Vermont
Reflecting on a Year of Extremes in Vermont Food and Farming
It was the worst of times, it was the best of times… Yes, we know we have that Charles Dickens quote backward, but sheesh, 2023 has been one tough year.
Despite the challenges, we’ve relished plenty of good things to eat and drink, heartwarming moments and lots of laughter. The perseverance and creativity of Vermonters involved in growing, crafting and serving up all manner of deliciousness continue to impress us.
From the sweetest to the most anticipated, here are a Seven Days-style dozen (i.e., 14) superlatives to recap the year.
— M.P.
Sweetest Annual Tradition
We kicked off 2021 with a story about doughnuts. In 2022, we talked to Chris Johnson, Nomad Coffee head baker (now owner!) about croissants and kouign amanns. This year, we cranked our January diet-busting approach up a notch with the new “Bakery Month.”
A bunch of bakeries had opened at the end of 2022, so we did the hard job of heading out postholidays to taste their pastries, cakes and flourless chocolate mousse-cake-pie-tortes all month long. In Shelburne, Leunig’s Le Marché Café offered creations inspired by local mountains and sandwiches perfect for picnicking on them. Burlington’s Belleville Bakery delighted with European-style treats and “ex-boyfriend” cookies from its open kitchen. Essex Junction’s Boxcar Bakery had me pounding plump ham-and-cheese croissants and the aforementioned chocolate mousse-cake-pie-tortes (not their real name).
I think 2024 needs a sweet start, too.
— J.B.
Most Anticipated Restaurant Opening (and Reopening — and Re-reopening)
People who dined at Hen of the Wood’s original Waterbury location over its 18 years found the restaurant idyllically, quintessentially Vermont, with its rustic stone walls and riverside tables. From an operations standpoint, however, the space was a challenge, founder-owner Eric Warnstedt said when he finally confirmed a long-planned move in March.
Hen of the Wood reopened to the public in a brand-new, custom-designed space at 14 South Main Street on April 7, only to close temporarily after service that same night when a sprinkler system malfunctioned. It re-reopened on May 31.
The new restaurant was largely unscathed by the July flooding, which swamped Warnstedt’s Prohibition Pig across the street. But Hen did close for a few days, and its basement “speakeasy” remained shuttered for about a month before re-reopening.
Now all that is water under the bridge (sorry), and the new Waterbury Hen has settled into its sleek, contemporary home. Diners can sit at the chef’s counter for a close-up view of cooks seasoning salads or sizzling steaks on the wood-fired grill — similar to the scene at Hen’s Burlington sibling.
Like any first love, the original retains a spot in my heart. I’m looking forward to sharing the details of a new restaurant concept better suited to the historic grist mill space that Warnstedt hopes to launch in 2024. Stay tuned.
— M.P.
Longest Drive for a Story
I didn’t go to Montréal for our Québec Issue, but earlier in the year, I got so close to the border that my phone thought I was in Canada.
We don’t often venture that far north and east into the Northeast Kingdom for stories, but a sugaring-season feast beckoned at April’s Maple in Canaan. On a bluebird day in early March, I drove three hours and 13 minutes for a creemee.
The maple-on-maple-on-maple cone was worth the trip, as were the maple sugar pancakes, the maple hot dog with maple mustard, the maple-barbecue pulled pork sandwich and the maple-apple coleslaw. The daylong adventure paid off in another way: It was prime snowmobiling season, and April’s is right on the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers trails. A glimpse into that world led me to a story on Kendyl’s Buns on the Run in nearby Norton for our Winter Preview Issue.
The drive there is even longer: Kendyl’s is accessible only via snowmobile.
— J.B.
Biggest Looming Farm Transition(s)
Two noteworthy Vermont farms are tied for this distinction: one designed as a new model for reinvigorating defunct dairy farmland and the other associated with a successful Vermont dairy product line.
The first is Earthkeep Farmcommon, the former Nordic Farm on Route 7 in Charlotte; the second is Butterworks Farm in Westfield. Both went on the market earlier this year. As of press time, representatives for each property said they were in discussion with potential buyers but had nothing to report.
After the unexpected December 2022 death of Earthkeep Farmcommon’s visionary founder, Will Raap, his family partnered with LandVest real estate on selling the high-profile 583-acre former dairy farm.
At the time, Raap’s widow, Lynette Raap, wrote, “Our family does not have the ability to carry forward Will’s vision.” She added that they were hopeful someone else would see the farm’s potential.
In April, LandVest did not set a price but solicited proposals from prospective buyers informed by farm property assets, conservation restrictions on development and some financial information. That initial effort did not yield a deal, and the farm is now listed for sale for $2.3 million.
The family of pioneering Butterworks Farm cofounder Jack Lazor, who died in 2020, also concluded this year that it was ready to hand over the reins to new owners.
Jack and Anne Lazor’s daughter, Christine Lazor, said the decision to sell was hard but a relief. “We’ve been kind of burnt out for a really long time,” she acknowledged.
In August, the property went on the market as two separate entities: the Butterworks dairy business, which includes the milking herd and equipment used to make a regionally distributed line of organic, grass-fed dairy products; and the 167-acre farm with two homes and farm buildings. The business is listed for $830,000 and the farm for $760,000.
Devotees of Butterworks yogurt (this reporter included) will be grateful to hear that Christine; her husband, Collin Mahoney; and the rest of the Butterworks team plan to keep making it until a buyer takes over.
— M.P.
Best New Grocery Staples
The official description of our “Small Pleasures” series is “an occasional column that features delicious and distinctive Vermont-made food or drinks that pack a punch.” The unofficial description? It’s the stuff we always buy at the grocery store (or farmers market or specialty shop, as the case may be).
This year, the column featured maple skyr, kimchi, English muffins, spice blends, dosa batter, hot-smoked fish, halvah, Peruvian cacao and cider jelly. Each item found its way into my pantry or fridge, even when I wasn’t the one writing about it.
I bought so many Birch Hill English Muffins, in fact, that I knew immediately when owner and muffin man Eric Hill took a week off in early November. It was delivery day at City Market, Onion River Co-op, and the usual shelf wasn’t stocked with original or garlic-and-herb.
I saw Hill a couple of weeks later at the first winter Burlington Farmers Market of the year, where he was shopping, not vending. I was glad he got a break from filling his dining room with electric griddles, but man, I missed those muffins.
— J.B.
Funniest Conversation
For May’s Dairy Issue, I headed to Baird Farm in North Chittenden to talk with the Baird family about how they’ve transformed their former dairy farm into a flourishing maple biz. I expected sobering facts about struggling dairies, insights into land use and a strong dose of history.
I did not expect to laugh my ass off for nearly two hours. Jacob Powsner and Bob, Bonnie and Jenna Baird are funny folks. The story ended up being super short, but the banter will bring me back — hopefully for a walk in the woods during sugaring season.
After I left, they posted a photo of us in the doorway of the old milking parlor on the farm’s Instagram stories. Above it was a poll, captioned “What they chattin’ ’bout?” The options:
- Headlocks, WWE, and the Poetics of Dairy Transitions
- Whey as a Fire Detergent: a Comparative Analysis
- That Weird Human Urge to Give Your Vehicle a Name
- Two Top Causes of Mastitis: Sugarin’ & Deer Hunting
The answer? “All of the above.”
— J.B.
Best View of the Barge Canal
OK, front-row seats to a Superfund site might not be a big selling point. But the Pinery, a new seasonal beer garden in Burlington’s South End, did a lot for the canal’s image this summer.
I had trouble believing co-owners Tyson Ringey and Max and Louie Orleans when they hyped the view, so I went there to see for myself — and took in several stunning sunsets with a spritz in my hand. The family- and dog-friendly beer garden is exactly what Pine Street needed for casual summer hangs, as well as a great seating addition to the Orleans bros’ rebranded Friday food truck gathering, the South End Get Down. I’m thrilled they’ll both be back next year.
— J.B.
Most Sobering Reminder That Mother Nature Is in Charge
The mid-May cold snap that hit blooming apples, grapes and blueberries left many Vermont farmers and orchardists reeling. But that became a runner-up in this category when record-breaking, torrential rains inundated the state on July 10.
Seven Days reporters headed out to cover volunteers helping with emergency harvests in Burlington’s Intervale, then followed up with guidance for flooded community and home gardeners. We told the story of hard-hit Dog River Farm in Berlin, where George Gross lost 90 percent of the crops in his fields and found fish in puddles after the storm.
Restaurants around Vermont suffered catastrophic losses, too. In Barre, Montpelier, Richmond and Woodstock, we spoke with owners who were overwhelmed by the damage but also buoyed by physical and financial support from their communities.
Rich McSheffrey, owner of Cornerstone Pub & Kitchen in Barre, described the bucket brigade of volunteers who helped bail five feet of standing water from his restaurant basement. He called it “one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.”
Cornerstone managed to reopen in seven weeks. After a ton of work by chef-owner Niem Duong and her small crew, Montpelier’s Pho Capital began serving again, appropriately, on Labor Day weekend. Other affected restaurants, such as Three Penny Taproom and Oakes & Evelyn in Montpelier, had a much longer road to recovery; both reopened in November.
While floodwaters have receded, it remains to be seen how the loss of income and the debt involved in rebuilding will affect restaurants in the long term, especially in the face of continued high ingredient and labor costs. Restaurateurs are a tough and passionate bunch. We’re rooting for them.
— M.P.
Most Heartbreaking Loss
Ahmed Omar, chef-owner of Kismayo Kitchen, wasn’t beloved just by customers of the little restaurant he ran at the entrance to Burlington’s Intervale. He was also a highly respected member of the African diaspora and Muslim communities in northern Vermont.
Omar, who died unexpectedly in his sleep on August 13 at the age of 36, was known for his warmth, generosity and ambition. Everyone felt at home with his multicultural menu, ranging from Philly cheesesteaks to coconut chicken stew with rice from his native Somalia.
“He touched so many lives,” his friend Maryan Maalin said. “If you were new to town, he would say, ‘Come, stop by, and I will give you free food.’”
Omar left behind a grieving family, including his wife, Anisa Mohamed, and their two young daughters. In the immediate aftermath of his death, it was unclear whether his restaurant would go on.
But on November 15, almost three months to the day after Omar’s death, Mohamed reopened Kismayo Kitchen with the help of family and friends. She did it to “keep his legacy going,” she said, and for their daughters.
“They told me, ‘Baba used to tell us this was going to be ours,’” Mohamed recalled her girls saying about their father. “‘You just run it for us ’til we can do it.’”
— M.P.
Biggest Hubbub
Reporter Carolyn Shapiro spent more than six weeks working on a story investigating employee allegations of mismanagement at Burlington’s Citizen Cider around the launch of its Hey Bub light beer.
We published the resulting article on September 25 — the first news report on the controversy. Shapiro detailed how the marketing approach for the new beer — which included T-shirts with suggestive phrases, such as “Keep It Trimmed” and “Get Plowed” — made Citizen employees feel uncomfortable and unsafe at work. More than a dozen eventually quit, “citing incidents related to the Hey Bub release and what they view as its offensive marketing,” Shapiro wrote.
Over the following weeks, online commentary snowballed, including videos and a boycott campaign encouraged and tracked by Burlington social media personality Jonny Wanzer. He cited additional anonymous complaints alleging a toxic working environment at Citizen Cider.
Wanzer’s first video on the subject was posted on October 11 on YouTube, where it has generated more than 21,000 views. Several Vermont media outlets covered the growing boycott.
On October 18, Citizen Cider made its first public statement, announcing that it would bring in a third-party organization to evaluate its policies and practices and interview employees. On November 28, the company posted on social media that the external investigation had “helped us understand where we have fallen short” and pledged a “commitment to change.” Citizen said it had “taken down the shirts with innuendoes and acknowledge[d] that they made some of our employees feel unsafe,” among other actions.
The jury of public opinion is still out on whether Citizen Cider can get back into the community’s good graces — and back on the shelves of many locally owned retailers and restaurants that have removed it.
— M.P.
Most Unexpected Shout-Out
Kale used to consider itself lucky to garnish the salad bar. But over the past decade or so, the leafy green has been promoted to the role of pleasantly palatable, nutritious vegetable.
This fall, Seven Days helped kale land a joke on national late-night TV — specifically, a shout-out on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” in an October 3 “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” segment.
Sure, Meyers credited only “a newspaper in Vermont.” But who else but us would publish a reader-requested recipe for “Lesbian Kale Sauce”?
Please watch Meyers work hard to keep a straight face while telling the joke on the show’s YouTube channel. Maybe we should whip him up a batch when he comes to Burlington to perform at the Flynn in February.
— M.P.
Most Extreme Reactions to an Article Subject
When I dove into the subject of lab-grown meat for an October 17 cover story about two University of Vermont mechanical engineers who are working on growing meat from cells extracted painlessly from live animals, I wouldn’t shut up about it.
The scientific, cultural, environmental and ethical questions involved in Rachael Floreani and Irfan Tahir’s research challenged and fascinated me, and I was curious about how others saw the trade-offs. Might lab-grown meat feed a hungry, climate-changed world, I asked people, or would it contribute further to its demise?
Along with the UVM researchers, I talked with other scientists, chefs, farmers, philosophers, food systems experts and plain old eaters: omnivores, vegetarians and vegans.
Many believed in the potential benefits of meat grown off the hoof, so to speak, for the environment, animals and humans alike. Some were open to the idea but concerned about the Pandora’s box that such new technologies might open.
Then there were the nonmeat eaters and meat eaters alike who vowed they would never eat what they saw as highly processed Frankenfood. I was surprised by how many people expressed this revulsion, though I shouldn’t have been.
As I learned, the technological obstacles to scaling up to mass production of lab-grown meat are high. The number of “Ewwww” reactions made clear that the cultural obstacles may be just as formidable.
— M.P.
Biggest Holes
The Denny’s on Shelburne Road in South Burlington closed in November. Writing about chains isn’t our usual gig, but the loss of one of the state’s only 24-hour restaurants is a hole in the market worth mentioning.
Other restaurant closures left holes, too. Some are physical, like the still-empty ArtsRiot building, where a new vegan restaurant (part of an out-of-state chain) was promised and never materialized. Others are emotional, like the recent news that Filipino-fusion spot Kuya’s at One Main, a Randolph favorite, will close on December 30. That one hurts.
Some holes are more quickly filled. Vermont Fine, which took over for the long-running Kitchen Table Bistro in Richmond, shuttered in July after nine months. By September, the new Kitchen Table opened in the same historic brick building. Adventure Dinner popped up at Peg & Ter’s, keeping things festive while we await news of the Shelburne restaurant’s future.
Other holes are uncertain. Will Deep City reopen? Or Philo Ridge Farm’s restaurant? Who’s gonna buy Church Street Tavern or El Gato Cantina’s Burlington spot? Is there anywhere to get a sit-down meal in Burlington after 11 p.m.?
— J.B.
Most Anticipated for 2024
All that being said, we have plenty to look forward to in the coming year. Fancy, majestic and revolutionary developments are rumored around town.
Longtime Hen of the Wood colleagues Cindi Kozak and Jordan Ware have started renovating the old Penny Cluse Café building for their new, approachable farm-to-table spot, Frankie’s. Meanwhile, the restaurant group owned by Kozak and Ware’s former boss, Warnstedt, is developing a casual seafood restaurant, Original Skiff Fish + Oyster, for the Hilton Burlington Lake Champlain. Both projects anticipate a spring opening.
Nomad Coffee’s new owner, Chris Johnson, is planning a Church Street bakery in the former Red Onion Café space (talk about holes…). Up the street, we’re excited about Always Full Asian Market’s second location. Elsewhere nearby, we’re ready for Switchback Brewing’s expanded taproom and restaurant, the full Specs experience in Winooski, and pizza and cocktails at Myer’s Wood Fired.
Finally, if you’ll grant us a wish: For the second year in a row, we’re begging somebody to please, please open a Jewish deli.
— J.B.
Vermont
Vermont Conversation: Million meter man Noah Dines on his record-setting year of living strenuously – VTDigger
The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues with politicians, activists, artists, changemakers and citizens who are making a difference. Listen below, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify to hear more.
For Noah Dines, life has been an uphill climb. And that is his dream come true.
Dines, a 30 year-old Stowe local, is in the process of setting a new world record for human powered vertical feet skied in one year. The previous record had been 2.5 million feet set in 2016 by Aaron Rice, another Stowe skier. Dines broke Rice’s record in September, then surpassed his original goal of skiing 3 million feet in October, broke 1 million meters — or 3.3 million feet — in early December, and will wrap up the year having skied 3.5 million feet.
Uphill skiing is known as skinning, so named for the strips of material that attach to the bottom of skis that enable skiers to glide uphill without slipping backwards. They used to be made from seal skins, hence the name skinning. Skinning up ski area trails has become a popular form of exercise in recent years, and backcountry skiers also use skins to travel where there are no lifts.
Dines began his uphill skiing quest on New Years Day 2024 just after midnight. He turned on his headlamp, snapped on his lightweight alpine touring skis and quietly skied off into the night up the trails of Stowe Mountain Resort. He has spent this year chasing snow around the world, from Vermont, to Oregon, Colorado, Europe and Chile. He has skied all but about 30 days this year. A typical day has him skiing uphill about 10,000 feet. At Stowe, that means he skis at least five round trip laps per day, often more. He will finish his quest at the end of this month and will be joined in his last days by his father, who has never skied uphill before.
I met up with Noah Dines on December 17 at the base lodge at Spruce Peak at SMR. It was raining, but Dines was still skiing.
“If you bail when it rains all the time, then you’re not getting everything you could,” he said.
Dines explained that his record quest has required “a lot of saying no” to everything from friends’ weddings to having a beer, from which he has abstained. “Your response to anything has to do with, how will this affect my big year?” he said.
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Conceding that “the money has definitely been hard,” Dines has supported himself during his year of chasing snow through sponsorships from Fischer Skis, Maloja clothing and Plink electrolyte drinks. He also raised $10,000 through a GoFundMe and has drawn down his savings.
What has a year of living strenuously meant?
“Friendships. I’ve met so many incredible people. It’s meant learning how to persevere and work harder than I’ve ever worked before. It’s meant seeing beautiful sunsets in Chile. It’s meant cold mornings and crisp Alpine air. In Europe, it’s meant croissants on the side of a mountain. It’s meant more time with friends in Stowe.”
By pursuing a dream, Dines hopes that he can be a model for others. “I have a passion and I pursued it and I’ve pushed myself as hard as I can, and you can too,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be with sports or take a year, but there’s no reason that you can’t set goals and meet them, that you can’t push yourself just because you didn’t grow up doing it.”
What will the million meter man do to start 2025?
“Well first and foremost, I’ll take a little nap, at least for an afternoon.”
This commentary is by Mike Mrowicki, democratic state representative for the Windham-4 district.
As we head into the 2025 legislative session in January, I want to first offer congratulations to Gov. Scott, Jason Maalucci and the Republican campaign effort. They sure got it right about affordability.
Yes, property taxes / education funding are on people’s minds but the ongoing frustration about inflation/affordability also includes the price of eggs, the increase in health insurance cost and rising home insurance costs. Especially where there’s been flooding two years in a row.
So, Vermonters want action and there sure seems a broad sense of enthusiasm from legislators to come together and get the work done. To balance the competing needs of providing our kids a quality education and making it affordable. After all, the kids of today will be taking our blood pressure tomorrow and don’t we want them to be able to do it accurately, based on the quality education they got in Vermont?
At the same time, no one should feel that their taxes are a threat to staying in their homes. We need to make sure, especially for those on fixed incomes, that despite rising property values, property taxes should reflect ability to pay.
In the spirit of working together with the governor, then, I and other legislators are eagerly awaiting his ideas for fixing the property tax / ed funding dilemma. And, we are ready to hear what he has to say on the raft of other factors that challenge Vermonters’ sense of affordability.
Like the cost of health insurance. Blue Cross Blue Shield Vermont individual premiums will rise by 19.8% next year. There isn’t a budget this doesn’t affect: home budgets, town budgets, school budgets and state budgets. It’s a cost driver across the board and we’re looking forward to hearing the governor’s plan on how to make this more affordable.
Housing is unaffordable and, in many cases, unavailable, especially for our financially challenged neighbors. The lack of housing is the barrier to progress in so many sections of our landscape. It is the greatest barrier to growing our workforce and economy so, likewise, we’re looking forward to the governor’s plans on Housing.
The cost of transportation and maintaining our roads and bridges is also unaffordable. This is compounded by our gas taxes no longer providing sufficient funds to maintain our roads and bridges. Here’s another area where we’re waiting to hear the administration’s plan so we can work together to solve this.
And, of course, climate change is costing towns across Vermont unaffordable amounts to fix the damage from this year’s floods, and last year’s as well. Who knows what next year will bring, but these are costs that Vermont taxpayers are bearing right now and adding to the pile of issues that are making Vermont unaffordable. We’ll be looking forward to hearing from the governor and his administration how we make those climate costs affordable.
Legislators are ready to work together, as the 18-week session nears. To work together in the spirit of cooperation and keeping focused on how we can best help Vermonters.
As the late Mario Cuomo once said when he was governor of New York in the last century, “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.” A good way of saying the campaign is over, the hard work is ahead of us.
Vermonters work hard to make ends meet. We get that. Legislators will also be working hard to make sure Vermonters feel heard and see results. When we adjourn in May, here’s hoping the spirit of cooperation brings us to a better place for all the issues facing Vermont, so everyone’s hard work feels all the more worthwhile.
Vermont
A trio of performers plans to host Bethel’s 1st annual drag-themed Christmas party – VTDigger
Three young drag performers are hosting a Christmas party in the small town of Bethel. They say they would rather do it in rural Vermont than in any big city.
“I feel like it’s really important to show up and show that there are people here,” said drag queen Ima Hoar, known offstage as Elijah Reed. “I’ve heard so many people say that we’re all just hiding in the hills a little bit.”
Ryder Faster, a 22-year old drag king also known as AJ Holbrook-Gates, said the trio, who all live in Bethel, want to bring drag to smaller communities to let people “who are under the radar” know that they’re seen.
The 18+ party is scheduled to take place Friday at the White Church.
Ima Hoar has taken the lead on logistics, overseeing essentials like the sound system and venue setup. Reed is married to Adam Messier, who’s also performing in Friday’s show as Lavender Homicide. The pair’s drag journey began during the isolation of Covid-19, when they started performing at home and hosting karaoke nights. Their creative spark, born in private, has since grown into a dynamic partnership bringing drag to Vermont’s rural communities.
“We wanted to have a similar vibe to that, where it’s like a relaxed space where people can have fun and just do whatever kind of makeup you want and do whatever kind of songs you want,” Lavender said.
This Friday’s party will mark Ima Hoar’s second performance, where she’ll swap the glitz of traditional burlesque drag for her signature style: comedy. Her specialty? “Grandma drag,” a playful homage to her childhood memories, performed in a nightgown.
“That kind of comes from when my grandmother had wigs growing up, and so I would always dress up as her essentially,” she said. “I would wear the wigs and put on both my sisters’ princess heels and walk around with a cane.”
Ima described her drag queen persona as leaning heavily into comedy, embodying the awkwardness and playful allure of a “sexy grandma.”
As a nonbinary performer, Ima sees drag as an exploration of extremes, where gender becomes a playful exaggeration. “It feels very nice to do this polar opposite of this super gender thing, where you’re just dressing up as gender personified a little bit,” she said. “I definitely find it very healing in a gender way.”
Lavender Homicide, 22, on the other hand, describes herself as an “80s hooker in a horror movie.”
“I’ve always loved the rock and roll and the punk aesthetic of it all,” she said, adding that seeing the women wearing fishnet tights and miniskirts with crazy hair was inspiring.
She chose the name Lavender Homicide not only because she likes the flower, but also because she tries to mix sweet names with scary ones.
She also wears a lot of perfume, mainly the scent Champagne Toast, out of fear of smelling bad while performing.
Lavender recalled being encouraged years ago to perform by Emoji Nightmare, a drag entertainer in Vermont whom she has known since she was 15. “She’s the big game in Vermont,” Lavender said.
“She kind of was all the time, like, ‘Hey, when are you going to come perform?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m a teenager. I can’t do that,’” she said.
Lavender recalled struggling with finding her identity when she was young. While she wasn’t ready to perform as a teenager, she started at 15 with drag makeup and has been perfecting it for seven years now. “I love wearing dresses and heels and makeup, but I’m also fine with the body that I was born with and how I dress day to day,” she said. “And I went through a lot of inner turmoil with that.”
It wasn’t until Bethel Pride Fest 2023 — an event Lavender was helping run — that her mindset started to shift. She received a surprising message from another drag performer the following week asking if she wanted to be part of an upcoming show. Lavender’s response? “Absolutely.”
Lavender’s former classmate at Randolph Union High School will also be taking the stage Friday night.
The Christmas party will be Ryder Faster’s second themed event, following a Halloween party where he missed a memo about the dress code.
“It was supposed to be a spooky Halloween theme, and I dressed up as Donald Trump,” he said. “And then everybody else was wearing black dresses and such.”
Ryder’s drag persona draws inspiration from other performers, particularly fellow drag king Prince Muffin, who also plans to perform at the Christmas party. With his cowboy hat, chaps, and bold contouring, Ryder hopes his performances share the message of self-acceptance.
“I hope to encourage people to love themselves for who they are,” he said. “Because I certainly didn’t do so for a while.”
The Christmas party is hosted together with Babes Bar, which will have a pop-up bar at the party. The collaboration blossomed out of an initial favor the owners of the bar, Jesse and Owen McCarter, did for Ima and Lavender in real life. They helped the couple buy a house.
“I’m super excited to support younger folks who move into town,” said Owen McCarter. He has seen them all perform and believes they all complement each other.
“Ryder is the Western manly character. Lavender brings very fierce energy. She’s very bold and confident, and Ima, she’s hilarious and has a lot of jokes,” he said.
Breaking barriers
In Bethel, these drag performers are carving out an inclusive space in a community that might initially seem an unlikely stage for their art, Ima said. The choice to settle in a rural town rather than a city like Burlington, known for its openness and established LGBTQ+ community, was practical and intentional.
“We moved here last year, and Bethel has a very engaged community just all around,” Ima said. “It’s very supportive of just little projects everywhere.”
With initiatives like the Juneteenth Celebration and Pride Fest, Ima and others are not only fostering connections but also challenging the perception that rural spaces lack inclusivity.
For Lavender Homicide, drag is not just performance — it’s a statement of visibility and resilience in a time when mainstream attention has brought both celebration and backlash.
“I think drag is very important nowadays. I think more than ever,” Lavender said, reflecting on how shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race have catapulted drag from the underground bar scene into the cultural spotlight.
But with that visibility comes scrutiny.
“With most things, because it’s mainstream now, people are upset about it,” she said. Lavender and her fellow performers are determined to counter narratives painting drag as harmful or inappropriate.
“We’re trying to just push the community, especially with the whole ‘drag queens are dangerous to children’ narrative,” she said. “But we’re not, though.”
For Ima, bringing drag to small towns is about bridging distances — both literal and metaphorical. She said there are many drag performances in Burlington, but for many rural residents, attending these events involves lengthy drives, something not everyone can do regularly.
The goal, instead, is to create moments of joy closer to home — whether in Bethel or neighboring towns like Williamstown — where drag performers engage with local businesses, recognizing that these residents, too, exist in their own “bubble,” Ima said. Beyond convenience, there’s also a quiet defiance in this choice.
“I feel like some of it is semi-passive resistance against just the idea that rural communities aren’t super accepting,” Ima said. “We’re not doing anything super political, but we’re just existing in a way that holds space.”
Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show, which has a $15 admission fee, starts at 7 p.m.
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