A list of local storytimes and playgroups!
Take part in the Teddy Bear Teas at local schools each May!
Locations and times for our weekly EES playgroups!
A handy list of local public libraries
Opportunities to see how some of your favorite local goods are made!
Location: Waterbury, VT Phone: (866) BJ-TOURS Web: www.benjerry.com
This is a fun and lively factory tour, sure to appeal to ice cream lovers of all ages. A short film covering the business’s history and mission is followed by a close-up view of the manufacturing process. The sweet final touch is a sample of whatever ice cream is being made that day. An ice cream scoop shop and gift store can be visited before or after the tour. Sign-up for tours is on a first-come, first-serve basis, so plan to arrive early.
Note: There is no ice cream production on weekends, holidays, and company celebration days. On those days, the tour features a video of the ice cream production process, as well as samples of ice cream and frozen yogurt.
Hours: Dates and hours may vary; call toll-free for times.
Directions: I-91 north to 1-89; take exit 10 off of 1–89 in Waterbury, Vermont. Go north on Route 100 towards Stowe. The Ice Cream Factory is about a mile up the road on the left.
Let's go to the farm! Visit and support local farms in our area.
Location: Route 12 and River Road Woodstock, VT 05091-0489
Phone: (802) 457-2355
Web: www.billingsfarm.org
Billings farm is a working dairy farm, dating to 1871, as well as a living museum of Vermont’s rural past. Exhibits use artifacts, oral histories, and photographs to depict the seasonal activities of Vermont’s early farm families. The self–guided tour covers planting and the harvest, dairying, the general store, maple sugaring, and ice cutting, among other exhibits.
Hours: Open daily, May 1–October 31, 10am–5pm; Thanksgiving weekend, December weekends and December 24–January 1 (except Christmas Day). Sleigh Ride Weekends: Martin Luther King and Presidents’ weekends, 10am-4pm.
Directions: Take 1-91 north to exit 9 in Hartland. Follow Route 12 north. Turn left on Route 4 west. Travel four miles into Woodstock. Follow signs to Route 12 north. Turn right onto Route 12 and travel 1/2 mile out of town. Bear right onto River Road for main entrance.
Restrooms, visitor center, livestock barns, and farm life exhibits are fully accessible. The 1890 Farm House is partially accessible; handicapped parking and wheel chairs available.
Cost: Adults $9.50, over 62 $8.50, students (13–17) $7.50, 5–12 years $5, 3–4 years $2.50, Billings Farm & Museum members free. (Major credit cards accepted)
Amenities: Dairy Bar food shop (open May–October), gift shop
Location: 511 Upper Dummerston Road
Brattleboro, VT 05301
Phone: (802) 254-9067
Web: www.fairwindsfarm.org
For over 20 years, the Jay and Janet Bailey family have been farming this 40 acre diversified farm using only horse power. The farm produces eggs, vegetables, perennials and piglets. A sleigh ride with Suffolk Punch horses winds through gentle, wooded hills, and can be surprisingly exciting when the horses pick up speed. The Baileys also offer training for draft and light horses. Call for hours, reservations and prices.
Directions: From downtown Brattleboro, take Route 30 north about 1/2 mile, then go left onto Upper Dummerston Rd. Farm is about 1 mile up on the right.
Location: Route 101
Dublin, NH
Phone: (603) 563-8444
Web: www.friendlyfarm.com
The Friendly Farm is a large, family–run petting farm with cows, horses, pigs, goats, sheep, ducks, chickens, geese, turkeys, rabbits, a working beehive, a hen house with a wide and exotic variety of chickens, and an incubator with eggs hatching chicks which can be gently handled. The stables house rabbits, peacocks, and, in the maternity ward, the most recent births.
Hours: 10am–5pm (weather permitting) from late–May–Labor Day, then weekends only through mid–September.
Directions: The Friendly Farm is located on Route 101 in Dublin, NH approximately 20 minutes east of Keene.
Cost: $6 for adults and $5.25 for children (ages 1-12). A frequent admission card offers 15 admissions for $56.25. Group rates are available for parties of 15 or greater at $3.75 each. Please call ahead for reservations.
Location: 350 Linden Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
Phone: (802) 257-2240
Web: www.retreatfarm.org
The Retreat Petting Farm is walking distance from downtown Brattleboro and features both familiar and exotic animals to feed, pet and groom. The variety of creatures including chicks, miniature horses, cows, llamas, baby goats and lambs will appeal to the animal lover in everyone. A gift shop offers agricultural products, farm toys, and a variety of Vermont-made items including Retreat Farm Farmstead Cheese, cheddar cheese hand crafted from the farm‘s Holstein milk.
Hours: 10am-4pm Wednesday through Saturday and noon–4pm on Sundays. Open from Memorial Day weekend to the end of October, rain or shine. Open one week in the winter during Brattleboro’s Winter Carnival.
Directions: From downtown Brattleboro, head north on Main Street. Follow signs to Route 30 north, going around rotary. Go about 1/4 mile passing through the Brattleboro Retreat. Look for farm on the left across from the Retreat meadows.
Cost: Ages 12 and under $4, ages 13 and older $5.
Gorgeously situated on the shores of Lake Champlain, Shelburne Farms is a membership supported, nonprofit environmental education center and national historic site created in 1886. The farm features walking trails through the extensive grounds, a variety of educational programs for all ages, a dairy and cheese making facility, a welcome center and store, an inn, a restaurant and guided tours.
Visitors to the Children‘s Barnyard can milk cows, collect eggs, groom horses, a donkey and a rabbit, walk a goat, make butter, and card and spin wool. A staff of trained educators and volunteers is on-hand to answer any questions and help visitors explore the farm. The Welcome Center and store feature a slide show, cheese samples and Vermont products and crafts.
Hours: General property: May–October, 10am–4pm (call or check website for exact dates); Welcome Center: year round, 10am–5pm. Cheese making can be viewed from mid–May–mid–October.
Directions: From Brattleboro, take 1-91 north to l-89 (at Bow NH). Follow 1-89 north to Vermont exit 13 (1-189). At the first traffic light, turn left onto Route 7S. Follow for five miles to traffic light in the center of Shelburne. Turn right at this light onto Harbor Road. Follow to the first stop sign and turn left into Shelburne Farms.
Cost: General property admission: $6 adults; $5 seniors; $4 children 3–14; children under three, members and Shelburne residents free.
Location: 242 Chesterfield Road
Keene, NH 03431
Phone: (603) 357-7278
Web: www.stonewallfarm.org
Stonewall Farm is a working farm dating back to the mid 1700s and is also a non-profit educational organization offering year–round programs for all ages, from pre–schoolers through adults. Among their many offerings are hay rides and tours with Belgian horses, visits with farm animals (including an afternoon milking demonstration), picnicking, hiking, a Thanksgiving Farm Market, an impressive variety of children‘s programs, and workshops for adults on topics ranging from beekeeping to natural dyeing.
Hours: Open year-round during daylight hours. Learning Center Grounds & Barn and Gift Shop: Monday–Friday 8:30am–4:30pm; Farm stand seasonal, call for hours.
Directions: Stonewall Farm is located just off Route 9 west on Chesterfield Road in Keene NH, about 12 miles east of Brattleboro.
There is no admission fee. Fees vary for workshops.
Opportunities to observe fish as they make their way upriver.
Location: Bridge Street Bellows Falls, VT
Phone: (802) 843-2111
Web: www.nature-museum.org/bellow-falls-visitor-center
The Grafton Nature Museum offers educational programs for the Bellows Falls Watershed Center and Fish Ladder which is operated by the Trans Canada Hydro NE. The Bellows Falls fish ladder was completed in 1982 to reintroduce salmon to the upper Connecticut for the first time since the 1790s, when the river was first dammed.
Visitors can now observe fish moving up the ladder much the way earlier canal boats moved up the locks. Just above the powerhouse is a visitor’s center with exhibits, displays and activities about the Connecticut River and its watershed. Call for information on educational programming.
Hours: Open Memorial Day–Labor Day; Saturday 10am–4pm and Sunday 12pm–4pm; call to confirm.
Directions: From Brattleboro, take l-91 north to exit 5; turn slight right onto Westminster Street Highway; turn left onto US 5/Calvin Coolidge Memorial Highway; turn right onto Westminster Street/Rockingham Street, which becomes Bridge Street.
Cost: Free!
Location: Avenue A Turners Falls, MA
Phone: (800) 859-2960
Web: www.turnersfallsriverculture.org/fish-ladder
The Fish Way and Fish Viewing Facility, operated by Northeast Utilities Company, was built in the early 1980s to allow fish to migrate past the Turners Falls Dam and generating facilities. Visitors can observe shad and sea lamprey through a viewing window, as they make their way up the Connecticut River each year during the spring migration (mid–May–Father‘s Day in June).
Hours: Wednesday through Sunday 9am–5pm, mid–May–Father‘s Day in June. Parking is available behind the Town Hall; call for information.
Directions: Located on First Street in Turners Falls off Avenue A
Cost: Free!
Location: Governor Hunt Road
Vernon, VT
Phone: (603) 445-6800
(Trans Canada Hydro NE)
Hours: Viewing gallery open during the spring migration, early May through late June. Call US Gen NE Inc. Power Company for exact dates and times.
Directions: From Brattleboro, take Route 142 south toward Vernon. About a mile after the center of North Vernon, turn left onto Governor Hunt Road, and follow it to the viewing facility.
A list of local storytimes and playgroups!
Location: 507 March Hill Road
Walpole, NH 03608
Web: www.nature-museum.org/bellow-falls-visitor-center
The Grafton Nature Museum offers educational programs for the Bellows Falls Watershed Center and Fish Ladder which is operated by the Trans Canada Hydro NE. The Bellows Falls fish ladder was completed in 1982 to reintroduce salmon to the upper Connecticut for the first time since the 1790s, when the river was first dammed.
Visitors can now observe fish moving up the ladder much the way earlier canal boats moved up the locks. Just above the powerhouse is a visitor’s center with exhibits, displays and activities about the Connecticut River and its watershed. Call for information on educational programming.
Hours: Open Memorial Day–Labor Day; Saturday 10am–4pm and Sunday 12pm–4pm; call to confirm.
Directions: From Brattleboro, take l-91 north to exit 5; turn slight right onto Westminster Street Highway; turn left onto US 5/Calvin Coolidge Memorial Highway; turn right onto Westminster Street/Rockingham Street, which becomes Bridge Street.
Cost: Free!
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