Join us at the Farmhouse for all things maple! As soon as our maple trees are tapped and the sap comes out of the sugar shack, all of our scratch-made menu items will include pure Appleton Farms maple syrup.
Winter is in the air and the animals of the farm and woods have prepared themselves for winter. Can we find their signs, like homes, tracks, and caches of food? What happens in winter around the farm? We invite little farmers to experience life at the farm in winter. Through farm “chores,” age-appropriate hands-on activities, stories, and visits with our barnyard animals, little farmers will become fully immersed in what life is like for a farmer.
While just about everybody on the North Shore has probably been to Crane Beach, the dunes of Castle Neck are a much less explored world unto themselves. Offering one of the most accessible dune ecosystems north of Cape Cod, Castle Neck has over six miles of trails, traversing the dunes, maritime scrub forest, and beautiful beaches on both the Ipswich Bay and Essex/Castle Neck River estuary sides of the peninsula. These trails take you through Pitch Pine forests, up huge dunes offering stunning views of Choate Island, and by the varied landscapes of Castle Neck, including naturally occurring cranberry bogs.
Explore the beach and discover treasures washed up by winter waves. Piece together clues to learn what is living under the sand and below the water line. We will use field guides to identify shells, egg cases, seaweed and more to tell the story of what creatures are using the winter beach. After a beach walk, we will bring some treasures back to The Casino at Castle Hill to learn more about our beach finds over hot chocolate.
As part of COASTSWEEP Beach Cleanup, volunteers are encouraged to come to Crane Wildlife Refuge on the Crane Estate to help in the statewide effort to keep our coastline clean along the shore in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Trash collected will be measured and analyzed, and the data will be sent to Washington DC to aid the government in creating legislation to minimize trash in our oceans!
Join us for a cruise in Essex Bay aboard our pontoon boat the Osprey! We’ll view the seldom seen backside of the Crane Wildlife Refuge and take a turn around Choate Island to view the open fields, wooded hillside and historic structures from the water while hearing stories and learning fun facts about the area from our veteran riverboat captains.
Join Appleton Farms for their Summer Concert Series at Appleton Farms! Join us on Saturdays this July and August for live music from local artists and bands during our Farmhouse picnics. Grab some food made fresh in the farmhouse kitchen and a spot on the lawn while enjoying the some free tunes.
Join us for our summer concerts in the gardens. We’ll have Notch Brewing biergarten and a local food truck for you to enjoy while soaking in the act of the evening. This is a BYO chair event, we also recommend bug spray.
The Notch Traveling Biergarten is stopping by Castle Hill. Enjoy a tasty session beer while taking in the magnificent views from the Grand Allee. Bring a picnic lunch or grab a bite from onsite vendor Empanada Dada. A limited number of picnic tables will be available. Picnic blankets and lawn chairs are welcome. Interested? Simply make advance Castle Hill general admission reservations. No separate ticketing required.
It’s apple season in New England and we’re honoring this favorite crop in our farm kitchen! We’ll prepare a complete menu including both sweet & savory dishes using apples sourced from local orchards, with recipes such as Apple, Onion, & Cheddar Tart, Brick Chicken with Roasted Apples, Sage, & Cider Pan Gravy, Sweet & Sour Braised Red Cabbage with Apples, Caramel Apple Bread Pudding.
