Vermont Winter Vacation Guide 2008 - (Page 15) For decades innkeepers have fired the ovens to roast locally raised quail and prepare special holiday meals. Tostrup has expanded on that tradition. One of his favorites is kettle-roasted potatoes prepared with layers of laurel leaves, pepper corns and salt in Old World fashion. The aroma that permeates the dining room never fails to engage the interest or the appetites of the guests. And, he notes, the oven gives a special flavor to hors d’oeuvres and pizza as well. Several of the Vermont properties maintained by the Landmark Trust USA feature carefully restored fireplaces and kitchen hearths. Both the Amos Brown House in Whitingham, and Rudyard Kipling’s Naulakha in the town of Dummerston, which are available for guest stays, are excellent examples of early and late nineteenth century masonry – though for safety reasons, guests are not allowed to kindle fires in either home. Reconstruction of the brick work at the Amos Brown House was done with a traditional lime mortar rather than concrete, a natural and arguably more enduring technology that is still the standard for building preservation in Europe, according to the Landmark Trust’s David Tansey, who supervises the Trust’s restoration projects in Vermont. With Vermont’s dynamic climate, lime mortar has greater flexibility than concrete, allowing a structure to breathe through seasonal changes in temperature and humidity. Readily accessible to the public, and likely the largest fireplace in Vermont, is a massive hearth one can walk into, replete with benches, in the Billings Student Center of the University of PETER MAUSS AT ESTO PHOTOGRAPHY NAULAKHA, RUDYARD KIPLING'S HOME Vermont, in Burlington. The Billings Center and the fireplace are in the Romanesque style popularized by celebrated architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Despite Vermont’s forested landscape, the popularity of wood heating has experienced cycles, varying against the cost of other fuels. Many Vermonters, facing rising costs for home heating fuel, are rediscovering both the labor and the satisfying warmth of wood heat, which, as tradition bears out, warms you at least three times – cutting, splitting, and finally from the fire. But the experience of an open hearth, while less efficient than other means of heating, remains the most entertaining, and certainly romantic, way to take the chill off a winter’s evening. PETER MAUSS AT ESTO PHOTOGRAPHY DINING ROOM AT AMOS BROWN HOUSE AMOS BROWN HOUSE www.VermontVacation.com 1-800-VERMONT 15 http://www.VermontVacation.com
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