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Vermont is one of the toughest places in the country to buy a house. Demand far exceeds supply here — so much so that the median price of an existing home has doubled in the last decade, to more than $200,000. If you’re in the market for something brand new, expect to pay in the neighborhood of $320,000, on average, according to the Vermont Housing Awareness Campaign.... Read more

Roam the aisles of your local natural foods store, or even your supermarket, and you’ll find bottle after bottle of household products that claim to be “green.” Kitchen cleaners and dishwashing liquids — packaged in tasteful, earthy tones from moss to hunter — beckon from the shelves with siren words: Eco-friendly. Natural. Pure.

But just because a product claims to be safe for the environment doesn’t always mean it is.... Read more

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

Putney Road in Brattleboro is a busy, traffic-choked, multi-lane highway that runs parallel to the tranquil Connecticut River. It’s the kind of strip where you’d expect to find a Home Depot — and for the next seven weeks you wouldn’t be disappointed. After that, the hardware behemoth is shutting down. It’s one of 15 Home Depots around the country that, for one reason or another, didn’t make the financial grade.... Read more

Every localvore knows the feeling that settles in around early spring: It's been five months since you agreed to eat food grown close to home, but your social conscience is only so patient. You find yourself sneaking guilty glances at the salad section of the grocery store.

The mesclun is still from California. But to succumb now — to purchase out-of-state roughage — would be unconscionable. Which makes you wonder: How do ethical eaters craft off-season meals that are both tasty and non-masochistic?... Read more

Strolling around his Burlington property, Jon Normandin identifies edible plant species like an experienced field guide. Dressed in navy workpants and a red-and-white flannel shirt, the white-haired IBM employee points out peach, plum, pear and cherry trees covered in delicate white flowers; blueberries and cranberry plants; pungent-smelling Egyptian "walking" onions, and herbs such as anise and tarragon. Next to his loamy vegetable garden, in the asparagus patch, plump green spears have pushed through the still-cold spring soil. These plants are just a sampling of Normandin's productivity.... Read more

The Salmonella colonies on my kitchen counter could kill me - assuming the sight of cat litter scattered on the carpet doesn't do me in first. If I'm lucky, fungi that vaguely resemble oyster mushrooms won't sprout on the bathroom floor, the way they did in one of my old apartments.... Read more

About half a mile down the road from Shelburne Orchards, in a clearing bordered by sumacs and white birches, James Gabriel and Ian Hagan hold their breath. It's a sleepy Wednesday afternoon in late April, and these beekeepers have driven up from Champlain Valley Apiaries in Middlebury for a routine inspection of 36 colonies. A few yards off, maple trees - like the good pollen givers they are - prepare to bud.... Read more

Maybe it's not foreordained that a Jew born on December 25 should become a carpenter, but that's how things have turned out for Raphael Groten. Born 32 Christmases ago in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Groten is the founder of Barnoire, a two-man firm that transforms the remnants of broken-down barns into custom-built furniture. He got the idea five years ago while working as a contractor "to bring in bread for my family," Groten says. One of his clients asked him to build an armoire using use wood from a dismantled barn on her property.

Barn + armoire = Barnoire. Voila!... Read more

There aren't many summer vegetable stands in Burlington, but the city's neighborhoods boast a variety of roadside produce. Corn, cucumbers and tomatoes have sprouted in the city's greenbelts -- those narrow slivers of dirt between sidewalk and street -- as have clusters of boisterously blooming flowers.... Read more