Snow days always bring to mind Mama’s cozy pine-paneled kitchen and the familiar wintertime aromas of roasting peanuts, beef stew and cherry pie. Being cooped up in the house (except for outside chores and feeding) meant Mama had to get creative to keep us from driving her up the wall. She had a sur...

With National Reading Month taking place in March and Read Across America Day quickly approaching on March 3, Discover Dairy has a new book available – “Curious Clover” – to help bring dairy farming to life for elementary and middle school students. The book is available in both English and Spanish ...

After providing a safe home, veterinary care and nutritious food, the best thing a pet owner can do for a dog is provide adequate behavioral training. Some of the issues that result in pet surrenders can be traced to behaviors that might have been quashed had the dog undergone thorough obedience tra...

Valentine’s Day is steeped in tradition. Giving flowers is a popular tradition each Feb. 14, and the National Retail Federation estimates that people spend around $2.6 billion on flowers for Valentine’s Day, when an estimated 250 million stems of flowers are sold globally. Valentine’s Day is the mos...

Efforts to revive small business sectors have helped countless communities regain their prosperity and sense of community pride. Those efforts have been wildly effective in many urban areas, and they also can help rural economies recover from the many challenges they’ve been confronting. Rural commu...

Slow cookers can be unsung kitchen heroes any time of the year, but particularly during the colder seasons. That’s because slow cookers take on one-pot meals with ease. A person simply places all the ingredients inside the crock, then returns in eight hours or so to a completely cooked meal. Certain...

Space is a sought-after commodity in real estate. Buyers prioritize numerous variables when searching for a new home, and square footage is often near the top of their lists. The real estate market has been highly competitive in recent years, and home prices have remained high as a result. That real...

Walking a dog on a leash is required by law in many towns. Leashing a dog prevents the animal from trespassing on neighbors’ property and keeps it from jumping on people or other animals. A leashed dog can be restrained from sniffing the waste of other animals, which may help curb the spread of dise...

Unless you’re a professional chef or a provider (parent, grandparent or dedicated aunt or uncle) who has been cooking for decades, you probably are not utilizing your spice cabinet to its fullest potential when you cook. Even still, you probably stick to a few familiar characters. A consistent flavo...

“But there’s nothing to doooo ,” your teen complains for what seems like the one millionth time. It’s that time of year again: The holidays are behind us, the kiddos are back at school and though the days are getting longer, there is still a lot of ice and snow between us and flowers and spring suns...

Salt prematurely ages roads and bridges and degrades freshwater lakes, streams and drinking water. Just a teaspoon of salt permanently pollutes five gallons of water. Lake Champlain Sea Grant and University of Vermont (UVM) Extension are partnering with organizations across the country to elevate th...

It’s hard to believe, but it’s nearing that time of year again when each of us must take the painstaking care to make sure we’ve given Uncle Sam his dues and meticulously catalogued our financial history for the last calendar year. Whether you’re someone who wants to finish early or you wait until t...

It was bigger than a closet, but not much. Added on to Mama and Dad’s original two-room house when the kitchen and screened-in porch were built in the mid-1950s, this “little room,” as we all called it, was the forerunner of today’s muck room or utility room. Fancier houses had hall closets, hall tr...

It’s a time of anticipation as we start the new year – and what better to look forward to than cooking with beef and trying new culinary trends? With so many trend forecasts this time of year, it can be hard to keep up, so the “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner.” brand, funded by the beef checkoff, has g...

Soup is a dish that wears many hats. When the weather becomes chilly, people often turn to soup to warm themselves up from the inside out. Soup, especially when paired with a favorite sandwich, also can be a simple and light meal when one doesn’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen. Soup has ...