Barn Yarns with Bill Torrey
WHEN: Saturday, September 27, 2025, 4pm
WHERE: VFF’s Anderson Wells Farm Middle Barn, 2542 Quaker St. Lincoln VT
Suggested donation $15 (all proceeds will be given to Feeding Champlain Valley)
(Seating for this event is limited, so if you find that you’re unable to attend, please let us know as soon as you can, so we can offer your seats to others.)
“Bill Torrey is a storyteller too pure to be real and too funny to be believed. Great storytellers and great stories don’t always find each other. With Bill Torrey it’s a head-on collision.” – Tom Bodett, author, humorist, woodworker, and radio guy
Join master storyteller, woodsman, and author Bill Torrey as he weaves together true, hilarious, heartwarming, and sometimes heart-wrenching stories of his life. The NPR Moth Mainstage Performer and Five-Time Moth StorySlam Winner will take you on a jaunt through the real Vermont. Bill is a sixth-generation native who grew up close to the land and worked in the woods for forty years. Throughout those years he evolved from a high-volume, high-impact logger to a light-on-the-land steward of the forest.
Come hear Bill’s rollicking recollections of what it truly requires physically, mentally, and morally to slay tall timber from the wooded ridges of Vermont where his family has lived since 1767. You’ll hear stories of loyal friends and tolerated family, middle school dances and mean teachers, tall trees and devoted dogs. In VFF’s beautiful Middle Barn, you’ll hear the author of The Ta Ta Weenie Club, whose priceless narratives of his upbringing during the ‘60s drew widespread praise, as he continues the journey with hair-raising stories from his second book, Cutting Remarks–Forty Years in the Forest.
Bill notes that some of his stories are rated SBL– School Bus Language – as in, if your kid rides the school bus, they’ve heard worse!
About Bill
Bill was known as one of the best loggers in the state when he walked out of the forest and onto the stage. He began his woods career when he was sixteen and for the next forty years spent his days under the canopy of the forest.
For decades, we at Vermont Family Forests had the privilege of working with Bill on logging jobs across the Champlain Valley. He has also taught Deer Hunting 101 for us, sharing his vast hunting knowledge and experience. Since VFF’s beginnings in the mid-1990s, Bill has been an essential part of the application of our ideals and principles in the forest. We’re thrilled to welcome him back to share stories in the beautiful Middle Barn at Wells Farm.
About the Event
All proceeds from the Bill’s performance will go to Feeding Champlain Valley.
Bill will tell stories for 45 minutes or so. Afterwards, he’ll answer any questions you might have, and we’ll cook up wood-fired pizzas in our earth oven. VFF will provide crusts, cheese, red sauce, and farm-pressed apple cider. Bring the pizza topping of your choice to share.
