OUTINGS
Pick-your-own
cherries heat up
Sour cherries glow a translucent rue cherry-red among the tree
branches and make for festive picking.
Several orchards around the state are
now offering pick-your-own in July.
Usually too tart to eat out of hand, these
cherries cook up into fantastic pies,
cobblers and crisps, and go beautifully
with rich meats like pork and duck.
At Mad Tom Orchard in East
Dorset, pick-your-own season comes
with bonus views of the Taconic Range
from the 75-year-old fruit orchard where
Tom and Sylvia Smith tend about 50
sour cherry trees, including the classic
Montmorency and, newer to the United
States, a sweeter variety called Balaton.
Other orchards with sour cherry trees
include Allenholm and Hackett’s in
South Hero, Champlain Orchards in
Shoreham, Shelburne Orchards and
Burtt’s in Cabot. Call or check websites
for harvest timing and availability.
NEW RESTAURANTS
Von Trapp Brewing
Bierhall in Stowe
The German word gemütlichkeit means a place that
is cozy and welcoming with a warm,
communal feeling, explains Sam von
Trapp. It was a guiding principle for the
newest eating and drinking destination
on the Stowe property where the von
Trapps of “Sound of Music” fame have
welcomed guests since 1950.
Their new bierhall embraces both the
family’s heritage and the craft-beer wave.
A multilevel observation deck from the
airy high-ceilinged bierhall offers a view
into the state-of-the-art brewery, which
can produce up to 50,000 barrels annually. Wraparound glassed decks and an
outdoor biergarten look out on Mount
Mansfield and, in summer, the disc golf
course and mountain biking trails. “We
wanted to try to replicate the Austrian
bierhall with a real focus on aesthetics
that connect with nature,” continues von
Trapp, who works closely with his father,
Johannes von Trapp, the American-born
youngest of the Trapp Family Singers.
The family’s line of award-winning
beers focuses, naturally, on Bavarian,
south German and Austrian styles. “My
dad had always wondered why there
were not more craft-brewed lagers,” Sam
von Trapp says. “He loves the crisp, clean
lager back in Austria.” Beer flights are a
fun way to taste the range from the classic flagship Helles to Sam’s favorite Vienna amber lager to an IPL (India pale
lager) for hop-forward fans.
Many of the dishes are cooked over
a wood-fired grill, like the very good trio
of wursts, including bratwurst made in-house with pork raised on the property.
The beef for the Johannes Burger is also
raised on the von Trapp farm as are the
Food & Drink
Women have key farm
leadership roles at Hildene,
the Lincoln Family Home.
BELOW Just-picked cherries
from Mad Tom Orchard.
BOTTOM A view from above:
von Trapp’s new bierhall.
summer 2017 • 31
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