Byline: Carolyn R. Choate

What a grand time camping at Scusset State Park Reservation, a 2 minute walk from the most pristine white beach extending at least a half a mile from the mouth of the Cape Cod Canal, framed with tall dunes graced with rare native grasses and sightings of even rarer birds such as the Marbled Godwit. In a word, exquisite. And the food was great, too.

Of course, in those days we didn’t need passports but it would have been worth getting them just to hear Sydney and MacKenzie screaming with joy as the cold mist blasted them in the face on a hot day and the cacophony from the roiling mega tons of hydro power roared in their ears. A high watermark in our camping legacy, and then? The anticlimax…

These animals are doing what they were bred for in the best environment and care. They roam at will to their heart’s content, eat when they want, and without a care. It’s how it should be done, not packed in a concentrated lot eating bad food and where disease thrives. This is what consumers have to demand from the market for themselves and world.”

And, the icing on the cake? That there’s the biggest news of all, foodie friends. There is no more icing on my cake.

The Barking Tomato reports from the 2nd annual Toques & Tonic event, to benefit the Barbara Lynch Foundation. Boston’s top foodie event was held April 10 at the Boston Children’s Science Museum.

‘Like a kid running to meet Santa at the mall, I bounded for booth #3507 to meet Bob of Bob’s Red Mill, but, alas, I spied a lovely “elf” aka Cathy Nehl instead. Sensing my disappointment, she invited me to Oregon to meet Bob and take a tour of the company she now partially owns thanks to its founder who, on his 80th birthday, gifted the whole bowl of dough to his employees.’

A trip to Boston’s Chinatown underscores the attention to fresh quality ingredients that go into every meal served at Laura Sun’s Sun Shui in Bedford.

A window into what’s been happening at the North and Southbound Hooksett Tolls rest stops. It’s uncommonly amazing, thanks to Alex Ray and his Common Man vision.

Cooking in 2015: When I saw that glistening wall of stainless steel ladles and giant slotted spoons and whisks, shelves brimming with white French crocks and every kind of baking pan, displays of woks and pots and cutting boards, I felt giddy with a “sugar rush” no Ghirardelli could touch.

“It’s very challenging and I mean, I feel sorry, there’s very many chefs I’ve run into who want to open their own restaurant but have no financial means and it’s not like the old days where you can present an idea to your local banker and he’ll lend you a couple hundred thousand dollars to start a restaurant or business.” – Chuck Rolecek