July 12th 2015: Learning About Wine Making in Marlborough

My friend and I started out this morning in the town of Concord, heading first to the Great Meadows Wildlife Refuge, where we decided to take a short walk in the wetlands.

It was a nice walk to say the least, complete with a northern water snake sighting, but it was way too hot to carry on for long.

From here, we visited downtown Concord for a bit, then headed to the West Concord area, checking out the organic food store Debra's Natural Gourmet

which had an interesting array of stuff not usually found in other grocery stores,

before heading to Reasons to be Cheerful nearby for some ice cream and sandwiches,

getting scoops of Smooth Ginger, Apricot Frozen Yogurt and Cranberry Orange Sorbet ice cream, a Smoothie with Pineapple Juice and mango and strawberries, 

a Brie, Apple and Arugula Crepe

and a Take Your Mom to Paris Grilled Cheese (Brie, apple, arugula, dijon).

Pretty good, although I did not take to the ginger like my friend did.

After lunch, we headed to Carver Hill Orchard in Stow to try to pick some cherries,

but as it was way too hot, and the farm itself is pretty disorganized and the cherries were all high in the trees which were just allowed to grow by themselves, we gave up after a short while, with a yield of less than half a pound of cherries. Definitely not coming back to this place ever again.

We were about to drive to Marlborough when we passed by Small Farm in town, which seemed to have vegetable picking, so we went to check it out.

They had things like kale

and flowers to pick,

of which we picked some scallions

and beets.

After our fruit/vegetable picking experience, we decided to head to Strange Brew in Marlborough, where we were to have a wine making class.

Unfortunately, we did not make any wine at all in this class, although we did get to taste some and bring home a free shot glass.

We learnt about the equipment and chemicals used to make wine,

new innovations to help beginner winemakers,

but at the end of it all, given the time and expenses required, and the disclaimer that any slight mistake would mean wasted product, we have decided that wine making is just not our thing. Oh well.

We headed back to Cambridge for dinner, this time at Park Restaurant in the Harvard Square area. I have been to this bar restaurant before for drinks, but never for food. 

With my deal, we got the Crispy Mussels (Preserved Lemon, Horseradish Dipping Sauce)

and the Confit Chicken Wings (Sambal and Honey Glaze) for appetizers,

the Ginger and BBQ-Glazed St. Louis Ribs (Garlic-Braised Greens, Grilled Watermelon)

and the Acadian Redfish (Brown Butter Cauliflower, Pickled Raisins, Curry Emulsion) for main dishes,

and finally the Cherry Cobbler (Vanilla Ice Cream) for dessert.

The mussels were pretty tasty, especially with the fried slices of lemon, while the chicken wings were just alright. The ribs had a little bit of alcohol flavor which was a little offputting, although the grilled watermelon and kale was decent. I loved the redfish the most, the components going really well together, and while the dessert was pretty good at first, it became too sour to handle over time. Overall, not a bad dining experience, although we both agreed that Grafton Street is better.