Welcome
Smokey House Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to youth, land and learning. On 5,000 acres in rural Vermont we practice careful land management that is both ecologically sound and economically productive. We engage local, at-risk youth in our farm and forestry work so that they gain the tools needed to become confident and competent adults who assume productive roles in our communities. At Smokey House Center, we cultivate nutritious food, healthy land, a vital local economy, and resilient young people.
Since 1974, Smokey House has provided intensive workplace training to nearly 3,000 Vermont young people referred by the public schools. Where the Department of Labor expects a 58% graduation rate for at-risk students, 80% of our former participants completed high school.
As a commitment to the rural character of our region, Smokey House has placed 4,417 acres of land under conservation easement. On our southern Vermont working farm, staff and students work together to manage a 1,600 tap sugarbush, tend 3 acres of organic gardens and blueberries, raise Black Angus cows, shepherd a flock of 21 sheep, rear seasonal flocks of chickens and turkeys, produce natural hardwood charcoal, and sustainably manage 3800 acres of forestland.
I hope that this website gives you a sense of what makes Smokey House unique. If you want to know more, please visit us and see for yourself the hands-on learning and sustainable agriculture which define who we are.
Kit Wallace
Interim Executive Director
News from the Farm
July 26th, 2010
Danger Men Cooking is coming to Smokey House! Steven Schlussel, producer and director, and Chef Gary Schmidt of the GNAT-TV program will be with us next week to help prepare our Thursday Lunch and, in the process, produce a new edition of Danger Men Cooking.
Serving Thursday Lunch is a summer tradition at Smokey House. Our crews have planned and prepared fantastic meals, like lasagna with garlic bread and green salad, Sloppy-Joe’s (my favorite), Quiche (also my favorite) and crepes with blueberries and cream (everybody’s favorite). Our crews make the food from scratch using veggies from their gardens…
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July 12th, 2010
What is made entirely of wood, makes a fine tasting steak, and is produced by Smokey House Youthworkers? The answer is natural hardwood lump charcoal. The evening of July 12 at The Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, a Smokey House tag team shared their wealth of knowledge about charcoal as part of the store’s monthly “Sustainable Living in Vermont” series. The presentation might have been about a rather black and dusty subject but that didn’t stop the Youthworkers who presented from shining. As Tim Parent noted in his opening “as the only producers of natural hardwood charcoal in the Northeast, I…
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July 9th, 2010
The second week of the summer program dawned hot and humid! There was lots of work to do, however, and with water bottles in hand, the crews got busy and did what needed to be done.
It was a big week for working with the sheep flock, and the sky blue crew rose to the task. With the help of all of the crews, the flock got moved from pastures on one side of the property to another pasture about a mile away, which involved herding them down the road — always risky business, so many people were at hand…
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June 29th, 2010
The calendar may say that the first day of summer has passed already, but at Smokey House Center summer started today! Meet the crews and see their first day of good hard work.
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June 25th, 2010
When you purchase meat from Smokey House Center you know how and where your animals were raised and can be confident that the meat is healthy for your body. Meat from our grass-fed cows and sheep is lower in total fat and calories than meat from animals raised on grain and it can actually lower your cholesterol levels. Read More
We sell meat by the share, click here for an order form, and also have some available at the farm by the cut. Give us a call to see what is available.
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Danger Men Cooking is coming to Smokey House! Steven Schlussel, producer and director, and Chef Gary Schmidt of the GNAT-TV program will be with us next week to help prepare our Thursday Lunch and, in the process, produce a new edition of Danger Men Cooking.
