Local Discoveries

Posted May 30, 2018 by Sarah Callanan

I’m not going to lie, I’ve kind of failed on the planned adventuring. As I said last time in my post, I was planning on discovering more of Massachusetts on the weekends, and I was going to plan out my trips, and report back. I had a great adventure planned to write about, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. I initially planned to go into Boston and meet up with my sister (to see her for the first time in five months!) and I had a list of places to go, things to do, where to eat; however, I was unaware that first, the MBTA is doing construction on the Commuter Rail that I take on the weekends and that has messed with the schedule, and second, that Boston Calling was this past weekend, so I did not end up going to Boston. 

However, I have made some discoveries about Massachusetts in my own neck of the woods. For example, the wildlife. So, as someone who is not from New England, I have had encounters with wildlife before. In Colorado, we had mountain lions, bears, and deer. Seriously, so many deer. And the deer were kind of domesticated too, as in they looked both ways before crossing the street. In North Carolina, we allegedly had deer, but the entire time I lived there, I never saw a living one. I saw possums, geese, and a lot of squirrels. However, in Massachusetts, I have been introduced to a new animal in my backyard: wild turkeys. I know, most people don’t find this anywhere near as fascinating as I do, but when there’s like five turkeys in your backyard and you’ve never really seen a wild turkey before it’s kind of exciting. The turkeys are also big, and they puff their feathers out, and there are so many of them. 

Another thing that is unique to Massachusetts compared to other areas where I have lived, is that there seems to be a lot of farms/farm stores. In North Carolina (or at least in the area where I lived) there were some farms, but they were more industrial and not really in the city. There were some farm stands, but in the area where I lived they were few and far between. However, there’s an abundance farms that have stores where you can buy produce and other goods and get a bite to eat near where I live. Some of these farms even produce their own ice cream, have their own breweries, or let you pick your own produce. I’ve been trying to visit some of these farms because buying local is always good.  I went on an outing this past weekend and visited two farms in the area: Water Fresh Farm Marketplace in Hopkinton, MA and Outpost Farm in Holliston, MA. I had a great experience at both farms, and if you ever see some local farms/farm stores in your area you may want to stop by.