News & Views
Photo of Sandwich Village by Joe Janis
 Cath and Gunnar in the vineyard. Photo by Kristin Berg What is your name and the name of your business? Gunnar Berg of Hill People Winery (Hill People LLC). Started in 2013 with Catherine Graham and 100 vines. How did you get to Sandwich, NH? In 1950 by train when I was 10 months old, then by automobile after that. I learned to walk and talk in Sandwich. I was born and grew up in Black River Falls, WI. My father’s side of the family was of Norwegian descent, and my mother’s Scotch/Irish. Her maiden name was Jane McCrillis. Her parents were Neil McCrillis and Marion Bullard McCrillis. The McCrillis family built on the Whiteface Intervale in 1789, so there is a very long history in Sandwich, which I discovered in 1972 when I moved here full-time because everyone seemed to know my business before I knew it myself. I was a student at the University of Wisconsin, Wausau and Madison, when the Vietnam war caused mass protest and disruption. I was an apolitical engineering major and switched to psychology for my last two years. After getting clubbed and teargassed for no reason I could see, I headed for the hills. Peace and quiet, clear water, clean air. I could not resist.  Gunnar in 1977, after moving to Sandwich. Photo by Pam Hitchcock What have you done since you came to Sandwich? I think my very first job was picking rocks from what was to become a clay tennis court. Come to think of it, that is an apt description of my 49 years in Sandwich- picking rocks. It is said—and I can verify this—that you can dig a big hole, separate the rocks from the soil, put the rocks back in the hole, and when it’s full you will have all the soil and a pile of rocks left over. After rock picking, I got a job at the original Sandwich Cabinet Shop. When the owner abruptly vacated to Colorado, I was left holding the bag with many unfilled orders. With a pathetically small SBA loan, I bought the equipment and set up shop. Over the next 35 years I specialized in custom woodworking from guitars to kitchens to resurrecting Tappan Chairs.  Gunnar turning Tappan Chair posts. 2000 (approx). Photo by Gunnar Berg Microwaves and the lure of high speed internet intruded on my woodworking and I built a solar powered wireless internet network in 2003 to try and bring Sandwich up to speed so to speak. The next 16 years I devoted to keeping people online through everything the Northeast could throw at me. That was exhausting and I tried to think of yet another career that I knew nothing about that would allow me more time, in what should be my laid back retirement, to spend on the Hill, which was why I moved here in the first place.  Installing a 900 MHz antenna on Red Hill. 2013. Photo by Catherine Graham Tell us about Hill People. What do you make, do, or offer as a service? Hill People LLC is a mom and pop vineyard and winery located on a high southern slope of Flat Mountain in the Sandwich Range. We specialize in wines from northern cold-hardy grapes developed at the University of Minnesota by Elmer Swenson of Osceola WI. We also produce wines from local fruits and berries. The winery—and our home—is off-grid and solar powered, probably the only winery in the state that is. Sitting at 1300', it is also the only vineyard at that elevation. We sell through Farmer's Markets and directly from the winery. Our tasting room will be open by appointment once the novel corona virus becomes a minimal threat to public health.  The Winery, 2020. Photo by Gunnar Berg How did this business get started? In 2012, at the Vermont Pub and Brewery in Burlington, Cathy and I started talking about possibly starting a micro-brewery. Since it seemed that’s what too many people were doing, we nixed that and I floated the idea of hard cider and planting an apple orchard. Cathy simply said, “You do know how old you are- right?” And so the search for Northern cold-hardy grapes- which you could harvest at 50% in year 3- was on. In 2013 we planted 100 Marquette, Prairie Star and LaCrescent grapes- in 2014 another 100, and in 2015 another hundred. Growing grapes this far north is a real challenge, to say nothing of Japanese beetles, bears, turkeys and cedar waxwings competing with you. Given the limited amount of juice available from 300 vines, which is about the maximum that Cathy and I can manage, we branched out into other fermentable fruits and berries that were available locally. Our first departure from wine made from grapes was dandelion wine, which I made from my grandmother’s recipe. That was followed by blueberry, apple, honeyberry, pear, peach, tomato, and aronia berry. These non-grape varieties are now our staples.  Dandelion picking…it takes a village, or at least a group. Photo by Gunnar Berg  Cath tending the vines. Photo by Gunnar Berg What is the most fun/satisfying aspect of your project? The most satisfying part is after the very lengthy process of growing or gathering the fruit, crushing, fermenting, racking, and bottling, ending up with a product you like and are happy to share.  Some Hill People Winery offerings. Photo by Rob Caldwell What is the hardest? The hardest parts are all the random variables that get flung at you out of the blue. Could be bears, could be black rot fungus. What has happened to your business in this last Covid year? Business was down 60% in 2020. What are your goals and hopes for the future? We would like to be known for very local and very homemade unusual wines that can be best in class. We need to spend more time marketing and getting our wines on many more palates. It wouldn’t hurt if we could turn a profit.  Young Gunnar, 1984. Photo by Martha Nichols.  Gunnar in 2010. Some things don't change… much. Photo by Shannon Caldwell Contact hillpeople@cyberpine.net, through our Facebook page at https://facebook.com/hillpeoplevineyard
or by calling 603-986-9769 (Gunnar) or 603-491-2004 (Cathy).
1 Comment
 2021 Midsummer Fairies featuring (from L-R) Hanna Street, Julia de Avilez Rocha, Maryssa Wanlass, Ethan Fifield, J.J. Werner, and Hazel Dassori-Kaye. Photo by Rowan Heard What is your name and the name of your organization? Jessie Chapman (Executive Director), Advice To The Players  Jessie and daughter, Lenore. Photo by Kelli Towsley How did you get to Sandwich, NH? ATTP's founder, Caroline Nesbitt, was a guest Director at Plymouth State University while I was a student there. Caroline invited me to perform in As You Like It in the summer of 2007 and I fell in love with the town and the company. I returned many times as a teaching artist, stage manager, and performer and finally moved to Sandwich in the fall of 2019. What got you started in this job? I earned my degree in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College in hopes that I would be able to return to Sandwich someday and help the company that had meant so much to me thrive. I have always loved teaching, and working with ATTP has allowed me to share my love of teaching and theatre with this truly unique community. Tell us about your organization. Advice To The Players creates live theatre productions, Shakespeare based educational programs, and a myriad of other literary and performing arts opportunities for local teens, amateurs, and professional artists. We produce Shakespeare outdoors in the summer, working with area schools, performance venues and retirement communities—and even host an annual holiday production of Twelfth Night. We offer camps, workshops, and personalized mentorship opportunities for teens and early career theatre artists.  2019 Shakesperience! Camp production of As You Like It. Photo by Janina Lamb How did your organization get started? Caroline Nesbitt founded Advice To The Players in 1999 after training with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. ATTP originally produced performances with Community School students and professional actors at The Barnstormers Theater in Tamworth. What is the most fun/satisfying aspect of your job? The best part of my job is seeing teens and young adults who have worked with ATTP grow up and discover how they'd like to engage with the world. There are many adults who now perform with the company or work as Teaching Artists who were students of mine in ATTP's camps or at Plymouth—and there are many others who do not continue in theatre but are making remarkable contributions to our world.  2019 pre-covid rehearsal for The Taming of the Shrew. Photo by Diana Evans. What is the hardest? The most difficult aspect of my job is the hard decisions I need to make when income for a program falls short, or unexpected expenses arise. There is a level of personal sacrifice involved with running a small nonprofit that can be challenging—thankfully the boundless joy involved outweighs this almost every time. What has happened to your organization in this last Covid year? We saw tremendous support from the community, which allowed us to survive, despite losing over 80% or our anticipated earned revenue. We created theatre in new and innovative ways and were able to safely provide a full season. While we were able to provide lots of opportunities to local artists, many of the professional artists and emerging artists we hire rely on lodging in the community in order to come here, which was not possible last year because of Covid, so there were many artists who could not work with us due to these circumstances.  Shakesperience! Camp Zoom performance of As You Like It in 2020. Screenshot by Janina Lamb How do you see the future of this organization? I see a future for ATTP where we have a much stronger and more involved connection to the area schools along with further developing many of our budding partnerships with other local institutions.  Winter's Tale (2020) featuring (from L-R) Frederick Bickford, Lucy Randall-Tapply, Callie MacIntyre, Maddie Gadbois, Andrew Bemis, Ethan Fifield, Jessie Chapman, and Cheryl Fifield. Photo by Zach Glennon What else can you tell us about yourself and your business? Since we could not safely have an audience for our March production this year or tour in person to area schools--we created a unique filmed performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream in the beautiful Partridge Hill Farm Barn in Sandwich (a thousand thanks to the Hird family for generously offering their beautiful venue). This production will be available to all virtually from April 23-May 2 only. We hope you will enjoy this one of a kind offering featuring local talent and quite a bit of magic. Email contact@advicetotheplayers.org for the link!  2021 Midsummer Court featuring (from L-R) Em Judkins, Chris Boldt, Marion Posner, Alicia Edgar, Rowan Heard, Julia de Avilez Rocha, and Caitlin Cremins. Photo by Connor White Please enjoy the second installment of SBG's Meet Our Members!  Yoga teacher training at Dragonfly, photo by Katie O'Connell What is your name and the name of your business? My name is Katie O’Connell, and I am the owner of Dragonfly Yoga Barn Studio & Retreat.  Katie plays the harmonium, photo by Declan O'Connell How did you get to Sandwich, NH? My family moved to Center Sandwich when I was eleven and in the 6th grade. They had visited locally for years and loved the area, so we moved to Center Sandwich while our home on Wing Rd. was being built. Tell us about your business. What do you make, do, or offer as a service? Dragonfly Yoga Barn is a yoga studio and intimate retreat center offering daily classes, as well as yoga and meditation retreats, yoga teacher training, workshops and series classes, seasonal concerts, and an occasional wedding. How did your business get started? Well, that’s an interesting story. I started practicing yoga 23 years ago, right after my daughter, Bridie, was born. It was love from my very first downward dog. I practiced regularly for about three years before one of my teachers suggested I get certified so I could come and teach yoga at her gym. During that time, my husband, Declan, and I had already disassembled and moved our first of three old barns (which some will remember as Edwin Elliott’s old barn across from the spring in North Sandwich). We put it back up as a barn on Bennett Street, about a mile from its original footings, and then started to look for another barn to move as our house.  Downward Facing Dog in the Studio, photo by Katie O'Connell While the search was on for the second barn, I completed my first yoga training and began teaching weekly yoga classes at the Benz Center, at a local gym, and at Inter-Lakes High School where I was an English teacher—getting my yogi feet wet, so to speak. It was back in 2003 that I named our business “Dragonfly Yoga.” I’d always loved dragonflies and knew the animal spirit of Dragonfly as the energy of transformation, and since I believe yoga has the power to transform us in all capacities: body, mind, and spirit, it became our namesake.  Our new logo, designed by Stacey Lucas, Veggie Art Girl, in 2020 The second barn went up as a house in 2003, we moved in during the fall of 2004, and in the summer of 2005, a friend of Declan’s was at a baseball game in Moultonborough and heard a man asking if anyone needed an old barn! Funny thing was, about a week before this, I had told Declan I would love to have a small yoga studio up here near our new “old” home on the edge of the forest… and literally the barn just appeared! We took the third barn down and stored it for almost two years while we started to make plans for building the studio.  The Studio comes into being...photo by Katie O'Connell I completed another yoga training in 2006, completed a final year of teaching English before I gave my notice, and in 2008 jumped into yoga full time! My Benz Center yogis actually came up to practice in the yoga studio when it was just a post and beam frame--they wanted to be a part of it from the very beginning. It was a magical time! We ran our first yoga retreats in 2009, and the rest is, well… a new piece of Sandwich history--all under the eaves of three old barns.  2007: First class in the Barn Studio, before completion! Photo by Declan O'Connell What is the most fun/satisfying aspect of your work? I love sharing yoga with my daily yogis, my retreat yogis, and my trainees. It’s hard to pinpoint what the most satisfying thing is, but I would say it’s when a student has that “a-ha” moment and something shifts in their body or mind as a result of the practice. The recognition that yoga can support us where we are in our lives at that moment--as well as in our evolution as beings--is very inspiring to me. What is the hardest? Owning a business on the farthest outskirts of a small town can be pretty challenging. We’ve spent over a decade wondering how many students would make the trek to the Whiteface section of Sandwich for a daily yoga class. I have such an amazing and dedicated crew that have been rolling out the mat together for years--and they love the community we’ve created, but sometimes it’s not easy to complete with frost heaves in the winter and living in a place with so many amazing things to do outside in the summer.  The Yoga Barn in fall, photo by Katie O'Connell What has happened to your business in this last Covid year? Our last retreat at Dragonfly was 14 months ago. Thinking about how many events have been cancelled in the past year is a little overwhelming at times. But Declan has been my greatest help and biggest cheerleader. To give it some perspective, I left for India in early February 2020 to lead an Ayurveda and Yoga retreat--there were 16 of us in the group--and I fully expected to reopen my studio upon arrival home, but when I barely made it back to the States on March 16th after a series of cancelled flights and hold-ups in Mumbai, it hit me that life was changing for all of us. I came home to lockdown and had to pivot to online teaching. As much as it was nerve wracking to be in front of a live camera every day, putting my classes online has been something I’ve wanted to do for years. It has been so successful, I now think I’ll keep the online options even after we reopen to the public. What are your goals for the future? I can’t wait to lead international retreats once again... so stay tuned for adventures in Hawaii, Ireland, Greece, Central America, India, to name a few. It might take time to get back to some of my favorite spots and destinations, but I have faith we will have those wanderlust adventures again soon.  Retreat in Mexico, 2018 What else can you tell us about yourself and your business? I love to garden, cook, spend time with my kids and husband, and perform with my band The Starlight Honeys. I love to paddleboard, snowshoe, walk in the forest, and I could spend days beachcombing for stones and shells. Sunrise and sunset are perhaps the most precious moments of the day for me. I’m definitely a Nature girl. All of these things are woven into who I am as a yoga teacher and what I share with my students every single day here at Dragonfly Yoga Barn. It is a wonderful way of life, this Yoga pathway, and I’m so grateful to be here in beautiful Sandwich.  Declan and Katie, photo by Amy Corston. Katie O’Connell, E-RYT, AHP, HBM
Dragonfly Yoga Barn 280 Bennett Street, North Sandwich, NH 03259 (603) 707-7529, dragonflyoga@gmail.com https://dragonflyyogabarn.com |
News & Views
News of what's happening in Sandwich and other items of interest. An archive of blog entries from May, 2015 to May, 2018, is available here. Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
|
Lexi Townsend, the new owner of the Corner House Restaurant & Bar, is proud to be a sustaining sponsor of the Discover Sandwich website.
It was Lexi's childhood dream to have a restaurant which was a journey to get to and a historic hidden gem once you've arrived. Corner House is precisely that. |
Lexi’s mission for success comes from an intense passion to create beautiful dining memories that last a lifetime. She invites you to explore the lovely town of Sandwich and then enjoy the Corner House Restaurant & Bar. The Corner House serves dinner nightly from 4:30 pm, and is closed Tuesdays. Monday Trivia Nights, live music, storytelling and specials. Tea Room daily From 8:30 am. 22 Main Street, Center Sandwich, 603-284-6219
cornerhouserestaurantandbar.com
cornerhouserestaurantandbar.com
Jon Greenawalt
|
Personal Mastery Programs, a Sustaining Sponsor of this website, is proud to support the Sandwich Business Group in its efforts to promote small business in Sandwich and enrich the community through events and initiatives.
To learn more about Personal Mastery Programs, see the listing under services on this website, or go to www.pmpcoach.com |
Jon Greenawalt, of Personal Mastery Programs, writes:
Those who visit Sandwich, NH, often find themselves planning to return. Some even return here to live. What makes Sandwich such a prized destination? An invigorating atmosphere, friendly people and quiet streets. Clear waters and scenic views in the White Mountains. Plenty to see and do embedded in the vibrant spirit of an historic New England town. I am grateful to be part of this exceptional community.
Those who visit Sandwich, NH, often find themselves planning to return. Some even return here to live. What makes Sandwich such a prized destination? An invigorating atmosphere, friendly people and quiet streets. Clear waters and scenic views in the White Mountains. Plenty to see and do embedded in the vibrant spirit of an historic New England town. I am grateful to be part of this exceptional community.
Grateful thanks to the Alfred Quimby Fund, the Town of Sandwich and Wedco for their support.
|
|
|
Many thanks to the Sandwich Business Group and all its members for supporting Sandwich's vitality and well-being. To join the group, please visit SBG membership 2019, or if outside of Sandwich, SBG Associate Membership.
|
|
Follow Discover Sandwich on Facebook!
|
Sandwich Business Group • PO Box 116, Sandwich, NH • 03227
©2020 • Sandwich Business Group • all rights reserved • website designed and maintained by Lamb & Lion Studio
©2020 • Sandwich Business Group • all rights reserved • website designed and maintained by Lamb & Lion Studio