What do Vermont cooking instructors, restaurateurs and gardeners do when they’re not busy growing tomatoes or whipping up pots of minestrone? Increasingly, it seems, they’re in front of their computers, typing furiously to capture tastes and textures in words. ... Read more

Local businesswoman Jillian T. Kaplan has devised a novel contest idea to promote her newly published kids’ book, What Mess? The picture book features illustrations by Kaitlyn E. Barr — a UVM junior who works at Kaplan’s craft company Kalax Creations — and is drolly narrated from the perspective of a little girl who wonders, in vain, why Mom considers her room a pigsty.... Read more

Northern exposure The recent release from Kasini House Books, History of the Northern Vermont Artist Association, is modest in size for a group in its 79th year.... Read more

Industry analysts are predicting the slumping economy will drive gardeners to grow more of their own food this summer. Even novices, and space-challenged urbanites, can get in the game with containers, according to Burlington gardening expert Barbara E. Richardson.... Read more

Hop Loss
Arts organizations tend to struggle in the best of times. And these are not the best of times. So it was a bummer, though not a shocker, to learn this week that Burlington’s South End Arts and Business Association (SEABA) finds itself without funding for an Art Hop 2009 coordinator. That means current coordinator Bob Bolyard is out of a job. Or at least one of his jobs.... Read more

Three recent books by Vermonters are germane to this week’s Health & Fitness issue, albeit in very different ways. ... Read more

Fashion may not be the first thing on most people’s minds when the economy tanks, but it’s right up there for Joanna Tanger, a self-styled webzine publisher of tips and thoughtful ruminations on cutting-edge clothing design, beauty aids and accessorizing.... Read more

Sen. Edward Kennedy gets the writing credit in the Hachette Book Group's blurb for his upcoming memoir, True Compass. But search a little deeper in the publisher's website, and you find that the 47-year veteran of the U.S. Senate "worked closely on this book" with Vermont author Ron Powers. Powers coauthored the number-one bestselling Flags of our Fathers (2000) and was a finalist fr the National Book Critics Circle Award for his bio Mark Twain: A Life.

Jim Morrison. Jimi Hendrix. Janis Joplin. Kurt Cobain. All were monumentally important figures in rock ’n’ roll history. And sadly, each is a member of rock’s most grimly infamous club, The 27s.... Read more

Amy Seidl wants to grow peaches, but she knows she would eat them with mixed feelings. Global warming is raising average temperatures in her Huntington hollow, and thriving peach trees would presage the fall of her beloved sugar maples.... Read more