Where are they now???

Bread and Butter Farms, Store

Well we made it!  We officially moved into our new place on April 1 and have only a few boxes left which are going out of my life and into storage this weekend.  This place is really neat, our neighbors are nice, they are college students but not loud and fun to talk to.  We can walk to the main area within minutes and also to the co-op (which we are now proud members of!) we can also walk to the lake which we did last weekend to watch an amazing sunset.

Everyone keeps asking about the weather here, it's great!  I hate heat so the slightly cooler temperatures are perfect for me.  NO it has not snowed since we've been here, we moved to Vermont, not the north pole for pete's sake!

We have even managed to make a couple of friends and have been spreading our soaps and business cards about town which has all been very well received.

Last weekend was pretty neat, we decided to skip the farmer's market and go straight to one of the farms.  It was pretty cool, only about 15 minutes from our place and they have a little farm store set up which runs on the honor system (how cool is that?)  We were able to buy fresh raw milk which came out of ol' Bessy just that morning, we also bought a fresh loaf of bread, farm fresh eggs and some meats which looked just divine.  Then we wrote down what we purchased and paid for it.....amazing concept the honor system.

The milk came in a glass jar, it was really neat.  I tried very unsuccessfully to make butter, it seems my homesteading skills are still lacking, but it was fun to try (frusterating......that's more the word i need here.)  The milk tasted quite good, the eggs were wonderful, the meat amazing and well who can beat FRESH BREAD? I also took some of the milk and made soap with it which I am very excited about, it seems like it will be quite bubbly due to the extra goodness (proteins and fats) in the milk.

It's just the most darling red barn!

The co-op is equally as interesting, it is called Onion River Co-Op (how cute it that?) the fruit and veggie section is SO colorful, it's like a big healthy rainbow, i just love it!  Then there is a "bulk foods" section.......you bag your own spices, teas, flours, honey's nut butters, oats.....you name it then place a twisty tie with the bin number on it so you can be charged appropriately.....it's amazing, I could stand there all day and daydream about the herbs and spices.  Aside from these two fun areas, there is a nice wine/beer section, big seafood and meat departments and of course a cheese/deli type department.  Oh and also an awesome prepared foods section, we have not indulged yet but we may.

Our last and newest discovery is a place called Chicken Charlie's, it is apparently one of the founder's of Ben and Jerry's favorite places and I think it may now be ours too.  We ordered from there on a whim and OMG it's unbelievable......only in VT can you order "fast food" (and they deliver) and it will be chicken that comes right off of a healthy farm.....and mac n cheese where the cheese also is fresh off the farm.  It was the most amazing delivery food i have ever had!  And just moving from NYC that's saying ALOT!  Oh and the gravy......the gravy was unforgettable.

Sunset over lake Champlain

Well we ave many more adventures to go on up here in our new town so stay tuned for the fun.:)

Take care
~CM

From city mouse to country mouse?

Church Street Market Place, Burlington, VT

So this little mousey family is moving out of Brooklyn in 2 days.  Where are we going you might be asking?  We are moving to the great wild north of Burlington Vermont.  We found a great place right on the main drag and also have the convenience of being in the middle of the countryside within minutes, completely a win win for us! 

I have decided that I do not like packing and hope to only have to do it once or twice more in my LIFETIME!  Our life is currently in shambles with boxes, furniture and crap strewn about, we are quickly running out of room to do even simple things like sit down and watch a little tele.  Two more days, just two more days and we are blowing this popsicle stand!  Good bye Brooklyn, good bye over abundance of dust, good bye to moving the car every day to avoid getting a ticket, good bye strange, unhappy and just plain crazy people.  Good bye to it all.

Do I regret moving here?  Not at all, this place has taught me many life lessons which I will always hold close to my heart.  While here I got engaged and married to the man of my dreams, I started a company which I am deeply passionate about and am enjoying watching it grow as if it were a child. I enhanced my current career and feel that I can take it even further with my new found perspective.  Outside of the working world I found a love for writing, cooking and farmers markets which I doubt I would have found elsewhere.  My husband has become an exceptional cook and inspires me to compete with him which is fun and stretches my creative abilities as well as my pallet. 

All in all it's been a fun ride, but I am ready to get off this roller coaster and enjoy life at a bit of a slower pace for while.  Burlington will be an exciting new adventure which will take me to new heights in life that I cannot wait to experience. 

Until next time my friends
~Country Mouse