Aha! The Boston Globe has discovered the Earthworks Urban Orchards program! Earthworks, a local nonprofit with two decades of experience planting trees and tending Boston's natural environments, has added hundreds of fruit and nut trees to Boston's landscape over the years in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Dorchester, and beyond! If you can find a persimmon in a Boston park, school, or public housing courtyard, Earthworks probably had something to do with it. And you can eat it! You're supposed to eat it!
Mind you, it might not be the prettiest persimmon you've ever seen. Earthworks is devoted to organic orchard care. Judging by the apples I've inspected at Earthwork's heirloom apple orchard at the Shirley Eustis House, that means that the fruit can be, well, spotty. As a responsible grown-up who eats freckled bananas and avoids neurotoxin-based pesticides when possible, I don't mind at all.
You can go on a do-it-yourself orchard tour of all the Earthworks orchards, but it might take a while if you're a weak swimmer; Earthworks has planted two apple trees and a seckel pear on Grape Island, and the ferry only runs on weekends. Better yet, you can volunteer to help harvest all that fruit and give half of it to folks who need it more than you do (unless you actually did swim to Grape Island, and need the calories).
But what if you live in the suburbs? Do the lands beyond Cambridge and Somerville offer opportunities for legally sanctioned fruit poaching? They do indeed, but you need to look down. The early low-bush blueberries have been crisped by our summer's sun, but there are huckleberries aplenty waiting in places like the Middlesex Fells. Look around in the oak-hickory forest understory for medium-sized matte black-blue berries that don't taste quite as good as blueberries. If you eat something nasty, you've probably tasted buckthorn berries, the vile issue of a vile plant. Bone up on your botany, and try again-- or go on a walk with someone who knows what he's eating, like Russ Cohen. Life's too short to eat indoors.
One of the long-term visions for the Boston Harbor Islands national park area includes the presence of an artist colony on one of the islands. Well, this weekend (July 31 and August 1) you can get a sneak peek of what such a colony might look like as Bumpkin Island hosts its fourth annual Art Encampment.
During the encampment, artists become “homesteaders” who take temporary ownership of island plots and build their own shelter, live on the land, and create a site-specific, temporary performance or art installation. The interactive art installations will include performance art, mixed-media exhibitions, and sculptures inspired by the Boston Harbor Islands.
The web site for the Berwick Research Institute, a non-profit art organization, has a full listing of the artist works you’ll see this weekend. A couple of them, in particular, caught my eye. One is “The Great Bumpkin Hunt” by Ali Reid, which riffs off the island’s playful name. Here’s the description: “Building on island folklore that ‘Bumpkins’ are ‘little guys with glowing eyes,’ Reid and a cast of intergenerational family members will lead daily interpretive tours exploring the mysterious species' rise and decline."
The second is “Bumpkin Sky-Land” by Mark Davis, which is described as an exploration of “the mystical realm of ‘sky-land’ alluded to in a World War I-era ballad about Bumpkin, as he summons the island’s aerial genii loci to manifest themselves in the form of floating lattice structures and shoreline fire-glyphs.” That ballad, the “Bumpkin Island War Song,” was written by the men at Bumpkin’s WWI-era Naval Training Station. The full song, included in the pages of Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands, refers to Bumpkin as “a jewel dropped from sky-land/for you’ll help us win the war.” (Bring your copy of Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands along with you, and you’ll not only see the full “Bumpkin Island War Song” but you’ll learn all about the rich history of Bumpkin Island and what you can see out there today including the ruins of an old farmhouse, a children’s hospital, and an old mess hall for the naval station.)
In addition to the public ferry to Bumpkin Island, which leaves from Georges Island and the Hingham Shipyard Marina, a special boat shuttle will take visitors directly from Long Wharf in Boston to Bumpkin Island. The special shuttle leaves at 1 PM on July 31 and August 1 and returns at 7 PM. Tickets are $15 and may sell out. To purchase tickets in advance, click here.
Are you ready for some football? With the battered and bruised Red Sox (Black and Blue Sox would be a truer nickname) in a mid-summer swoon, I'm certainly ready.
The boys of autumn will be strapping on the pads as training camp for the New England Patriots begins on Thursday, July 29 and runs through mid-August. Here are some tips to make your trip to Patriots training camp more enjoyable:
Where: Patriots training camp is held on the practice fields next to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
Schedule: The tentative schedule calls for two-a-day practices for the opening days of training camp with practices from 9:30 to 11:15 AM and 3:45 to 5:30 PM from July 29 to August 4. (Note that only a 9:30 AM practice is scheduled on Monday, August 2 that is open to the public. The team is scheduled to hold a practice inside Gillette Stadium for season ticketholders on August 2 at 7 PM.)
Based on past years, you can lay good odds that the schedule is going to change (either that or Coach Belichick is really going to work these guys from the get go). The schedule is always tentative based on the desires of the coaching staff and oftentimes the weather. Therefore, if you're interested in going to see practice, by all means check the schedule on the Patriots web site and double-check it by calling the team's hot line at 508-549-0001.
Parking: The practice is free to attend, and the parking is free as well. (Yes, I said it, "Free.") Parking is along the west side of the stadium, and it's a short walk over to the fields. From US 1, enter the parking lots at P8 from the south and P6 from the north. Lots open an hour before each practice.
Seating: There are bleachers along the side of one practice field on which to sit. Another popular spot is on the hillside that lies behind the end zones of the practice fields and in front of the stadium. Wherever you sit, you're pretty close to the action. If you have a camera with a good zoom lens, you should get some good shots.
Food and Drink: There are concession stands that sell food, drinks, and beer. Be prepared to pay normal stadium prices for food and beverages, however, if you buy it there. Adjoining Patriot Place has plenty of restaurants and bars where you can get a meal, too. (For a good, cheap meal, I highly recommend Five Guys Burgers at Patriot Place.)
For the Kids: Along the west side of the stadium during Training Camp is the Patriots Experience, filled with interactive games that allow young fans to test their kicking, passing, and tackling skills on a variety of obstacle courses, football tosses, and other similar challenges. It's a popular draw for families. (All fans participating in Patriots Experience must sign a waiver form, available at training camp or online at the Patriots web site.) Note that the hours for the Patriots Experience are not the same as the practice schedule; so check the web site. (In general, the hours are usually 11-4.) Kids will also enjoy all the interactive exhibits at the Hall at Patriot Place. Even if you don't have kids, a visit to this museum dedicated to the Patriots franchise is an absolute must for Pats fans.
Scoring Autographs: The players enter and leave the field near the hillside, so it's a good spot to get autographs, and a designated group of players, which rotates from practice to practice, will often sign along the front row of the bleachers when practice is over.
With as many as 80 players on the field, plenty of new faces, and uniforms without names on the back, it may be tough knowing who you are watching, so print out a roster from the Patriots web site before you go or pick up a complimentary roster from the Patriots Football Weekly tent.
For more tips on enhancing your experience at Patriots Training Camp--and for all the information you'd ever want to know about spectator sports around Boston--check out The Die-Hard Sports Fan's Guide to Boston.
