A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

On a beautiful Friday evening a few weeks ago, I went down to the South Shore to spend an evening at Norwell Farms. They were hosting their 4th annual “Farm to Fork” event. There was a cocktail hour sponsored by 10th District Brewery of Abington, who was serving hyper local craft beer. Island Creek Oysters were being shucked by the Lavishly Dunn Catering team, who is based out of Hanover. As the night went on, guests were treated to dishes created by local chefs that were inspired by Norwell Farms vegetables.

The farm was decked out with beautiful blooms from Cross Street Flower Farm, which is run by Nikki Bartley and Cara Gilmartin. The pictures don’t even do these beautiful flowers justice. Love what you see? If you live in the area, you can sign up for a flower share and have your own bouquet every week!

The whole space was very Instagram worthy.

Guests made their way around the tent to sample all the chef’s creations that were inspired by vegetables from the farm. The Corner Stop Eatery in Cohasset and Abby Gray from Cooking with Abby in Norwell were in good company of the alumni chefs.

Returning favorite chefs included: Stephen Sherman of Scarlet Oak Tavern in Higham; Greg Jordan from the Quarry in Hingham and Brian Houlihan from the Tinker’s Son in Norwell.

Make sure to check out Chef Houlihan’s other restaurants, Bia Bistro in Cohasset, Trident Galley and Raw Bar in Higham and The Galley Kitchen and Bar in Scituate.

Guests danced into the late hours to music by The Common Good. I wish I had an event to plan, because they were such an awesome band. Check out my instagram to hear a sample. Desserts were provided by Sadie Mae’s Cupcakes of Hingham and The Foodsmith of Duxbury. If that weren’t enough, late night food was provided by BBQ superstars, Smokey Stax BBQ.

Make sure to mark your calendars for next years event – it is not to be missed!

Sometimes posts get away from me. I’ve been trying my best to catch up on them. Did you know that Worcester has a year round farmers’ market on Saturdays from 9am – 12pm. Bonus that it is next to Crompton Collective and Birch Tree Bread Company. Headed out there one Saturday in May (!!). We started with Crompton Collective. They have a mix of antiques, gifts for the home, jewelry and fun items for the kids.

So what can you expect to find at the market? Five Fork Farms brings their amazing flower bouquets, Seven Hills Farmstead scoops out artisanal pasta, Dismas Family Farm brings some of the freshest produce, Jaju pierogi sells both frozen and warmed up deliciousness, and Stained Swirls is decorating your body with beautiful henna designs.

I had been checking out Aisling’s Cookies on Instagram and had wanted to try them out (the main reason we went out to the market…). They did not disappoint. Aisling O’Sullivan is a mom to 4 and makes these amazing cookies. They were seriously tasty (you know some of these fancy cookies can be hard and taste like cardboard, but not these!!). I made sure to get a few for myself while I was picking up some for the “moms” in my life. Head over to her Instagram account and be prepared to be wowed – and then go ahead and order a custom set of your own.

I’m discovering more and more about Worcester – that there are some amazing restaurants and some really cool local shops. It’s actually just as far for me to get there as it is to trek into Boston, so we will certainly do more exploring in the future. Top on my list to try is Dead Horse Hill and Crown Bakery. Tell me all of your favorite spots in Worcester!

For more information on the Canal District Farmers’ Market, check out their Facebook page.