North Haven Garden Tour Yields Fruit

by Steven Doyle

Last Saturday morning as we reported last week, North Haven Gardens invited us along with the chefs from Parigi and a lucky patron of North Haven in to judge their annual pesto making contest. The thrill of the event was to hopefully use up some of the flourishing basil from the entrants garden and win a gift certificate to not only North Haven, but to Parigi as well.

Fun day, and we found about a dozen entries in the contest, each with their own distinct recipes and flavors. One entry was from a ten year old patron that used all the right ingredients and managed a second place win.

As a bonus for judging the contest we were pleased to be given a tour of the nine acre facility from Nikki Rosen who handles much of the PR for North Haven.

Interesting finds were the new chicken coop built on premises where they plan to raise the birds for eggs, and a few acres set aside for a garden to grow fruit and vegetables to sell to local restaurants. As we took the tour, chef Janice Provost was already making special requests and plans for the Fall plantings. You may also snag some of the fresh produce in the store each week.

Another surprise was in the far corner of the garden where several large beehives are curated by North Haven Gardens with future plans to sell the honey and comb in their store.