But Burlington and the rest of northern Vermont is closer to Montreal, which has flights on Air Canada and British Airways. Detailed information about holidays in Vermont can also be found on , a dedicated website for visitors from the UK and Ireland.. Pam and Gorty used to live in New York, but gave up the rat race years ago to run the Four Columns. My companion had smoked salmon to start, then venison in a port wine sauce.

The venison was so tender, you could have cut it with a spoon.The Four Columns (Newfane, VT 05345, 001 800 787 6633, ) is not only a restaurant, it’s also a proper inn, with gorgeous chintzy rooms, a roaring log fire in the restaurant and a hiking trail that leads you out of the back garden, over a little wooden bridge and up into the woods before you can say “I don’t feel like going for a walk”. I had hubbard squash soup with fresh prawns, followed by pheasant with wild rice and cranberries Pudding was fresh raspberries. Even the Simon Pearce glass factory at Quechee, near Woodstock, is almost as famous for its restaurant as it is for its glass. This is the sort of town where the church is on Church Street, the main street is called Main Street and the sheriff’s office is on Jail Street. There is a tourist country store, a pretty good one, and a real country store, but there is also the Four Columns Inn, run by Pam and Gorty Baldwin, where I had one of the best meals I have ever had in America Forget all your Old World prejudices Food throughout Vermont is of an extremely high standard.

Let’s head south, on Route 30, from Townshend to Newfane, another photogenic New England town, where the Congregationalist church is lit with (electric) candles in the windows at night. Look at the list of producers on the network’s website ( ) and you will see apples, venison, pheasants, pork, beef, lamb, herbs and honey as well as cheese and maple syrup You will also see the word organic A lot. There’s even an organisation called the Vermont Fresh Network which acts as a partnership between farmers and chefs, helping not only to promote local produce but also to make sure it actually gets to the table. If you’re feeling more energetic, take a left out of the car park and take Route 35 South to Townshend and the Townshend State Park, where you can have a proper picnic at the foot of Bald Mountain No, because there isn’t one. Montpelier, the capital of Vermont, prides itself on having refused the Big M entry Vermont also prides itself on its fresh produce. Right beside the cheese factory, a trail will take you up past a field of Jersey cows to a couple of ponds, where you can sit and eat your cheese and muse on the fact that the Vermonters regard cheddar cheese with apple pie as a particular delicacy, in the same way that Yorkshire people serve apple pie with a crumbly wedge of Wensleydale.