Vermont Winter Vacation Guide 2008 - (Page 14) Winter Hearths By Gregory Gerdel – or the occasional jaw-dropping freeze– rarely imposes on our indoor comfort, where we can enjoy uniform warmth. Earlier heating systems were not quite so robust, requiring either personal rotation or acceptance that the hearth-side of the body would be considerably warmer than the more distant hemisphere. The earliest homes and inns in Vermont and throughout New England were designed with a massive, central chimney, often with a hearth or fireplace in several rooms. But the kitchen hearth was the focal point for both culinary and social activity. Today, a fire in an open hearth remains an aesthetic and social centerpiece. Fireside tables are invariably the first choice for dinner reservations at the many restaurants featuring the option, whether the building itself is historic or more recently constructed. Before it was supplanted by the massive, cast-iron cookstoves of the nineteenth century, the kitchen hearth ranged from a simple fireplace where kettles and cooking pots could be hung above the fire, to complex masonry structures incorporating baking and warming ovens. The Inn at Weathersfield maintains such a traditional hearth, where Chef Jason Tostrup bakes bread in the original 1792 beehive oven right in the front entry (once the original kitchen). Although he doesn’t use the hearth every day, Tostrup has found it an important ally in his commitment to cooking with local foods. “I try to use hearty, whole foods, locally grown as much as possible. When you break down the chemistry of cooking, the heat source is significant. When food is roasted in this oven, you are taking Mother Nature and putting in more Mother Nature,” Tostrup observes. With central, radiant, or forced hot-air heating, winter’s chill INN AT WEATHERSFIELD, 1792 BEEHIVE OVEN
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