Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1239297
77 CIDER HILL FARM AMESBURY Cider Hill Farm is beloved within the com- munity for its incredible local food, hard cider, CSA, food truck, outdoor landscape, farm store, and events. And the love goes both ways. "Cider Hill Farm's passion is for growing food and supporting our community," says marketing and events coordinator Valerie Rosenberg. As COVID-19 upends life as we know it, the folks at Cider Hill Farm spent the end of March "carefully considering a full variety of options including home delivery and CSA-style weekly share pickups," all the while continuing to prep for the growing season. Once life returns to normal, check out Cider Hill Farm's lineup of adult and family-friendly DIY workshops and children's programming, all "focused on the importance of health, wellness, and sustaining the local food supply," Rosenberg says. Kids can try their hands at growing produce, caring for chickens, and gar- dening for pollinators, while adults can enjoy indoor herb gardening, floral arranging, fitness classes, and farm tours. ciderhill.com SMOLAK FARMS NORTH ANDOVER This year, Smolak Farms celebrates 10 years of its Whim Dinner Series, where local restau- rants use foods grown on the property to create elegant outdoor dinner parties right on the farm. While the Whim Dinner schedule will de- pend on social distancing rules, the farm itself remains operational, even allowing call-in farm stand orders; employees can pass orders out to customers through the ice cream stand window, Smolak says. "We're considered essential because we're a farm, and we have food," he says. "We've never sold so many eggs!" In addition to adding new Whim Dinner elements when full operations resume—like raffles and giveaways from some of the res- taurants—Smolak also says he hopes to add new elements to the farm grounds, including a series of trails that connect to other trail net- works, animal area upgrades, and a renovated greenhouse (which may host a Winter Whim Dinner). smolakfarms.com PHOTOGRAPHE BY ELINOR TEELE (TOP), BY SARAH JORDAN MCCAFFERY (BOTTOM)