The most important meal of the day finally gets some attention.

To start: fresh baked cinnamon scones. The main course: poached eggs over homemade biscuits, topped with sauteed spinach and mushrooms, or French toast with fresh sauteed apples and pure Vermont maple syrup. To finish: homemade lemon cheese strudel, sweet fried zucchini blossoms, or peaches and cream.

Breakfast is back in a big way. When times are tough, many turn to comfort food and in the morning, classics rule like pancakes, French toast, and eggs. Breakfast is also an opportune time to get together with clients, hold meetings, and plot goals. It's a quieter time of the day.

At the Wilder Farm Inn Bed & Breakfast in Waitsfield, VT, breakfast is as unique as the surroundings. At least three courses are served and the flavors are fresh, the preparations are creative, and the payoff is in the togetherness.

Meeting groups of up to 15 can take over the dining room as Luke and Linda Iannuzzi, the innkeepers, serve you. They use many local and organic ingredients and the difference is in the taste.

On a recent morning, the two foraged about a pound and a half of chanterelles that they incorporated into that day's breakfast. Another morning had the two New Jersey transplants, who left the corporate world behind, picking snap peas. That morning's breakfast: a farm fresh egg scramble with red pepper, chives, and the freshly picked peas, served with Vermont goat cheese.

There's no better place to enjoy Green Mountain Organic Coffee or Waterbury's own Vermont Liberty Tea than next to the stone fireplace that is the centerpiece of the dining room.

An 1859 farmhouse, the Wilder Farm Inn has been meticulously restored and beautifully decorated by the Iannuzzis. The main house is in the Gothic Revival style and stands on the original 200-acre farm purchased by Orcas Wilder in 1795.

A recent addition to the Inn is its pottery studio and gallery, called "The Naked Potter," built using a salvaged 1840 post-and-beam barn. After breakfast, build some team camaraderie and have your group try out the wheels, slab rollers, and kilns. Attendees will even have the chance to play with fire by experiencing "naked raku" (hence the studio's name). Group members can glaze a hand-thrown pot and let the Iannuzzis fire it to a red-hot 1500 degrees, pull it out of the kiln, and plunge it into the reduction can. They can watch the flames, smell the smoke, and pack away their creations to show off to friends and family.

Originally published Dec. 1, 2009

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