Updates

Thank you for a great year!

hbrough — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 21:07:59 +0000

Thank you for a great year! hbrough Thu, 12/19/2024 - 16:07

We hope you enjoy these images from our Shelburne Farms 2025 Wall Calendar as computer or cell phone wallpapers. Thank you for all the ways that you support Shelburne Farms!

Instructions on how to download: From your computer or phone, simply click on the image you'd like, then right click on the large version and select "Save Image As" (desktop) or "Save to Photos" (phone). Then, from the wallpaper setting on your computer or phone, navigate to the image and select it to display it on your screen.

January (Wally Allen)

February (Marshall Webb)

March (Holly Brough)

April (Sebastian Ventrone)

May (Holly Brough)

June (Sarah Webb)

July (Robin Turnau)

August (Wally Allen)

September (Jared Vincent)

October (Jared Vincent)

November (Sarah LaVoie)

December (Adam Silverman)

Updates

Featured

Off

Comments

Thank you kindly. Happy Holidays!

Great photos. Ty

Beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! Beautiful!

Will love being able to view all photos, Thank YOU

Great photos, thank you.

Thank You!

Thank you

These are all fabulous.

Very very nice and wonderful to see one of Marshall's. Thanks!

All so very beautiful!! Thank you and Merry Christmas!!

Thank you so much for sharing these pictures representing all 12 months of the year.

What wonderful photos! So many wonderful sights at the farm at any time of the year.
Thank you and Happy Holidays

Excellent photos, Thanks

Thank you for your sharing the Grrrreat photos. Happy Holidays!!!

Beautiful photos capturing the seasons, weather, scenery, buildings and activities at Shelburne Farms.
Thanks for sharing this treasure.

Looks great -Happy Holidays...

Awesome photos! Thank you!

Beautiful photos as always! Makes me happy to be accompanied by Shelburne Farms scenery throughout the year! Happy New Year!

Add new comment

false

December 30, 2024

Off

A Message of Gratitude

hbrough — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 13:49:58 +0000

A Message of Gratitude hbrough Tue, 12/10/2024 - 08:49

As part of our Shelburne Farms community, you are helping to inspire students of all ages to explore how they can build healthier communities and a healthier planet. You are supporting meaningful learning that will lead to a more sustainable future for us all. Thank you!

Join or Renew Your Membership

Robin Turnau

Updates

Featured

Comments

Beautiful commentary Robin. Thx for sharing.
# Shelburne Farms Proud
Linda Retchin

What a lovely video! Thank you for protecting and sharing this beautiful land, for offering training and wisdom to so many, and for cultivating love and respect for our communities and environment. Shelburne Farms is truly a gem that I have had the pleasure of visiting for over 30 years. May we continue to support this precious place for another 30 and more!

Add new comment

false

December 10, 2024

Off

Enjoying Late Fall at the Farm

hbrough — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 14:47:06 +0000

Enjoying Late Fall at the Farm hbrough Mon, 11/11/2024 - 09:47

Holly Brough

Late fall at the farm has a quieter kind of beauty, as it does across Vermont. “Stick season” gets a bad rap, but the fault may lay in us, not the season. You just have to look a little harder at the stripped landscape to find beauty in its contours, newly revealed views, and the textures and details of seasonal senescence.

There’s joy in the looking, and comfort and peace in a late fall stroll on this working farm. Here are a few of our favorite stops.

Andrea Estey

Take a walk to the Farm Barn (¾ of a mile from the Welcome Center parking lot) and say hello to the winter residents of the Children’s Farmyard. You’ll find miniature Sicilian donkeys Franco (in foreground, with a darker coat) and Brawny in the large pasture just south of the barn. Donkeys of all sizes are part of our shared agricultural history, used for transportation, carrying loads, and guarding livestock.

Andrea Estey

Further up the hill, visit our farmyard goats and sheep. Keep an eye out for the smallest lamb, aptly named Tinkerbell.

Andrea Estey

Crops like kale (left) and calendula shine into late fall, and this season’s warm temperatures have lengthened the show. Kale gets sweeter and more tender in fall. Have a taste test as you explore the area around the Farm Barn, including the lower Children’s Farmyard garden.

Holly Brough

Lone Tree Hill never disappoints, especially as the clouds sift the sun to spotlight elements in the landscape—like the Inn, here, all buttoned up for the winter.

Wally Allen

With the colorful leaves gone, mushrooms can take center stage on a walk through the woods, like this shelf or "bracket" mushroom. More on Vermont mushrooms.

Holly Brough

The Butternut Trail is glorious in late autumn. The carpet of leaves rustle with every step, and the colors are beautiful in both conformity and contrast, like the yellow-green leaves lingering on this maple sapling.
Holly Brough

The leaf-less trees in Butternut now reveal the Farm Barn tower to the east.

Holly Brough

Visit Marshall Woods and imagine a future forested landscape. Look for the witch hazel (pictured), an understory shrub that, unusually, blooms October to December. Its ribbon-like petals curl and unfurl with swings in cold temperatures.

Brandon Parrish

True grazing season is behind us, but our milking cows still spend several hours a day in fields near the barn and milking parlor to get fresh air and exercise. (Good for humans and animals alike!) The young, non-milking heifers have lower nutritional needs, so you'll find them in more wide-ranging pastures.

Wally Allen

The lakeshore is often blustery at this time of year, but on a quiet day, exploring its rocks can be a meditative exercise—and a fun one. Find a heart-shaped rock, or one with a perfect white stripe. And why do so many stones have white lines?

Holly Brough

Wherever you are, we hope you get out and enjoy a late-fall walk. Thanks for visiting!

Your walk starts by parking at the Welcome Center & Farm Store. Check in before or after your walk to warm up and say hello! Trails close at sunset. See our Walking Trails Map or Visiting November to April.

Updates

Campus & Buildings

Windmill Hill Conservation Project

Shelburne Farms is conserving this critical farm and forest land that lies within the boundaries of our campus.

Updates

Climate Action

Nature / Natural Resources

What on the Farm? Marshall Woods

Just over the hill behind the Farm Barn is a forest in the making: a field edge now planted with 200+ native trees to honor Marshall Webb and the role of trees in a climate-stable future.

Holly Brough

Updates

Food & Farming

Featured

Off

Comments

Please tell Wally that of all, all, all the photos of Shelburne Farms that I've enjoyed over the years, the one that he took of leaves amid the lakeside stones is among the most beautiful and evocative *ever*. Thank you so so much.

When autumn arrives in Vermont there's no better place than Shelburne Farms to see panoramic views of the trees taking color in the woodlands and over the mountains to the east and west of the farm. I love to see the walkers and hikers, individuals, couples, and groups of friends everywhere I go. We exchange greetings accompanied by knowing smiles because we intuitively know that we are inhabiting one of Nature's sacred places.

Add new comment

false

November 12, 2024

Off

Update on Coach Barn Rehabilitation

hbrough — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 13:19:54 +0000

Update on Coach Barn Rehabilitation hbrough Wed, 10/09/2024 - 09:19

Work on the Coach Barn has begun! Since August, skilled men and women in many areas of expertise have been tackling the building’s transformation. In this early stage, they’re mostly laying the groundwork for what’s to come: upgrading water service, electrical service, a new geothermal heating/cooling system, and more. They’re also focusing on completing exterior work before the snow flies.

Each step is bringing us closer to a barn that will function beautifully—with improved access—as a renewed gathering and learning space. And each step is working within the building’s historical fabric, keeping as much of what’s original as possible. The “new” Coach Barn will still be the Coach Barn that is loved by so many.

Here’s a look at just some of what’s been happening–what is and isn’t changing inside and outside this historic barn. Pardon the mess!

We began in early August by improving water drainage around the barn. As any homeowner knows, a water-tight building is a building that will stand the test of time. (Some roof repairs were done, too, for the same reason.)

Early interior work is making way for upgraded water service. Pipes are being run under this hallway floor from right to left into the new kitchen. (The ceiling wood panels are being saved to reinstall later.) The barn needs a strong water supply for its new fire-suppression system, kitchen, and geothermal heat pump heating/cooling system. In the photo on the right, you can see a new wall opening that will lead to four accessible restrooms.

Perhaps the biggest change to the Coach Barn interior is the conversion of the old boiler room into an all electric-powered kitchen and pantry. It’s probably a room you’ve never seen! To date, workers have removed all the boiler-related infrastructure that dated to the early 1990s, graded the floor (it used to be two levels), and poured a new concrete subfloor.

While the weather holds, workers have dismantled the Coach Barn chimney and are reconstructing it according to the original building plans. The chimney vented the old furnaces, a role it will no longer serve. However, because many of its bricks and flashing were deteriorating, the reconstruction effort is needed to keep the interior safe from the elements and animals, and to preserve this iconic feature of the historic barn.

Workers have drilled and installed the ten metal casings (pipes) for the barn’s geothermal heat pump heating/cooling system (see bottom of this blog). Two separate sets of plastic pipes will be run through the vertical, 500-foot-deep casings and into the Coach Barn to the heat pump system. We’ll ultimately cut the metal pipes six-feet down and recap them, so the top of each pipe will be buried. The next step is installing the interior ducts, and prepping and insulating the mechanical rooms for the system. We’re really excited for the ground-source system: it is instrumental to making the Coach Barn a net zero building.

Coordinating and executing the ongoing work is a huge effort. Our thanks to all the people, contractors, and their skilled staff who are making it possible.

SAS Architects
Naylor and Breen, project managers, carpentry
Builders Installed Products, insulation
JL Masonry, masonry
Omega Electric, electrical upgrades
Spafford and Sons, geothermal drilling
Thomas Mechanical, plumbing, HVAC
White Falcon Solutions, sitework, below-grade masonry

The Coach Barn Rehabilitation Project is part of the Campaign for Shelburne Farms and has a price tag of $10M. Thanks to a generous challenge, if we successfully complete the $50M Campaign by December 31, 2024, the Robert. W. Wilson Trust will contribute an additional $5M to fully fund the Coach Barn project. We have just over $1.6M left to raise and are truly grateful to everyone who has supported this transformational work to date! We invite you to learn more and support the Campaign.

The Language of Historic Preservation

In the world of historic preservation, construction-related words have very specific meanings. Here’s a primer. (These terms can apply to entire properties and landscapes as well.)

Preservation: Sustaining a building’s existing form, integrity, and materials. The focus is to maintain and repair historic materials and features, rather than using new construction, additions, or extensive repairs.

Rehabilitation: Making a compatible use for a building possible through repairs, alterations, or additions, while preserving the features that convey its historical, cultural, or architectural values. [This is Shelburne Farms’ sweet spot!]

Restoration: Accurately depicting the form, features, and character of a building as it appeared at a particular period of time. Features from other periods can be removed and/or missing features reconstructed to make the building conform to the historical era.

Reconstruction: Using new construction to depict the form, features, and details of a lost structure. Reconstruction is used primarily for interpretive purposes, to replicate a building’s appearance at a specific time period in its historic location.

Complete definitions from National Park Service

Holly Brough

Updates

Campus & Buildings

Featured

Comments

I don’t see an click for donating!

Sorry! You may click on the "Campaign for Shelburne Farms" link at the bottom of the blog, or you can simply click here!

You are doing great work!
We are so fortunate to have Shelburne Farms in our community!

My favorite building- so wonderful you are devoted to it’s restoration and maintenance. Can’t wait to see it. Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!!

Add new comment

false

October 9, 2024

Off

Saving an American Treasure: The Farm Barn

hbrough — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 20:34:56 +0000

Saving an American Treasure: The Farm Barn hbrough Wed, 09/25/2024 - 16:34

The Farm Barn, photo credit: Orah Moore

Since 1890, when the last shingle was secured and wood trim painted, the Farm Barn has been the nerve center of Shelburne Farms. It has been home to, and seen so much. And through all the years, it has been the breathtaking building that first welcomes people to this farm.

Now, thanks to a recently awarded Save America’s Treasures grant, Shelburne Farms will be able to restore a piece of the barn that has been much-weathered by time—its historic courtyard walls.

The $500,000, subject to a dollar-for-dollar public match, will help Shelburne Farms’ signature barn continue to safely welcome people to our learning campus and the many education programs that begin at its doors.

The Farm Barn is one of the original four principal buildings on the farm, all designed by Robert H. Robertson. It helped earn Shelburne Farms recognition as a National Historic Landmark District in 2001 (it’s a “contributing structure” to that designation). The Breeding Barn and Coach Barn were also contributing structures, and both have also received Save America’s Treasures Grants in recent years.

At the turn of the 20th century, this barn was farming central. Farmworkers cared for teams of mules here, loaded hay in the mows, cleaned harnesses and tack, repaired metal wagon parts, painted, built, and more. And in its corner offices, staff balanced ledgers, placed orders, kept records, and planned.

A busy Farm Barn courtyard in 1889 (Shelburne Farms Collections)
The Farm Barn circa 1900. Photo by T.E. Marr
The Farm Barn, 1975. Note the sheds in front of the courtyard's north wall.
Concert-goers enjoy summer music inside the courtyard walls.
Visitors enjoy seasonal horse-drawn wagon rides in front of the Farm Barn.
Wall entrances for pedestrians offer safety to more than just humans!

Today, the Farm Barn is equally busy–in a different way. In the early 1990s, generous donors helped transform the declining building into an education and administrative center for the nonprofit. Now within its walls and fields, people of all ages can learn about the role of farming in their lives and ponder the food systems of the future. Depending on the day or season, they can taste cheddar, hand-milk a cow, craft a garden pizza, walk a sheep, picnic… the list goes on.

Small wonder the Farm Barn is getting a bit of the TLC it now needs, specifically on its courtyard walls.

What's in the Farm Barn?

The McClure Center for School Programs
The Children's Farmyard
Cheesemaking Operations
O Bread Bakery
Beeken Parsons Fine Furniture
Administrative Offices

Although the barn’s historic courtyard walls define one of the most public places at the farm, they weren’t designed in the 1890s to accommodate the pedestrians who now regularly pass through them. That’s permanently changing with this grant.

And the walls, made of locally quarried redstone, need work. A lot of the mortar has failed, leaving open joints where water has been entering and compromising the walls. Some large wall stones have fallen out; other areas have collapsed completely. The grant will allow us to rebuild, repoint, and repair the walls.

“We applaud Shelburne Farms for the tireless efforts to ensure its preservation and accessibility to the public,” said Laura Trieschmann, Vermont’s State Historic Preservation Officer. We are excited to continue doing just that when work on the Farm Barn begins, planned for in spring 2025.

Farm Barn renovations are a component of the Campaign for Shelburne Farms. We are grateful to everyone who has supported this transformational project to date, and we invite you to learn more and support the Campaign.

The Save America's Treasures grant is from the Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. It is a dollar-for-dollar matching grant that requires Shelburne Farms to secure an additional $500,000 in private charitable investment.

Holly Brough

Updates

Campus & Buildings

Featured

Off

Comments

Wonderful information in this article and through all the "links". Thank you!

Thank you for supporting this beautiful historic site.

Add new comment

false

September 24, 2024

Off

Windmill Hill Conservation Project

hbrough — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 17:05:14 +0000

Windmill Hill Conservation Project hbrough Tue, 09/03/2024 - 13:05

“It’s a National Park-quality landscape,” says Shelburne Farms President Alec Webb, gesturing across the fields and woodlands of Windmill Hill.

The reference is fitting, and not just because Windmill Hill is beautiful. The conservation of these acres, like the creation of the National Park Service itself, was inspired in part by the ideas of Frederick Law Olmsted. He believed that access to nature is vital to public well-being and should be available to all, not just the privileged few. The story of Windmill Hill is rooted in that same big idea. It’s a story of creative land conservation, generous supporters, and staying true to a nonprofit vision. Now this land is back in the Shelburne Farms fold, and the story can continue.

Windmill Hill lay near the southern boundary of Shelburne Farms after “Southern Acres” passed to Webb descendants in 1913. (Its name is likely tied to a windmill on the shoreline of Lake Champlain that could be seen from the hill. The windmill was part of the former Hart Farm purchased by the Webbs in 1886.)

This nitrate negative (c.1880s-1890s) shows a windmill along the Lake Champlain shoreline that possibly lent Windmill Hill its name. It stood on the Hart Farm, which the Webbs purchased. A windmill also shows up on an 1886 planning drawing from A. R. Dow, Civil Engineer. (Source: Shelburne Farms Collections)

When Derick Webb died unexpectedly in 1984, his will gave Shelburne Farms’ 1,000 acres (including Windmill Hill) to the education nonprofit that several of his grown children had founded over a decade earlier. In those early years, it was offering modest programs for youth, educators, and the community. Derick’s gift radically changed what could be possible. “If he hadn’t done that, the whole vision for the nonprofit probably wouldn’t have happened,” reflects Alec.

That vision included reinvigorating the farm not only as a campus for learning, but as an alternative to the suburban sprawl that was inching out from Burlington, and swallowing thousands of acres of productive farmland nationwide each year.

Journey through the fields and forests of Windmill Hill.

Derick’s gift was an enormous, generous windfall with a big asterisk: there was no endowment. There were no funds available to maintain–let alone restore–the property’s buildings and infrastructure, which were all crumbling from long-deferred maintenance.

To stabilize the nonprofit financially, the Board of Directors launched a fundraising campaign in 1985 and sold three house sites on the property’s outer margins–on Windmill Hill. “That transaction gave us hope.” says Alec. “It was a compromise that had to be made in order to achieve the vision.” In fact, he continues, “Those two things: the gift of the land and the generosity of those first buyers, really tee'd up the work from the mid-80s until now.”

But a decade later, in 1994, when Shelburne Museum transferred “Southern Acres” back to Shelburne Farms, the Windmill Hill sites effectively became a private and developable island in the heart of the farm. That made their conservation an even higher strategic priority.

Shelburne Farms was able to secure two of these parcels (one included a home), in 2013 and 2020 with the help of low- and no-interest loans. Then in 2021, we went for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire the third and most prominent lot.

What did we get in return? “We created the largest block of conserved farm and forest land with the most beautiful views,” Alec responds, “and with some of the most productive soils on the property.” (The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and Vermont Land Trust will eventually hold a conservation easement on 65 acres.) “We have the opportunity to extend the trails and link the trail system internally, too,” he adds. “It just furthers Olmsted’s idea of nurturing well-being by connecting people to the land.” That’s a lot in the ledger’s plus column.

Windmill Hill House also increases our capacity to host educators for residential programs. “Combined with the Coach Barn and Orchard Cove House, it really opened the door for the vision for increasing the power of convening and learning at the farm.

Educators in our 2023 Education for Sustainability Leadership Institute gather for a discussion outside Windmill Hill House, on the flanks of Windmill Hill.

“If you look at it as a true endowment,” Alec sums up, “it’s one of the best investments we’ve made. It will pay public, agricultural, and ecosystem dividends forever.”

The Windmill Hill Conservation Project is a key component of the Campaign for Shelburne Farms. We are grateful to everyone who has supported this transformational project to date, and we invite you to learn more and support the Campaign.

Donate to the Campaign for Shelburne Farms

Holly Brough

Updates

Campus & Buildings

Featured

Off

Comments

From June 1988 thru June 2000, I had the honor and privalage to be the Superintendent of Farms at the University of Vermont. Because of an arrangement between then UVM president Lattie Coor and Sam and Marshall Webb whose home was at the edge of the Windmill Hill lot, my responsibilities included care and maintenance of the entire Southern Acres property, a rent free home at the Kennel Cottage just south of the Breeding Barn for my wife Kate and son Kai and most importantly for me, inclusion in the community of folks who lived and worked at Southern Acres during those years. Kai was born there, each morning started out for me tending the 100+ dairy animals housed in the Breeding Barn that belonged to the University and managing the many acres of crop and grazing land of Southern Acres for those 12 years. I met Watson Webb and counted him as a friend and helped others living there keep the roads at the property open during blizzards and through the ice storm of January 1998. Those 12 years at Southern Acres were the absolute pinnacle of my life and that place changed and blessed me forever.

Add new comment

false

September 3, 2024

Off

What on the Farm? Three Sisters Garden

aestey — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 13:56:50 +0000

What on the Farm? Three Sisters Garden aestey Fri, 08/02/2024 - 09:56

Judy Dow, in striped shirt at center, speaks with educators in the Three Sisters garden. (Photo: Andrea Estey)

Around the south side of our Farm Barn is the Children’s Farmyard Garden, full of plants to taste, smell, and touch: sweet cherry tomatoes, tart ground cherries, fragrant herbs, fuzzy lamb’s ears, and more. We’re honored that, for four years, the garden has also hosted a trio of heirloom crops planted by our partners at Gedakina.

This triumvirate of plants—corn, beans, and squash—is called the Three Sisters. These three crops have been companion planted by Indigenous peoples in North, Central, and South America for millenia! When grown together, each plant has a mutually beneficial role to play in the growth and flourishing of the others. Gedakina’s executive director Judy Dow explains the Three Sisters (plus one):

Corn is planted first in the center of the plot. Corn provides a stalk for the beans to climb.

Beans are planted next, at least two weeks later, in a circle around the corn. Beans, as a legume, put nitrogen back into the soil, helping the other plants thrive.

Squash is planted last in the outermost circle. Squash provides shade that helps prevent the soil from drying out, while its prickly leaves keep predators away.

Sunflowers, the Fourth Sister, are planted along either end of the garden bed. Sunflowers distract birds from eating the corn, pull heavy metals from the soil, and serve as a windbreak. Ants help to herd aphids onto the sunflowers, increasing the production of the other plants.

Together, the family of plants in a Three Sisters garden create a healthy, balanced, self-sustaining ecosystem that both provides food and gives back to the soil, Judy says. This reflects the wisdom of traditional farming methods, which recognize and celebrate the ways in which all living things are interconnected and interdependent.

“Three Sisters: A Healthy Ecosystem” tapestry by Judy Dow. On right, you can see the way that bean vines climb the corn. (Photos: Sarah Webb and Andrea Estey)

Gedakina will share the seeds that these Three Sisters produce with other Indigenous gardens around the Northeast. Through this collaboration, it’s our hope that the plot will serve as both education and inspiration to learners of all ages, spreading the wisdom of Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Fiber hemp grows in Gedakina's plots, alongside tobacco and medicinal flowers like calendula, coneflower, and yarrow. (Photo: Andrea Estey)

In addition to the sisters, you’ll see several other crops planted by Gedakina staff in the Children’s Farmyard garden, including tobacco and fiber hemp. Tobacco is considered sacred by many Indigenous people and is grown here for use in ceremonies.

As for fiber hemp, it has been cultivated for centuries for its slender, strong, durable fibers, explains Gedakina staff member Jen Daniels. Once dried and processed, the fibers can be used for textiles, weavings, animal bedding, even building insulation! Hemp also sequesters carbon at a higher rate compared to other crops and even young forests, and its deep root systems are able to clean soils, a process known as bioremediation.

Stop by to see, learn from, and enjoy the Three Sisters on your next visit to the Children’s Farmyard!

Andrea Estey

Updates

Campus & Buildings

Food & Farming

Featured

Off

Add new comment

false

August 2, 2024

Off

The Coach Barn Rehabilitation Project

hbrough — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 12:45:24 +0000

The Coach Barn Rehabilitation Project hbrough Mon, 07/22/2024 - 08:45

The historic Coach Barn will soon be undergoing a transformation. Already a gem in the fabric of Shelburne Farms, the renovated barn will be an even more inspirational place for gathering and learning. It’s just been waiting for its moment to fully shine!

With its spacious halls, large enclosed courtyard, and sweeping lake-side lawns, the Coach Barn has long served the nonprofit as a space to convene educators and gather our community. It is, after all, home to the Institute for Sustainable Schools, which serves more than 1,500 educators a year through nationally recognized programs like the Farm to School Institute and our new Education for Sustainability (EFS) Graduate Certificate Program with UVM.

Our community celebrates here, too, at events like the Vermont Fresh Network dinner, the Rotary annual fundraiser, and the Waldorf School year-end party to name just a few.

Yet despite decades of use, the Coach Barn has had few improvements over the years. It’s been functional and beautiful, but its electrical, lighting, water, and heating systems are all overdue for upgrades. Its fire suppression and detection system needs an upgrade, too, especially in the wake of Dairy Barn fire in 2016. The Coach Barn will be the last major barn to be outfitted against fire.

We’ll also be addressing the barn’s “food system.” Few experiences bring people together like preparing and serving food, and delicious farm-fresh food has been foundational to the Coach Barn experience throughout its history as a gathering space. To strengthen the ties to the working farm landscape and between our learners, the transformed barn will include a new kitchen.

To give you a fuller picture of the Coach Barn's transformation, here are schematics of the project from our partners at SAS Architects. And for a full immersion, watch the virtual tour of the future building.

All of these systems are essential to the success of the Coach Barn. And in a world that’s warming, energy efficiency is essential, too. So after we extract the Coach Barn’s aging boiler, we’re planning on a radically different solution to heating and cooling the building: a ground-source (geothermal) heat pump system that is fossil-fuel free. (More below)

To give you a fuller picture of the Coach Barn's transformation, here are schematics of the project from our partners at SAS Architects. For a full immersion, watch the virtual tour of the future building.

The courtyard will be regraded to move rainwater away from the building walls, then resurfaced with granite pavers. Trees and plantings will enhance the space.
The West (and East) Hall will have new glass doors to address fire safety. (The sliding wood doors will be fixed open.) In the Elevator Room (foreground), the floors will be cleaned, patched, and repointed.
Both East and West Halls will have their southern yellow pine floors sanded and refinished, and all thresholds made accessible. Ceiling mounted projectors, retractable screens, and an AV system will unite the spaces.
The new teaching kitchen will be located off the hall to the stables, and will have doors to the courtyard.
This bird's eye view shows how all the various ground-level spaces will be used. (Note that stables will become breakout spaces for small groups.)

Even with all the wonderful changes, the Coach Barn will remain the Coach Barn. The historic structure—integral to Shelburne Farms’ National Historic Landmark designation—will continue to anchor the viewscape south of the Inn, and welcome guests with the warmth of its wood interior. The marrying of the old and the innovative makes this project signature Shelburne Farms.

Work on the Coach Barn begins in August 2024, but with an estimated $10 million price tag, bringing this vision to life won’t just happen. In 2022, a $500,000 Save America’s Treasure grant from the National Park Service got the ball rolling, along with several generous gifts from individuals and foundations, and we now have a challenge!

The Robert W. Wilson Trust is challenging us to raise the funds needed for the Coach Barn project, which is part of the larger Campaign for Shelburne Farms. As of July 2024, thanks to generous support from hundreds of donors, we have just over $3 million to raise towards our Campaign goal of $50 million. If you can help us reach that goal by December 31, 2024, the Trust will contribute an additional $5 million to fully fund the Coach Barn rehabilitation project.

Donate to the Coach Barn Project

New Ground-Source Heat Pump System

A solution of water and glycol will circulate through a closed loop of ten, 500-foot pipes positioned upright underground. The solution absorbs heat from the surrounding earth (its temperature hovers around 50℉ year-round), and transfers it to a heat pump inside the building to warm the interior spaces. In the summer, the flow is reversed: heat from the building is slowly releases it into the ground.

BENEFITS:
• Coach Barn can be used year-round.
• It is very energy efficient
• It is mostly carbon-neutral (Vermont electricity is 90% carbon-free)
• After higher upfront costs, it has low operating and maintenance costs
• It yields high indoor air quality

More about heat pumps

Campus & Buildings

History

The Coach Barn: Welcoming Educators & Guests

The Coach Barn is home base for much of our work with educators every summer, and welcomes our community in various ways. Here's a peek at its evolution over time.

Shelburne Farms Awarded a Save America’s Treasures Grant

A new award will help the nonprofit protect and preserve the historic Coach Barn as a hub for professional learning for educators.

Holly Brough

Updates

Climate Action

Campus & Buildings

Featured

Off

Add new comment

false

July 22, 2024

Off

Biochar: A Climate Solution?

hbrough — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 17:57:25 +0000

Biochar: A Climate Solution? hbrough Mon, 07/08/2024 - 13:57

Anyone reading about climate change will have heard any number of technologies hyped as “silver bullets” that will “solve” this crisis. These include solutions to fossil fuel dependency like nuclear energy, directly capturing carbon from the air, and drastic measures such as geoengineering.

The reality, of course, is that there are no “silver bullets.” Instead, we need to really understand how different solutions, working together, can support a process of lowering emissions, starting locally but with wider climate and ecosystem benefits.

My father, Marshall Webb, who inspired Shelburne Farms to commit to beyond net zero emissions by removing more carbon than we emit by 2028, believed in working locally to demonstrate how reducing emissions was possible, and to do it in ways that aligned with other local needs. And though he was incredibly passionate about biochar, he knew it wasn’t—and isn’t—a “silver bullet.” It is a climate solution that can complement and expand the impact of everything the farm is already doing: grass-based dairy management, woodlands management to support high sequestration of carbon, and finding new energy solutions for the building and operations’ reliance on fossil fuels.

What about biochar is so exciting?

One reason Marshall was so interested in biochar is that he loved trees and soil. Biochar is made from, and can potentially benefit both.

Biochar is a kind of charcoal. It is made by heating biomass, like tree trimmings or plants, in an oxygen-limited environment so that the carbon naturally stored in these plants is trapped in the biochar left behind, not released into the air. Once added to soil, biochar keeps that carbon stored for years (potentially hundreds or thousands of years). Biochar is known as a “negative emissions technology” because of this sequestration.

There are additional co-benefits: research has shown it can improve soil quality, reduce fertilizer use, increase crop yields, remediate depleted soil and even help to stop run-off into lakes. This is because biochar’s porous surface area holds a lot of spaces for nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus that might otherwise be released into soils and water. It is being tried in places that have problems with long-lasting chemicals like PFAS.

In May 2024, we received about 100 yards of biochar from Standard Biocarbon in Maine, which Sam applies here to our earthen manure pit.

But biochar has its own carbon footprint that we need to understand more fully through a life cycle analysis. Some questions include:

What feedstock is being used? Was the biochar made from waste wood from the lumber industry? (potentially good) Cutting trees? (definitely bad)
What energy is required to process, chip, and transport the feedstock?
What energy are we using to use and spread it on soils?

At Shelburne Farms, when we buy biochar we look for producers that adhere to national and international standards. We have also made demonstration batches of biochar using our own waste wood and plants.

Applying biochar toward our net zero goal and more

We’ve recently updated our baseline emissions data to help us better understand the role that each building and product (like our cheese) has on our net zero goal, and where solutions lie. Buildings and the dairy make up the biggest share of emissions to date. In buildings we can reduce emissions by heating and cooling with geothermal and decarbonised electricity instead of fossil fuels or biomass. At the dairy, where cows produce methane as they digest and decomposing manure produces methane and nitrous oxide, climate solutions are less tried-and-tested, so we have more work to do in understanding and applying them effectively.

Applying a shipment of biochar to one of our dairy manure pits in August 2023.

Biochar is one piece of the puzzle we are trying to understand. Dairy manager Sam Dixon has used different types of biochar to reduce ammonia (and potentially methane) in the manure. In late May, we applied the latest batch from Standard Biocarbon to our manure pits. At the Market Garden, Josh Carter has applied biochar to the chicken coop and compost. Beyond informally observing its impact on soil fertility, chicken health, or dairy odors, however, we seek R&D partners to truly measure and understand biochar’s role in our farm system, and in mitigating climate change.

We've conducted small-scale experiments making our own biochar from waste wood, but most of the agricultural biochar we use is from outside sources.

We’re most interested in the potential for biochar in:

liquid manure to reduce odors and methane
bedded pack for the chickens and cows for reducing nitrous oxide emissions while keeping animals healthy
feed additives for reducing enteric emissions
creating educational opportunities about our biochar applications
partnering or sharing information with others who are working on similar applications

Through actively sharing our own biochar story, and seeking research partners, we are part of what is needed on climate action today: proactively seeking solutions, debunking the myth of silver bullets, and bringing our learning to all audiences.

How does what we do on Shelburne Farms link to bigger impact?

Despite the promising potential of biochar highlighted in scientific research, the large-scale commercialization of high-value biochar products has been relatively slow and limited so far. We cannot expect farmers or others to adopt a nascent product that hasn’t been fully designed for high performance at the right costs for their needs. Still, we’ve found inspiration from an Irish project "Farm Zero C" and research by University of Wisconsin and many conversations with biochar networks, producers and experts.

Experts say a coordinated public-private effort is needed to advance the industry. By sharing what we do, we hope to be part of that effort, which continues to be hampered by:

Lack of Established High-Value Markets: While research points to potential uses in everything from construction materials to animal feed, there is a lack of proven large-scale demand and established markets for these higher-value biochar products currently. The low-risk agricultural applications remain the primary commercial outlet.
Pricing Challenges: Like any early stage industry, prices fetched by biochar for soil amendment and other agricultural uses may not be high enough to support rapid scaling of production capacity.
Regulatory Uncertainty: Regulatory uncertainty around biochar production, certification standards and approved applications in certain regions could be hindering commercialization of new products. Standards in Europe for food grade biochar exist, for instance, but aren’t applied across the US.
Need for Further R&D: While the research is promising, some argue further R&D may still be needed to optimize biochar production processes, characterize product properties, and validate performance for specific high-value applications before companies invest heavily.

Shelburne Farms can’t solve these challenges that face the biochar industry, but we can be part of communities that are working to overcome them and contribute our own learning. Shelburne Farms offers a unique opportunity to showcase the use of biochar as a negative carbon technology, in its own practices at the dairy and market garden. If you’re interested in what we’re doing, please get in touch.

Additional resources:

US Biochar Initiative
US Biochar Coalition
The European Biochar Industry Consortium
"This simple farming technique can capture carbon for thousands of years," Grist Magazine, August 22, 2024

Molly Webb

Updates

Climate Action

Food & Farming

Research

Featured

Off

Comments

This is a thoughtful exploration of biochar as part of a multifaceted climate strategy! I appreciate how you emphasize the importance of local solutions and the need for thorough analysis of biochar’s life cycle. It’s encouraging to see initiatives that prioritize both carbon sequestration and soil health. Excited to see the results!

Add new comment

false

July 11, 2024

Off

24 Hours at the Dairy

hbrough — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 20:20:37 +0000

24 Hours at the Dairy hbrough Mon, 06/17/2024 - 16:20

Our dairy team works every day to make high quality milk from healthy cows raised on pasture. See just some of what they do from pre-dawn to dusk to achieve that goal, and to share the world of dairy farming with others.

4:45 am Renee is already milking. She lines up 12 cows on a side, cleans their teats with an iodine dip, then attaches the cups. Country music radio twangs, occasionally in rhythm to the pulse of the milk pump. The station helps Renee track her progress. “At 6am every morning, they play the National Anthem,” she explains. “I know I should be on my fifth set of cows by then.” She urges cows into position, “Move along… Come on...” and the cows respond. They’re used to the routine, and to Renee, who knows each by name. There’s Ethel: “She’s my special cow,” Renee says. And Cayenne: “She doesn’t like being next to the gate.” Petunia: “Her mom was Daisy, my favorite cow.” And Faith: “Everyone in her family poops in the parlor—her mother, her sister, her grandmother. It’s a family tradition.” On to the next set. 110 cows total.

5:15 am While Renee milks, Megan tends to calf chores. A dozen calves are currently in the calf barn, including two bulls destined for a 4H family looking for an oxen pair. One more calf, born overnight, is still in the maternity barn with his mom Averil. Megan hops into the pen with one calf to encourage it to nurse from the nursing bucket. “She’s just off the bottle yesterday, so she’s not used to it,” Megan explains. “The milk flows faster from the bucket teats.” With Megan’s attention, the calf adjusts in no time.

7:15 am Alyssa arrives to haul the milk to our cheesemaking facility. She carefully disassembles, cleans, and reassembles many metal bits and parts to maintain food safety while pumping the milk from the holding tank to the truck’s tank. Today’s haul is 5,174 lbs, which she determines by dipping a metal measuring stick into the holding tank, then consulting a chart to convert that figure. It takes about 10 minutes to empty the tank. “Since I’m not a cheesemaker, this is my connection to the milk,” Alyssa says.

8:24 am After the cows are fed grain in the barn, Megan gators up to the top of the cow lane to let them onto a fresh pasture, where they’ll graze until afternoon milking. Earlier in the morning, Megan applied fresh green paint to the tail ends of several cows. These cows are now under watch for coming into heat. When they do, they’ll be bred to have another calf.

8:41 am Renee wraps up cleaning the parlor so it’ll be set for afternoon milking. The timing is a bit late because the new mom, Averil, was brought down to be milked after all the others. Her colostrum-rich milk will be separated out for the next few days to be fed to her calf. Finally, Renee can break for breakfast.

9:34 am Mo has loaded the gator up with several rolls of electric fence and lots of metal stakes to divide “Pasture 50” into seven sections for our rotational grazing system. Students often ask how Mo knows how much pasture to give cows. "Experience," she shrugs. She spools out a line of fence in six separate passes through the field; adding stakes on each return trip. On this cool morning, with views west to the lake and south to the Farm Barn, it’s easy to see why she calls this chore “my favorite thing to do.” “It’s just so peaceful,” she says, “and I love that the cows are going to get great feed.”

12:30 pm A small flock of “geocollared” sheep are moved to a new pasture. They’re part of a “Nofence” research project of the Agritech Institute. A “Nofence” system allows farmers to track each animal’s movement and keep them all in a defined area without fencing. “The black collars work with satellite imaging to create boundaries for the animals,” explains Renee. “They get a little buzz if they’re on top of the line for too long, and they figure it out pretty quickly.” The pros for farmers: they can update pasture boundaries through a phone app instead of manually moving electric fencing to rotationally graze animals. But, we do need one electric perimeter fence to keep out predators.

2:00 pm Two cows who recently tested pregnant rejoin the “teenage” herd in pasture. These females have a genetic Brown Swiss lineage that the team wants to preserve in the herd, so they were artificially inseminated by Brown Swiss bulls. (We breed other cows with Angus or other stock, then sell their offspring or raise them for meat.) The rowdy, welcoming moos start as soon as the herd sees the trailer nearing the field.

2:30 pm The summer camp counselors, already in training, learn the ins and outs of our working farm. They visit the Dairy to meet the staff (and herd), where they learn about the history of the dairy, land and herd management, and even help out with calf chores (giving the youngest member of the herd feed, water, milk, and new bedding).

Sarah Webb
Sarah Webb
Sarah Webb

4:00 pm Our daily Sun to Cheese Tours connect visitors to the cheesemaking process: from the pastures to the cows, to the milk and cheesemakers. The tour stops at the Dairy just in time for the "cow parade", when the milking herd comes down the lane after a day of grazing for their afternoon milking. The tour group asks Megan and tour guide Dianne questions in the milking parlor, while Mo handles the last milking of the day.

5:49 pm If you’ve ever trained a dog to walk on a leash, you can imagine the patience and care it takes to train an animal as large as a calf to do the same. Getting a cow to walk on a rope lead with their head held high is step one for youth in 4-H. In a little over a month, they’ll each get a chance to show their cows, selected from our herd of Brown Swiss, to a panel of expert judges at the Addison County Fair & Field Days. Renee and Megan stand by as 4-Hers Avery, Noah, and Emma (pictured) each catch and harness their cows and parade them in slow loops around the dairy. Avery, Megan’s daughter, is the only one with a family in farming; Noah and Emma are here because of their love of animals. How do you choose your show cow? “I picked the prettiest one this time,” says Emma, who is in her third year of 4-H. “My first cow, Sassy…let’s just say she lived up to her name.” Emma’s hoping to go into the healthcare field after high school; Noah wants to be a large animal vet.

6:46 pm The last cow leaves the barn for evening pasture, where the herd will spend the night. She lets out a low moo as if to say, “Where did all my friends go?” Renee replies, “Keep walking!”

7:57 pm The day draws to an end. Night check is underway—Renee will make sure the milk lines are clean, water buckets are filled, and the doors are closed on the calf barn—while the milking herd enjoys a sunset snack out on pasture.

Want to Learn More?

Daily Sun to Cheese Tours

A Dairy Snapshot

Updates

Food & Farming

Featured

Off

Comments

This was awesome!

4 Hers work with calfs not cows!

Love this!!

Add new comment

false

June 27, 2024

Off