Sunday, Jan. 26 at 2 p.m.—SHREWSBURY—Peter Grace and Grace Brigham, both of Shrewsbury, will share the art, history, and lore of ice cutting at the Russellville Schoolhouse in Shrewsbury from 2 to 4 p.m.
The program is free, with donations encouraged to support the story-sharing Root Words Project. Refreshments will be served.
Audience members will be invited to contribute stories of this traditional activity, one that spawned an international ice business before the invention of refrigeration. Ice made by nature was shipped abroad to places like India and Europe during the 1800s, after being cut from cold country lakes in Vermont and elsewhere. Some older people today may remember hefty ice blocks being lugged with tongs to the doors of homes and apartments and placed in ice boxes by burly deliverymen.
Peter Grace and Grace Brigham will demonstrate the tools and techniques of ice cutting at the schoolhouse, which is located at 18 Crown Point Rd. in Shrewsbury.
Peter Grace was head of the work program at Spring Lake Ranch for many years and took part in the ice cutting that once served the ranch’s cooling needs. Grace Brigham is an artist and former teacher with deep ties to Shrewsbury and its history. As a teacher, she regularly brought students on field trips to Spring Lake to witness the sawing and hoisting of ice blocks that occurred during the deep cold of winter. Now revived, ice cutting at Spring Lake Ranch will again take place at the end of January.
The Root Words Project is in the final year of its three-year run. It is made possible with a grant of the National Endowment for the Humanities and is a collaboration of the Shrewsbury Agricultural Education and Arts Foundation and the Vermont Farmers Food Center.
The ice cutting program follows a series of ethnic suppers at the Vermont Farmers Food Center in Rutland, stories of the Squier family farms in Tinmouth, a puppet show with ethnic themes, and other events. The underlying Root Words theme is Vermont’s rural landscape and how it has shaped our way of life here.
For further information, contact Root Words coordinator Stephen Abatiell at 802-870-8387 or email educate.sage@gmail.com.
