The Wild Fern Cafe Grows Community and Positivity in Stockbridge

Baker and musician Heather Lynne runs The Wild Fern on Route 100 in Stockbridge, Vermont. She spends part of her week baking, cooking, and filling to-go orders for sourdough bread, sesame bagels, locally sourced beef burgers, and pesto pizza.

On other days, she is lining up musicians for drive-in concerts at the café’s outdoor pop-up stage or playing bass with her band, Rick Redington & The Luv.

She opened The Wild Fern after Tropical Storm Irene upended the state, causing widespread damage to many Route 100 towns in 2011. After the storm, Lynne realized that Stockbridge needed some sort of community gathering place.  

Fast forward to 2020, and Lynne’s bread and bagel business has quadrupled during the pandemic. Her cafe's drive-in concerts, available by reservation only, are also drawing new customers.

“The Wild Fern is attracting good humans, and I am super lucky,” she says.