This is a repost of an article originally published in the Rutland Herald/Times ArgusWeekend Magazine on January 20, 2024.

For our ancestors, winter in rural Vermont was long and arduous. The short days were crammed full with laborious farm and house chores while the dark nights were long and filled with… not much. Maybe dreams of warmer days? And when the snow was too deep for even ox-pulled snow rollers to clear a path, it was not unheard of for some families to be housebound for days at a time.

But Vermonters — many of whom were not long descended from the dance and music-loving English, Scottish, and Irish, or were newly settled French-Canadians — knew how to brighten the dark nights: With music. And more specifically, with a “kitchen junket” or “tunk.”

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