July 19th 2015: Exploring Ipswich

In order to try to beat the crowd, we headed out early today to the Crane Estate in Ipswich, where the path we took to explore the area is shown below in pink.

I was here in the past for a wedding, and it was nice to check out some new areas as well.

Our original intention was to hike to Crane Beach, but as my friend was tired, we decided against it, heading back to our car and going to Russell Orchards nearby for some fruit picking.

We initially wanted to pick red currants,

but decided against it as they are too sour,

and it was the same for the black currants.

We did try some blackberries as well which were mostly yet to ripen,

but they were sour as well.

In the end, as we had to pay an entrance fee, we resorted to picking blueberries to justify the cost.

Pretty good crop of them, thankfully.

On the way back, we noticed that onions actually have pretty nice flowers. Never knew that.

From here, we headed to Pavilion Beach in town for a bit, as Crane Beach was already full of people. This kinda makes me wonder why they don't come here first, as parking is free as well. It is a little rocky though.

After the visit to the beach, I decided it was time for some food. I wanted to check out Salt Kitchen and Rum Bar in town, but as it only opens at 11.30am, we had some time to kill, so we visited Five Corners Cafe and Deli next door instead.

I got the Beef + Boursin (roast beef, boursin, tomatoes, lettuce, light rye) sandwich as a result,

which was actually pretty good, although the rye in the bread made it taste a little weird at times. I only ate half of it though, as I wanted to have space for the meal to come.

The bar restaurant itself has a pretty interesting menu, and we were spoilt for choice.

In the end, we went with the Pork Steamed Buns (pulled pork, kimchi, cucumber, hoisin),

the Scallop Sausage (roasted cream corn, pancetta and sage)

and the Marinated Flank Steak (sweet potato, apple hash with pancetta, roasted scallion Dijon aioli).

The buns were pretty good, although the buns were a little soggy. The sausage was a really interesting concept as well, and tasty with the corn. The steak was the best of all, with all the ingredients coming together very well. Glad we decided to check this place out.

After lunch, we went to Wolf Hollow in town, a non-profit organization committed to the conservation of wolves.

It was cool to be able to come up close with the animals themselves, and see how they interacted with each other,

as well as learn several interesting facts about them, like that there have only been 2 people killed by wolves in the past 100 years, even though they have been demonized by us in popular culture. I didn't know that it is the females who can't stand other females being in the same pack, and that they mate for life. In a pack, only the alpha pair is allowed to have offspring in order to control the population to avoid a lack of food resources as a result. It was also interesting to learn how they impact the ecosystem of any area they are in in a positive way, and that their disappearance from Massachusetts is the main reason for the proliferation of deer, and hence of lyme causing deer ticks. It was sad to learn that even though there are only 5000 wolves left in the wild, they are not being considered as endangered, and people are still allowed to hunt them.

What an interesting day in Ipswich, to say the least.