Craftsbury, VT
Diversions

There's a lot to see and do – or nothing to see and do – in the Northeast Kingdom , depending on your point of view. The scenery varies from low-key to spectacular. This remains an essentially rural, old-fashioned area where folks meet at the general stores or at the farmer’s market (Saturday mornings in season on Craftsbury Common). Church suppers and band concerts are the social gatherings of importance.

All kinds of sports and educational pursuits are offered on the property and under the auspices of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. Walking, running, hiking, bicycling, sculling, cross-country skiing, horseback riding – you name it, they've got it.

Craftsbury Common is a wonderful hilltop town with a serene common and an institutional presence lent by Craftsbury Academy, the state's smallest public high school and one of the town's drawing cards for newcomers, and Sterling College, the nation's smallest degree-granting, accredited college with about 70 students involved in environmental studies.

Another must-see spot is scenic Darling Hill Road in Lyndonville and East Burke. The ridge is lined with stately farms and manicured estates, with views of Burke Mountain on one side and Willoughby Gap on the other. Elmer Darling’s former mansion once served as a men’s dormitory for Lyndon State College. He was a benefactor of the college on Vail Hill, along with friend Theodore N. Vail, first president of AT&T.

Music. The Craftsbury Chamber Players are in such demand that they cross the state on a pre-season tour and share their talents with audiences in Burlington and Burke Mountain each summer. They're in residence at the Town House in Hardwick from mid-July to mid-August, playing Thursday evenings at 8. They also give free afternoon mini-concerts “for children and their friends” in Hardwick, at the East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church and the Greensboro Fellowship Hall. The annual Summer Music from Greensboro series takes place in the Church of Christ sanctuary and the Greensboro Fellowship Hall. The Greensboro Association has sponsored concerts on a dock at Caspian Lake every summer Sunday at 7:30 for nearly 50 years. The signature scene in Craftsbury Common is the summer band concerts in the bandshell on the common Sunday nights at 7 in July and August. Those who remain in their vehicles honk their horns if they like what they hear.

Gardens. Gardeners in the know flock to Perennial Pleasures Nursery in East Hardwick , where two acres of perennial and herb gardens are on display and English cream tea is served by reservation on the lawns outside the Brick House, a one-time Victorian B&B, Tuesday-Sunday from noon to 4. Old-fashioned, hardy perennial flowers and herbs from the 17th to 19th centuries are the specialties. Gardeners also seek out places like Stone's Throw Gardens in Craftsbury for hardy perennials, including heritage roses and lilies, displayed on several levels around a restored 1795 farmhouse, against stone walls and in fields strewn with flowers. Other favorites for rare varieties are Vermont Daylilies and Dooryard Lilacs in Greensboro .

Shopping. There's not much of it, but what there is is interesting. Willey's in the center of Greensboro is a general store to end all general stores. Celebrating its 100th birthday in 2000, this local institution is a ramble of rooms, with three levels of hardware and housewares, a rear meat market and grocery and an upstairs for clothing. It's the kind of place where you'll find an open box of dog biscuits sandwiched between a display case of Timex watches and a crate of peaches. Across the aisle are shelves of chewing tobacco. Bulletin boards on either side of the entry dispense fascinating information. One poster announced a public forum on the future of Greensboro , “Condos or Cupolas?” Across the street is The Miller's Thumb, two levels of gifts built around a chute opening onto the basement mill and waterfall. The selection of colorful Italian pottery, antique pine furniture and specialty foods here is exceptional.

The center of East Burke has several shops of interest. Penny candy, Vermont specialty foods, country clothing, crafts and more are offered at the with-it Bailey’s & Burke Country Store. Across the street, mountain bikes, canoes, kayaks, clothing and sports accessories are available at East Burke Sports. Eclectic crafts, gifts and collectibles are the forte of Lasso the Moon. Three styles of beers and tours are offered at the Trout River Brewing Company in Lyndonville.

Circus Smirkus, 1 Circus Road , Greensboro .

Circus Smirkus, an incredible youth acrobatic and clown circus that tours New England each summer, is based in a farm meadow and barn in Greensboro . Rob Mermin, who ran off to Europe to apprentice himself to circus life and eventually became director of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, founded the summer camp and touring troupe in 1987 to give youngsters aged 10 to 18 a chance to run away to their own, well disciplined circus. The camp is held on the Sterling College campus in Craftsbury. The touring troupe presents its season opening and closing shows in a 700-seat, one-ring big top in Greensboro between twice-weekly jaunts for seven weeks in July and August across New England.

(802) 533-7443. www.smirkus.org. Tour and show schedule varies annually.

Cabot Creamery, 2870 Main St. , Cabot.

If this area has a real, live tourist attraction, this is it. Upwards of 350 people on busy days visit the Cabot Farmers' Cooperative Creamery, begun in 1919 when 94 dairy farmers founded the original creamery plant to churn butter. Today, nearly 500 Vermont farmers sell milk to the creamery, which produces twenty to thirty tons of cheese daily. Its sharp Vermont cheddar won top honors in the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin , which considers itself the home of American cheddar, and it is sold at Harrods in London . Following a video presentation, visitors leave on guided tours of the manufacturing plant. Through windows into the production areas you can watch many of the 250 employees as they separate the curds from the whey, mold the cheese into 42-pound blocks and package it for aging in the huge uphill warehouse. The half-hour tour tells you all you might want to know about cheese. At tour's end, you get to sample low-fat, jalapeño, sharp and extra-sharp varieties to spur sales in the gift shop. The visitor center is dedicated to the unheralded role of farm women everywhere.

(802) 563-2231 or (800) 837-4261. Tours daily every half hour, 9 to 5, June-October, Monday-Saturday 9 to 4, February-May and November-December. No cheese production on Sunday and one day at midweek. Adults, $1.

Extra-Special

Old Stone House Museum , 28 Old Stone House Road , Brownington.

This charming place is part of the out-of-the-way Brownington Village Historic District, a time warp listed on the National Register. The impressive structure lives up to its billing as "the rarest kind of museum: a building as fascinating as the collection it houses." The four-story structure was built stone by stone in the 1830s by the Rev. Alexander Twilight, who is believed to have been America 's first black college graduate (Middlebury) and its first black legislator, and his neighbors. The school in which he taught the region's school children for two decades is history, but the 30-room monument still instructs and inspires. It's filled with antiques and memorabilia displayed by the Orleans County Historical Society. You can see Alexander Twilight's desk and Bible there.

(802) 754-2022. Open Wednesday-Sunday 11 to 5 , mid-May through mid-October. Adults, $5.

Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in New England, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2004.

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