Acorn Natural Medicine
Dr. Maxine Fidler recently opened Acorn Natural Medicine, a naturopathic practice in the historic Zeno House in Middlebury.

Fidler, a licensed naturopathic physician who also is certified in acupuncture and Oriental medicine, said she regards the practice as a blend of Eastern and Western medicine. Acorn is designed to provide patients with a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment.

The practice offers patients a variety of alternative and traditional treatments such as traditional Chinese acupuncture, which involves sticking solid needles – some of which are thinner than human hair – into pressure points in the body.

Other treatments are acutonics, which uses tuning forks instead of needles on acupuncture points; Western herbal medicine and traditional Chinese medicine; nutritional counseling; dietary supplements such as vitamins and minerals; physical medicine bodywork including acupressure; cupping; craniosacral therapy; and muscle energy stretching.

Fidler said she believes in treating the entire person, “I am committed to my patients,” she said. “I really believe in what I am doing. This is science-based natural medicine. I do test recommended treatments just like any other doctor.

“However, in my practice I deal with the entire person: mind, soul and body.”

Fidler also specializes in treatment of chronic health problems such as asthma, chronic pain, digestive disorders, fibromyalgia and fatigue. Because of her background, she has used a number of alternative medical practices along with Western medicine.

This approach takes into consideration the entire person and not just the symptoms, with a goal of successfully helping patients to lead an overall better quality of life. This has helped her design comprehensive patient treatment programs.

Acorn currently is offering free 15-minute consultations with Dr. Fidler.

Acorn Natural Medicine is located inside the Zeno House at 31 Court Street (Route 7) in Middlebury. The telephone number is 1.802. 349.0440; the Web site is www.acorn-natural-medicine.com. Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday and Thursday, and 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.

Woodstock Cookie Company
Woodstock Cookie Company is no longer in Woodstock: the eight-year-old company was recently purchased and relocated to the Howe Center in Rutland.

Mother-and-son team Janice Young and Jay Young purchased the bakery from Bob Silva last spring. After a month of transition and readying the new space, they relocated the business in June to 2,800 square feet of new space closer to home at Suite 20 in the Howe Center.

“We are very pleased with this new location,” said Janice Young, noting the operation had been in a cramped house an hour away when they purchased it.

Young said she was previously in a job but felt she wanted to do much more, and approached the owner of Woodstock Cookie Company to discuss the possibility of purchasing it. It turned out that health concerns were prompting the former owner to seek a buyer, and things fell into place from there.

“Everything has worked out very well for us,” said Janice Young. “I am really enjoying every moment of my new career, and not once have I had any regrets or asked myself, ‘What am I doing?’” she said.

Woodstock Cookie Company started with its “ultimate big, soft cookie,” which today has resulted in a diverse product line including cakes, cookie bars, granola bars and bagged granola that contain Vermont maple syrup and as many local ingredients as possible.

“Our signature cookies are soft, the kind that enter the wrapper soft and stay that way until the last bite,” said Jay Young.

Chocolate chip, peanut butter, sugar and oatmeal raisin are just some of the varieties offered. Since the Youngs took over, they have added a double chocolate variety – a chocolate cookie with chocolate morsels.

The Youngs purchased all the equipment – mixers, baking racks, ovens and a wrapping machine – with the business. All the products are made from scratch, and can be found throughout the region from Western Massachusetts along the Connecticut River to points east and west, and as far north as St. Albans, VT.

The company has its own fleet of vans and drivers, and services 130 accounts individually. Woodstock Cookie Company also sells its granola in bulk form at food co-ops. Its products can be found at most Maplefields stores as well as Jiffy Mart stores, Rice Oil stores in the Greenfield, MA area, Fleming Oil stores in the Brattleboro area, and other convenience stores throughout Vermont and New Hampshire.

The company employs seven people; bookkeeper Pat Barton remained with the company from Woodstock. It is very much a family operation, with Jay Young’s niece, Andrea Chambers, working as a baker. His sister-in-law is the granola maker, and Janice Young’s grandson, Sven Larson, also works as a baker.

The owners said their leaseholder, Joseph Giancola, has been ideal to work with and accommodated their needs in the transition, handling the electrical and plumbing upgrades. Jay Young has 15 years experience in construction, and completed the walls and tenant finish himself.

The duo will continue with all the current recipes, but will be making a few additions of their own. Noting that “our raspberry-oat bar is our best seller,” Jay Young said they are working on a new blueberry-oat bar to be released soon. The company has joined the Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce.

Woodstock Cookie Company is located at 1 Scale Avenue, Suite 20, Rutland, Vermont, 05701. The telephone number is 802.282.4442.

Right Mind Farm
The husband and wife team of Edward Safford and Yvonne Bruno has given up big-city living for life on the Right Mind Farm.

The couple moved two years ago from the Washington, D.C. area to Vermont; in March 2008, they moved to the Wallingford region. Safford grew up on a conventional hog farm in Illinois; Bruno had no background in agriculture. Both consider themselves back-to-the-landers due to their passion for sustainable farming.

While they’re tending Right Mind Farm, Safford also works part-time as a computer software programmer. Bruno, who previously was an assistant editor for multi-media operations for Discovery, is a construction trainee with Winterset Inc., in Lyndonville, VT. She already has carpentry and cement work experience under her belt.

Why did the couple decide to turn to farming?

“I was wildly unsuccessful at being a bureaucrat and I like tactile work, so that’s why I got on board,” said Bruno. “A lot of people talk about doing what we did; we actually did it.

“How can we make this process (of moving to Vermont) happen? You have two people concerned about their environment and concerned about where food comes from,” Bruno said. “Both like gardening, the connection to nature and hands-on work.”

Already, half of their 10 acres on Otter Creek is under cultivation. They sell their produce at the Rutland Farmers Market and to Camp Betsey Cox in Pittsford. They also donate goods to the Rutland Open Door Mission.

Their output ranges from herbs to squashes and root vegetables. When feasible, they will concentrate on heritage varieties. “We want to grow things that are good and enjoyable to eat and are not hard on the land,” Bruno said. “We’re trying to find a balance between personal principles about farming and selling things that people will buy.”

They also have seven bee hives. “They get a lot of pollen out here. There’s a nice nectar flow up here in Vermont,” she said. Their farm stand, she said, operates on the “honor system.” Because of their other work commitments, they currently are deferring participation in the Community Supported Agriculture movement.

Bruno said she still finds time for making soap, which she is marketing in limited quantities as Savon Faire.

“We’re at the beginning stages of this with a Web site coming,” she said, adding she will take custom orders for the handcrafted soaps made of essential oils and basic vegetable fats.

How did the name of their farm come about?

“We were learning how to get on and off a ski lift,” she said. “Our friend who was the ski instructor said, ‘You just have to look it straight in the eye and you have to have your mind right.’”

The rest is history.

Right Mind Farm is located at 1281 U.S. Route 7 South, Wallingford, VT 05773. The telephone is 802.446.9446. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily except Saturday, when the couple is at the Rutland Farmers’ Market from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., depending on the season.

Allroof Inc.
When things get tough, the tough get going – and in the case of entrepreneur Jeffrey Findeisen, this meant starting a new business this past spring to keep roofs over people’s heads.

His new company, with a staff of five, is called Allroof Inc. It’s headquartered at the offices of another business he owns, Roaring Brook Constructors, a six-person general contracting company on Route 4 in Killington.

“As things slowed down in the construction business, we thought, ‘What we can do to grow our business,’ and decided that roofing was a good selection,” said Findeisen.

He noted that during the last 19 years, his company has been in the roofing business, roofing the homes they build.

“We started to break into the market of re-roofing, or the maintenance market,” he said. “People will put off painting their house, maybe try to do it themselves; but few people will put off a leaky roof. If you do, you’re ruining your biggest asset.”

He said the business has taken off. “We’ve been steady with reroofing right from the start,” he said. “Most of our work is residential, including condominiums.”

Representatives with Allroof will travel throughout Vermont. Its services run the gamut, from patching a roof that a tree has fallen on, to stripping a roof down and reproofing it.

The best bang for one’s buck in roofing materials today, said Findeisen, is the 30-year architectural asphalt roof. Less expensive options, he said, don’t last as long, “so you don’t get good service life dollar for dollar.” Roofing fabrications range from an architect shingle with a limited lifetime warrantee to synthetic and real slate roofs and metal roofing.

Findeisen said recent news items about white roofs being the wave of the future may apply to homes where air conditioning is the norm, but not in Vermont. The premise is that if the roof is cool, the attic is cool and air conditioning costs are minimized.

“Most of our homes are very, very well insulated. This becomes a pretty negligible factor,” he said.

“But, similarly we’re seeing energy credits going for metal roofing because it reflects the heat back in the house. If your house is so poorly insulated that it’s reflecting back in, then you need to insulate your house, not put a metal roof on it. There’s a whole lot of misinformation being doled out right now,” he said, adding the company also performs insulation work.

How far into a Vermont season can a home owner realistically reroof?

“We do roofing on our new projects all year long,” he said. “It’s easier to sweep snow off a roof than to protect from rain. Certainly, unless you have a serious leak problem, once it really starts snowing we’d be looking to put it off until spring. We usually roof into November.”

Allroof Inc., is located at 1937 Rt. 4. Killington, VT 05751. The telephone number is 802.786.5200. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Web site is www.allroofinc.com; the e-mail address is Jeffrey@allroofinc.com.



Café Bohemian
Gary and Erika Schmidt recently opened Café Bohemian in downtown Dorset. The eatery features creative American cooking, casual dining, art and music.

Gary Schmidt has spent more than 30 years working as a chef, and trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. He honed his skills running both the front end and the back end of the house in exclusive restaurants; he and Ericka Schmidt also owned and operated a restaurant in central Florida for 23 years.

About a year ago, they decided to move to Vermont; not long after, they decided to open Café Bohemian in the space formerly occupied by the Essex Green Restaurant.

For dinner, the couple offers a menu with three or four appetizers, entrées and desserts. The café also has a wine and beer list. With an eye toward his customers’ dietary requirements, he offers a vegetarian menu and a gluten-free option.

Because the restaurant is chef-owned and run, Gary Schmidt pays attention to the smallest of details. He personally selects all of the produce, meat and other ingredients that are used in the dishes he cooks. If an item doesn’t meet his standards, he said he refuses to use it.

The couple’s artistic background has prompted musical offerings at the café.

“My wife is a visual artist; I am a trained jazz pianist,” Schmidt said. “In the past, we have created a restaurant as a gallery; our intention (at Café Bohemian) is to create a music venue.

“So, on the weekend evenings after we finish cooking, I will be coming out and playing,” he said. “At the moment, my daughter Kiira has been helping us open the restaurant. She is from musical theater in New York City. On the last three weekends, she has been singing after hours while I play the piano.”

Café Bohemian is located at 3239 Route 30, Dorset, VT 05251. The telephone number is 802.867.2292. Hours are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, and 6 p.m. until closing Friday and Saturday.



Isabel & Appleby
Isabel & Appleby is a new Manchester company that specializes in making pies.

Founded by Lily Appleby Celsee and Caroline Isabel Donovan, the company began with a dream. During Christmas last year, the two lifelong friends made a list of all the things they wanted to learn how to do. The list included everything from playing in a rock band to learning how to skateboard.

However, also on the list amid their thoughts, fantasies and hopes were some simpler dreams shared by Celsee and Donovan – one of which was learning how to bake pies.

After the holidays, both women went back to their day-to-day lives. Celsee went to France to study; while there, she began to think about unusual pie recipes. At the same time, back in Vermont Donovan was also experimenting with unusual pie crusts and combinations of fruits.

The two women realized they were on to something. Both have an artistic flair, so pies seemed like the perfect medium to begin working in. The women also realized their pie business had the potential to make money.

With a couple hundred dollars in savings and help from their parents, Isabel & Appleby was born. The name is a combination of both women’s middle names.

However, this is not just any pie company. Isabel & Appleby is a pie company with a twist. First, the women pick their own berries. Secondly, all of the fruit used in their pies is grown locally except for the peaches, which are shipped from Lancaster, PA.

The owners said they are both committed to making delicious, healthy pies using local farmers’ produce and are equally committed to keeping it a community-based business. The pies are even hand baked locally.

“We bake our pies in the basement of the United Church of Dorset and East Rupert,” said Celsee. “We’ll sell our pies by the slice, or you can purchase an entire pie.”

Pie offerings include apple, blackberry, blueberry, peach rhubarb, raspberry and strawberry rhubarb. The peach rhubarb is one of their original creations, and is always a popular seller.

The pies can be purchased at the Dorset and Manchester farm markets. One also can get a slice of pie from Al Ducci’s Italian Market in Manchester and Clear Brook Farm in Shaftsbury. The owners also can handle custom orders.

The telephone number for Isabel & Appleby is 802.867.5739. The e-mail address is Isabelandappleby@gmail.com.