Resort Getaways: Enjoying the Farm Life at Shelburne Farms

Shelburne Farms, located in Shelburne, Vermont, was a privately owned estate of the gilded age. The farm which has been categorized as one of the resort getaways in the book "1000 Places to Go Before You Die." It has recently opened it's doors since the 1960s to prevent the property's decline. Even President Roosevelt paid a visit to the property back in August of 1902, arriving aboard a steamboat, where he stayed overnight before his demonstration at Thompson's Point the following day.

The entire locale is devoid of modern electronics and hi-tech creature comforts such as radios and televisions. The entire mansion, which now has been divided into a 24-room inn instead, entertains it's visitors with fireplaces and settings for intriguing conversations. The property itself, since it began opening it's doors to the public during the 1960s, became fixated on becoming self-sustaining location, with the inn's restaurant that utilizes the vegetables and herbs that are organically grown on the property and the lamb and beef that are raised nearby.

Among other examples of Shelburne Farm's self-sustainability, is the local Brown Swiss dairy cows have their milk collected on a daily basis for producing the farm's award-winning cheddar cheese. There are regularly scheduled property tours, with plenty of activities for both children and adults alike, including a children's center where they can learn about and volunteer for farm responsibilities, such as collecting eggs and milking cows.

There is an expansive art collection inside the property as well, featuring 225 horse-drawn vehicles, and including reconstructed old-fashioned buildings such as jails, schools, barns, lighthouses, and general stores.

During the winter season between mid-October to mid-May, the entire inn is closed, due to the fact that there is no heat. The Webb family who owned the property had donated the heating system to the war effort during the Second World War.

Shelburne Farms is among the new wave of blossoming cheese makers in the Vermont area, considered by many today as the new "Napa Valley" of cheese, with Shelburne being one of the state's oldest "farmstead cheesemakers" that milk their own animals and produce their own cheese on site.

Originally a trend adopted by the local farms in order to prevent bankruptcy in the light of rising fuel and transportation costs, lousy weather, and slumping value of milk on the market, it immediately sparked a new reinvention of cheesemaking including gourmet cheeses along the east coast. Once owned by wealthy aristocrats of the Webb family, the locale is now owned by a nonprofit organization, which recycle's the revenue earned into funding the project's environmental education programs.