by Sue Bingaman, Contributing Writer
Mrs. Claus (from 11:30 am - 12n) and Santa's elf (from 12n - 1pm) host the first Walpole Holiday Farmer's Market at the Town Hall Saturday, December 20 from 10 am to 2 pm. Have lunch or a snack and stock up on food items and last minute Christmas gifts!
Visitors will see many of their favorite farmers there with good things to eat: Great Brook Farm - milk and ground beef, The Walpole Creamery - lots of flavors of "home grown" ice cream, Boggy Meadow Farm - cheeses, Clark's Sugar house - maple products, Valley View Bison - bison burgers, Alyson's Orchard- complimentary apples!, Black Cat Honey- honey products, RAE - garlic, Old Cider Press Farm - apple pies, blueberry, peach, apple turnovers, Porkside Farm - pork, Bo-Riggs Cattle Company- beef, Vermont Shepherd- sheep cheese, Brookfield Farm- grass fed lamb and veal AND eggnog by the glass, Orchard Hill Breadworks- healthy bread.
It is a great opportunity to feed your freezer for the winter. Visitors can relax and have a sandwich and hot soup from Scudderly Delicious or savory turnovers from the Samosaman or a fruit turnover from Old Cider Press Farm.
Local artisans will appear at the Holiday Market as well. Barn Door Wreaths will offer eggs and balsam gifts, Grace and Miss Mouse - soap, Crescendo Acres - alpaca products. Inkle Loom Weavings will demonstrate weaving and will sell woven belts, plant hangers, bookmarks; Wake Robin Folk Ornaments will sell ornaments from straw and birch bark, Bonnie Bloom will sell medicinal herbs and Sanctuary's Alpaca Farm will sell alpaca products.
Abenaki Springs Farm will have information about their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program and pastured meat and Valley Farms will have information on their eggs, poultry and meat products. The Walpole Grange will have information and top notch cookbooks for sale!
As the Holiday Market is sponsored by TriVillage Energy visitors will see demonstrations and hear discussions by experts on how to can and preserve food for winter, how to store root vegetables in sand in the cellar, how to can tomatoes, make preserves and more! And they will be able to discuss the community garden being organized in Walpole for ground breaking next spring.
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