B.D. Lenz in Princeton on Saturday

Jazz guitarist B.D. Lenz and his band will perform On the Green at Palmer Square on Saturday, August 1, from 2 to 4 pm as part of the Summer Music Series. Bring your own lawn chairs and picnic baskets. This event is free and open to the public.

Cecil

Cecil

c. 2002 – 2015

Photo: African Bush Camps

Just Peachy Festival at Terhune Orchards

Terhune Orchards is hosting its annual Just Peachy Festival this weekend, August 1 and 2, from 10 am to 5 pm. Join the Mount family at the farm and celebrate one of our state's favorite fruits—peaches. 

A special event at the festival is a "Summer Harvest" farm-to-fork tasting section that features 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 $12 per person. Wine tasting will also be available. For more details on participating vendors and their menus, click here. Event is rain or shine; in case of rain, tasting will take place in the big barn.

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. There will be live music both days from noon until 4 pm.

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. Register here.

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 an admission fee. Parking is available at the farm, located at 330 Cold Soil Road in Princeton.

Le 14 Juillet

Photo by Yann Caradec

If you can't be there, click here to celebrate!

Blueberry Bash at Terhune Orchards

Terhune Orchards is celebrating everything blueberry this weekend, July 11 and 12, 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 rides 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-apple crisp, blueberry drinks, blueberry muffins, blueberry cobbler, blueberry jam and blueberry salsa—as well as homemade favorites such as pork sandwiches, BBQ chicken, salads, gazpacho, cider slush, donuts and more. Adults can try Harvest Blues apple-blueberry wine in the Terhune Orchards Vineyard & Winery tasting room from noon to 5 pm.

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.

Independence Day 2015

America
by Claude McKay, 1889 – 1948

Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!
Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate.
Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.
Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her walls with not a shred
Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders there,
Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand,
Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.

                                                               Photo: Peter Roome

Fourth of July Jubilee at Morven

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

Live music will be provided by Ocean Country Band, and refreshments will be available by Oink and Moo BBQ. Visitors are invited to participate in colonial life activities, sign the Declaration of Independence and meet Benjamin Franklin as he strolls the museum and grounds. There will be demonstrations of early American domestic life including bread baking, ice cream making, paper making and more. There will also be a dramatic presentation highlighting the importance of tea in colonial times by Stacy Flora Roth.

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.

Morven's newest exhibit is Of the Best Materials and Good Workmanship: 19th Century New Jersey Chairmaking, which runs through October 18, 2015. The admission fee for the exhibit is $6, $5 for seniors and students.

Independence Day Fireworks 2015

Photo by Peter Roome

On Thursday, July 2, 2015, the Spirit of Princeton will present its annual Independence Day Fireworks. Viewing is best from the fields next to the Princeton University Stadium, along Western Way.

The fields open at 7 pm for picnicking and the fireworks begin at dusk, around 9 pm. Bring your picnic baskets, but no alcoholic beverages are allowed, nor is smoking because of the artificial turf. Parking will be available in University Parking Lot 21 below the fields off Faculty Road and in the University parking garage on Prospect Avenue.

This event is free, thanks to the Spirit of Princeton, a group of volunteers committed to producing events celebrating community and patriotism in Princeton.