouses. 

In this episode of Happy Vermont, James John...