3/30/2010
The culture in the state of Vermont is sometimes hard to “figure out”. Sometimes the University of Vermont and the college life-style come to mind first. While to others, Vermont is commonly thought of as a rural, agriculturally oriented state. These two cultures, although very different, often merge into each other in the city of Burlington.
Vermont isn’t well known for its big business and national trade, but the maple syrup industry breaks the mold. The state of Vermont is the largest producer of maple syrup in the United States by far, producing as much as 900 thousand gallons of syrup annually. This is the most of any state in the U.S. according to the United States Department of Agriculture, with Maine coming in second with a fraction of that: 395 thousand gallons.
Family owned and operated maple syrup shacks and full farms are the backbone of this industry. With the syrup business growing so much and the growth of out of state, mass-producing farms, many Vermont families have turned their business from produce such as meat and vegetables to the production of delicious maple syrup.
The Branon Family Maple Orchards are a perfect example of a merging of contemporary Burlington ideals mixed in with the hard-working nature that family-owned and operated farms are known for. Originally started primarily as a dairy farm, the Branon family has owned and operated their land for nearly 6 generations. Slowly they’ve begun to shift their focus from dairy and meats to maple syrup, as that is the industry that has become most sustainable for Vermont farmers.
Located in Bakersfield, Vermont, with land in Fairfield as well, the Branon Family Orchards are in a perfect location, close to Burlington while still being in the country, with plenty of land. By being this close to Burlington, they’re able to sell large quantities in their own state, as well as export it out of state for a larger profit.
The state of Vermont also celebrates a reputation for hard-workers, and the work ethic on these farms doesn’t sell their reputation short at all. Nearly everyone in the family pulls their weight in one way or another. Evan Branon, a twenty year old who is currently a student in Burlington, goes home every weekend during the busy syrup harvest to help his family earn a living and continue their business.
“I’m proud to be part of a family that can run a successful business in hard economic times, and one that also contributes to the state of Vermont. Although it may not be what I want to do for a living, I’m always willing to come home from school to help out with the work,” said Evan.
Having a good work ethic instilled in him since a young age by his family, Evan Branon is able to apply that to school, as well as anything else he chooses to pursue.
Branon explained, “I feel lucky to have grown up with such a hard working mindset among my parents and the rest of the family. I’m not sure I’d be as good of a student had I not grown up in the environment that I did.”
With over forty major maple syrup producers in the state, what makes the Branon’s syrup special, and how do they attract business with such a large number of “sugar-houses” in the surrounding area? Much of the draw of the Branon Family Orchards is the close atmosphere you feel, like everyone there is working to help each other; but what truly draws in the tourists and buyers is the quality and freshness of the syrup produced at the farm. They tap syrup from trees as old as 100 years, while making sure they don’t over-tap any one tree or growth. The Branon Orchards offer every grade of maple syrup, making sure it’s completely organic, and also produce Vermont Maple Sugar and Vermont Maple Cream.
Since the syrup industry is so important to the sustainability of Vermont, it’s important that family farms such as the Branon’s don’t become few and far between, as they are needed to keep trade industries in Vermont successful. They contribute to Vermont industry and trade, upholding values, and also work to keep the environment clean and healthy, making the Branon’s true Vermonters.
Burlington Art Scene: The Underground Underground
Mar.21.2010
Burlington, Vermont is a college town, stereotypically known for nights of heavy partying and days spent on the surrounding ski slopes. Often overlooked are the vast array and variety of events and gatherings that aren’t necessarily accessible to someone who doesn’t have an “in” or knowledge of the event. These range from poetry readings in small coffee shops, to rap concerts at pizza places and bars, to cultural events for refugees, places ranging from The Sudan, to Bosnia.
Burlington has a sub-culture that remains unknown to many students at the University of Vermont, Champlain College, and other colleges. While a large number of students strap up for the mountain on weekends, another demographic prepares to read poetry at various locations in the Greater Burlington area, including The Block Gallery coffee shop in Winooski.
The Block Gallery provides a haven every week, on Sundays, for aspiring and active poets to read in front of an audience, or just listen and have a coffee if they’re so inclined. Although there are numerous coffee shops downtown, there are few that allow such freedom for open expression, in such a welcoming environment, with a mixture of residents and students.
“The average size of an audience for any given Sunday reading is about fifteen to twenty people, about half of which read material,” said Block Gallery employee, and aspiring poet, Dan Ritter. Underground communities like this one are all over Burlington, and are often tough to find, but well worth seeking out.
Something else that remains unknown about Burlington, VT is the large population of foreign refugees, ranging from Bosnia, Sudan, and Vietnam, among others. Although solidifying its reputation as a college town, Burlington’s also a home to thousands of refugees, most recently from Sudan. This has given Burlington the assortment of restaurants and shops that make up a thriving downtown area, often voted the best downtown and best college town in polls.
On Church Street, the main drag downtown, one of the most popular attractions to students, residents, and tourists is a Vietnamese woman who makes dumplings from a street stand, all essentially from scratch.
“It’s great that there’s such a selection of food here. Sometimes people think we only eat organic food, and make maple syrup, but they don’t realize how much the different cultures have brought to the town,” said UVM student and artist, Kristen Newell. With an assortment of diverse restaurants and vendors, Burlington’s able to keep the city feeling more like a large-scale city, as opposed to a college town.
Another stereotype sometimes given to Burlington is that it’s a “hippy” town, with music that appeals to that demographic. Far from the truth, the town offers a number of outlets for musicians and artists of any kind to display their work. For example, Manhattan’s Pizza, and Radio Bean are often known for showcasing independent artists, and even student-musicians.
Especially at Manhattan’s there’s an atmosphere starting to be established far different than the “norm” for Burlington. Instead of instrumental music, there have been a number of underground poets/rappers who have been able to get a small boost in their career through playing at the pizza place’s bar, and the rapid “word of mouth” complex in a college town.
Burlington resident and Vermont native Aleck Woogmaster said, “The demographic in Burlington allows for so much free expression, and so many outlets to express yourself, that it’s inevitable that almost every genre of music and art will sneak their way into the Burlington sub-culture.” Woogmaster also raps at Manhattan’s Pizza & Pub, as well as other various small venues in the area.
Rap is a genre that wouldn’t necessarily come to mind when thinking about Vermont, yet Burlington houses tons of rappers, including more popular underground groups like The Loyalists, and completely unknowns who simply play for free at Manhattans, just to get the word out.
University of Vermont student Amanda Bell stated, “Before I came here I never expected to be seeing rap music, especially not at a pizza place. It’s what makes Burlington so great.”
Not to say there aren’t plenty of people who uphold Burlington’s stereotypical reputation. Although there are thousands who snowboard any chance they get, building backyard ramps and rails, or drink heavily on “thirsty Thursdays”, all of the groups and variety of cultures in Burlington interact extremely well together. It’s the students who keep many foreign businesses and restaurants open, and even help in efforts to contribute to help refugees make it to Burlington.
It’s also the students who make it possible for aspiring writers, musicians, rappers, poets, etc, to put their work our there, in an environment where they are comfortable having an audience; and furthermore the businesses give back to the community that keeps them running, for example the free “open mic” nights at various bars around town.
What makes this town special is the options for where you want to go, what kind of art you want to see, and any kind of food you could want to eat. On any given night one could see a rap show, or a bluegrass concert, or eat anything from hot wings to Chinese. Burlington, VT is full of surprises that one would never expect before living here, and many of them are so diverse they couldn’t be found anywhere else.
Ritter’s Blog, including poetry and other writing, can be found at:
http://blowupthemoon.blogspot.com/
Burlington - Expensive, or "Cheap as Hell?"
Apr.14.2010
Burlington, Vermont can be one of the most expensive, or one of the cheapest places to live in the Northeast. With rent that can go as high as downtown Boston, or as low as any low-rent suburb, or concerts ranging from free to fifty dollars or more, one needs to navigate their financial way through Burlington with caution.
Prior to coming to Burlington, I thought I’d be experiencing the “cheap living” that Vermont has to offer. I had no idea how fast my money was going to fly, almost as if downtown was a vacuum. My bank account quickly emptied in my first few weeks in town.
One of my friends, Graham Kelly, a junior at UVM often says, “Burlington’s a black hole for bank accounts; it just sucks up all the cash you have.” I find this statement to ring true more often then not.
To begin, City Market is the only grocery store within walking distance of the general student population. City Market is known for their extremely high quality, completely organic and hormone-free food. They’re even more known for their outrages prices. This inhibits a broke college student from shopping for a large amount of food, or leaves the students to resort to far less healthy options for eating out.
(Going to go to city market, shaws, and price chopper to compare how much an average meal of the exact same food would cost at all of these places compared to city market).
Another major mark-up in the food expense that I noticed immediately is the price of something as average as a slice of pizza, or a whole pie. If one goes to Mr. Mikes for example, you could wind up paying six dollars or more for just two slices of pizza, and over twenty for a large. This is unheard of to anyone outside of Burlington, as in New York City or Boston, or any other town in my experience, it would be hard to find a place charging twenty for a large pizza, let alone delivery charges and tip when it’s all said and done.
This leaves students’ options extremely limited for food in Burlington, being that delivery is marked up far higher than other towns, and the only grocery store in walking distance has gained a solid reputation as an over-priced “money grubber,” as Graham described it.
Beyond food, the parking situation, and the money that it costs students is becoming a major issue as well. More often than not I’ve seen people forced to pay cash to get their car off a tow truck when they find that they’re being towed. In my experience anywhere other than Burlington the driver will take your car off the tow truck if you can get to him before he, or she drives away with your car.
Personally, I’ve paid someone as much as forty or fifty dollars to take my car down, as opposed to the sixty it would cost me if he actually physically towed it. I feel like I’m being extorted when someone asks me for cash to take my car down, when legally they’re allowed to do it for free if they haven’t actually towed me.
A lack of rent control is also a major factor in how expensive it is to live in Burlington or the surrounding area. With rent on two and three bedroom apartments coming to the same total as some equivalent places in major cities like Boston, it’s nearly impossible for someone to go to school here unless their parents are willing to pay for their rent in full. Studio apartments can be as high as eight, or even nine hundred a month, where as in some places out of Chittenden county can provide you with a full townhouse at your disposal for that amount of money.
Beyond the rapidly rising housing market, which saw at least a 25 percent increase over the last decade, the economy has been declining. While most housing markets and rentals are going down, the large student population and lack of sufficient housing for all of the students leaves the control in the hands of land-lords, who have taken full advantage of the demand for housing in Burlington.
This town, to me, seems on the verge of falling apart due to unnecessary expensiveness; and no one’s doing anything about it. There doesn’t seem to be any steps being taken to regulate the housing/rental market. Beyond that, the prices on food keeps increasing at the restaurants and bars, and there isn’t any alternative to the already over-priced City Market. Something needs to be done before Burlington turns into the “small-town New York City”, an over-charging, money hounding entity. Like what Graham Kelly said before, “Burlington’s a black hole for bank accounts.”
Apr.15.2010
Not every young adult in Burlington, Vermont is a college student; nor does every young adult in Burlington want all of the college students there, as one might think. Brennan Devoid is a twenty-one year old Burlington local, who grew up in the New North End. His gripe isn’t with the students themselves, but instead with the trash they litter around town, the packed to the brim parties, and the general disrespect that some of them show towards the locals who grew up here.
What issue could the locals have with the influx of college kids? They bring massive amounts of business to Burlington that wouldn’t be possible without the student demographic, and many students are part of organizations to make the town cleaner and safer, right? A major factor left out, though, is the cost of living in Burlington due to the growing number of students and demand for housing every year. At just twenty-one years old, since leaving home at eighteen, Devoid has been dealing with this problem for over three years.
“Since moving out of my parent’s house, in the last three years I’ve moved into three different apartments. Each year it becomes more and more expensive to either stay where I’m living, or go to a new apartment because the rent increases almost every year,” said Devoid.
Brennan went through the Burlington public school system, and continues to work full-time at the Burlington staple restaurant, American Flatbreads. Instead of going to college, something many Burlington high school feel pressured to do because of the range of colleges and universities in the area, Brennan opted to pursue a career as a chef. Starting a career so young is obviously a major risk, but Devoid was willing to take to do something he loves, which is to cook.
“In one way I do like the student demographic in Burlington because they bring lots of business to Flatbreads, but most of them come with parents, showing me just another example of why prices are so high in Burlington, including the restaurants,” Devoid said, reflecting on why some restaurants are priced higher than they normally would be somewhere else in Vermont.
To Brennan the real clash with the Burlington college student population didn’t occur until after high school graduation, when he moved into the student section of downtown Burlington, a much louder and more densely populated section than that of the New North End. He explained feeling almost “excluded” from the student community because he wasn’t part of it, yet he still lived right next door to them. A major difference is that Brennan works full-time to pay his own rent, with no help from his parents, one he can barely afford because of the driven up housing market in Burlington.
The cost of renting an apartment isn’t the only thing that’s gone up in Burlington over the last several years, but also the cost of food and other expenses as well. A major example is at City Market, the only grocery store within walking distance of downtown Burlington. A basic trip to City Market for meats and vegetables can cost as much as 1.5 times more than at the Price Chopper or Shaw’s, located a short drive out of downtown, but not within walking distance.
“Lot’s of students, from my experience, have help financially from their parents to pay their rent, buy their groceries, and generally have a social life. As a full-time worker not going to school, I have to spend at least half of my paycheck, usually more on just rent and bills, not to mention food,” described Brennan, talking living with no financial help from his parents.
The dramatic increase in pricing downtown on groceries, and more, has made this town from what once was an extremely affordable place to somewhere that feels almost completely like a “tourist community,” as Brennan called it.
Despite the need to work longer hours to maintain the lifestyle that he wants to live, Brennan has been able to continue to work hard and enjoy life here in “his” little town. “To me, it’s not a college town, this is just where I grew up and where I’ll continue to live,” he said. Living in Burlington, Vermont is no longer cheap, and Brennan Devoid knows this fact all to well.
