Designed to soothe children before bedtime, this delightful story features a multicultural group of people visiting a traditional country store in different settings across America. With rhythmic language that guides children through the passage of both a single day and the four seasons, this board book teaches children to read by identifying familiar items found in a country store, including homemade foods, country crafts, a soda fountain, and classic toys, while celebrating a unique aspect of Americana.

Living the dream of the endless vacation “Anyone who has ever dreamed of leaving the city and taking their lives back to nature (and who hasn't?) will find much to contemplate in this warm and hilarious tale of rural misadventure and small town quirk, even if they have never chased a goat in a bathing suit or called 911 because there were cows in the road. Stimson's voice is endearing: both in its self-deprecation and its rapture, as she sings an only slightly conflicted love song to Vermont.” —Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted “Taking a plunge that wimpier sorts (i.e. most of us) only fantasize about, Ellen Stimson and her family packed up their house in St. Louis and threw themselves into a wildly different life in small-town Vermont. Armed with the passion-and haplessness-of wide-eyed newcomers they rescue goats and adopt chickens, do battle with skunks and bats and falling ice, and, most disastrously, buy a black hole of a general store. Through it all they manage to retain their love for their adopted home as well as one another. This is a tale to which all the cliché words absolutely apply: hilarious, heartwarming, rollicking, and, most of all, rich in the real stuff of life.” —Julia Reed, author of But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria!

The ultimate New England store, whose catalog reaches millions of people, presents the store's first cookbook bringing us back to simpler days. The Vermont Country Store Cookbook captures both the essence of the iconic store and the soul of the Vermont way of life: a self-reliant, rich life in the slow lane. Through recipes, yarns, archival photos, and sumptuous visuals, it tells the story of five generations of Orton storekeepers, while featuring fresh-from-the-farm cooking that imbues the cuisine of the present with the best of the past. Approximately 120 updated and original family recipes evoke memories, conveying all the hominess of the catalogue, but also appeal to the modern tastes of contemporary cooks. The book also features sidebars of Vermont history and more than 200 photographs, both black-and-white archival and four-color photographs, the latter taken especially for the book.

Often hidden on the back roads and byways of the Granite State, country stores are an essential and beloved part of the state's character. Developed from trading posts as travelers settled throughout the state, they are recognizable for their vast array of merchandise and a fragrant blend of tobacco, spices and coffee. The country store became the center of the community, where residents could play checkers, mail letters, attend town meetings and shop. They are still fixtures in many towns today, including the Brick Country Store in Bath, considered to be the oldest in the United States, dating back to 1790; Fadden's General Store and Sugarhouse in North Woodstock, which produces award-winning maple syrup; and the Old Country Store in Moultonborough, which had its beginnings as a tavern. Historian Bruce D. Heald, PhD, chronicles New Hampshire's historic country stores and the keepers behind these unique local landmarks.

To wander through the pages of Joey Green's Incredible Country Store is to experience the innocence and warmth of a bygone era. In this treasury of tips, recipes, and make-it-yourself concoctions, you will discover which country-store gadgets and gizmos have stood the test of time-and which are now collectors' items. You'll find recipes for homemade soaps, candles, perfumes, elixirs, and candies; directions on how to make those wonderful old wooden toys; and illustrations of those confounding brainteaser puzzles from the Ozarks. Some other treats that await you include: - Secret formulas for old-time, brand-name products you can make at home-for just pennies. Make your own Chanel No. 5, Chap Stick, Play-Dough, Tiger Balm, and more - The history, lore, and strange facts behind famous country-store brands and the stores themselves - Dozens of Joey Green's trademark wacky facts thrown in for good measure--Did you know that Melanie's pregnancy in Gone with the Wind, when calculated by the dates of the Civil War battles mentioned, lasted 21 months? That collectors value some old Cracker Jack prizes as high as $7,000? That originally the cream filling in Oreo cookies was made with pork lard? Crammed with vintage advertisements and 357 photographs of curiosities from the past, Joey Green's Incredible Country Store has irresistible retro appeal-and makes a great gift!

The evolution of stores out of the old peddler-and-plantation system, with colored illustrations and pencil drawings.

"Rebecca Rule brings her Yankee style, love of all things New Hampshire, and natural wit to the allure of the country store. It's a taste of cheddar, the briny scent of the pickle barrel, creak of the floorboards, and the call of the clerk greeting a daily customer that somehow feels just right. It reminds us of home. The old-fashioned country store has been idolized by poets, artists and writers alike, but Calef's Country Store is special. Rule shares the intriguing tale of a family-owned store that became a true community center-a place to warm the bones-set among the stories of Joel Sherburne. A Calef's employee for sixty years, Joel is a lover of cheese, prankster of high regard, and a life-long volunteer in his hometown of Barrington. In Sixty Years of Cuttin' the Cheese we learn his tips for how to care for your cheese, and we are introduced to his Joelisms, like "Set you back a week." As in: "When Billy Calef sat Joel down and told him the store was to be sold out of the family, well, that set him back a week." Today Joel enjoys the friendship of the new owners, Greg Bolton and Len Angelo, whose vision of the old, enhanced by the new, has brought Calef's to its 150th anniversary year with style and a thriving, mail-order cheese trade. Illustrated with period photographs, Sixty Years of Cuttin' the Cheese includes twenty-two secret recipes from Calef's kitchen, like Cheddar Cheese Crisps, Apple Cranberry Cheddar Muffins, and Smoky Cheese Chowder. So sit back with a plate of Rat Trap Cheddar and some gingersnaps, and reminisce with Joel and Becky around the old woodstove"--P. [4] of cover.