Windekind Farm commands a unique location in Vermont's big mountain country. The Farm is adjacent to the 19,636 acre Camel's Hump State Park that is laced with hiking and skiing trails. Trails at the Farm join an extensive hiking and snowshoe/cross country ski trail network. This magical mountain defines this region and embraces Windekind.
Windekind Farm is located at the end of a winding town road. Passing through a tall spruce forest, you emerge into a spectacular secluded valley surrounded by the lofty Green Mountains. The road turns east and there, nestled against the hills, is the historic farmhouse and four outbuildings. Behind the buildings, tall spruce trees form an embracing curtain between farm and mountain.
Brooks, ponds, lawns, terraced hillsides, spruce forest, and giant rock outcroppings is Windekind's landscape of diversity. The changing environment that surrounds the house and outbuildings invites the gardener's craft, creating a rich montage of opportunity. Some of Windekind's gardens are formal, bordering lawns or waterfalls. Others are workhorses, producing vegetables and flowers. While still others mix wild and domestic species amongst the large rocks and walls, little coves and where the meadow and forest meet.
Windekind has been an active farm for over 150 years, which is unique because most "upland" farms were abandoned prior to World War II. These Jersey cows pasture in the meadow every summer. They are tame, curious, fun & goofy!
Kirsten McEdwards
Charlotte & Iris Miller (photo Eli Miller)
The heart of Windekind, the original farm house was built about 1890. With many stories to tell, the Smith family has lived in it since 1968.
The Farm House
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The farm house contains an international collection of antiques and art that blends naturally with the crafted woodwork and masonry details of the interior. The farm's simple dignity amongst the grandeur of nature has motivated us to accompany it with objects of fine beauty.
Mark Smith
The Higley Hill Farm
Jeff Clarke
The Kitchen
Jeff Clarke
The Dining Room
"Higley Hill Farm," (now Windekind) in 1935. The photo to the left was taken in the middle of what is now the lawn below the house. The gent with the two horses is Harley George. Time was running out for the old farm; soils were thin and rocky after a century of hard farming. Today a prime stand of 70' and 80' Norwegian Spruce stands on the distant hillside. To the right of the horses is the "Studio".
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The photo (right) shows the George family on the front stoop for the farmhouse. Ted George, who visits Windekind, is the boy in the center.
We sometimes ponder what has been lost and gained. We are happy to find the marks of past generations--fences, walls and wagon parts. Today the old house lives on with fresh purpose for new generations.
(Photos courtesy of Ted George)
Click map to enlarge
Windekind
Our borrowed dog thumps
her old tail on the wooden floor
as I come through the door
with a load of laundry, folded
and wrapped into a bundle
with a line-dried, midnight-blue towel
There's a storm looming dark
over the mountains in the
distance. The pines and
maples whip in the wind and
bow to each other in the throes
of a hurricane's laughter
Our tea leaves soak with steaming clear
water, unfurling and lifting, turning
the glass pot a pale lichen green.
Just like our spirits have lifted
and floated up somewhere in our
throats, as we realize we've
begun to cling to this place
feeling it almost...
almost our own.
Our minds are colored by doors that
are never locked, but instead have
let not only our bodies
inside, but our hearts as well
Melissa, Eli, & Charlotte Miller
Summeytown, PA
Guests in 2004
Natalie Stultz
Flowers, of course, are remarkable. They will always grace Windekind with an ever changing and infinite variety of colors and shapes.
At Windekind, careful hands have shaped three ponds, classic Vermont buildings interwoven in a large three-acre lawn with seven flower and vegetable gardens. The sinuous curves of stone walls create boundaries and spaces to explore. Serene pathways into the adjacent forest invite journeys around the farm. Windekind is a delight for nature lovers and people who enjoy peaceful places. Windekind is sculpture, a place where human creativity and nature has joined.
Marijke Smith
Marijke Smith
The Living Room
Jeff Clarke