FARM FRESH
Red Apple Farm
Ninety minutes west of Boston, in Phillipston, Massachusetts, you’ll find a farm with a rich agricultural history that continues to be a thriving staple of the area. Red Apple Farm is a place where a local or a visitor can enjoy tasty treats, apple picking, or one of their many festivals.
The farm is known for its apple cider doughnuts.
According to their website (redapplefarm.com), the farm was founded in 1912 by local banker Warren Tyler, who planted a commercial apple orchard. The farm would later be sold to Spaulding and Carolyn Rose in 1929 and has stayed with their family for four generations.
Spaulding and Carolyn’s grandson, Al, is the current owner along with his wife, Nancy, and he believes what keeps the farm popular is its tried-and-true New England authenticity.
In an interview with northcentralmass.com, Al said, “We provide an authentic, New England, family farm experience year-round,” adding, “North Central Massachusetts is New England at the core, from the people who live and work here, to the communities and natural and historical landscapes.”
Voted the number 2 apple orchard in the country by USA Today Readers Choice, Red Apple Farm is not just a spring or summertime destination; one can enjoy their bounties throughout the year. Get doughnuts, pies, cider, and more at the Boston Public Market on Hanover Street. Starting in December, enjoy their warming treats while skiing at Wachusett Mountain Ski Area in Princeton.
The Cidery produces several flavors of hard cider.
When exploring the farm, one can check out their multiple orchards of apples and berries; the farm store; Timberfire Pizza; The Cidery; and the Brew Barn. Visitors can enjoy a game of disc golf and hike the trail around the farm.
Red Apple Farm also hosts plenty of events throughout the year. Their next one is the Enchanted Orchard Renaissance Faire on May 2 and 3. Experience the New England countryside at this festive family fair, while also taking part in a fantastical and whimsical environment.
Other upcoming events include June’s Summer String Music Festival and the Blueberry Jamboree in July.
DETAILS
Red Apple Farm
455 Highland Ave.
Phillipston, MA 01331
redapplefarm.com
SCENES OF AMERICA
Art Imitates Life
By Ann Bush
Ask anyone from the United States to name a painter whose art represents our nation the best, and many
would likely say, “Norman Rockwell.”
During a road trip along the East Coast last year, I visited Stockbridge, Massachusetts, home of the Norman Rockwell Museum and Studio. Nestled on a hill overlooking town, the artist’s historic studio is near the newer museum/gallery, the latter packed with the world’s largest collection of original Rockwell art.
A gallery showcasing Rockwell’s works is located nearby.
I was 26 years old in 1978 when Norman Rockwell died and was laid to rest in Stockbridge, the town he called home for the last 25 years of his life. His poignant painting of a Thanksgiving dinner scene, “Freedom from Want,” hung in most homes when I grew up; it was part of the “Four Freedoms” series, which graced covers of The Saturday Evening Post. My personal favorite Rockwell illustration is “Rosie the Riveter,” a symbol for women like me struggling for equal pay, rights to good jobs, and acknowledgement.
Best known for his 323 cover illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post, painted over a 50-year span, Rockwell also illustrated the official Boy Scout calendar and covers for Look, Literary Digest, and Country Gentleman. In his later years, he relied on photographs instead of live models to “stage” his designs, often using Stockbridge locals for his subjects.
Staying at Spacious Skies Woodland Hills, a lovely campground in Austerlitz, New York, I arrived for my tour 15 minutes early — only a few tickets are issued for group tours of the small studio. To my delight, we learned our guide was brushed into a few Rockwell masterpieces when she was a child. Exploring the museum gallery afterward revealed the widespread diversity of people and cultural topics Rockwell captured in his paintings.
The artist once described his work: “Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.”
Norman Rockwell’s art will forever represent the values of people striving toward a better life for everyone and will never cease to make us smile.
IF YOU GO
Norman Rockwell Museum
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
nrm.org
COMMUNITY
The Guthrie Center
By Josephine Matyas, F468364
A wrong turn along a back road near Great Barrington, Massachusetts, led us to a tidy white church with a large sign announcing: “The Guthrie Center.”
Wait. Could it be?
Arlo Guthrie founded the center at the Old Trinity Church, the site that inspired his Alice’s Restaurant ballad.
It turns out that musician Arlo Guthrie — son of folk music legend Woody Guthrie — purchased the church and founded the Guthrie Center to honor his parents. He helped establish a not-for-profit facility dedicated to building a strong sense of community through a lunch program, a weekly free legal clinic, a summer concert series, and a plan for addressing food insecurity. “Praise Sunday,” a nondenominational interfaith spiritual service, is held on the first Sunday of each month, billed (in Arlo’s own words) as “Bring your own God.”
For most of the 19th century, Trinity Church was a place of worship. In the heyday of 1960s counterculture, the church property was turned into a restaurant by Alice and Ray Brock. Yes, it’s that Alice’s Restaurant, at the heart of one of Arlo’s best-known ballads. This is the spot where the song “The Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” began and where the movie Alice’s Restaurant was filmed.
The satirical song is a protest about authority and the Vietnam War draft, in the form of an exaggerated (but largely true) story in which the younger Guthrie was arrested and convicted of illegally dumping trash. Each year, the Guthrie Center hosts the Garbage Trail Walk, a fundraiser for Huntington’s disease (Woody died of the illness). The six-mile route connects the key sites in Arlo’s saga, as told in the iconic song.
Inside the church are displays of Arlo’s handwritten lyrics, like “It’s Been A Long Time” (a song he performed live but never recorded), his first poem, song lists, original photos, and a doll handmade by blues musician Lead Belly’s wife and given to him as a child.
Arlo wants his legacy to live on beyond his music: His grandson Mo Guthrie serves as a guide at the center and says, “Anyone can be welcome. Anyone can be safe. Kindness for kindness sake.” It’s a sentiment that resonates at this beautiful country property.
IF YOU GO
The Guthrie Center at the Old Trinity Church
Great Barrington, Massachusetts
guthriecenter.org