Wiffle Fest [135]

6/27/09: For twelve years now, CJ Spirito has been gathering his friends and family for Wiffle Fest.  But unlike previous years, this World Series has an unlikely outcome.

Location: Rock Point School, Burlington Vermont

Pete's Greens [134]

6/23/09: Pete's Greens is a four season organic vegetable farm in Craftsbury. Eva talks to Pete and Meg about the current farming trend, local food as the new growth industry in rural areas and the idea that VT could one day feed itself.

Music: The Jazz Guys, A Blessing in Disguise, "The $6,000 Million Dollar Man"

Greg Davis, Curling Pond Woods, "Brocade (Rewoven)"

Location: Pete's Greens Four Season Organic Vegetable Farm, Craftsbury, VT

Editor's Note: For the record, I've been a member of Pete's Greens' Good Eats CSA since the winter of 08.

Green Mountain Opera Festival [133]

6/12/09: The Green Mountain Opera Festival is in its fourth year in the Mad River Valley.  This year they bring Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro to the Barre Opera House.

Location: Valley Players Theater, Waitsfield, Vermont

Ava Bishop [132] & Craft with the Band [7DTV18]

6/8/09: Fashion in VT? Local designer Ava Bishop is making it stylish to be a Vermonter.

Music: Missy Bly, Missy Bly 3, "Handmade Love"

Try Missy Bly's stylish soaps at the Burlington Art Market on Saturdays in City Hall Park.

6/6/09: Joe Jack Talcum of Dead Milkmen fame performs at The Bobbin whilst nimble crafters print woodblocks.

Vermont Joy Parade [131]

5/31/09: All abooooard for some old-timey music, theatrics and good times.  Vermont Joy Parade (MySpace) is a collective group of musicians and performers traveling across the country in a bus fueled by vegetable oil waste.

Locations: The Rambler House, Radio Bean, Bite Me Organic Pizza, Burlington Vermont

Burlington Farmers' Market [130]

5/23/09: The Burlington Farmers' Market is THE place to be Saturdays this summer.  Over 50 vendors/farmers crowd into City Hall Park to sell their food, plants and produce to the eager masses.

Featuring Arethusa Collective Farm, Boucher Family Farm, Stray Cat Flower Farm, Lewis Creek Farm, Dragonfly Sugar Works and Pitchfork Farm.

Music: La Strada, "Flying"

Hula Hooping Extravaganza [129]

5/7/09: Watch out Cirque du Soleil, the 3-5 year olds at Trinity Children's Center are in the midst of a hula hoop revival.

Music: Pretty & Nice, Pink & Blue, "Stop/Start"

Garden Restoration at Shelburne Farms' Inn [128]

5/5/09: Lila Vanderbilt Webb constructed the gardens at Shelburne House in the early 1900s.

Almost 100 years later, the gardens have fallen into disrepair which led to the Shelburne Farms’ Formal Gardens Restoration Project.

Music:
Swale, Verdigris, "Good Medicine"

Amber deLaurentis, Hey Sadie, "Take Me On"

Green Up Day [127] & Snuggie Pub Crawl [7DTV17]

5/2/09: Last Saturday, 15,000 volunteers across the state of Vermont picked up more than 40,000 bags of trash in honor of Green Up Day.

Music: The Activists/Dictators, "Out of the Picture"

5/2/09: Burlington became the 14th city to host a Snuggie Pub Crawl on Saturday night. The The procession of blanket-clad revelers was organized by brothers Matt and Bastian Gadouas with a little help from Facebook.

Music: Missy Bly, Clean Bee, "Wanda"
Rue Mevlana, Drop the F Bomb, "Tight Core Snuggin"

Disc Golf Debate [126]

4/28/09 Disc golf, a harmless pastime or a public nuisance?  A debate has been raging in Burlington (pro and con) about a proposed 18-hole disc golf course at Leddy Park.

Eva travels to the Johnson State College disc golf course and proposed holes at Leddy Park to see what all the fuss is about.

Note: Read Shay Totten's Going in Circles about this debate:

Music: Syd, Upswing, "Easier on You"