By: Sam Dostaler

About a month ago, in mid-August, we caught up with Jeff ‘Foliage’ Folger as he was photographing a partial solar eclipse. There were still six weeks of summer left, but Jeff already had his eye on the upcoming fall foliage season. Here is our converstaion.

Nor’easter (NE:) Let’s start here. When did you fall in love with New England fall foliage?

Jeff Folger (JF): I suspect that the foliage drive has been there since I was very young. I don't know why, but I think it was my English teacher in fourth grade. I wrote a story about a leaf turning color or falling from the tree, and she thought it was fabulous.

I didn't follow up on that and write a novel, but that was the first time I can think of when I was interested in the fall colors. I grew up in Pennsylvania, and the maples in my yard were silver maples. They don't turn color. Growing up, in the autumn I was more interested in the harvest.

(But after) I joined the service; I would go looking for fall colors. Oklahoma wasn’t exactly fertile ground for the fall. They have colors, but basically they have sumacs and oaks, which get a bit of color.

Then I went to Germany, and they get some color in October and November. I kept asking the Germans where they go for fall foliage, and they kept saying New England. So, before I retired from the Air Force in the late 1990s, instead of taking leave in the summer, I would take it in September or October and go home and then go to New England. We were moderately successful (in leaf peeping).

I had family that lived in southern New Hampshire, but they didn't really know where to go either. And I was green. I was as green as a newbie could ever be.

Then I retired in 2003, and it was August, and I went looking for the colors. Not successful. I think I found my first color in early September. There was a tree near my sister's house that was turning, and I was all excited, and I got several pictures of it. The tree had an American flag hanging from it and a pond in the background.

Around the same time, I also found that Yankee Magazine started their foliage page, and I submitted the picture, and they put it up on their page, and I was all juiced up over that.

(NE): How did you learn to track fall foliage?

(JF): Places used to have these bulletin boards where people would weigh in on different subjects. People would ask about the fall colors, and some more experienced people than me would answer, and I would pay attention to these answers and started to learn I was too early and that I needed to go further north at the beginning of the season.

Then I started learning at an exponential rate, and the next year I was the one answering the new people on the bulletins.

(NE): Where did the nickname Jeff Foliage come from?

Yankee Magazine had me become a moderator on a chat room, and they asked me if I wanted to be their first blogger, and one of my editors started calling me Jeff Foliage.

(NE): When did you become interested in photography?

(JF): My dad was a camera buff. He would take family photos; he liked the technical aspect. He was an engineer. He didn't do the kind of photography I do, but he used to take me to a building they were working on and photograph the architectural aspects.

I've been photographing since I was probably 9 or 10 years of age. I took art classes in college, but it was off and on. I tried shooting a wedding in college. That was a nightmare. But I got much better over the years, and I actually did 50 weddings after getting out of the service. They were a lot easier once you know what you were doing, but I’ve just always had a camera.

(NE): You were on CBS Sunday Morning. How did they find you?

(JF): They found me through my blog. I guess they were researching who the craziest leaf peeper is, and I came up. They liked the angle of the story because I enjoy helping people figure out where to go for the fall colors, and they liked that aspect.

Conor Knighton, the CBS reporter, asked, ‘You don’t get paid by the tourism bureaus. Why do you do this?’ My answer is really simple. I just like to help people. That was the whole story: I get out there. I don’t charge, and I just throw the information out there.

(NE): How did your website come about?

(JF): I left Yankee in 2010, and in 2011 I started the blog. I was doing the writing for Yankee, and now I was doing it for myself. I started in April of 2011, and that first October I saw about 18,000 visits to the site. Now, generally in September and October, I am seeing about 80,000-100,000 visits. Then each year in February and March, as people start to plan trips, the questions start for the upcoming year.

(NE): How do you plan your fall?

(JF): I always tell everyone to pick a spot and really explore that location. Don’t do what I do, which is drive all over the place. Last year was my first year living in New Hampshire, so I was able to take shorter trips. In previous years, especially early in the season, I would have 15-hour days because I was driving from Salem, Massachusetts.

We moved to be closer to our grandkids, but I am also closer to the early fall colors in northern New England, so I don’t have to drive quite as far. But usually, around September 19, I drive to Dixville Notch in New Hampshire, and that helps me gauge what the colors are doing. I don’t usually go much further north than that, and then I give everyone an idea of what is happening in mid to late September.

(NE): Besides the website, how do you interact with people?

(JF): A few years ago, my wife Lisa and I started a Facebook group called New England Fall Foliage Photos, and it has about 75,000 members, and we use it to crowdsource the fall colors. Everyone is only allowed to post pictures from September-October of the current year. After the season is over, we allow people to post photos from every year. We look at what people are posting, and I use that to go check.

(NE): Has building a community been one of the most enjoyable parts of all of this?

(JF): Yeah. I am a people person. I like to have conversations with people. I like finding out more about them, hearing their stories. It is a fun part of the job.

(NE): Something you encourage leaf peepers to do is to enjoy the journey. Rather than look for peak foliage, which, as you say, can be kind of a myth.

(JF): In some cases, the photos people see, the colors can be exaggerated. So I try to get people to understand it isn’t just the fall colors. Not just that the trees are pretty. You have fairs, festivals, all of these historical monuments that people can visit while they are looking for the fall colors. Every place across the country has its own unique things; people come here for the fall colors. I tell people it is important to enjoy the fall colors and everything else about the region.

If you stay in the car for hours and don’t pull over. If you do that, to me you are doing it wrong. You might have seen a lot of fall color, but you might not have really enjoyed it. Sit in a chair, have a glass of wine, and take it in. And share the experience with others.

(NE): What does fall in New England make you feel?

(JF): Grateful. It is something special in New England that we have. It happens almost all over the country, but the feel of this region in the fall, with the farms and the hills, is just special. If you went to Indiana and found some farms, there is a lot of flat land around them. But here, when you find a farm, they are nestled on the sides of hills. It is just a lot different from the environment in most of the country. You get to go from the ocean to the mountains to the valleys to the farms quickly. I can go from having a lobster roll to driving to the top of Mount Washington in a couple of hours.

The variety of the landscape in a pretty short amount of time is what makes it special.

(NE): Alright. We will get you out on this. What are your favorite spots and best advice?

(JF): Up north in Vermont, I really enjoy Peacham, Groton, and Jericho, with the old red mill and round church. Everyone loves Stowe and Smugglers Notch. Woodstock has the views and the covered bridge. They have a little bit of everything.

In New Hampshire, I love visiting Beaver Pond on Lost River Road. I always do at least one drive on the Kancamagus Highway. Route 16 in Milan, where there is a state park with a fire tower that is gorgeous.

In Maine, I love Bar Harbor, Damariscotta, Wiscasset, and getting a lobster roll at Reds Eats. Travel up the northwestern side of Maine. Route 113 is always a pretty drive.

Then the historical aspects of Massachusetts. Sturbridge Village. North Adams and the hairpin turn. The Pioneer Valley is gorgeous

Litchfield Hills in Connecticut. There are so many little towns and covered bridges in Connecticut. Then the steam train in Essex on the eastern side of the state.

Then my advice: I know it is a bucket list trip for a lot of people, and they try to do as many of the six states as they can. But they set themselves up for failure because it is hard.

I tell people to pick out an area. Stay for 2-3 days and really get a feel for the area. Then move to another location for 2-3 days if you want. But just do a little, rather than trying to do everything. When people do that, I think they have better trips.

(NE): Awesome, well that is all we had for you. Thanks for the time!

(JF): Not a problem!

Editor’s Note: The interview has been edited for length. All photos by Jeff Folger.

Schilling Beer Co.: A Riverside Magnet (Littleton, NH)

When a building is built, the lives it will live can never be quite imagined by the original builder. Solomon Mann, in 1797, built a towering grist mill along the banks of the Ammonoosuc River in Littleton, New Hampshire. For over 130 years, the building’s original purpose was its sole purpose. A grist mill.

Then in the 1930s, the wheel stopped spinning. It wasn’t until 1997, 200 years after the grist mill originally opened, that new life was pumped into Solomon Mann’s building along the Ammonoosuc. In fact, it was a life that Mann could probably have understood and appreciated. A museum and working mill.

What came next? Mann might not have grasped it all, but he would likely appreciate the third chapter of his building.

In 2013, the lease wasn’t renewed, and the museum closed, putting the property up for sale. Enter the Cozzens brothers. Hailing from Michigan, the three brothers purchased the property and that same year opened Schilling Beer Co.

The brothers renovated the old grist mill, giving it a new life as a brewery, pub, and kitchen serving wood-fired pizzas. Eventually, they expanded the complex along the river, building a store and taproom to meet the demand of the ever-busy location.

Today, the old grist mill wheel still sits, ever so slightly submerged in the flowing river. Unmoving, but a reminder of the past. A reminder of what the building was and also a reminder that neither the Cozzens nor the dedicated patrons of Schilling Beer Co. know what this building’s story will tell 130 years from now.

*Editor’s Note: Some information courtesy of Schilling Beer Co. and Chutters websites

Rose Orchards Farm (North Branford, CT)

Twelve generations. One piece of land in North Branford, Connecticut. Robert Rose arrived in North America on the ship Francis in 1634. Arriving with him on the shores of Ipswich, Massachusetts, were his wife and eight children. Eventually, they made their way to North Branford, and today, four members of the Rose family still live on the same property that Robert once settled and run the family business.

*Editor’s Note: Information courtesy of Rose Orchards Farm.

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The Nor’easter: No. 9 - Publish Date: October 1

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒐𝒓’𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 - 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅. Stories of the people, seasons, places & traditions. New England crafted. Creating community.

The Nor’easter is a publication of the New England Travel Journal