I’m soooo behind in blog posts! How was your summer? How is it that it’s already over?! This summer was filled with weekends far away from the city. Cape Cod, Nantucket, Portland, and my favorite of all, Burlington, Vermont. Everything is greener, the air is crisp, and the food is fresher because most of it is sourced from local farms.
Our first stop on the way to Burlington, Vermont was at King Arthur Flour. What a beautiful place! One side of the building has an education center where you can take all sorts of baking classes. I’d love to go back sometime for one! On the other side of the building is an enormous King Arthur Flour store, which you can find every single flour under the sun. (Well, at least it seems that way!) There’s also a cool cafe to pick up lunch, or a sweet treat.
Continuing our trek up north, how could we possibly *not* tour Ben and Jerry’s?
So many flavors! We got to see how all the milk, cream, and sugar get combined together with candy, fudge, and other fixings to create your favorite Ben and Jerry’s flavors. After having a sample of their new salted caramel ice cream, I had to indulge in a full serving!
Next stop was at Magic Hat Brewery. It’s unlike any other brewery tour I’ve been on. After watching a really fun film about the company, you walk though a self guided tour of the brewery. It basically involves standing on a platform above the production floor, looking at this:
There are multiple computer screens on the viewing platform that allow you to identify each piece of equipment, and learn how the brewing and bottling process happens. We were lucky to be there on a bottling day, so the floor was full of activity!
One of the most fantastic meals we had in Burlington was at Sweetwaters. There are a ton of restaurants in downtown Burlington which offer gluten-free menus, but we especially enjoyed Sweetwaters. There was just something about the food in Burlington… Everything was so incredibly fresh because ingredients are sourced from local farms, which are identified on the menus. Fresher ingredients means better tasting food. Bacon wrapped scallops? Yes, please!
We were slowly running out of time in Burlington, and we really wanted to do two things – go for a hike, and visit a farm. So we did a little of both at Shelburne Farms. Shelburne Farms is a non-profit education organization with a 1,400 acre working farm on Lake Champlain. We walked about a half mile in before taking in the beautiful views and petting some really adorable farm animals.
Can I go back now? Please?