A.D. Makepeace hosts first ever Bog to Table Dinner
Everything went right for A.D. Makepeace's first ever Bog to Table dinner: the weather was nice, there was a good turnout of visitors and employees alike and no one got hurt in their waders.
In fact, guests were able to enjoy wine and beer with waders on in a flooded bog for the first time ever. This is also the first year A.D. Makepeace will allow guests to get into waders and experience what it's like being in a bog during the Cranberry Harvest Festival this weekend.
"We thought it'd be a great idea," said Jenn Francoeur from Ocean Spray. "It's a beautiful experience."
According to Francoeur, businesses are "always worried about safety and security."
"I think the risk is worth the reward," she said.
For guests from other parts of the country, like Connie and Roy Mascio, nothing could be more true.
The couple from Pennsylvania always wanted to come to a cranberry celebration. Having vacationed in Cape Cod for a few years now, they were always a couple weeks too early to catch the harvest. They saw the Bog to Table event on Facebook and knew it was a perfect opportunity.
"It was one crossover on our bucket lists," said Roy.
The night featured music from the three-piece band New City Cowboys (consisting of twins Jim and Joe Armstong and drummer Bill Holbrook), and cranberry-inspired dishes prepared by chef Olivia Tripp.
Tripp and her mother Lynn will soon open a restaurant called Farmer's Table in A.D. Makpeace's Redbrook Center in Plymouth. The two led a team of students from Johnson and Wales, where Lynn is a professor, in preparing and serving the dishes.
"Bog to Table" was quite literal as each dish had some cranberry in it. From butter with cranberry served before dinner to chocolate cranberry cake for dessert, almost all the dishes had cranberries in some shape or form.