November 25, 2014December 12, 2019newsletters, Thornhill Farm

November Newsletter 2014

Building a sustainable Caledonia Cooperage

We have gathered white oak in the Champlain Valley of Vermont to make barrels. Each log is over 100 years old and grows very slowly in this cool climate, the northern limit of the white oak. Because of the national barrel shortage, we started this project to make barrels, and this required a forester to find white oak, a sawyer to quarter saw the wood, and a cooper to make the barrels. This will allow us to support our farm partners and use more organic rye and corn.

The harvest of these logs in the woods is very carefully mapped out. The consulting forester, my brother-in-law Joe Nelson, has a long term relationship with this land and family.

Below is a healthy forest after logging: hemlock on the left, pines in the background, and hardwoods — mostly white oak, along with maple and beech. Vermont has a Land Use program in which forests and fields are taxed at their forest and agricultural value, not the value of the land on the open market, which would make much of the land too expensive for landowners to hold on to and continue to use in agriculture and forestry. With this careful, sustainable management, the forests are actually healthier after this light, selective harvesting.

The white oak used for whiskey barrels must be of the highest quality available, and is cut and handled in a very precise manner. The sawyer must perfectly quarter saw the wood in order to properly orient the open pores and grain so that the barrel will not leak. The oak will then be carefully stacked and allowed to air dry, preserving the natural resins, sugars and other organic compounds which flavor and color the finest whiskeys.

Below: Bob Hockert, our cooper (on the left), helps to pile the wood after it comes off of the saw mill, where Toby is sending more logs through to be quarter sawn.

“This oak is a cooper’s dream, with perfectly straight, tight grain and a sweet, highly fragrant nose. Being here during sawing you can just smell the whiskey in the air – this is a wonderful stand of timber. How long it’ll take to dry is anyone’s guess, but a good estimate would be in the 9 – 12 month range. Allowing the wood to age naturally in the open air will enable it to develop its own localized and unique flavor profile. This, along with the minerals and soil conditions these trees grew in, will impart a distinct flavor which will differentiate this whiskey from any produced elsewhere. Over the next year, Ryan will develop a relationship with this wood and these barrels and use this terroir to create a superb spirit”. –Bob Hockert, Cooper

The forester, the sawyer, the cooper, and the distillery all working together are going to make remarkable barrels for our spirits. Meanwhile, Phoebe just wants me to keep throwing wood for her to fetch and bring back.

thank you for your interest in and support of our work with organic honey, grains, and elderberry,

Todd D. Hardie

September 9, 2014December 12, 2019newsletters

September Newsletter 2014

Barr Hill looking southwest, July 29, 2014. Camel’s Hump is seen on the horizon, just to the left of center. photo by Jan Cannon, www.jancannonphotography.com

In Vermont we live and farm in the valleys and hills between the mountains and higher hills. We treasure and collect those high places that can be ascended in an hour or so, where you can go for part of the afternoon with friends, or dinner with family, like Mt. Philo in Charlotte, Snake Mountain in Addison, Rattlesnake above Squam Lake in New Hampshire, or Barr Hill in Greensboro, Vermont.

Barr Hill is a sacred space, a thin place the Scots say, where the earth and heavens are close together and entwined. She calls to us each season as we hike around her, and in the winter as we cross country ski on the trails that traverse her for hundreds of miles and back to our farms and homes. Here we found the juniper berries that inspired us to make gin and add raw honey to complete and finish off our spirits. As children, we hiked small mountains and hills like Barr Hill with our grandparents, and now we have fires and celebrate birthdays there, with our community.

In 1971, Phil Gray Sr., as earlier agreed with his late wife Margaret, gave 256 acres of the highest land in the town of Greensboro to The Nature Conservancy, acting on behalf of the people of Vermont. The Grays are second from the right and second from the left in this 1950 picture of a family picnic.

“The view from [Barr] Hill is not grand in the way of western landscapes. What gives it its charm is the alternation of wild and cultivated, rough woods ending with scribed edges against smooth hayfields – this and the accent dots of white houses, red barns, and clustered cattle tiny as aphids on a leaf. Directly below them, across the shaggy top of a lesser hill, is [Caspian] Lake… with the village [of Greensboro] at its southern end. Hardly a cottage (the local word is “camp”) shows around the lake, hardly a dock or boathouse. Green woods and greener meadows meet blue water, and it all looks nearly as wild as it must have looked to General Hazen’s men, cutting a road to Canada through these woods during the Revolution.”
Wallace Stegner – Crossing to Safety, 1987

Directions to Barr Hill Natural Area: After you pick up a picnic lunch, Jasper Hill Farm cheese, and Caledonia Spirits raw honey in the center of Greensboro village at Willey’s store, take Wilson Street north for 0.1 mile. Bear right at the Greensboro Town Hall onto Lauredon Avenue. Drive 0.6 miles, and at a fork bear left on Barr Hill Road. Go one mile to the “Barr Hill Natural Area” sign. Just before the sign to your left you’ll find a small winter parking area. In other seasons, continue past the sign and gate for another 0.6 miles to a large trail head parking area (room for eight or nine cars). Look for the “Nature Trail” sign and register box.

The State of Vermont has passed the first bill in the country requiring the labeling of foods with GMO ingredients. This is one of the most important bills to protect our food supply and health of our soil and crops. Trade groups that use GMO ingredients, and Monsanto which wants to hide its actions, have filed suit to stop this law from taking effect. For information on how to help Vermont win this challenge, and to donate:

http://www.foodfightfundvt.org

thank you for your interest and support of our work with organic honey, grains, and elderberry,

Todd D. Hardie
Todd D. Hardie

thank you

July 14, 2014December 12, 2019newsletters

July Newsletter 2014

Ascending to the Lakes of the Clouds hut, at the foot of Mt. Washington

On July 4, Justin was feeling very patriotic, and in honor of our first president, filled his backpack with a 750 mL of Barr Hill gin and began the ascent to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut, perched on the side of Mt. Washington, which is the highest peak in the Northeast and is named after George Washington. The gin was a gift for the crew, those who caretake these huts for hikers in the old and continuing tradition of mountain hospitality.

The Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail follows the Ammonoosuc River some of the way for the 3.1 miles from the parking lot to the Lakes of the Clouds hut.
all photos by Justin Gellert

We found the cairns placed above the tree line to be very important as guides on the trail in the fog and rain, and well as inspiration on the sunny days. Old cairns are found on the trails in the high mountains of Scotland and also at Caledonia Spirits in Hardwick.

Inspired by the hut system of the Alps where one can hike from hut to hut and get meals, lodging, and shelter from the elements, the huts of the Appalachian Mountain Club go back 100 years. We started our hike at the Highland Lodge parking lot, only 1.25 hours from Caledonia Spirits in Hardwick. Being located in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, we are very close to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. These are some of our sacred places, the mountains that we first hiked together as a family when our youngest was only 6. We always thought it was cool to skip out of school early on a Friday afternoon and drive to the White Mountains and hike into a hut for dinner. The beauty and glory of the northern summer are truly evident in the high places of these mountains.

We are on the Crawford Path (oldest continuously maintained mountain trail in the USA, built in 1819) from Lakes of the Clouds hut to Crawford Notch, a rugged 7-mile downhill path, where the winds reached 80 – 90 miles on the summit the night of July 4; still very windy the next day.

The Appalachian Mountain Club was founded in 1876, and built its first trail up Tuckerman Ravine of Mt. Washington in 1879 and its first hut at Madison Spring in 1888. In 1911 the AMC advocated with other groups for the passage of the Weeks Act, which authorized the creation of the Eastern National Forests.
www.outdoors.org

join our new challenge!

Send us stories and pictures of your adventures in the special & inspirational places of the world, and include a Caledonia Spirits bottle in the photo. Give us a little history, color, and information on how we may learn more about this sacred earth. If your story is chosen for the next newsletter, we will send or deliver a case of Caledonia Spirits raw honey to your address in the United States, Quebec, or Ontario. Send your photos and stories to todd@caledoniaspirits.com .

Live from the hive: The making of a queen

In this picture you see a “queen cup” — an elongated cell, looking a bit like an ice cream cone, that contains a queen bee larva. The bees are making a new queen, which they do when the queen dies, is failing, or has left the hive with a swarm. A fertilized egg develops into a queen when the workers feed a fertilized egg with a rich food made of honey, pollen, and enzymes, called Royal Jelly. Because she will be a very large bee, she needs a larger cell to grow in.

The queen bee is born with all of the eggs she’ll ever lay in her extra-long abdomen. Once she has mated she deposits one tiny white egg in each cell of honey comb at the rate of up to 2,000 eggs a day at the peak of the spring buildup. But this egg laying is tied to the sun, seasons, and length of the day. The summer solstice having passed on June 21, the queen has begun to slow down in preparation for winter.

The slightly convex cells at the top of the picture are capped honey cells, while the reddish brown, slightly puffy cells further down contain larvae. The uncapped yellow cells contain pollen. Note the “courtier” bees who are tending the queen cell.

The queen bee is just another example of the miracle of the bees and the perfection exhibited in their life cycle.

– Annie Watson, Thistle Hill Studio