Just Peachy Festival at Terhune Orchards

Terhune Orchards is hosting their 2nd annual Just Peachy Festival this weekend, August 2 and 3, from 10 am to 5 pm.  Join the Mount family at the farm to celebrate one of our state's favorite fruits—peaches.

A special event at the festival is a "Summer Harvest" farm-to-fork tasting section featuring local chefs who will use locally sourced ingredients to prepare recipes for visitors to sample. Terhune Orchards is partnering with Zone 7 for this special offering. The tasting area will be open at noon and continue while supplies last. Admission to the special tasting section is $10 per person. Wine tasting will also be available. For more details on participating vendors and their menus, click here.

Kids' activities will include rides through the orchards on tractor-drawn wagons, pony rides and games. Adults can visit the winery tasting room to sample wines, including the award-winning Just Peachy wine, as well as peach sangria. The winery will also house artworks from Creative Collective of Mercer County. There will be live music featuring Barn Cats on Saturday and Past Times on Sunday.

Food will also be available for purchase at Pam's food tent, offering peach treats including peach pie, peach ice cream, peach salsa and peach cider. Barbecued chicken, hot dogs, salads, homemade gazpacho, apple cider donuts and cider slushies will also be for sale. Pam Mount's popular canning and freezing class will be held on Saturday at 10 am. The class is free.

Terhune Orchards is also taking part in the New Jersey Peach Promotion Council's "Perfect Peach Pie" contest during the Just Peachy Festival. The contest is open to amateur bakers. The recipe must be for a peach pie or a peach cobbler. Entries will be judged at the farm on Sunday at 1 pm. Click here for details and recipe submission form.

Admission to the festival is $5; children under 3 are free. Admission fee includes wagon rides, pedal tractors, barnyard of animals, music, play tractors and children's games. (Additional activities will be available at additional cost.) The farm store and the winery and tasting room are open without admission fee. Parking is available at the farm, located at 330 Cold Soil Road in Princeton.

B.D. Lenz in Princeton This Saturday

Contemporary jazz guitarist and composer B.D. Lenz will be appearing with his band at two venues in Princeton this Saturday, August 2.

B.D. and his band will perform first on the Green at Palmer Square from 2 to 4 pm as part of its Summer Music Series. Bring your own lawn chairs and picnic baskets.

The second show is at Halo Pub from 6 to 9 pm. Halo Pub is located at 9 Hulfish Street. Both of these events are free and open to the public.

Duplicate Bridge at The Smith House

Liz Hagen reports that twenty players came to the opening duplicate bridge game at The Smith House on July 27. Everyone enjoyed the event and all plan on attending the next session on Sunday, August 10.

Residents and visitors are welcome. The cost is $6 person and partners can be arranged. The game will start promptly at 1:30 pm and will finish around 4:15. Please arrive 15 minutes early so the game can start on time. 

For more information contact David Hagen by email at dfhagen at leasowe.org.

Help Wanted at Terhune Orchards

We received word today that Terhune Orchards is hiring full-time or part-time staff to work in their farm store, winery, Pick-Your-Own locations, and at Farmers' Markets. Tasks include preparation of fruits, vegetables, cider, pies and flowers for sale. Use of cash register is necessary—though they are willing to teach you—but you will not spend all day behind a register. Hours are flexible, but some weekend availability is important. They are looking for assistance through fall and holiday season.

If you enjoy wine, Terhune is also hiring part-time weekend staff for their winery tasting room.

If you're interested, contact Tannwen Mount (email: tmount at terhuneorchards.com) with your resume and cover letter. Terhune Orchards is located at 330 Cold Soil Road in Princeton.

Welcome Home

This just might increase the dog population in Princeton Landing even more, but here goes.

Rebecca Ehalt posted this video showing what happened when she returned home after being away for two years living and working in Slovenia. Last year she got married in Slovenia and her family went to Bled for the wedding—minus their pet schnauzer Casey. This is how Casey reacted when Rebecca finally returned home to Murrysville, PA.

P.S. The family reports that Casey was taken to the vet and everything is fine.

Butterfly Festival at the Watershed Reserve

The Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association will hold its annual Butterfly Festival on Saturday, August 9, from 10 am to 4 pm at the Watershed Reserve. Admission is $10 per person or $25 per carload. Purchase tickets in advance here for a discount of $8 per person and $20 per carload. Parking is provided across from the Watershed Association courtesy of Bristol-Myers Squibb. Shuttles will be provided from the parking area to the festival. No pets allowed. Click here for more information.

The Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association is located at 31 Titus Mill Road in Pennington. Click here for directions.

Artwork: Annalise Hollosy

Duplicate Bridge at The Smith House

Princeton Landing resident Liz Hagen asked us to help publicize the duplicate bridge group her husband David is starting in the community. David Hagen is an accredited American Contract Bridge League teacher. The group is open to anyone with social bridge experience. For those who haven't played duplicate before, there will be help available.

The game will be played at The Smith House two Sunday afternoons a month at 1:30. The first session will be on July 27. The cost is $6 per person. Light refreshments will be served.

If you'd like to play, please contact David by email at dfhagen at leasowe.org.

Le 14 Juillet

Photo by Yann Caradec

Bear Alert!

UPDATE: An email around noon from the property manager says that the police report  "the bears" (more than one) were spotted in the rear of 440 Sayre Drive (see Parcel Map) and may have wandered down to Lake Carnegie since then. Management also states that police would use a bullhorn from their vehicles to advise residents to stay indoors if the bears are close to homes or walking areas. Use caution if you go outside. Management suggests bringing trash cans inside and not leaving trash bags, food or bird seed outdoors. Dog owners should pick up pet waste, which can also attract wildlife. (But of course dog owners should be doing that in any case.)

The Plainsboro Township Police Department issued a text message alert at about 10 am reporting several sightings of "a very large bear" in the Sayre Drive area. Our property manager has also informed residents by email of the sightings. Management's message says the bear was seen in the vicinity of 414 Sayre Drive and that police are investigating. Residents were advised to stay inside their homes and to keep children and pets indoors.

When in the Course of Human Events . . .

New Jersey Signers

Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon

Frances Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark

Happy Independence Day 2014

This year marks the 200th anniversary of when Frances Scott Key penned "The Star-Spangled Banner," the poem that became our National Anthem.

The Star-Spangled Banner

by Francis Scott Key

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming;

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;

'Tis the star-spangled banner; O long may it wave

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion

A home and a country should leave us no more?

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave,

From the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave;

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land,

Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just.

And this be our motto— "In God is our trust;"

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

Blueberry Bash at Terhune Orchards

Terhune Orchards is celebrating everything blueberry this weekend, July 5 and 6, at their annual Blueberry Bash. The sweet summer berries are big and blue, and the bushes are easy for all to reach, so visitors can wander through the orchards and "Pick-Your-Own" from 10 am to 5 pm.

In addition to blueberry picking, there will be rides through the orchards and fields on tractor-drawn wagons. The Magnolia Street Swing Band will perform from noon to 4 pm on Saturday, and Swinging Dixie will entertain at the same time on Sunday. For the children there will be pony ridges and games in the barnyard. Entertainment will be available, including a puppet show presented by Tuckers' Tales Puppet Theatre on Saturday and Sunday at noon and 1:30 pm. 

Bakers can get in the spirit by entering their favorite blueberry recipe in the Blueberry Bash Bake-off. Pam Mount and food editor Susan Yeske will be judging the entries. Contest rules, prizes and entry form are available here.

Pam's Blueberry Bash Buffet is available for blueberry treats—blueberry drinks, blueberry muffins, blueberry pie and blueberry shortcake—as well as homemade favorites such as pork sandwiches, BBQ chicken, salads, gazpacho, cider slush, donuts and more. Bring home a fresh homemade blueberry coffeecake, blueberry cobbler, apple-blueberry crisp and blueberry salsa from the farm store. Adults can try Harvest Blues apple-blueberry wine in the Terhune Orchards Vineyard & Winery tasting room.

Admission to the Blueberry Bash is $5; children under 3 are free. Parking is available at the farm, located at 330 Cold Soil Road in Princeton.

Fourth of July Jubilee at Morven

In honor of Independence Day and New Jersey's 350th birthday, Morven Museum & Garden will host its annual July 4th Jubilee from noon to 3 pm. This event celebrating our American heritage is at Morven, the home-turned-museum of Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Live music will be provided by the Riverside Bluegrass Band, and refreshments will be available by Oink and Moo BBQ. Visitors are invited to sign the Declaration of Independence and meet George Washington as he shares personal letters from the American Revolution. There will be demonstrations of early American domestic life including bread baking and ice cream making. There will also be a dramatic presentation celebrating the women of the American Revolution by Stacy Flora Roth and face painting by Second Look Face Painting.

Admission to the July 4th Jubiliee is free. Guests are invited to use the Princeton Theological Seminary or Monument Hall parking lots. There is also parking on the street, however, there will not be parking at Morven since so many children will be on the grounds. Due to the outdoors activities, this event will be cancelled if there is prolonged rain. Morven is located at 55 Stockton Street in Princeton. Click here for directions.

July Recycling Dates

The recycling dates in Princeton Landing for July are the 14th and the 28th. There is also a link to these dates in the right-hand column under Popular Posts.