The annual Brookfield Ice Harvest will be held Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Floating Bridge in Brookfield, beginning at 10:30 a.m. sharp. A demonstration and talk on ice harvesting, using all the old tools, will be followed by a spirited competition to see who can saw and haul a block of ice the quickest.

The Brookfield Ice Harvest, originally revitalized to celebrate the Brookfield Bicentennial, is now an annual event. Ice was harvested on Sunset Lake, stored in the ice house there, and sold from the general store at the turn of the century.

Several weeks before the ice harvest, the snow is removed daily as needed, to insure a clean surface. In the old days, a wooden plow dragged by horses was used. Keeping the ice clean of snow gives it greater depth, clarity and makes it harder, thus increasing the storage life.

The day before the harvest, a channel is cut in the ice, through which the blocks of ice are moved from where they are cut to where they are lifted out of the water. This demonstrates how the ice was cut, moved along a channel with a pike pole to the icehouse, where it would have been lifted into storage by a conveyor.

A demonstration of the ice boom that was used to move blocks of ice to a wagon is conducted and aids the competitors for their upcoming competition. Following the demonstration of how ice was cut, old-timers tell great stories of cutting ice on Sunset Lake.

This is a great free family event of interest to all ages, 9-99, which has been held on the last Saturday in January for the past 21 years and is recognized often, as it was this year, by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce as one of Vermont's "Top 10 Winter Events."

New things that have been added to this year's event: Armand Boutin of Williamstown will have his display of hand-made snowshoes on which people can take a cruise around the pond. This year there will also be horses owned by Carl Russell and Jackie LaRocque on the ice to pull the ice scoring plow.

There will also be the New England Culinary Institute ice sculpting demo, lots of food, fun and an ice hauling contest.

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