Visitors celebrate Vermont Open Farm Week by meeting the cows

STOWE, Vt. (WCAX) - Vermont Open Farm Week continues and the Trapp Family Lodge is taking part in it. Many people joined farmers on a hike to meet the Scottish Highlander herd.

“The scenery is beautiful,” said Haley Anderson of Montreal. “We thought we would come here and just look at the cows.”

From New York to Canada, many people came out to visit the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe to celebrate Vermont Open Farm Week.

A family from Long Island, New York, took a trip to the Green Mountain State but it’s not their first rodeo. They say it’s been a tradition that runs through the family.

“We’ve been on vacation this week and we get to enjoy the activities they have in the lodge and this is one of the activities is to interact with the animals,” said Bill Vazoulas of Long Island.

“He’s been coming here since he was 10,” Eileen Vazoulas said.

“Yeah, my parents took me up here and now I followed the tradition and took my family up here and we’ve always loved the von Trapp Lodge. It’s really been a place to relax and feel better,” Bill Vazoulas said.

The farm at the lodge has continued to be a large part of the property and helps feed guests during their stay. They specialize in raising cattle, chickens and sheep, and producing maple syrup. Manager Sam von Trapp says the family originally planned to have a vegetable farm on the property.

“But they quickly realized that a hilltop Vermont farm does not have great soils,” von Trapp said. “My father has always been a fan of ranching and raising cattle, and he thinks it was 1963 or 1964 he brought in Scotch-Irish cattle for a variety of different farms.”

Richard Oulton from Montreal lucked out with a rare sunny summer day to visit the animals.

“We saw this activity on Facebook actually and we thought about it and we decided to book it today and turns out we got a beautiful day for it, too,” Oulton said.

The Trapp Family Lodge was originally purchased in the 1940s and has since expanded into a four-season resort.

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