Trip to the Coast

It is always nice to get away for a long weekend, right?  The wonderful thing about living in central New England is that a 2 hour drive in any direction can get you to some very lovely locations, like the south eastern coast of Connecticut. A couple of years ago our friends Steve and Suzanne opened up a business educating people about the health benefits of high quality olive oils and vinegars in the charming town of Pawcatuck, CT, which is right on the border of Rhode Island.   I have been following their progress on Facebook and have been fascinated by what they were doing so HEY, why not visit them AND take in the sights in the area.  According to the foliage map, that part of New England would also be at peak so we decided to take a tour of eastern Connecticut rather than jump on the interstate.   It was a delight to get out the map (rather than program the GPS) and just take off.  It was like traveling in a bygone era.  I am old enough to remember when there weren't so many interstates and one got out a map and read it when one was traveling into an unfamiliar area.  We definitely needed to slow down and relax.  I had forgotten just how nice traveling can be when you get to actually see all the towns along the way.  We arrived at Capizzano Oils around 3:00, a perfect time for a tasting.  

I have been to MANY vine tastings but I have never been to an oil and vinegar tasting.  What is lovely about this business is that ANY time is a good time for a tasting.  You just walk in and there are all these little cups every wheres and you can help yourself to any and all of the myriad of  different olive oils and balsamic vinegars they have.   Since Steve was working at their store at Watch Hill, RI, which they just opened 6 months ago, Suzanne gave us the educational tour of their product.  WOW!  I was blown away.  I had never tasted high quality olive oil before and it tastes VERY different than super market oil.  They also have infused oils that have different flavors, which was also a delight.   Now, if you think high quality olive oil tastes different, there is just no comparison on how different aged balsamic vinegar tastes.  I was SHOCKED!  It is actually sweet.   Of course they have a website AND you can buy their wonderful product on line.  

Their store is BEAUTIFUL and is a joy to be in.  You could see how much thought had gone into how everything was set up.  Of course, the second I walked in, I could immediately visualize an attractive apron tree loaded up with my aprons.  They do have a small amount of gift items and cook books and I could see how my aprons would fit in.  After the tasting we headed over to where we were staying.  This was my first experience with air bnb.  What I had found was a cozy little one bedroom apartment less than a mile from our friends store...perfect!  

We met our friends for dinner and had a lovely time.  Over dinner I asked them if they would be interested in selling some beautiful, high quality aprons.  Gee, do you have one to show us?  No,  I wasn't expecting to walk into their shop and see the perfect place to sell my aprons so I did not come prepared.  Thank goodness I have this website so they could at least look at some pictures.  Come to find out, they were hosting a brunch at the store the next morning so we were invited to be their guests.  Suzanne had to still make the banana bread for the Sunday brunch so we said our good nights,

Brunch was was delicious and made with all the best ingredients and of course their wonderful oils.  Banana bread with olive oil, who knew it would be so tasty.  Since it had stopped raining and was a beautiful sunny day, Tim and I decided to go for a walk at a wild life sanctuary.  Being that we were right on the coast line there were lots of birds.  After our walk we headed over to visit Steve in their Watch Hill store.  There are several stores there on the beach.  This is a HUGE tourist area and definitely a high end beach community.   I was glad we were there on the off season.  I chatted with Steve a bit more about wholesaling my aprons to them and he asked me to send him one so they could take a closer look and Tim said that if necessary, he could build a nice looking apron tree that would fit in with their lovely decor.   We said good-byes to Steve and headed back to Connecticut after Steve gave us a recommendation for dinner.  

The next morning we drove back over to Rhode Island (5 minutes away) and drove up the coast a bit.  Since all roads in Rhode Island lead to Providence and that is not where we wanted to go, it was going to be necessary to get on an interstate to get home.  As soon as we got home, I checked and discovered I currently had only 2 aprons in inventory so I stuck one of them in an envelope and mailed it off to Connecticut.   I can see that the next couple of weeks are going to be all about aprons since I am doing a Christmas fair the first weekend in December.   The good thing is that the reason I don't have any aprons in inventory is that I now am selling them at the local general store.  I've already got them designed and the fabrics picked out of my stash.  You know what they say, an apron sewn a day keeps the blues away!