Fall Walk to Tilly's

Today the 1-2s took a walk to Tilly's Market to talk to Rick Ciccarelli and find out about seasonal changes in an outdoor market.  What we noticed first were the pumpkins.  Lots of pumpkins!   Rick told us how he calls local farms in early September to start placing orders for pumpkins.  The most popular kind, he told us, are the classic orange carving pumpkins.  But he also orders some more unusual kinds of all sizes, colors and textures.  There is one particular kind that Rick tries to order few of and those would be the "Cinderella Pumpkins".  These flat, smooth pumpkins have a lovely reddish-orange color, but tend to rot more quickly than other types, making them less than ideal for lasting through the fall season.  

Rick also told us that Tilly's is a market that has been in Natick for 75 years!  His grandparents, Tilly and Salvy, started it as a small farm stand.  But it has grown into a larger business that has been handed down to Rick and now his son is running the store.  The Bacon Street Farm, as it is now called, certainly has strong roots in our community and strives to support local farmers and suppliers.

After learning about Tilly's, we had some time to explore what there is to see outdoors at Tilly's in the fall.  We saw a Haunted House (but we didn't go in).  We saw even more pumpkins! Chicken pumpkins in a henhouse, pumpkin people (even one in a portapotty that everyone seemed to love), carved pumpkins and painted pumpkins.  We had a lot of fun looking at all the pumpkins.  As a final surprise, Rick sent us back to school with a snack of pretzel rods and apples!  He also let us choose a pumpkin for each classroom.  1-2M picked out a white cotton candy pumpkin and 1-2A chose an orange koma koma with deep grooves.  We thanked Rick and headed back to Lilja to write about our experience.

Fall Walk to Tilly's

First Town Forest Walk

Today we took our first nature walk in Natick's own Hundred Acre Wood. We really lucked out with a gorgeous day in terms of weather. It was warm and sunny in the forest. At our meeting in the field, Pat Conaway talked to us about today's mission: to clean up along the stream and sort the refuse into separate bags for trash ad recycling. He brought along lots of tools to help us in our task: grabbers, rakes, clear bags for recycling, opaque colored bags for garbage. We also have gloves to protect our hands!

Along the way, Pat showed us a wild blueberry bush, but reminded us to never eat any berries we find in nature unless we have an adult who really knows which berries to avoid as many berries we encounter are poisonous. At the stream, Mrs. A. finds a spotted salamander making a home in a tire that was dumped in the stream. Before gently handling the salamander so we could see it, Mrs. A. made sure her gloves were wet as amphibians have very sensitive skin that needs to stay moist. Our chaperones help take the tire out of its habitat. We saw another salamander on the forest floor, but we remember to just look with our eyes so that we don't frighten it or damage its skin with our dry, warm hands.  Later on, some kids spied a frog in a pool of water in the stream that had not dried out. Unfortunately, it hopped away before Mrs. M. could get a picture.  It has been quite a day for spotting wildlife - there was even a glimpse of a snake!

We also spot a skunk cabbage sprout along the stream and find out how it got its name. It is stinky! And we found a cluster of berries that we don't recognize. Any ideas? We'll have to check our field guides back in the classroom. At the end of the walk, we take a look at all the litter that we found on our walk today. Pat thanks us for our help and reminds us how important it is to become stewards of the Town Forest and other outdoor spaces that we love.

October 2013 Town Forest Walk