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Snowboarde maven JackBurton
Even products with no obvious rationale for being made in Vermont, from coffee to salsa, have become wildly popular. For instance, one relative newcomer to the state’s culinary cast is the growing beer, wine, and spirits industry. In the central hamlet of Windsor, Harpoon Brewery crafts two beers, Harpoon IPA and UFO Hefeweizen, that are distributed up and down the East Coast. The company recently added the Leviathan series (small-production runs of ultrastrong beers, all above 10 percent alcohol content) as well as nonalcoholic small-batch sodas, such as old-fashioned root beer. All of the company’s beverages get the state’s stamp of approval. “Made in Vermont means it’s homegrown, directly from the earth, wholesome, not processed, supporting the community,” says brewer Brett Simmons. “That’s how I see it, and I think that’s how other people see it.”
Mastery of their respective crafts isn’t the only thing these men share; they take as much pride in their play as they do their work. All of these men cross-country-ski and snowshoe, often in the company of Labrador retrievers, which are practically a de rigueur Vermont accessory. Andy Kehler likes to ski with Stout and Lily, while Simmons heads out with his pup, Izzy. Mateo Kehler is a passionate fly-fisherman, his brother also snowboards, von Trapp is a lifelong downhill skier and coach, and Simmons is an avid road and mountain biker who helps his brewery organize two annual century-plus rides (110 and 150 miles). Simmons says he simply doesn’t let the round-the-clock nature of the brewing process interfere with his recreation. “Being a brewer means odd hours, but I just work around it,” he explains. “Where else but here are you going to walk out your door and have all these trails for hiking, skiing, and mountain biking?”
Jake Burton, founder of the self-titled snowboard company, headquartered in Burlington, agrees. “Stowe is my favorite mountain by a mile,” he says. “I go to the Southern Hemisphere every summer to test gear, I go to Japan each year—I ride all over, but I just love it here.” Like many urban East Coasters, Burton grew up traveling to Vermont to ski and, after getting a graduate degree at New York University, could not shake the state’s gravitational pull. “I wanted to start a snowboard company, and I didn’t want to leave the East Coast,” he recalls. “There is something soulful about products here. We’re probably getting wood from the same trees people get syrup from. We make the best snowboards in the world here in Vermont. Our leading-edge gear, any of the cutting-edge tech stuff, is made here. We probably lose money on every board we make here, but it is important to us to stay on top of the quality.”
The same passion for quality drove acclaimed Irish furniture maker Charles Shackleton to cross the Atlantic in search of the last bastion of craftsmanship. “In art school, I was always fascinated with things made by hand,” remembers Shackleton, whose cousin two generations removed, Ernest Shackleton, helmed the Endurance on the infamous 1914 Antarctic exploration.
His search led him to Vermont, where a fellow Irish craftsman, glassblower Simon Pearce, told him the demand for handmade, Old World goods still thrived. Today, the furniture maker’s company, ShackletonThomas (his wife, Miranda Thomas, is an acclaimed potter who makes bowls for popes and presidents), crafts some of the finest furniture in the world, with a dining-room table and chairs fetching upwards of $20,000. Inspired by Italy’s slow-food movement, Shackleton has even coined a phrase, “slow living,” that captures the essence of his beliefs. “It is about taking the time to do things the right way,” he explains. “At our company, one craftsman does your whole project from beginning to end, even selecting the wood. And we use hand tools, so the planing of the tabletop means it is not perfectly flat. It is like the ocean or a fire, and it is more interesting.”
Andy Kehler theorizes that the element of the unexpected brings out the best in his neighbors. “We have a horrible climate for farming, a short season, wet and cold, and we compete against places that don’t even need barns. Historically, it’s forced Vermonters to work harder and do things better,” he says. “Wine Spectator just ranked the top 100 cheeses in the world, and ten of them were from Vermont.” Given that many of these men are immigrants to the state, transplanted from some of the world’s most desirable places, the question remains: Why try to overcome such natural hurdles at all? As Mateo Kehler answers rhetorically, “You mean aside from it being the most beautiful place on the planet?”
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