09-09 Shelburne Farm

From 09-09 SHELBURN FARM

The last place we visited in Vermont was Shelburne Farm which is just south of Burlington and near the Shelburne Museum covered in an earlier post.

Here is a description of Shelburne Farm from Wikipedia:

"Shelburne Farms is a nonprofit environmental education center and National Historic Landmark on the shores of Lake Champlain in Shelburne, Vermont...

Shelburne Farms was created in 1886 by Dr. William Seward Webb and Eliza Vanderbilt Webb as a model agricultural estate. They commissioned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to guide the layout of 3,800 acres (15 km2) of farm, field and forest, and New York architect Robert Henderson Robertson, to design the buildings. Shelburne Farms was incorporated as a nonprofit educational facility in 1972...

The Shelburne Farms grass-based dairy supports a herd of 125 purebred, registered Brown Swiss cows. Their milk is made into an award-winning farmhouse cheddar cheese..."

It is a beautiful place to visit. One thing that was interesting to us was that Fredrick Law Olmsted was the landscape architect. He designed Central Park in New York City and the grounds of the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, NC which we have visited several times. Likewise Gifford Pinchot known as the Father of modern American Forestry worked on the forests at Shelburne Farms and at Biltmore Estate. We have visited the "Cradle of Forestry" near Ashville started by Pincot in connection with his work at the Biltmore Estate.

We only visited the main farm building/barn. It is enormous, with 3 wings connected in a U shape. We did not make it to any of the other buildings.

From 09-09 SHELBURN FARM

From 09-09 SHELBURN FARM

Part of the main building is used to produce their excellent cheddar cheese.

From 09-09 SHELBURN FARM

Here some of the cheese is being hand dipped in wax that provides a longer shelf life.

From 09-09 SHELBURN FARM

There are many animals for children to see and touch. In fact there is a special school for what I would guess to be 5th and 6th grades also located in the main barn building. At least some of these children work with the animals each day.

From 09-09 SHELBURN FARM

From 09-09 SHELBURN FARM

From 09-09 SHELBURN FARM

It looked like the chickens are RVers. At least they had a house on wheels.

From 09-09 SHELBURN FARM

And had their own road crossing.

From 09-09 SHELBURN FARM

We enjoyed our day walking around the main barn and some of the walking trails. In the far distance is the main house, now an Inn, on the shore of Lake Champlain with NY's Adirondack Mountains in the background.

From 09-09 SHELBURN FARM

Shelburne Farm is certainly worth a day's visit.