Savvy shoppers know they can get badass bagels at the Westport Farmers’ Market. And just over the Norwalk line, on Lois Street (take a right at the McDonald’s, on Westport Avenuue/Route 1).
Westporter Jennifer Balin began baking — with a sourdough starter — in the COVID spring of 2020. She already ran the very popular Sugar & Olives farm-to-table restaurant/event space. The pandemic forced her to pivot.
Her bagels are made with only a few ingredients: organic and non-organic bread flour and ryle flour (all non-GMO, locally or regionally sourced), water and sea salt.
They’re dairy-free and vegan. The sourdough starter allows the dough to be naturally leavened, without commercial yeast.
They come in a variety of varieties — plain, smoked sea salt, golden sesame, black sesame, Himalayan blue poppy, whole wheat, pumpernickel caraway, cinnamon raisin and everything — plus several cream cheese options.
No matter how you slice ’em, Jennfer Balin’s bagels are badass.
Recently, Badass expanded its reach. They’ve opened shops in New Canaan, and Rye and Armonk, New York.
All serve (in addition to bagels and schmears) open-faced sandwiches like green goddess (green goddess cream cheese with cucumber, dill and a lemon wedge), avocado jam (smashed avocado, special sauce, radish, fried shallots, black lava salt) and bacon jam (house-made bacon jam, lettuce and tomato, with ramp oil and a dollop of tomato jam).
The Badass Bagels outlets also carry favorite food finds from around Fairfield County.
In addition to using locally grown produce in their spreads and salads, Balin participates in farmers markets beyond Westport: Rowayton, New Canaan, Rye, Ridgefield and Larchmont.
But you don’t have to go to one of her stores, or a farmers’ market, to find Badass Bagels. They’re also at Greenology/Jack’s Coffee and Double L Market here, and the Georgetown Owl in Redding.
Meanwhile, Balin says, franchise opportunities are available. Her bagels may soon spread far beyond Fairfield and Westchester Counties.
How badass is that?!
Jennifer Balin (right), and a loyal customer.
(“06880” regularly covers Westport business owners, and their companies. If you enjoy learning about your neighbors — and eating well — please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Once again, there’s been an increase is auto theft and break-in attempts.
At 10:38 p.m. Tuesday night, Representative Town Meeting member Andrew Colabella saw a black Toyota with 5 occupants — wearing masks — make their way down a neighbor’s driveway in the Hillspoint area.
They got into her unlocked vehicle, and opened her garage door. Her keys were not in the car; otherwise they might have used them to steal it, or enter the house.
The owner was home alone. Andrew called the Westport Police. Officer Melissa Bike was on scene within 2 minutes.
Andrew says, “Her professionalism, detailed questions, care, and unique comfort ability brought ease to a terrifying incident.”
Officer Kevin Smith patrolled the entire area, and looked to see if any other properties were entered.
Andrew was impressed too by Detective John Lauria’s “assertive persistence to dust, fingerprint, photograph, and methodically capture any evidence with care.”
The incident serves as another reminder to always remove keys and fobs from vehicles — and, if possible, park them in a locked garage.
Police add: “Keep exterior lights on, and utilize surveillance and/or alarm systems. Call the police immediately to report any suspicious activity. The department strongly advises against confronting any suspects if you observe them on your property. There have been a number of incidents throughout the state where these individuals have resorted to violence when confronted.”
Officer Melissa Bike and Detective John Lauria dust for fingerprints. (Photo/Andrew Colabella)
Badass Bagels is a badass — and very popular — purveyor.
And “How I Built This” with Guy Raz is a badass — and very popular podcast.
Today, the latest episode dropped. The first segment features Westporter Jennifer Balin, and her badass baking and branding. (She works just over the border, on Lois Street in Norwalk.)
As always, Guy does a great job getting to the heart of what people do, and how they do it.
And the experience gave Jennifer a chance to connect with Pete Maldonado, the Chomps grass-fed beef stick founder. (His brand is in Trader Joe’s.)
“The world of entrepreneurs is just amazing,” Jennifer says.
“I have made great relationships with people right here in town as well. Our customer base is flooded with entrepreneurs who want to help me grow. We are expanding, and we love slinging bagels!”
Yesterday’s “06880” lead story described a movement at Greens Farms Elementary School, urging parents not to allow smartphone until their children are out of middle school.
Coincidentally, the Washington Post ran a long story yesterday, about a middle school in Manchester, Connecticut that prohibits cell phone use during the school day. All phones are locked in individual pouches at arrival, then unlocked as students leave.
Interestingly, many youngsters find that not having access to phones during the school day is not all bad.
How did parents react? Click here to read. (Hat tips: Jack Backiel, Chris Grimm)
AEDs are back at town athletic fields, and other outdoor places.
The devices — Automated External Defibrillators, which are easy to use but crucial life-saving devices during cardiac emergencies — are taken in during cold weather.
But now they’re fully charged, and ready to be used.
We hope they never have to be. But just in case: Know where they are.
And be ready to use them
AED at Winslow Park, near the Westport Country Playhouse parking lot. (Hat tip and photo/Mark Mathias)
If you missed Tuesday’s great Startup Westport Innovator of the Year event — featuring ESPN CEO Jimmy Pitaro chatting with ESPN host (and fellow Westporter) Mike Greenberg: You’re in luck.
The Westport Library recorded the event. Click below to hear some great stories about career paths, innovation, the media and sports landscapes — and Westport.
Speaking of sports: Jenny Bradshaw is a world champion cheerleader!
The 2023 Staples High graduate — a 4-year Wrecker cheer member and senior captain, now a student at the University of Miami — cheers for the Lady Jags team.
Last week, her Top Gun All Stars won the Senior Medium L6 division title over 8 other teams at the Cheerleading World Championships in Orlando,
This is not Jenny’s first big Worlds award. As a member of the Xtreme Cheer All Stars gym in Danbury, her team Inferno captured a bronze medal in 2022.
Joseph Davis and Danielle Leblanc are traveling from their Maine home, on the Canadian border, to teach the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport about how the Anishinabe People were given a framework to guide their lives spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally. They will also share a blessing with the Sacred Pipe.
The event is this Saturday (May 4, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.) at the UU Meeting House.
Grandmother Nancy Andry — a UU Westport member — says, “These are incredible teachings by two revered elders. This is a rare opportunity.”
Longtime Westport firefighter Edmund Duffy Jr. died April 25, in Minneapolis. He was at 82.
He began his service as a volunteer firefighter in 1959, at 18. In 1964 he transitioned to a full-time firefighter, dedicating another 32 years to the profession. Even after retirement, he remained committed to helping others.
Ed proudly served in the Army Reserve from 1964 to 1969.
His family says, “Ed valued the simple joys in life, cherished his blue-collar origins, and treated everyone with respect and kindness, regardless of their background.”
When not working at the firehouse, Ed was a landscaper. He enjoyed baseball, softball, bowling, fishing, and collecting model trains.
Ed is survived by his daughter Elizabeth (Matthew), brothers Charlie (Rose) and Denis (Mary), sisters Anne-Carol and Donna, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins. He was predeceased by his wife Susan and daughter Deborah.
A visitation will be held on May 9 (4 to 7 p.m., Harding Funeral Home). A burial ceremony will follow on May 10 (11 a.m., Assumption Cemetery).
Most people call it “the Longshore exit road.” The official name is Herbert Baldwin Road (in honor of the first selectman who, in 1960, pushed for the purchase of a failing country club — destined to be an 180-home development — for $1.9 million).
Whatever you know it by: It’s a very pretty spot.
Especially in spring, as today’s “Westport … Naturally” image shows:
And finally … on this date in 1536, England’s Queen Anne Boleyn was arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft.
(Police, education, sports, business news — “06880” covers it all. It’s all in today’s Roundup — as it is every day, 24/7/366. Please click here to help support our work. Thank you!)
Between Popup and Badass, Westport may be the bagel capital of the world.
Adam Goldberg’s Popup won “Best Bagel” awards at the prestigious Brooklyn Bagelfest — 2 years in a row.
Jennifer Balin’s Badass beauties draw drooling crowds at the Westport Farmer’s Market.
But our town is also home to a third bagel maven: Elyse Oleksak.
She and her husband Nick are the founders and brains behind Bantam Bagels. The company — making and selling bite-sized bagels stuffed with cream cheese and other fillings — exploded after they appeared on “Shark Tank.”
Elyse and Nick Oleksak.
Lori Greiner outbid Barbara Corcoran with a $275,000 offer, for 25% equity. The rest is history.
But history, of course, can be messy.
The night the “Shark Tank “episode aired on ABC, Elyse and Nick watched with friends in a West Village bar.
They were elated, when their laptops showed traffic spiking within seconds.
A very pregnant Elyse Oleksak, and Nick, on “Shark Tank.”
Suddenly though, their website crashed. They had done everything they could to test it beforehand — but the company they hired had done its work right.
Fleeing to a nearby 24-hour CVS, the couple worked to salvage the cascading orders — and Bantam Bagels’ reputation.
That’s just one of the stories included in “A Shark Ate My Bagel,” Elyse’s just-published memoir.
She launched it the other day at a Sorelle Gallery party.
Elyse and Nick Oleksak, and 2 of their children, at the Sorelle Gallery book launch. It was past bedtime for their 6-month-old.
It was a hometown event. For the last 7 years Elyse, Nick and their 3 young children have lived in Westport.
That too is part of the Bantam Bagels story.
Once the show aired in January 2015, the New York couple realized they could work from anywhere. Their toddler son suffered from pneumonia and lung problems, so they wanted to get out of the city.
The idea of grass and water was appealing. They knew no one here — Elyse, who grew up outside of Boston, had never heard of Westport — but from the start, they loved the town.
In 2018, they sold Bantam Bagels to the T. Marzetti Company for $34 million. They stayed on with the company they founded, and loved, in management and creative capacities.
When COVID hit, sales skyrocketed. People loved Bantam offerings like an everything bagel filled with veggie cream, a cinnamon and nutmeg-spiced egg bagel filled with maple syrup and butter-flavored cream cheese, and product extensions including stuffed pancake bites and pizzas.
Bantam Bagels: a small sampling.
But suddenly the supply chain locked up. Big customers like Starbucks and grocery store chains streamlined their selections.
It was the beginning of the end for Bantam Bagels. In May of 2022 Lancaster Colony — the parent company of T. Marzetti — closed the brand.
That’s when Elyse decided to write her book.
“Now that I have the forest-over-the-trees view, I wanted to tell the story,” she says.
“The undulations of successes and failures — that’s life.”
Elyse Oleksak reads from her book, at the Sorelle Gallery launch.
Writing the book was therapeutic. She relived the lightning-fast years in which she and Nick started, and grew, their company.
They had no down time, no weekends off. Meanwhile, Nick was still working at his day job, in investment banking. (Elyse had a Wall Street background too.)
It was a whirlwind few years, which Elyse wanted to convey to readers. To do it right, she needed readers to connect viscerally with what it was like to build a company from scratch.
She read other memoirs — by businesspeople, actors, chefs, Prince Harry — to learn how to resonate with readers.
“This is not just a how-to business book,” Elyse says. “I wanted raw emotion, to bring people along on my journey.”
As an entrepreneur, self-publishing made sense. She was eager to market her book, and herself. Once again, she is in her go-go, problem-solving, put-it-out-there element.
Of course, marketing a book is different from marketing a bagel.
“I knew our bagels tasted amazing,” Elyse says. “I’m less sure of this product. Writing a book is incredibly personal. I’m more nervous about this.”
This time too, she notes, it’s not money that’s on the line. It’s her sense of self.
As she markets “A Shark Ate My Bagel,” Nick is busy too.
Before Columbia University (where he played baseball and met Elyse, a varsity lacrosse player), he grew up on a farm, and worked in a factory.
He always loved working with his hands. So after leaving Wall Street and Bantam Bagels, he started his own real estate company. He does much of the construction himself.
So what does the bagel company founder/bagel book author think about the Westport bagel scene?
“Nick and I were not bagel snobs. We just loved bagels. We ate all kinds,” she says.
“I love Popup’s creativity. But I love classic Village Bagels too. And Gold’s!
“Actually, I’ll eat anyone’s bagels.”
But — this being Westport — there’s a 1-degree-of-separation twist to every story.
Here’s hers: Adam Goldberg — the founder of Popup Bagels — is a prior owner of the home where Bantam Bagels’ Elyse and Nick Oleksak live now.
“There must be something in the water,” she says.
(From soup to nuts — and of course, bagels — “06880” covers Westport’s business and culinary scenes. If you enjoy this hyper-local blog, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Judy Collins — the singer/songwriter who has entertained and inspired fans since the 1960s — is coming to the Westport Country Playhouse.
She’ll be onstage April 12 (8 p.m.). Encore Club members can buy tickets now; public sale begins January 26 at noon. Click here for more information.
Also ahead at the Playhouse: “All Things Equal: The Life & Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsberg.” Written by Rupert Holmes, it’s a one-woman play in which the Supreme Court justice welcomes a friend of the family to her chambers to convey a sense of her career, and personal life.
The show is May 3 and 4 (8 p.m.), and May 5 (3 p.m.). Click here for more information.
And on July 25 the Bacon Brothers bring their unique mix of folk, rock, soul and country music to the Playhouse. Click here for more information.
Westporters — especially seniors and those with low to moderate incomes — can once again take advantage of the town’s no-cost full-service AARP/VITA/IRS Volunteer Tax Assistance Program.
On-site personal counseling is available by appointment at Town Hall (Mondays from 1 to 7 p.m.) and the Senior Center (Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.), starting January 22. Call 860-590-8910 for an appointment, or click here.
The “SimplyCT” counselor group that services Westport prepared and filed more than 7,000 returns last season – almost all electronically. Federal refunds of over $10 million were received by their clients..
The program is administered by Westport’s Department of Human Services.
An incident that began when 2 people illegally entered a home and attacked 3 others on Friday morning in Old Saybrook ended in Westport.
One, armed with a baseball bat, injured the homeowners. The suspect then removed an adult woman from the home against her will, and fled.
Old Saybrook police sent an alert to law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for a car with New York license plates carrying the victim.
Westport police located the vehicle when it was getting gas. They arrested the suspects, seized the bat, and took the woman who had been taken from her home to Norwalk Hospital, with non-life threatening injuries.
(Click here for the full story. Hat tip: Betsy Pollak)
Remember the I-95 Saugatuck River bridge replacement project last fall?
Relive all the key moments — in a lot quicker time than it took (though of course, kudos to all who accomplished the work in just 2 weekends) — in this very cool video, from the Connecticut Department of Transportation:
Badass Bagels — the popular shop in the Sugar & Olives space just over the Norwalk line, owned by Westporter Jennifer Balin — has just opened a new location in Armonk, New York.
“It’s totally our brand,” she says.” The space is warm, cozy, and decked out with vintage furniture from Bridgeport’s Mongers Market (where they have another location).
Badass’ expanded sourdough bagel offerings include 10 varieties: everything, whole wheat everything, golden sesame, black sesame, Himalayan blue poppy, smoked sea salt, plain, cinny raisin, pumpernickel caraway everything, and naked whole wheat. (Ramp bagels are offered in May.)
There are plenty of spreads and butters too, like “sweet and lovely” with Westport honey.
Badass Bagels also sells coffee beans and whole espresso/coffee.
Stores hours in Norwalk and Armonk are Wednesdays through Sundays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. They sell at the Westport Farmers’ Market and Double L Market too.
The Senior Center Super Bowl “tailgate party” is a great one. And you don’t even have to hang out in the parking lot.
It’s indoors. This year’s event (February 11) includes a “final score contest,” and a Friends of the Westport Center for Senior Activities Service Award presentation to the wonderful Patty Kondub, who does so much in so many ways for the senior community.
The menu includes hot dogs, chips, spring rolls and dessert.
Staples High School state champion football and field hockey teams, and Staples and Westport PAL cheerleaders will be there too.
All ages are welcome. Lunch is at 12:30; the party begins at 1:30.
Thursday’s Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event drew a large crowd to VFW Joseph J. Clinton Post 399.
VFW Auxiliary member Patty Kondub’s meatballs complemented the fun vibe, filled with networking opportunities and great music afterward (Jazz at the Post).
Enjoying Business After Hours (from left): Virginia Ferrari, Paul Liebowitz, Patty Kondub, Sal Liccione, Matthew Mandell.
Colleen Sadick is a beloved Coleytown Elementary School professional. The CES community has rallied around her as she battles bone marrow cancer.
As Colleen has had to step back from her 2 jobs (she is also a behavioral mentor), her income has been impacted. CES organized a GoFundMe page to help the family with medical expenses, transportation, post-treatment care and daily costs.
After a number of interviews, the Democratic Town Committee nominations committee will recommend Abby Gordon-Tolan for the Board of Education vacancy, and Joe Scordato for the Zoning Board of Appeal vacancy.
The full DTC will vote Monday on the recommendations.
Merrill Jay Forgotson – an accomplished community banker and fierce advocate for justice and equal opportunity – died peacefully in his sleep on Wednesday, January 17, at his Westport home. He was 81.
The New York City native credited his mother and father, a World War II hero, for challenging him to lead a life of purpose, centered on education.
He earned a BS in finance from Northeastern University followed, by a JD from Boston University and an MBA from Western New England College.
Jay paid his way through college and law school by washing dishes, serving ice cream, and packaging newspapers and magazines overnight for early morning delivery.
Motivated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Gideon v. Wainright in 1963, which affirmed a constitutional right to legal counsel for anyone charged with committing a crime, Jay started his career as a defense attorney
He transitioned into finance, starting at Mass Mutual and advancing to become general counsel at Barclays Business Credit.
In 1990 Jay joined People’s Bank as senior vice [resident/chief credit administration officer. He also served as chair of the Connecticut Anti-Defamation League, where he shaped diversity programming to combat hate and discrimination in all their forms.
In 2000, Jay left People’s to run Cornerstone Bank in Stamford. Running the profitable mission-centered community depository was one of the joys of his professional life.
During a brief sabbatical, Jay served as dean of the business school at the University of Bridgeport. But community banking kept calling. Jay served as CEO of BNC Financial Group, and started the Bank of Fairfield and Stamford First Bank.
After retiring in 2013 he enjoyed family and friends in Connecticut and Sarasota, Florida; volunteered for non-profits; consumed current events and advocated for fairness, and photographed.
Jay is survived by his wife, Janis Reader-Forgotson; sons Nathaniel, Josh and Matthew; grandchildren Evan, Ianto, Floriana, Zachary and Benjamin, and dogs Lola and Cimba. He was predeceased by his younger sister Barbara Garavuso.
Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to ADL Connecticut. A Memorial Service will be held tomorrow (Sunday, January 21, 12:30 p.m., Temple Shalom. Norwalk).
And finally … Peter Schickele, a serious concert musician and also the genius behind madcap PDQ Bach, died Tuesday near Woodstock, New York. He was 88. Click here for a full obituary.
(How to amuse yourself on a cold winter weekend? Read about everything happening in town, now and in the future. If you like what we do, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Badass Bagels, out of Sugar + Olives, definitely lives up to its name.
But what about Westport’s other “hole foods”: donuts?
Not so much.
There are 3 Dunkin’ Donutses in town, but most people go there for coffee. Coffee An’s great donuts share space with muffins and crullers. Donut Crazy offers crazy good donuts, but unless you want your arteries immediately blocked, you can only go there once a month.
Evan Feldman is changing that — one freshly made mini-doughnut at a time.
Evan Feldman’s donuts.
The University of Michigan graduate spent 10 years in finance. He didn’t love it though, and when the 2008 economic crisis hit, he took a severance package.
His wife was an occupational therapist; he stayed home to raise their child, and consulted on the side.
One year turned into four. Then … it was time to make the donuts.
Feldman’s father had taught him to cook. His brother was a chef. His in-laws owned a New York food business.
Most importantly, he had a sweet tooth.
Donuts were becomingtrendy. But unlike another early 2010s food craze — cupcakes — Feldman thought they had staying power.
“Donuts are always around,” he notes. “Every culture has a version of fried dough.”
He opened a Doughnuttery pop-up shop in Chelsea Market, figuring 3 to 6 months. Customers loved watching the batter turn into a sugary mini-donut. The aroma was intoxicating.
The market offered Feldman a permanent spot.
The business grew. His brother joined to run catering and events, with a mobile donut-making machine at places like Bryant Park and music festivals.
They opened in the Plaza Hotel food court, and the Turnstyle Underground Marketplace on Columbus Circle.
Customers asked about opening franchises in their hometowns. Doughnuttery launched 3, in Virginia, Wisconsin and Arizona.
COVID hit small businesses like mini-donut shops hard. Two of the franchises folded. The Plaza did not reopen its food court.
But Doughnuttery is rising. Feldman recently opened another store, in Long Island’s Roosevelt Field mall.
A Doughnuttery store.
Four years ago, the Feldmans moved to Westport. A Rockland County native, he’d always wanted a house, lawn and garage; he loved hiking and the water too. His wife had friends in Weston.
Westport, he says, has been “magical.”
Doughnuttery has not yet popped up here. But he’s looking for opportunities.
Feldman is friendly with Badass Bagels’ Jennifer Balin. They might work something out.
He’s donated donuts to his kids’ schools, Coleytown Middle and Kings Highway Elementary.
Evan Feldman, on the cover of a New York Daily News story.
Because his donuts are made to order, there are not many left over. But when a company ordered 15,000 a day (to entice workers back to their offices), Feldman spent a couple of weeks dropping off hundreds at the Gillespie Center.
“They thought I was crazy,” he says. (Insert your own “Donut Crazy” joke here.)
Last weekend, the Doughnuttery mobile machine traveled to Bridgeport’s Sound on Sound music festival.
It’s in demand too for events like weddings and bar mitzvahs — any place mini-donuts can be made, hot and fresh, in front of people’s eyes (and noses).
Catering, courtesy of Doughnuttery.
That includes hotel rooms.
“We’re Kim Kardashian’s favorite donuts,” Feldman says proudly. “She asked us to make donuts in her hotel room, before a gala. We made them for her, and all her entourage.”
But they’re not the only local bagel-maker that’s gone Big Time. Sugar & Olives is badass too.
Their Badass Bagels line — that’s the name — just signed a deal with Goldbelly. The website showcases the best eats in the country, and ships overnight. The page isn’t live yet, but it will soon show a variety of offerings.
They’ll also sell 3,000 bagels at the Smorgasburg every Sunday in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, starting in early June. It’s one of the best — and most selective — food markets in the country.
But you don’t have to schlep all the way out there. Plenty of happy clients — corporate and personal — right here rave about the 100% sourdough recipe. (Okay, technically Sugar & Olives is a few feet over the border, in Norwalk. So sue me.)
They also sell at the Westport Farmers’ Market and Double L Market. Outside of Westport, they’re at the Kitchen Table in Pound Ridge, a few other farmers’ Markets, the Granola Bar in Greenwich and the Old Yew in the West Village.
The bagel business has taken over much of Sugar & Olives. There’s no more in-person dining. But Jennifer Balin and her wonderful crew do offer seasonal prepared items, which can be picked up by customers along with their bagels. Click here for details.
Like many Westporter, Joey Kaempfer was appalled at the clear-cutting that took place recently at the Westport train station. It was a safety project, Eversource and Metro-North say.
“We need to raise money to replace them,” Kaempfer — a Staples High School Class of 1966 graduate, who is building a home nearby — says.
He’s ready to donate $5,000 for seed money. But, he says, “some serious group has to raise the balance — probably $95,000.” They have to get permission to plant the new trees too, of course.
Is it doable? Are any groups or individuals interested? Click “Comments” below.
Recent tree removal (and overhead wires) at the Westport train station. (Photo/Matthew Mandell)
Plenty of great books (and vinyl, CDs, DVDs, etc.) are still available at the Westport Library Book Sale.
Plus one that is absolutely, positively a hell of a book.
(Photo/Frank Bruce)
Today (Sunday, May 1, noon to 5 p.m.), all items are half price. Tomorrow (Monday, May 2, 9 a.m. to noon), you can fill a bag for $5, or purchase individual items for half-price.
Wakeman Town Farm’s “Old-Time Pancake Breakfast” fundraiser is not until Saturday, June 18 (9 a.m. to noon). But folks are already signing up for a time slot.
The menu includes flapjacks and sausages with all the fixin’s, plus coffee and OJ. It’s outdoors, so the kids can wander over to say hi to the alpacas, sheep and goats.
The price is $13 for adult, $5 per child 2 and up. Money raised will help renovate the aging red barn, providing space for classes and programs. Click here to register.
Want to know more about the little-known but amazing gem known as the Smith Richardson Wildlife Preserve?
Aspetuck Land Trust’s partner, Connecticut Audubon’s land steward Charlie Stebbins, will host a “Walk and Talk” this Thursday (May 5, 10 a.m.), at the site off Sasco Creek Road on the Southport border.
He’ll describe the remarkable transformation, from an overgrown weed nest to a paradise for nesting birds (and bees). All are welcome — and like the preserve, it’s free.
And finally … today is the 1st of May — aka “May Day.” It’s a traditional holiday in many European cultures, with dancing, singing and cake.
“Mayday” — one word — is an international signal of distress. It has nothing to do with the month, though. It’s an Anglicized version of “m’aidez” — French for “help me!”
There’s another way to summon aid: “SOS!” It stands for “Save Our Souls.” It became popular when Morse code was new: 3 dots, 3 dashes, 3 dots.
Which, in a roundabout fashion, leads us to today’s song:
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As an entrepreneur, self-publishing made sense. She was eager to market her book, and herself. Once again, she is in her go-go, problem-solving, put-it-out-there element.
