We just got home from a rather quick trip to Vermont. It is somewhat difficult to find times that work for our schedules and the work schedules my son and his wife keep so even though it wasn’t too long of a trip, we decided to go for it. Basically we had two long travel days and 3 1/2 days of family time squeezed in between.This is the second time I have been to Vermont. The first was last spring at the beginning of April. Much of the snow had only recently melted off so the landscape was still recovering from a crazy winter. We got lucky with this trip though. The leaves are all turning color and it was just gorgeous. Two sunny days and one day of very windy, chilly weather.
Saturday we walked the local Farmer’s Market which is always fun. I love to see what they are able to grow in an area when we are visiting. Plus this Farmer’s Market has a lot of food booths (our local market doesn’t have nearly as many) so we sampled our way through. Best find of the morning was surely the dark chocolate and cherry soft pretzels. Oh my gosh, they were incredible. Ray and I decided that we need to try to replicate these. I also tried these ‘husk cherries’ that look like tiny tomatillos and, to me anyway, had basically no flavor at all. Certainly nothing resembling a cherry flavor?
We spent the afternoon driving through Stowe and then back home via Smuggler’s Notch. This is a mountain pass through the Green Mountains. It was named for the times when Vermonters were smuggling trade with Montreal, Canada because President Benjamin Franklin had declared a trade embargo between the US and Canada in the early 1800’s to prevent America’s involvement in the Napoleonic Wars. It was also used by slaves to escape to Canada and later than that as a route for smuggling liquor in from Canada during the Prohibition. A whole lot of historical activity has occurred over this gorgeous, incredibly narrow, mountain pass.
Julia took this picture as we drove. Gorgeous trees. On the way home, my DIL suggested we stop at Poorhouse Pies. This is a little pie stand a few miles off the highway, in Underhill, Vermont. Who would turn pie down?? The place was adorable.
Poorhouse Pies is run by two women, Jamie and Paula. They opened their business in 2009 and make pies daily (every single day!) and sell them to a few local markets as well as at their home. I love this place because they rely solely on the honesty of people. They put the pies (full size and little hand pies) in a refrigerator in the shed and there is a lock box above. The prices are listed and people slip the money into the lock box. You don’t see a whole lot of this sort of thing anymore!
The walls of the inside of the shed were covered in little notes from many visitors.
This girl is ready for pie!
Oh my gosh, the pie was delicious. We had blueberry pie and we all thought it was really tasty.
Later that night Andrew and I watched a clip of an interview with the Poorhouse Pie owners. Responding to a question about the honesty of their customers, they replied that they knew of only two times where pies had been taken without payment. Both times were on the last day of school and they figured some high school kids decided they needed pie. For the most part though, their customers are very honest and generous, leaving more money than the pies cost. This warms my heart.
We had such a nice day. I was really impressed with my grand daughter. At seven months old, she is one of the most easy-going infants around.
Sweetest baby ever!
She was out and about with us all day long and didn’t fuss until the very end of the day. She is delightful.
Knuckle dimples!
OK – that is enough for now. I need to get the laundry going as there are piles of it to be dealt with. Julia still has two more days of Fall Break. She and I are heading to the zoo this morning. She is in the midst of a primate unit in Anthropology and wants to go check out the monkeys with new perspective. I have more on this trip because we spent an awesome afternoon at the Shelburne Museum where there is a….. quilt exhibit!!! I will share that in a separate post.
Leaving you now with an adorable baby-on-a-quilt picture. What better way to end a post??
Love this post! Two of the sweetest things on earth: a baby, and pie!
Love the hours of operation on the pie shed. I hope they provided forks and napkins for eating on the road :o)
What a fun post, Bernie! And that baby on a quilt picture is the best one I’ve seen in a long time. Perfect ending to your post! 🙂
Happiness abounds in this post! And why not — a beautiful place to visit, time spent with family, an adorable granddaughter, and pie! I would’ve had a difficult time choosing what flavor. Very cool idea, I found our visit to Maine interesting in that we never locked our cabin during our entire stay, even when we were gone for the whole day. It’s just a thing out there, apparently. So cool. Glad you had a wonderful visit (sorry about the laundry – ha!).
It is so nice to see different parts of the country- each one offers something different. We really enjoyed our time with the kids-it was wonderful.☺️
Great post! I loved hearing about the pies. I came across a farm in Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia who did the same thing except with baskets of fresh picked corn. Nice to get some family time. Awesome baby and quilt shot.
Thanks Linda! My son and his wife are both great with the camera so I enjoy tons of pictures of this little girl. Especially love this quilt picture tho!
Sounds like a fun trip! We lived in Boston and New Hampshire for a long time and miss seeing the fall colors. I’m jealous you got to see them this year!
It was a wonderful trip! The scenery was just post card perfect!
That looks like so much fun. My lifelong dream has been to go to New England in the fall. I could sure go for one of those Double Chocolate pies…..sigh.
Your granddaughter is adorable. I have a new great granddaughter who is more adorable than any of my kids ever was. Unfortunately, they live in Nebraska, and I live in the San Diego area. 8-(
I really enjoy your posts!
It is such a bummer to live so far from family. I live in California and have one son living in Toronto and another in Vermont. It makes getting together a lot less frequent then I would like. Hope you get to see your great grand baby now and then.❤️
What a wonderful time of year to visit Vermont! Your granddaughter is just beautiful…I want to give her a big squeezy hug! And pie…I love pie. I grew up on my Grandma’s pies. Yum! We stopped at a pie shop somewhere near Cape Cod that I remember fondly. If I’m travelling I always stop for pie! 🙂
We felt so fortunate to hit such a beautiful time in the fall season for this visit. I also remember my grandma’s pie- one grandma made a fantastic lemon merengue pie and the other made wonderful fruit pies with whatever was in season. Great memories!
A great way to end your post! Your grand daughter is gorgeous and I’m sure YOU made the quilt she is lying on!
I enjoyed the story of the Poorhouse Pies! Nice to know most people in the world are honest!
Sue, glad you enjoyed the post. I did make the baby’s quilt and it is so sweet to see it put into use. ❤️
Hi Bernie,
I had to pop over to comment on your granddaughter. Oh my goodness – isn’t she precious?!! That little hand – don’t you just want to grab it and kiss it. And her?! She looks like she was a good traveler and open to all the newness around her. That pie looks fab, too! ~smile~ Roseanne
Hi Roseanne, thanks for the sweet comment. My granddaughter is such a source of joy. I enjoyed every bit of our time with her and already (after being home only a few days) cannot wait to go back!!
What a lovely post, Bernie. If I have seen a baby more cute than your adorable little granddaughter, I sure do not remember. Knuckle dimples are too die for!!!
Poorhouse Pies is such a heart-warming story, especially today when the world is going bat-shit crazy.
Thanks Preeti- she is a delight. I agree with your sentiments- the Poorhouse Pie business is confirmation that society isn’t all bad. There are still nice, honest people ☺️
My favorite post this morning! So glad you are able to enjoy seeing your little bundle of joy. She is precious!!! (I just want to hug her!)
She is quite the huggable baby Val. So much to hug! But really, she is just the happiest baby. We enjoyed our time with her. 🙂
Beautiful scenic shots ; so much color there right now. Love the pie story !! What an attractive little shed and nice to hear that everyone is honest . Your granddaughter is just adorable!
Thanks Deb. We had such a nice time. I hope sometime down the road we can live in closer proximity so we can enjoy the grands — you are so fortunate to have yours so close by! <3
That baby-on-quilt picture is adorable! She looks so cuddly! I’m so glad you got to spend time with her, and that you got some pie, too! Sounds like a wonderful trip.
I love that picture. I think I will print a copy – I have another photo of her on the quilt when she was just 5 or 6 weeks. She is so different now and she keeps changing daily.
Wonderful Vermont pictures, we spent a lovely vacation there in October some years ago. Yummy pies!
That pie shed is awesome! It’s wonderful to know that places like that still exist. There used to be a fruit farm down the road that worked on the same principal. He had prices listed per gallon & a lock box to pay at. They had blueberries, blackberries, & Mayhaws. After he passed, his family decided not to keep the fruit trees & bushes & cut everything down. So sad! Your granddaughter is a cutie pie! 🙂
I have never heard of Mayhaws. What are they? Sad that his tradition ended. 😟