Gourmet Getaways: Select Registry Serves Up Fun For Foodies Vacations

You may not cook like Julia Child, but you can wine and dine like her.

The Hartstone Inn, Camden, ME, hosted the culinary icon’s 89th birthday party, as one of her preferred summer dining destinations. Today, this celebrated seaside retreat is one of six Select RegistryTM inns offering Fun for Foodies Vacations of New England. Now in its sixth year, this unique program of gourmet getaways is available at fine lodgings throughout the region: Hartstone Inn as well as Captain Lord Mansion, Kennebunkport, ME; Stone Hill Inn, Stowe, VT; Hancock Inn, Hancock, NH; Birchwood Inn, Lenox, MA; and Historic Jacob Hill Inn, Providence, RI.

Select Registry’s Fun For Foodies Vacations is a mix of awarding-winning inns, picturesque settings and culinary adventures with local flair. Food enthusiasts share Julia Child’s delight in food – not just the eating of it, but the preparing of it too – with hands-on experiences like these:

— Artisan Cheese Maker for a Day – Make farmstead cheeses at a Vermont sheep dairy. Meet the animals, prepare a batch of cheese and package the product for market. A wheel of the cheese you helped create will be shipped to you after ripening.

— Chocolatier For A Day – Master the art of chocolate making in a candy shop during a day of hand-dipping and cooking. Or, travel to the heart of the Berkshires for a private tasting with an acclaimed chocolatier, ranked by Saveur magazine among the nation’s Top Ten.

— Canoe Trip and Winery Tour – Take in the lush Green Mountains, while canoeing down a gentle river. Then discover the joys of winemaking at the Boyden Valley Winery, part of a fourth-generation farm producing more than a dozen award-winning, international wines.