In January, the South Danbury Church kicked off the second year of its Speaker Series with the addition of supper – a light meal of soup and salad – offered before the presentation to help “warm up” the audience.
“People enjoyed the Soup Nights last month so much that we’ve decided to keep it going for the rest of our winter session,” explains Kathy Neustadt, one of the series’ organizers. “Everyone seems to enjoy a warm bowl of soup, especially in the winter.”
The meal begins at 6:30 PM and is free to the public (though donations will be accepted), followed by the talk at 7 PM.
The topic for Friday, February 7, is “Making Wine in New Hampshire,” presented by Eric and Erin Wiswall of the Haunting Whisper Vineyards in Danbury. The couple bought their 75-acre property in 2005 and – lots of work and hundreds of vines later – in 2009 produced their first wine.
Neither of the Wiswalls had experience in making wine originally. They both came from a corporate background: she as a biochemist, and he as an engineer and manager for several networking start-ups. But they’ve learned by doing. They will talk more about how they started, where the business is today – the Haunting Whisper Vineyards is now producing more than 15,000 bottles of wine annually – some of the complexities of growing grapes in New Hampshire, and the kinds of wine they produce with those grapes.
The topic for Friday, February 21 provides a great opportunity to deepen your understanding of some of the breaking stories in the international news when Kristen Nesbitt speaks on “Ukraine: The Borderland.” You will also learn how to pronounce the name of the capital city!
Kristen, who is a Learning Specialist at Proctor Academy, has just returned this past fall from a stint in the Peace Corps, stationed in the Ukraine, where she was teaching English as a Second Language at Zhytomyr State Technological University — about 85 miles from Kiev, where all the action has been taking place. She will be talking about many different aspects of her time in the Ukraine — “the food, the culture, my Peace Corps experiences” — and will be happy to take questions about other subjects as well.
The South Danbury Christian Church is located at 1411 US Route 4 in South Danbury. For more information about the series, call 768-3191.