A mountain-top retreat at the headwaters of Vermont’s cardinal rivers

Headwaters Farm and Forest is located in Vermont’s “Hidden Valley” of West Brookfield. During the last ice age, a rare geological formation called a “hanging glacier” got stuck high up in the Hidden Valley, as the melting flows created Vermont’s cardinal rivers and valleys which now host them.

Our great glacier carved out West Brookfield and the Hidden Valley in steppes over time, finally melting into to the cavernous recesses below the farm, which now hold hundreds of thousands of gallons of glacial spring water. This water rises and falls with the snow and rain; it pours from the sides of our hill; it replenishes our landscape and irrigates our herb, vegetable and fruit tree crops with mineral rich, clean water.

Our farm is also located on the St. Lawrence Continental Divide, which stretches from Newfoundland, all the way to The Hill of Three Waters in Hibbing, Minnesota, and represents the height of land where American rivers begin to flow North. Our landscape sits directly over this divide, and as such the springs that pour from our hill form the “headwaters” of two of Vermont’s largest rivers: one which flows north, The Winooski River, and one which flows south, the White River.

We are careful in the stewardship of this rare location. Its magic is palpable to all who come to visit, to imbibe the spring waters, to reset their bodies before heading on their way, whether it be north or south, just as the water flows.