There is something special about the taste of a freshly picked piece of produce from the garden, or beef on the grill from a locally raised, grass fed cow.  Not only the taste, but also the satisfaction one receives from eating locally produced food products is palpable.  Growing up in farm country, having foods, particularly produce, go directly from the garden to the dinner table seemed natural to me.  If some fruit or vegetable did not come from our gardens, surely a neighbor’s farmstand carried it.  Sure, all of our foods weren’t local, and the grocery store was a weekly stop, but having regular access to local foods was common.… Read More

The dreams harbored by many young people of running away with the circus dates back well over 100 years. Who would not dream of boarding the train that carried the Barnum & Bailey Circus around the country, visiting far off places and performing death defying feats in front of enthralled crowds? For most who fancied that dream, it remained only that – a dream.

Some who did take the plunge likely discovered the dream was not what they planned as they ended up with jobs such as raising the tents, packing and unpacking gear, and cleaning up after a host of assorted animals.… Read More

How do you combine responsible investing, concern for the environment, and a desire to effect meaningful change in your local community? Norwich resident Norm Levy may have found one answer that you haven’t considered yet.

After working as a physician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock for 25 years, Norm retired in 2013 and began wondering what to do next. Aside from “for fun” projects – including wine tastings – he wanted to focus his ability on good works that would yield results in Norwich and the Upper
Valley. Starting from a passion for increasing sustainability efforts especially among lower-income members of the community, Norm started looking for a way to support local weatherization programs.… Read More

While perusing the pears at the farm stand, I heard a voice say, “Next week, we start impeachment.” I looked at the back of a head, and thought, “There’s an educator ready to walk his students through a constitutional complexity.” Then I remembered I lived in Norwich, and it clicked: that’s no social studies teacher; that’s our congressman. Over a couple of minutes, the farm stand employee, the congressman, and I chuckled, queried, and opined.

For a political nerd like me, those 100+ seconds were a unique gift: impossible to steal, replicate, or purchase. The experience got me thinking, in this season of gift-giving, how many presents we give each other in our community that simply cannot be wrapped.… Read More

For Dr. Deborah Kennedy, food is not only what we eat each day, but also the key to good health. As a practitioner of nutritional medicine, Dr. Kennedy believes food has the power to transform our health for the better, and her upcoming textbook intends to expand upon that mission.

Dr. Kennedy’s life as a foodie started at the age 4 when she began learning how to cook, and led to her job as a cook and sous chef throughout high school and college. This passion for food eventually emboldened her to pursue cooking professionally and then to get her PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry from Tufts University.… Read More

From Norwich to Washington, DC: Working in a US Senate Office

It’s clear from the pages of the Norwich Times that Norwich youth have covered the world through trips, jobs, and adventures of all sorts. This coverage includes Washington, DC, where Norwich is well represented in many government offices. Consider three recent Hanover High School graduates who currently work or recently held an internship in the office of one of our Vermont congressional members, Senator Bernie Sanders. What inspired these recent graduates to work in the Senate and move from Vermont to Washington DC, and what have their experiences been working as civil servants in DC?… Read More

Vermont is home to nine species of bats. Six of these species are year round residents and three migrate south in the winter. Our six year-long residents live in caves and mines during the winter and during summer months can often be found roosting in barns and other buildings. Of the 6 resident species all but one are either state or federally endangered.

Little brown and long-eared bats are the ones we are most likely to see in Norwich during the summer months from mid-April to October. They have been a part of our summer landscape as long as we can remember, swooping over fields and ponds tirelessly hunting the night flying insects that make up their diet.… Read More

One of the favorite recreational opportunities residents and visitors to the Upper Valley enjoy in the fall is hiking the many area trails. Hiking allows an intimate relationship with nature and, in some cases, a birds-eye view of the spectacular fall color. Residents and visitors are particularly blessed with many local trails from which to choose.

One of the best sources for information on area trails in our area is the Upper Valley Trails Alliance located in Norwich. UVTA executive director, Russ Hirschler, says hikers should be able to thoroughly enjoy the area’s trails this fall, while keeping in mind that the trails get some of their heaviest use this time of year.… Read More

Meeting Norwich’s Katie Kitchel is a bit like catching hold of a rocketship. She gives the impression of fast movement even when she’s sitting down. But she focuses her attention on what she’s doing or saying – this is not a woman who indulges fog.

She obviously loves children, smiling and admiring new babies that friends bring into a cafe, and she is keenly aware of how long her own children, a sophomore, a 6th grader, and a 3rd grader, can benefit by supervising themselves and when some adult contact would be a good idea.

Katie has found jobs she loves that intersect with her interests and talents: children and performing arts.… Read More

Every spring, Leadership Upper Valley, a program of Vital Communities, hosts its annual Heroes & Leaders Celebration to recognize individuals who make extraordinary contributions to the Upper Valley. This year’s 25th-anniversary event on May 30 honored 12 leaders who add immeasurably to the vitality of the region, including several inspiring neighbors from right here in Norwich.

Penny McConnel and Liza Bernard

Adapted from remarks by Allan Reetz of the Hanover Co-op Food Stores

If there were a book about The Norwich Bookstore and its founders and co-owners, Liza Bernard and Penny McConnel, it would impart lasting lessons of business and community.… Read More