Thursday, June 26, 2014

Harvest Hosts & Vermont Wildflower Farm

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   We decided to join Harvest Hosts as we traveled through Vermont because there aren’t many public campgrounds or free camping opportunities. Harvest Host is an interesting concept to provide overnight camping for self contained RVers at wineries, farms and other attractions. A winery or farm wishing to join the organization may do so for free. RVers pay a $40.00 per year membership fee. A purchase is considered an appropriate thank you for the hospitality. Since we don’t drink wine we thought that the program wouldn’t be very good for us but it’s been working well. So far we’ve visited the wildflower farm, a farm market and two maple syrup farms ( I’m way behind on posts) and we’ve found stuff to buy at all of them. The parking areas have been gravel lots or grassy fields. Most haven’t been large or very level but even so I think Class As or large fifth wheels would be able to fit. Most are along main highways so they’re close to attractions but a little noisy during the day. All of the hosts have been very nice and accommodating but when we call to verify our overnight stay the employees who answer the phone do not always know about the program.

   Vermont Wildflower Farm grow their seeds in fields all over the country and sell them at the store and online. The also sell a variety of  decorative items. Unfortunately because of the cold spring few wildflowers in the demonstration garden were blooming. A trail, shown in the picture above, winds through the flower field and into the woods before looping back to the store.

  The store entrance has a ramp with a landing and a door that opens outward so entering is a little awkward. The trail is accessed from the store and, again, the door and ramp positioning is awkward. The trail is fairly accessible – getting to it is very hard.

  The RV parking area along the fence is a little sloped so you may need levelers. Route 7 is a main road with fairly constant traffic but it dies down at night. The owners are really nice.  Farm
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5 comments:

  1. Welcome to New England and N'dikanna (The Dawnland)!

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    1. Thanks Cyndi! We're still on our way to Newfoundland. Looking forward to stopping at your place when we start heading west in the fall. Hope you stick around into September!

      Is part of your heritage Native American?

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  2. Was curious about HH as thought a nice back up in some areas when camping is limited...wondered how many per state. Might just sign up...I'd be more interested in the working farms.

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    1. Hi Carla!

      So far we're loving it. If you're okay camping without electric hookups it's a good deal. I think some allow generators.

      If you click on the Harvest Host link then go to the maps you see how many are located where you spend the most time. Red for wineries. Yellow for farms. Aqua for combination. Green for attractions.

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  3. Karen, yes. My mother's family is Abenaki, from Quebec, originally.

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