But fat fieldmice are tasty

“More die in the United States of too much food than too little’’

— John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) economist, author and Harvard professor in The Affluent Society (1958)

“Fieldmouse Pie

5 fat fieldmice

1 cup macaroni

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

1 medium-size can tomatoes

1 cup cracker crumbs

Boil the macaroni 10 minutes. While it is cooking, fry fieldmice long enough to try out excess fat. Grease casserole with some of the fat and put a layer of macaroni on it. Add onion and tomato, then salt and pepper it well. Add fieldmice and cover with the remaining macaroni. Sprinkle the top with cracker crumbs seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes or until mice are well done. (Note: if insufficient mice are available, substitute sausages.)”

— From a 19th Century cookbook created by some Vermont women, who used a lot of unusual sources to keep the wolf from the door.

Beauty and restraint in Newfane

The Windham County Court House, in Newfane, Vt.

— Photo by Daderot

“The glory of Newfane  {Vermont} is  in the architecture. The inn, the Grange Hall, the church, are all excellent and beautifully related to each other.  And in the center is the {Windham County} court house, a superbly proportioned reminder of a {Christopher} Wren church….Lesser communities would have one inhabitant who would proclaim his personality by painting his house yellow with green trim. With us, none does. The beauty of Newfane comes also from the beauty of its citizens.’’

-- From “Small That Is indeed Beautiful,’’ an essay by the late economist and writer John Kenneth Galbraith in Arthur Griffin’s New England: The Four Seasons (1980). Mr. Galbraith, a Harvard professor, summered in Newfane.