Here’s a hint, and something to do this Halloween…

Spent today in Hyannis, making sure everyone was stocked up in the October issue and visiting our pals at Cape Cod Beer and Grain and Vine… Caught a glimpse of the elusive fall rainbow, had to stop traffic on Main Street long enough to get a couple shots.  Sorry if you were behind me!

According to some of our oyster friends, Sunday was slow at OysterFest. Which makes my head spin right off its hinges.

Because this just does not look slow to me. That’s the crowd watching the oyster shucking competition. Wellfleet takes its oyster shucking very seriously - but you knew that since the U.S. Champion Oyster Shucker is from Wellfleet and competed in this very contest last year. He made a cameo appearance on Saturday, but I think he was busy with speaking engagements and maybe an ESPN something or other when we were there on Sunday. You can read more about Chopper here.

That picture is the parking lot of town hall. Food vendors are in the tent you can barely see on the left. I do love those food vendors. Of course there were oysters all over the place ($1.50 ea. or 12/$12), but there were also fish cakes from Terra Luna (again, I must apologize for doing shots of whatever that sauce was. I cannot resist. It rocks in ways I cannot describe), sushi from Mac’s, shrimp tempura from WOMR, pizza from the Flying Fish, buttermilk battered oysters from the Wicked Oyster and a whole host of things I could not get because really, enough is enough. Oh, and a cup of coffee from Beanstock coffee roasters because a) it’s yummy and b) I couldn’t move my fingers from the cold and it was cheaper than the fleece mittens I was eyeing.

This year we had the magical set up. Henceforth I will never attend a festival without lining up a pied a terre in its midst. It is the answer to everything. The photo above was shot by Chris from the roof of his box truck, from which WOMR broadcasted live. They didn’t use the inside of the truck, just the outside. Chris had a little studio set up inside with room for us to have lunch and nap. We went out into the throngs for a bit and then retreated through the very high security area to our home away from home. For those of us who don’t dig crowds so much, it was heaven.

While Studley napped in the truck, Lucy and I headed back out through the crowd to the slightly less crowded Main Street, which was lined with more oysters and craft booths. There was a kids’ activity section behind Preservation Hall, where we could paint pumpkins and string oyster necklaces. Lucy made a particularly lovely necklace.

This year there were a few stand out vendors. Liza Jane Norman makes these skirts that look like lampshades, so whether she liked it or not Lucy had to have one. After all, why have a little girl if you can’t dress her in lampshades? Liza also had a fetching pair of pirate pants for Studley. It looks like she’s still working on her website, but her home page is cool. Tons of people were wearing her groovy striped legwarmers.

And then there was the hoop booth. They made customized hoops for adults and were demonstrating all the things mere mortals will never be able to do with them.

That’s Moya at Flo Hoops. She was unbelievable.

I also met Tessa Morgan of Flying Pig Pottery. I happened upon her studio last year and wrote about it here. And a couple booths down our friends from Narrow Land Pottery had a booth. Hi Marianne! Send me that link about homeless musicians looking for places to stay, okay? We want to make sure we block the site while there’s time. We have enough homeless musicians, thank you. Around the corner was Kate from Leave it to Weaver. I go way back with Kate and was even her headless model a couple times. If you look at some of her slides or postcards, that’s my chin. I have a very nice chin. We bartered and I scored some awesome scarves, back in the day. You can never have too many Leave it to Weaver scarves.

And I chatted up Andrew Jacob, who I thought was Jacob, not Andrew, but he was nice and let it slide. He was the featured artist in the September issue of COD. It’s here if you feel like digging. I was so busy trying to give myself some street cred on COD’s dime I didn’t actually find out anything about him and probably annoyed him to no end. Social skills come later.

Finally, the town of Wellfleet was super-all-that and let P-town Pedicabs come pedal people around. Liz posted about them here.

And then we slept like reveling oysters. The end.

-Susan Blood

p.s. There will be more pictures, so stay tuned! It’s just that we have this fierce C.O.D deadline and none of us at Trout Towers can think straight. Ever.

p.s.s Here they are!

Todd told me about these guys not too long ago, and it took me a week or two to finally meander in, but man, am I glad that I did!  You know how sometimes you sit back and say “wouldn’t it be cool if…” and then lead into some diatribe about how you would open up the coolest store of some kind, and how you would do it right?  Well, these guys are on the right track! It’s no secret that we here at C.O.D love our beer and wine, and it’s great to have a new destination to get our hands on some!  From a great selection to great people, the new Grain and Vine in Hyannis has you covered!  Want to see what you’re missing?  Check the photo gallery by clicking here!

There’s nothing that says fall like crisp days, colorful trees, and men dressed up like they’re about to sack a castle.

That’s right, once summer is over, eighty plus acres of the town of Carver are cast back in time.  Think Plimouth Plantation, but with swords, armor, fire eating, and, of course, beer.  Complete with a jousting field (that features REAL jousting!), jesters, a smithy making bladed weapons and custom armor, tons of medieval - esque crafts, and more, you can’t beat King Richards Faire for quality family entertainment and some of the best people watching ever.

We arrived right as the gates opened, and were met by Stephanie, their press liaison.  She gave us the five dollar tour, and then set us free.  It can be hard to navigate from attraction to attraction with so many people dressed for the era and acting the part… LARP a palooza to say the least!  I have to give these folks credit for losing their inhibitions and really giving their all to the day, it adds a sense of magic (and surrealness) that I haven’t experienced since my rave days.

We saw people eating mud, swallowing and juggling fire, doing acrobatics, sword fighting, and, of course, drinking.  I have to say the only disappointment of the day was that a “yard” of beer was hardly that, coming in a plastic decanter that weighed in at more like twelve inches.  This was almost made up for by the turkey drumsticks, which were smoked and must have come off the biggest gobblers ever, as they were the size of my forearm.  And delicious, to say the least.

The highlight of the day for many was the tiger show, which featured rescued tigers of all sizes and carried a pretty strong conservation message.  They even had Hercules, the Guinness Book of World Record largest feline, and he was HUGE.  Certainly made me glad I didn’t have to wrestle him.  After the tigers, we were feeling a little hard to impress, but the Aerial Angels did make us laugh with a collection of acrobatics, tricks, and, most importantly, off color jokes.  They may not be Cirque de Soleil, but they sure would be more fun to party with.

At the end of the day we were well fed, tired, a little dirty and completely broke, which, let’s face it, is the mark of a great fair or festival.  If you haven’t been I certainly recommend heading up there this coming weekend, as it is the last chance you’ll have until next year.

Photo gallery?  Click here!

For the past three years the British Beer Company has been hosting an annual celebration of the Beatles in Falmouth, starring amazing tribute band Walrus Gumboot and countless musical guests from across the Cape.  This year the festival had an additional cause, and that was to help raise money for local music fixture David Cohen, who has been diagnosed with cancer. I think it is safe to say that this year’s even went off without a hitch, with hundreds of people gathering to revive the hippy spirit.  I’m not sure of the totals, but I know they raised a good chunk of money, and you can continue to support this amazing cause by buying one of the specially made support bracelets - contact Stephanie at christmasbaibey@yahoo.com for more info.  David has been in tons of local bands, and chances are you’ve danced to his playing more than once, so let’s all get together and support our local musical family!

Click here for a slideshow of the day…

Click here for a slide show or check the photo gallery to the left!

Thanks to everyone who came out and showed support yesterday for our Cotuit Center for the Arts benefit show!  Despite some last minute confusion about the order of bands, things went off without a hitch, and a couple hundred people cycled through.  We would like to apologize for the flip flop on the lineup, but everyone was incredibly understanding and recognized that the focus of this event was to do some good and have a good time, which I think it’s safe to say most everyone did!  The Casuals opened things up and played an amazing set, getting people on the dance floor almost immediately.  Amy had her hands full out in the art area, where she hosted a huge amount of kids of all ages who were painting and doing different crafts, between sessions on the giant moonwalk outside.  The artists came through in spades, and Kelly Provo and her posse stayed for the entire event, start to finish…  She said it was her first showing in a gallery environment, but judging from peoples reactions to her work you can bet it won’t be the last.  Ben and Erica made it out, as did Andrew Jacob and his friends with some incredible surf influenced pieces.  Keep an eye out for his special hand painted newspaper box, it’s the first of several that will house the new issues of C.O.D.  Wendy from the Black Crow Gallery was there, rushing in and out so she could mind her gallery.  Cape Cod Beer hooked up two kegs, which kept everyone loose through an amazing OSB set and well into the final act, Spiritual Rez.  Featuring an amazing horn section, the Rez tore things up with their funky reggae jams, and I don’t think there were too many people that could avoid getting there groove on.

Special thanks to Murphy’s for the wine and cigar tent, Chris, Patrick and Jamie for having us, Ben and Billy on the Burrito Bus, Brian for handling the beer, Suzanne, Amy and Erin for all the help, and Pizza One Subs Two for their generous support!  Keep your eyes here for a VERY SPECIAL show coming up in November.  You have to see it to believe it, but man, this is gonna be huge!

See you there!

I know, I should write a dissertation about why eating locally is better for the environment, supports local business, and is less (globally and personally) toxic, but really, I was just there for the food. The delicious, fresh, flavorful, immaculately crafted food.

I just spent the last few days visiting CLASH events from Hyannis to Wareham (there are more, farther out on the Cape, but who do you think I am? Wonder Woman?) and I have finally gotten to the point where I seriously cannot eat another bite. And that’s saying something.

Thursday we went to the gala opening at CLASH headquarters - a tent behind the Cape Cod Maritime Museum in Hyannis. There were people offering us food and drinks that they had made right here on the Cape.

I spent most of the time talking to people about food I had never heard of and asking them to spell things. They’re throwing around farm names and horticulture terms like it’s no big thing and I’m nodding and smiling like I’m some sort of food critic and of course I know what they’re talking about. It was like when I started waitressing and fumbled every single cocktail order. You want a what? Laphroaig? Are you kidding me?

Wianno Grille had these little caponata on brioche thingies made with buttercup squash. I had several. And Brewster Fish House had a local salad with some kind of soft cheese from Shy Brothers Farm in Westport. They’re called Hannahbells and are the most delicious thing ever. You can buy it off their website.

On Friday there were talks on growing what you eat. Here’s Sarah Swain after her talk on raising backyard chickens:

She was swamped with people asking for more information. I think there may be a drop in commercial egg consumption next year.

There was also a talk by the East Dennis Oyster Farm guy, John Lowell. One thing he recommended was asking where the oysters come from when you order them in restaurants. If they don’t know, he suggests you get the burger. He also explained that it’s not okay to take oysters from one town and replant them in another. So if any of you Oysters Have Feelings, Too people are reading this stop releasing oysters back into the wild.

At the end of his talk he asked if anyone would like some free oysters and let me tell you, it was as if Sarah was out there calling her flock of chickens. I have never seen people move so fast in my life.

On Saturday, CLASHists had many choices. It was sort of a Cape-wide Open Studio of food. I headed up to Falmouth to watch a clam digging demonstration, and got there in time to not watch the demonstration. It didn’t happen because of rain that also wasn’t happening but probably did happen on Sunday, the rain date. And if you think that was confusing? You should have read the directions to get to Bournes Pond. It said to turn right on Menahaunt, but what it should have said was “turn left on the big street that has absolutely no sign whatsoever.” I love New England. If a street is important enough, no sign is necessary.

I was sorry to miss the demonstration, as it involved a plunger.

From there I went across the bridge to Wareham for a cranberry bog tour. I followed the directions and was met with a very difficult choice: turn left for the bog tour, or turn right to bail on the whole afternoon and go to Target. I could use some cork shelf liners.

I went on the tour. And here’s what I found out.
1) cranberries are vines
2) some of these bogs are 100 years old and have not been replanted - making for some serious heirlooms
3) bogs that are all sandy have not been punked by competing bogs. Dumping sand on your bog every three years helps the plants grow.

By now I was starving - all this talk of clams and cranberries and not a darn thing to eat. So I jetted over to Feast of Falmouth.

What a lark! You get these punch cards and you get to try ten different samples of dishes brought by local restaurants. I stood by the trash cans so I could eat and discard my plates more efficiently. Also, they gave us these little plastic plates to balance all our stuff on, with a corner indentation for a drink. I’m keeping mine in my purse to use at wedding receptions and art openings.

Once I had had my way with Feast of Falmouth, which by the way offered my car the nicest view it’s had in a long time, I headed toward Sandwich to visit Green Briar Nature Center and Jam Kitchen.

I have a crush on the jam kitchen, and not just because Thornton Burgess’ Smiling Pool is out back.

On our way east we saw one of the aforemention sanded bogs. It’s like pruning. I know this because now I’m really smart.

And then there was a boy waving at the side of the road with yet another CLASH sign, inviting us to visit Gallery Gourmet on 6A in Sandwich.

They have all kinds of yummy looking things and if I hadn’t just eaten twice my body weight at Feast of Falmouth, I’d have been in big trouble. Go get into some trouble yourself if you’re in the neighborhood. She just opened last spring and would, I’m sure, be delighted to see you.

From there I went home and fell into a food coma.

And when I woke up, I went back to Hyannis for more oysters at the Oyster Festival on Sunday. My new best friends John and Stephanie Lowell were there again, from East Dennis Oyster Farm. They were doling out oysters and offering some with a dash of cranberry pepper jelly. Oh good heavens. Also out of this world was the oyster sashimi from the Oyster Company. It was an oyster on the half shell with yellowfin sashimi, wasabi, cucumbers and citrus-soy vinaigrette. Don’t even try making it yourself because theirs is completely perfect in every way.

And here’s faithful COD reader Craig Poosikian, shucking those Brewster Oysters. I had several. You know, to support our readership.

And the icing on the proverbial cake was when John Rega of “Taste of Cape Cod” chatted with me in a food critic to food critic kind of way.

Obviously he’s never read any of my food reviews.

(Click here for more photos)

-Susan