Entertainment & Fermentation Tent

Sam Rheaume is a marketer and content creator at Jasper Hill Farm. For over a decade, he’s been working in events and marketing in the specialty food and beverage industry. He got his start organizing pop-up dinners around the country, from Denver to Boston, designing beverage menus and running a team to make one-time restaurants appear. He worked in the wine world for years but jumped ship to cheese five years ago. He has a passion for complex flavors and a drive to illuminate the intense processes that go into making fermented foods outrageously delicious.

Stefano brings bold, rustic flavors to Barre with his locally sourced menus at Morse Block Deli and Pearl Street Pizza.

Andrew is the head brewer at Good Measure Brewing Co., where he creates small-batch beers rooted in approachability and balance.

Eric Hill is the owner and baker of Birch Hill English Muffins. Eric has long held a passion for good food so, when he couldn’t find a decent English muffin, he decided to create one himself. Eric moved to Vermont in 2019 and lives in a 190 year old farmhouse in Jericho with his wife, daughter and two dogs.

Cara is the James Beard-nominated chef behind Honey Road and Grey Jay, celebrated for vibrant Mediterranean-inspired dishes.

Sean Lawson is originally from the New Jersey shore area, where he developed a love of the outdoors at an early age. Family ties brought Sean to Lake Morey in Vermont many summers as a child, where he got “hooked” on the Green Mountains. Sean moved to Vermont in 1988 to pursue studies at the University of Vermont (UVM) and discovered a love of both beer and homebrewing. He graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Environmental Studies.

Sean’s post-graduate work focused on Forestry and Outdoor Education, with positions as a Park Naturalist at Vermont’s State Parks, a Program Coordinator for the Vermont Monitoring Cooperative forest health project, a wildlife educator with Keeping Track and research work with the University of Vermont as well as The U.S. Forest Service. In 1996, Sean founded the Naturalist Program at Mad River Glen, an outdoor education program that he still leads today, featuring seasonal and full moon guided snowshoe treks, where he met the love of his life Karen! Sean returned to UVM in 1997 for graduate school and research on Vermont’s high elevation spruce-fir forests, graduating in 1999 with a Master’s degree in Forestry.

In 2008, after much encouragement from family and friends and accolades for the quality of his homebrew, Sean launched Lawson’s Finest Liquids as a hobby-scale side business in a humble outbuilding next to the Lawson’s family house in Warren, VT. Lawson’s Finest quickly became a highly-sought after Vermont craft beer, sparking an expansion in 2011 at the original location, a contract brewing arrangement in 2014 with Two Roads (launching our #1 flagship – Sip of Sunshine IPA) and culminating in the opening of a new production brewery, taproom, and retail store in Waitsfield, VT in October of 2018.

Sean and Karen have two daughters, ages 16 and 20. Sean loves to attend his daughter’s basketball games, skiing, hiking, treks through the woods, live music (especially the VT boys – Phish!), travel with his wife Karen and dining out. Of course, a love of great beer pervades daily life and whenever possible, travels often include collaborations and stops at other breweries.

Claire founded Butterfly Bakery, specializing in small-batch, Vermont-grown hot sauces and maple-sweetened baked goods

For more than 10 years, Josh Turka worked in restaurants and butchery around the Boston area including eateries in the Barbara Lynch Group, the Salty Pig and MF Dulock. After moving to Vermont in 2021, Josh started 5th Quarter specializing in whole animal butchery and charcuterie, working exclusively with Vermont farmers. Josh now owns and oversees 5th Quarter Butcher + Provisions; a butcher shop and specialty food destination in Vermont’s Mad River Valley, along with 5th Quarter’s robust wholesale offering of high-quality local meat, housemade sausage and charcuterie made using Vermont-raised heritage pork which can be found on restaurant menus and in specialty food stores around Vermont and across the northeast.