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Packed in quart-sized Baggies, the stuff looks rich, crumbly and decidedly illegal. But the label states otherwise: It’s nutrient-rich humus, a.k.a. Premium Quality Worm Castings — the end product, literally, of thousands of red worms, also known as red wigglers, tiger worms, manure worms, stink worms, fish worms, dung worms, fecal worms and striped worms.... Read more

You’ve no doubt noticed how awful life is here in Vermont. Awful and getting worse, what with wages so low and prices so high — especially the sale price of a nice house, or the rent on a decent apartment.

You’ve noticed because the newspapers and the radio and television keep telling you. Across the political spectrum, important people keep proclaiming our woes, especially Gov. James Douglas, who has made “affordability,” or lack thereof, the dominant theme of his tenure.... Read more

Susan Hansen doesn’t work behind a smoked-glass door with her name etched on it. Nor does she swill coffee while snapping photos from a Town Car. The Warren-based private investigator and mom drives a station wagon with two car seats in the back, sips herbal tea and lives in a “crazy tree house” on Prickly Mountain.... Read more

For such a small state, Vermont sure has a lot of ties to Russia. Middlebury College boasts one of the top Russian-language schools in the world. Project Harmony, a Waitsfield-based NGO, has been coordinating professional and student exchanges with Russia since 1985. Exiled Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spent 17 years in Cavendish.... Read more

In an infamous 1989 article in Harper’s, author Tom Wolfe referred to the world as the “billion-footed beast.” That metaphor is colorful, but these days it’s far from accurate: With about 6.6 billion people on the planet, humanity is closer to a 13-billion-footed beast — and growing larger every day. Census estimates indicate that the human population will reach nine billion by 2050. All those people will need a place to live, a place to work, and transport between them.... Read more

Rob Williams has never liked nation states. In fact, the newspaper he edits, Vermont Commons, has asked Vermonters to consider “peaceably seceding from the United States Empire.”

So when Williams receives his “economic stimulus” check from the federal treasury this spring, he won’t spend it at a corporate chain or, as George W. Bush has suggested, make a mortgage payment.

He will put it toward his new yak farm.... Read more

April is cruel, all right, but meteorology can’t explain why the top block of Church Street currently looks more like poor Plattsburgh than boomtown Burlington.... Read more

On a Wednesday afternoon, folks driving through Jericho on Route 15 may notice an easel standing by the side of the road that reads something like: Chicken pot pie, spinach lasagna, beef stew, macaroni and cheese. Above it hangs a more permanent sign: "Welcome Kitchen Catering. Homemade meals to go Wednesday."... Read more

‘Tis the season to pick routes carefully, thanks to gaping, post-winter potholes that pock greater Burlington’s highways and byways. At the city’s Department of Public Works, three customer-service agents handle the flood of complaints from drivers who are fed up with being shook up. Hinesburg’s Valerie Beaudry, 39, has answered calls since 1999, while Charlene Orton of South Burlington, 40, has been part of the team since 2000.

Recently, Seven Days steered the pair into a discussion of pavement problems.... Read more

Jon and Lucie Fath, who own Toscano restaurant in Richmond, budget a sizeable portion of their revenue every year to advertising. So do John and Elizabeth Hughes, co-owners of The Storm Café in Middlebury.

But neither couple is so eager for business that they’ll buy advertising from just anyone. So, when a man called from out of state, offering top-shelf display space on a new Burlington city map, they were skeptical.

“My first instinct was, get off the phone,” Elizabeth Hughes recalls. “He was a real fast talker.”... Read more