Summer 2008
Sharing the Wealth
Minted in the Gilded Age, Shelburne Farms anticipated the 21st-century food movement
By Nancy Humphrey Case
Photographed by Orah Moore
On a sunny day in June, two young families board a tractor-pulled wagon outside the Welcome Center at Shelburne Farms and head off along a dirt road on one of Vermont's most cherished landscapes. To the east, the 1,400-acre grounds are framed by the Green Mountains, and to the west lie rolling vistas, where scattered evergreens meet Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. As the wagon makes its way, the sweet fragrance of hay drifts up from neat rows in a broad field.
Soon, around a bend, appears the Farm Barn, one of four architectural masterpieces built here during the Gilded Age. A majestic structure wrapping around a two-acre courtyard, the barn is today — like most days — a place where the happy sounds of delighted children can be heard as they see farm animals up close and explore the ties between food, the land and people.
Children of all ages come to Shelburne Farms for summer camps and school field trips, educational workshops and community programs, or maybe just to stroll its stunning grounds. Multifaceted and hard to pigeonhole, this National Historic
Landmark is both a working farm and nonprofit environmental education center. Its stated purpose is to cultivate "a conservation ethic and, as vice president and program director Megan Camp puts it: "The focus of all the programs here is education.
The roots of Shelburne Farms' mission trace back to the 1880s, when Lila Vanderbilt Webb and William Seward Webb of New York City fell in love with the landscape on Shelburne Point and built a grand estate and model agricultural farm on it. Each succeeding generation of Webbs developed an equally strong attachment to the land and, maybe because of this, they held onto it longer than most Gilded Age families, whose estates began to deteriorate by the mid-20th century.
In 1969, however, Derick Webb, grandson of William and Lila, gathered his family on the south porch of their hilltop mansion and announced a fateful decision: The property would have to be developed.
The six children, ages 11 to 23, protested, and vowed to keep the land in agriculture. The first generation of Webbs to live at Shelburne Farms year-round, they had assimilated the farm's sweeping vistas, pastoral life and magical woodlands into their bloodstream.
Determined to protect the Shelburne Farms landscape, the Webb children in 1970 started an environmental day camp, dug a big garden, and sold produce at the Burlington Farmers' Market. They got callouses on their hands and dirt under their fingernails improving the buildings, too. By 1984, Derick Webb was preparing to turn the property over to the nonprofit venture, and over time various other enterprises were launched that helped turn the farm around financially: a cheesemaking business, a mansion-turned-inn, concerts and other special events (see box).
"We all wanted not just to preserve the beauty here, but to make a contribution to environmental issues, says Alec Webb, who now serves as president of Shelburne Farms.
Today, with its education programs as the foundation, new partnerships are being sparked that extend the reach of Shelburne Farms. Community-based food systems are supported through Vermont Food Education Every Day (see sidebar), and other joint efforts include the Sustainable Schools Project, which engages students in improving the quality of life in their communities, and the Forest for Every Classroom Program, a partnership with the National Wildlife Federation, the National Park Service and the National Forest Service.
Marshall Webb, who grew up on the farm and now acts as woodlands and special projects manager, says: "The whole reason for doing all that work on the place was to share it with people. A
New school ties
As Shelburne Farms extends its reach in Vermont, one of its most notable successes has been Vermont Food Education Every Day, also known as Vermont FEED — a farm-to-school program now in its sixth year and 10th school.
Joining with two other nonprofits, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont and Food Works at Two Rivers Center, the program strives to "cultivate links between the classrooms, cafeterias, local farms and communities.
At Hardwick Elementary School in Caledonia County, for instance, students will go on a visit in June to nearby Sweetgrass Farm. The farmer, Jodi Lew-Smith, will explain that her organic farm is a system — a cycle of grass, cows, manure and apples. The kids will spread compost in the garden, and plant onions, beets and other vegetables.
In the fall, the teacher's new class will return to the farm to harvest what the kids planted. The harvest will then be taken to the school cafeteria, where it will end up being eaten in school lunches. Hardwick schoolchildren also grow herbs and vegetables in raised beds outside their classrooms, and help plan nutritious cafeteria meals using as much local food as possible.
Val Simmons, food service manager for Hardwick Elementary, overflows with enthusiasm for the program.
"It's a lot easier to take chicken nuggets out of the freezer and open up a can of pears, she admits. "But we're learning and the kids are learning.
Simmons says the kids started planting vegetables four years ago, bringing in hundreds of pounds of squashes. "We made squash and pumpkin puree and froze it in five-pound plastic containers. We made breads, muffins and soups from it.
More cooking is also going on in classrooms, she says. "It used to be that the kitchen would make cookies for the fall open house. For the last three years the classrooms themselves made snacks — zucchini bread and apple cake.
But will the program really be able to change kids' eating habits?
"If kids own it, touch it, have any part of it, they will eat it, Simmons says. "We sold out of asparagus one day.
— Nancy Humphrey Case
Menu of Events
Shelburne Farms has an array of events and programs throughout the year. Here are highlights through mid-October. For full details, call (802) 985-8686 or visit www.shelburnefarms.org. To make reservations at the Inn at Shelburne Farms, call (802) 985-8498.
- Tour the grounds to refresh the soul. A ride in a shaded wagon includes stops at the inn (public rooms and formal gardens) and the Farm Barn (farm animals and cheesemaking).
- Take a hike to Lone Tree Hill, the site originally chosen for a larger house that was never built, and enjoy Derick Webb's favorite scenic vista.
- Attend a special event such as the annual Art Exhibition and Sale, Harvest Festival, Calf Open House, Terrific Tractors and Draft Horse Field Day.
- Listen to live classical music on the lawn of the Inn at Shelburne Farms as the sun sets over the Adirondack Mountains.
- Make a reservation for an afternoon tour of the inn, which includes tea with finger sandwiches and scrumptious pastries (Tuesdays and Thursdays only).
- Dine at the inn and spend the night in one of the gracious, historic bedrooms that overlook the lake.
- Explore and enjoy the well-groomed Farm Trail that winds among fields and woodlands to the lake.
- Bring young children to a Saturday family program designed to delight kids with experiences such as milking a cow, collecting treasures from the forest, or holding a lamb.
- Participate in a rejuvenating weekend workshop for adults. Get pampered with fresh, local food and enjoy comfortable, scenic accommodations as you learn about topics such as geology, birds and photography.
- If you're an educator, attend a workshop to learn fun, hands-on activities from Shelburne Farms' education activities guide "Project Seasons."
