New England's Narrow Road

New England Farm Stands

Farmers are hard working people and summer is their time to shine.

Summer means ice cream in New England…fresh farm grown vegetables too…but the ice cream is what I remember about summer as a kid. Kimball’s was the big place to go. It was a bit of a drive, but worth it.

Sometimes we’d skip supper altogether and just go get a big fudge sundae or banana split. That was cool.
We’d drive into the big gravel parking lot and get into one of the lines at the many windows and watch the people walk away with towering cones and bowls of delicious gooey treats. I must have changed my mind a dozen times while waiting to get up to the window.

The farm stand in my little town has a small ice cream stand, but a huge variety of ice cream flavors and cooling drinks. The Panda Cooler is one of my favorites. My son tends to get the same thing all the time…cookie dough in a cup. I’ve tried to broaden his horizons, but he won’t budge.

Last year we lived near Beech Hill Farm in Hopkinton and besides buying sundaes you can make yourself, there is a little barnyard area with farm animals.

The goats are fun to watch if the weather isn’t too hot and they are all sleepy, and the little cows with their big eyes are so pretty. In the Fall, Beech Hill Farm has corn mazes to walk through.

So we eat ice cream all summer and hopefully burn off all that accumulated fat next winter shoveling snow and lugging wood in for the stove. I like to get started on the fat burning by going kayaking too.

Another favorite local farm of mine is Tenney Farm in Antrim. Whenever it’s time to buy pumpkins and gourds, that is where I head. They also have bags of fresh picked apples in fall for those people who don’t want to pick their own.

My Grandfather

I didn’t grow up in a family that did a lot of talking to each other. In fact it saddens me that I know so little about the history of my grandparents.

My grandmother’s mother (and maybe her father?) came from Denmark. My grandmother worked in the mill and my grandfather was a mailman. He also wasn’t a very good driver judging by the dents on the side of his car from all the mailboxes he’d hit over the years. I remember him showing off the gifts he’d get from his customers at Christmas.

He was a selectman for his little town in Massachusetts and he walked in the local parades. I remember that one time he was able take his grand-kids along with him and I had my one and only chance to be in a parade. It was great!

They’d had a son who was killed in the war – World War 2 I think- and his photo was in an oval frame hanging in the living room of their little farm house. He died before I was born and I was suppose to be a boy so I could be named after him (according to my parents.) Oh well.

I remember taking a hike with my sister and my grandfather up to Mill Hill, which was a place in the woods up behind my house. It was the coolest place with two steep hills of grass and a valley between . One side dropped down to the Mill -the reason for the name- and the other side, past the stone wall, sloped to a cow pasture and sand pit. It was my favorite place to be and I hiked there often in my childhood.

Anyway, we hiked up there one time and my grandfather was looking for a tree to use to make a cane. It had to be just the right size and shape at the root for making a handle and the tree had to be fairly straight of course as well.

He did find one and cut the tree and took the part home that he needed for the cane. I thought it was pretty cool (I was probably 8 years old) that my grandfather knew how to do that. I don’t remember him ever using a cane so I don’t know what he wanted it for except that he liked to work with wood and had a shop area in the upstairs of the big, old barn behind their house. I imagine that he gave it to a friend.

He was also a gardener. That is an understatement because his garden was huge. I can still picture him out there with his rottotiller going up and down the rows. My house was on a hill behind my grandparents house so we had a view of the entire garden at the foot of the hill. I grew up eating fresh vegetables of all kinds. How lucky was I? I didn’t know it of course.

My grandfather also liked to talk to us kids in rhymes. One I remember is:

“A dillar a dollar a ten-o’clock scholar,
what makes you come so soon.
You used to come at ten 0’clock
and now you come at noon.”

It didn’t make sense, but we’d laugh. He had others too, but I can’t remember them.

He’s been gone for a long time now, I grew up in the 60’s, and I regret not knowing more about him and my grandmother. I no longer have parents I can ask either. I am grateful for having them in my life as a child and my love of gardening and working with my hands comes from their influence I’m sure.

Do you have a special Grandpa?

Ruggles Mine in New Hampshire

Ruggles Mine is a tourist attraction in Grafton, New Hampshire. It’s a winding drive on back roads in the middle of nowhere to get to the top of Isinglass Mountain where the mine entrance is located. On a clear day, it’s a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains.

After a fairly steep walk down into the mine, the area opens up and you’ll see the many caves and rocks to explore.

It’s no surprise that you will find tons of mica! And it is a fun place for kids to hammer rocks (bring safety goggles) and search for treasure. There is an interesting history lesson about the man who discovered the mine as well.

The View atop Isinglass Mountain & My Boys — The View & My Boys

Sam Ruggles discovered mica on his land in 1803 and mined it in secret and even transported it out to the seacoast under the cover of darkness in the middle of the night. Mica was worth a lot of money back then because it was used for all the things we use glass for today. Sam didn’t want others to lay claim to any of the land he was interested in mining since he wasn’t sure how large the mica deposit was.

If you live in the area, Ruggles Mine is a fun trip for the family. Chipping away at the rocks on the ground is allowed, but not the walls. There is Mica everywhere and so are many other rocks and minerals. In fact, minerals worth money are occasionally found.

**And here is a little secret…when I accompanied my son’s 4th grade class on a field trip last year, the mine employees had set various pretty stones around the area, mostly on the sides of the walls, for the kids to find. So keep your eyes open!

Click here for directions and a link to the site.

Drive By Photography

I don’t ususally do this, but I had my camera with me and while driving on some rural backroads, I thought I’d try to get some photos. Yes, I took them while I was driving. Not safe, but I was the only one on the road and I was not traveling fast.