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Plymouth Cheese Company, Plymouth VT.
The Killington Wine Festival is set to run this coming weekend. Here at Birch Ridge, we will be hosting a wine dinner on Saturday evening. For the food to go with the wine, we have aimed somewhat at a Vermont theme, featuring where ever possible items procured in Vermont. One of the items we are going to integrate into the dinner is cheese produced at the Plymouth Cheese Factory, in Plymouth Vermont, at the Calvin Coolidge birthplace.
The cheese is a "granular stirred curd" cheese, produced at the Plymouth Cheese Factory by a company whimsically named Frog City Cheese. The cheese is made using an original process handed down by the Coolidge family for generations. The cheese has a tangy, rich flavor, and will be used at the wine dinner as one of the table cheeses accompanying the dessert course.
Innkeepers Bill Vines and Mary Furlong (right) of the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington give "Team Killington" organizers Noel and Dick Gluck (left) a check for $480.00 to support the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
Mary and I were very happy to donate the proceeds from a special Sunday brunch we held at the inn on June 25th to raise money for "Team Killington" and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. We had a little check handing ceremony in a side garden at the Inn over the weekend to provide the check to "Team Killington".
For the last several years, good friends of ours, Dick and Noel Gluck, have organized other Killington area residents and guests to form "Team Killington" to participate in the Vermont "Race for the Cure" to raise funds for the Komen foundation. Last year they organized almost 100 runners to trek down to Manchester Vermont for the "Race". This years race takes place on July 30th. If you would like to sponsor "Team Killington" you can get in touch with me through the contact link of killingtonblog, and I will link you up with the Glucks. They would love your support for this good cause.
Green Mountain National Golf Course
Hole # 14
If you have ever been interested in playing golf in Killington, now is a great time. The rains that the area had several weeks ago have resulted in beautiful lush green golf courses.
Both the Killington Resort Course and the Green Mountain National Golf Course have dried out nicely from the soaking rains of June. And it's a good thing as well. During July, local play changes. In June the area hosts a large number of Charity golf tournaments. In July, it gets more more personal with club championships and president's cups on the line.
Thus far in the July tournaments, the innkeepers of Birch Ridge have had mixed results. Mary played her Presidents Cup match on Monday. Unfortunately she went down to defeat when her opponent holed a chip shot on the 18th green. I faired a little better. My round earlier today started ugly, but I played the back nine at Green Mountain in a 4 over par 39 (with a double bogey on the 18th) beating my opponent 4 and 2 on the 16th green, to advance to the next round.
If you like golf, and you have a chance to come to Vermont, you should really think about playing a few rounds on the great courses at Killington this summer.
Great Big Bertha
A trusted friend was gravely injured on the links at the Green Mountain National Golf Course earlier this week. My trusty driver, "Great Big Bertha", has succumbed to stress fractures on her graphite shaft where the shaft mates with the club head.
Great Big Bertha does not owe me anything. It has been a trusted club in my golf bag for at least 10 years. In terms of golf club years, particularly a driver, that is probably an eternity. Based upon an average year of 50 rounds of golf, I would guess that conservatively, I have used Bertha over 5000 times since she was added to my golf bag.
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| Stress Fractures on the graphite shaft of Great Big Bertha. (Click picture to see in detail) |
I remember when I acquired Bertha. At the time, the club head on Bertha was considered huge. Over the last 10 years, golf club technology has changed with drivers. Today's drivers feature club heads approaching twice the size of Bertha. I have looked at people swinging the big drivers on the course and thinking that they were a little ungainly. But I guess over the next couple of weeks as I demo clubs, I will be able to find out for myself.
I have not had a chance to start demoing new drivers yet. Over the next couple of week, I will take some for a test drive. It will be an interesting process to see if my golf game improves with Bertha's demise.
Weigela
As a summer feature to the blog, I am happy to introduce the "Birch Ridge Flower of the Day"; a summer replacement for the venerable snowstake of last winter.
Ever since the winter has ended, I have been looking at various alternative to display in the spot the snowstake had previously occupied. I wanted to put in the space something that would show what my partner, Mary, and I experience everyday, that others might also enjoy. While working on a website for a client, there was a requirement to create a photo gallery. I had previously created just such a gallery last year to show opening day at Killington. That gallery was implemented in a computer scripting language called php. I was not all that happy with how it worked and presented pictures to blog readers, so I looked for other alternatives. If you have been mildly following technology topics on the internet, you may have run across a technology called "AJAX", which stands for "Asynchronous Javascript and XML" (aren't you glad I brought this up). Anyway, if you have used Googlemaps, you have already used AJAX. AJAX is a dynamic means to update web pages without reloading the entire age. Perfect for a user controllable photo gallery.
After several hours of programming, I created the "Birch Ridge Inn Flower of the Day", with a full photo gallery of previous flower pictures. If you click on the picture itself, it will load a full size picture into your browser window. If you click on the link at the bottom of the picture, it will take you to a photo gallery of previously posted "Flowers of the day" so you can tour the gardens at Birch Ridge.
Mary and I will be taking new pictures of flowers every day. It will be interesting to see how well this works as the summer progresses.
Killington Wine Festival
July 14 - July 16, 2006
On Saturday Evening July 15th, the Birch Ridge Inn will present an evening of fine wine and dining in conjunction with the Killington Wine Festival created by the Killington Chamber of Commerce. Our chef, Stephen Byrne, has created a really nice menu to complement a selection of fine California wines with ingredients influenced by the mountains of Vermont for this special evening.
The menu for the evening includes cured Sockeye salmon wrapped enoki mushrooms, with a balsamic drizzled seared sea scallop complementing a Hayman and Hill 2004 Reserve Russian River Chardonnay; savory mushroom ragout with a roasted tomato stuffed with Vermont sweet corn polenta served with a Hayman and Hill 2005 Reserve Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir; and a seared lamb loin medallion served on an eggplant crouton with crumbled Vermont chevre paired with a Liberty School 2003 Syrah from Paso Robles. The evening will begin in the Great Room of the Birch Ridge Inn with appetizers and a Liberty School Chardonnay. To finish the evening, a West Side Red Rhone Blend from Paso Robles will be paired with chilled Black Forest soup and a chocolate truffle accompanied by a plait du fromage of fine Vermont cheese.
The first wine will be presented at 6:30 PM in the Great Room Lounge at Birch Ridge, followed by dinner in the InnŐs restaurant starting at 7:00 PM. The price per person for the evening is $79.00, not including tax or gratuity. This price is inclusive of the eveningŐs wine and dinner. Reservations are required, and can be made by calling the Birch Ridge Inn at 802.422.4293, or 800.435.8566. Lodging packages are also available. Click here for a printable version of the menu.
More information about the Killington Wine Festival and the Killington Chamber of Commerce can be found at www.killingtonchamber.com, or by calling the chamber office at 800.337.1928.
Sunday Brunch Today at the Birch Ridge Inn
Our inn will be hosting the second brunch of the summer season today. Last week, we had a special benefit brunch in support of "Team Killington" and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. We had a great turn-out for last Sunday's event, raising $480.00 for "Team Killington". When we have the check passing event, I will post a picture.
This week in Killington has been characterized by rain, like most of the east coast. I was lucky enough to get in a couple of rounds of golf on the 2 good days (Tuesday and Friday), but other than that Mother Nature was proving once again how the Green Mountains got their name.
The restaurant at Birch Ridge is now open for the summer season. Hours this summer are Wednesday thru Saturday from 6:00 PM. Brunch on Sunday starts at 11:00 AM and runs till 2:30 PM. The last week has been very steady. Nothing to write home about mind you, but we are seeing a lot of old friends, with some new arrivals mixed in. Now if the rain stops it's on to summer!
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