The Farm Coast of Rhode Island

Trey has always been pretty easy to take on trips, but in the past year or so it has become an absolute pleasure. Because of this we have begun exploring our local and not so local area more. This , in addition to meeting up with a bunch of creative bloggers, was why I was super excited to participate in a blogger tour along the farm coast of Rhode Island last week. The event and all the little marvelous details, were planned by Christine (I posted about her book Markets of New England a couple weeks ago) and Nina. These ladies know how to put on an event!

I left a half day early so I could stop in Northampton to have lunch with Sarah. We are going to be sharing our experience of working on our book (Painted Pages)with attendees at the Spring Squam Art Workshops this Friday evening. Sarah and I haven’t seen each other in a couple months, so it was especially lovely spending a few hours together,while walking around Northampton, chatting and shopping as we went.

After a lovely lunch ,  I said goodbye to Sarah and  headed to Christine’s house in Rhode Island. I was really happy that her little boy was still awake when I arrived, and that I got a chance to meet his adorable self in person, and that one of my favorite people of all time (Elizabeth) was there too!

In the morning we all headed to Tiverton to meet up with the other blogging ladies for the tour.

We started at Provender to go over the itinerary and have coffee and breakfast.

It is a sweet little store, that also offers great sandwiches and other options for lunch.

Once we had a chance to introduce ourselves and visit a bit we all headed out to explore the four corners.

A few favorite stores: Nankeen, Sayles Livingston Flowers, Rummage , The Cottage at Four Corners, Amy Lund Handweaver and The Meeting House

After shopping we gathered before heading over to The Sakonnet Vineyard for lunch. Normally we would have had lunch there but the cafe wasn’t open yet, so we had the chance to sample the sandwiches from Provender. They did such a beautiful job putting together yummy boxed lunches for us.

The Sakonnet Vineyard was a great place to sit and enjoy lunch. They had a wine sampling and a little theater where they showed a movie about the history of the Vinyard. I never knew that the climate where the grapes are grown affects not only the flavor but the alcohol content of the wine.

After the Vineyard we drove and toured our way to Art Cafe in Little Compton, where we had coffee, dessert and enjoyed the small art galleries.

Our next stop was the Westport River where we met with the farmers of Riptide Oysters. It was really fun to hear all about oyster farming while standing right there by the dock.

The last stop was my favorite. We went to Round the Bend Farm where we got a full tour of their CSA gardens, and grounds where they raise cows, sheep, goats and pigs. At the end of the tour I purchased pork chops and ground beef in the little farm store they have. I cooked the chops for dinner the other night and they were the best pork chops I have ever tasted.

Another trip with Terry and Trey is definitely in order this summer. The farm coast of Rhode Island is a perfect place to go with my family.

Website: www.farmcoast.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/farmcoast
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/pages/FarmCoast-New-England/158280751422
Flickr folder: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1635983@N25/