One of a Kind: Colchester Farm CSA

Colchester Farm’s community supported agriculture (CSA) project is one of those special resources in greater Chestertown that is not immediately noticed by most.  Over the past five years, the CSA has slowly increased its membership to 140 families, providing fresh, pesticide-free produce for almost half the year to its subscribers, while also creating a special connection to those that grow this food on some of the most special and fertile land in Kent County.  At a time when more and more Americans are rethinking what they eat and where they get their food, Colchester Farm has created a viable option for our community through the creative energy of this non-profit’s dedicated staff and board, as well as its members donations and support.

The Chestertown Spy will be hosting a benefit for Colchester Farm’s CSA with a special showing of the award winning documentary Food Inc. on September 24 at 7:30 PM at the Prince Theatre in Chestertown.   Students (of all ages) are asked to donate $5 and the adult suggested donation is $10 at the door.  For more information, please visit  www.eventbrite.com

A Spy Merchant Profile: Brooks Tavern

For those who experienced “fine dining” in Chestertown before 1986, Barbara Silcox and Kevin McKinney were considered local heroes when they opened the Ironstone Cafe that year.  Fresh from Baltimore and San Francisco, Barbara and Kevin brought to town a very new version of American cuisine based on non-traditional ingredients and local food sources well before those virtues were popular or expected.  Since that time, these long term partners have moved from the Ironstone, to the Kennedyville Inn, and now back in town at Radcliffe Mill with Brooks Tavern.

See Ironstone Cafe menus from the past

Brooks Tavern

Spy Merchant Profile: TWIGS and Teacups

Two sisters have been sitting side-by-side in the back office of TWIGS and Teacups for over sixteen years. Each work day April & Eugenia Marshall spend their hours in a computer-free work space, intensely pouring over innumerable wholesale catalogs in their constant search for the perfect “small thing.” Whatever makes them laugh, feel comfortable, smell lovely, or allows them to enjoy a good proper English cup of tea, they buy for the store. Some have called TWIGS and Teacups one of most original gift shops in the Mid-Atlantic, and the Spy couldn’t agree more.

Chestertown Old Book Co

It is harder than you’d think to select a bookstore in town to feature for our first monthly profile of community merchants. It’s made even more difficult in that Chestertown has three fine downtown sites for bibliophiles, all within a couple hundred feet of each other. The last time we discovered such a grouping of bookstores with knowledgeable staff was on a street in London. Gerry Cataldo and his colleagues at The Chestertown Old Book Co., get the first nod because they publish — as well as sell — some of the most beautiful books in all the world.

Spy Merchant Profile: Chestertown Old Book Co.

It is harder than you’d think to select a bookstore in town to feature for our first monthly profile of community merchants. It’s made even more difficult in that Chestertown has three fine downtown sites for bibliophiles, all within a couple hundred feet of each other. The last time we discovered such a grouping of bookstores with knowledgeable staff was on a street in London. Gerry Cataldo and his colleagues at The Chestertown Old Book Co., get the first nod because they publish — as well as sell — some of the most beautiful books in all the world.