There’s always the happy twitter of birds. There’s normally a very nice breeze in the air.
- Ellie Tudor (at age 6)
Tasha Tudor always wanted to live in Vermont. With the publication of Corgiville Fair in 1971, she was able to purchase secluded land nestled in the southern Vermont hills. Tasha’s son Seth helped her secure the land that bordered his and he began building first her barn, then her home, all with only hand tools.
Seth built his own home in the 1960s. A clearing in the forest grew larger as he married Marjorie, children arrived and gardens expanded.
In the late 1970s Tasha’s daughter Bethany was soon living in a third home that Seth also built. This new house was built about 300 yards west of Tasha’s. It remains the most accessible house, by virtue of being closest to the main road. Accessibility is relative, as it too is deep in the forest.
About 500 yards north of Tasha’s home, Winslow Tudor built a one-room-cabin in the 1990s that, over the years, has grown as his family has. As with Seth’s home, forest eventually gave way to gardens. Amy arrived in 1998 and thick forest roots were painstakingly converted to rich garden soil.
Bethany’s house was converted to a guest house and then in 2000, it was converted to the office for the new family business. Seth and Tasha decided to call it the Rookery, a word that means ‘gathering place.’
Today when you call to place an order or ask a question, you’ll reach us here, at the Rookery. We ship all of our orders from a squirrel-like nest in the second story. If you are able to secure tickets for a tour, you will visit the Rookery at the beginning and end of the tours.
These four family homes nestle within 200 acres of land, mostly forested. Seth and Winslow manage the forests, harvesting the trees that begin to show signs of weakness or thinning them from overcrowded parcels. The trees are sawn, split and dried for firewood. The larger trees are brought to a local sawmill and turned into paneling, framing wood or used for furniture.
“Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.”
-excerpt from Max Ehrmann’s 1927 prose poem Desiderata
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