Patch Facts

Five Things to Know on May 15: Grow-a-Row for Acord Food Pantry

An essential get-me-going daily morning column from Hamilton-Wenham Patch.

Today is Wednesday, May 15. Here are five things you need to know in Hamilton and Wenham: 1. Mix: Wednesday is forecasted to start out clear and cold, with a mix of clouds and sun through the day with a chance of a shower later in the day. The temperature will get to about 60 degrees. 2. Grow-a-Row: Acord Food Pantry is teaming up with Hamilton-Wenham Green to locally grow fruits and vegetables for the food pantry this summer in a program called Grow-a-Row. And the program gets going on Wednesday. Seedlings, plants and seeds will be given out for local residents to grow on Wednesday from 6-7:30 p.m. at Acord, at the corner of Railroad Avenue and Union Street.     3. Guns: U.S. Rep. John Tierney, D-Salem, who represents Hamilton and Wenham …

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Tell Me Something Good

Students Take On Hunger, Say 'Yes' to Grow-A-Row

By taking on a 20 by 20 foot plot at the new Hamilton-Wenham Community Garden, 18 Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School students seek to help nourish those in need.

An idea, even a good idea, is nothing more than a thought in a cartoon bubble until somebody takes action. Caitlyn Passaretti and her peers in the Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School Class of 2012 know this. Passaretti and her friends are doers. With classes and final exams behind her, Passaretti along with 17 others, is turning her attention away from books to another kind of work - the kind that raises a sweat and dirties the hands. This growing season as participants in the Hamilton-Wenham Green Grow-A-Row program, the group, led by Passaretti is toiling to put food on the table of those in need. A year ago the Hamilton-Wenham Green Community Garden was little more than an inspired idea dreamt up by Hamilton residents Greg Horner and …

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Patch Facts

Five Things to Know Today in Hamilton and Wenham: May 16

An essential get-me-going daily morning column from Hamilton-Wenham Patch.

Today is Wednesday, May 16. Here are five things you need to know: 1. Better: Wednesday is expected to be an improvement, weatherwise, over Tuesday afternoon and evening. We were able to escape with an OK day on Tuesday, and Wednesday is shaping up to be much of the same, with temperatures close to 70 degrees. 2. Senior Showcase: The artwork of this year’s seniors at Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School will be on display in the visual arts wing at the school on Wednesday night from 6-7 p.m. as part of the Senior Showcase. The Showcase reception kicks off an hour before the spring concert. 3. Wenham Town Hall: It has been a recent tradition to have some officers closed to the public on Fridays during the summer at Wenham Town Hall. On …

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Tell Me Something Good

Come Grow with Us - 'Green' Works To Launch Community Garden

Those little pink orbs for sale in supermarkets are no match for homegrown heirloom brandywine tomatoes. And the sound of one spade digging is not nearly as melodious as a symphony of six, according to organizers of a new community garden.

Greg Horner and Chris LaPointe of Hamilton have a shared vision. It’s a vision of soil, sweat, shared effort and a slew of sweet homegrown harvests. In short, they envision a community garden for Hamilton and Wenham. Slowed by failed location leads, the garden has been some time coming, but through maintained effort and cooperation from Matt Ulrich of UBLA Site Planners, Horner and LaPointe are close to achieving success. With a site secured at Pingree Park, all that is needed now is 10 or so committed gardeners. Just as seed packets stamped 2012 are appearing on shelves in hardware stores and garden centers, Horner and LaPointe have the project ready to launch. A week ago they introduced the proposed garden on Hamilton-Wenham Green’s …

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Letter to the Editor: Thank You to Tree Recyclers

Hamilton-Wenham Green sends a thank you message to those that recycled more than 800 Christmas trees this holiday season.

To the Editor: Thanks to Hamilton and Wenham tree recyclers! Thanks to each and every one of you who hauled your Christmas trees to Pingree Park or asked your local Boy Scouts (Troop 28 in Wenham and Troop 35) to bring them to the recycling site. On Jan. 10, 823 trees were chipped and taken to Brick Ends Farm to be turned into compost. Dodge Tree handled the chipping and transport for free. Brick Ends will donate $1 per tree recycled to Hamilton-Wenham Green and Hamilton-Wenham Green will donate to the scouts for the transported trees. Thanks to Dodge Tree, Brick Ends Farm and every family that participated. Special thanks go to the Wenham DPW who hosted the drop off site and picked up curbside trees as possible, saving the towns …

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Patch Facts

Five Things You Need to Know Today: Jan. 12

An essential get-me-going daily morning column from Hamilton-Wenham Patch.

Today is Thursday, Jan. 12. Here are five things you need to know: 1. Weather: There’s hardly a consensus about what Thursday’s storm will deliver to the two towns, but one thing is for sure – it will be windy. Otherwise, what will be a snowstorm for much of New England looks like it will be almost all rain here. Expect temperatures to rise into the mid-40s with wind gusts a high as 35 miles per hour. 2. Christmas trees: Did you see all the Christmas trees that were piled in the parking lot at Pingree Park during the past week? Well, they're gone but take a guess how many trees were there. Hamilton-Wenham Green, which was collecting the trees to recycle with $1 from each tree going to help the organization, is taking guesses on its …

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Five Things You Need to Know Today: Jan. 5

An essential get-me-going daily morning column from Hamilton-Wenham Patch.

Today is Thursday, Jan. 5. Here are five things you need to know: 1. Warmer: Temperatures are expected to get close to 40 on Thursday, plus there will be sun in the sky. 2. Christmas trees: There’s two popular options right now to dispose of your Christmas tree for residents in both towns. One is to drop it off at Pingree Park in Wenham to be recycled, with $1 donated to Hamilton-Wenham Green for each tree. In Hamilton, trees are being collected at Patton Park for the Christmas tree fire on Friday night at 6 p.m. 3. Adeline Cole: On this date in 1959, Wenham “Town Mother” Adeline Cole died. Cole was honored last summer with a memorial in front of the Wenham Tea House, which she helped start among many other accomplishments during her …

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Patch Facts

Five Things You Need to Know Today: Dec. 22

An essential get-me-going daily morning column from Hamilton-Wenham Patch.

Today is Thursday, Dec. 22. Here are five things you need to know: 1. Sun: The first day of winter will not feel all that wintry. Thursday will be mostly sunny with temperatures around 50 degrees. 2. Lamson: It was exactly a year ago that Lawrence Lamson passed away. Lamson was a lifetime Hamilton resident and former fire chief. He also owned Welch and Lamson Fuel Co. and served on the Board of Selectmen. He also quietly helped those in need and was an important father-figure to many firefighters in Hamilton right up to his final days. 3. Winter: Winter officially began at 12:30 a.m. on Thursday. And it is also the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year with 9 hours and 33 minutes of daylight. 4. Holiday Specials: ‘Tis the season …

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Use Your Home's Thermal Image to Learn How to 'Zip it Up'

Thousands of thermal images from homes from all over Hamilton and Wenham have been collected and homeowners can look at their home and find out on Saturday how to make energy-saving improvements.

Is your home “zipped up?” You can now get online, see a thermal image of your home and find out whether it is zipped up. And if your home is not all zipped up, you can spend a few hours on Saturday morning at Hamilton-Wenham Library finding out how you can make it more energy efficient and save money on the improvements. Last March, a crew from Sagewell went through both Hamilton and Wenham with a thermal imaging machine. Since it was late winter, the images showed which part of each home was holding in the hot air and where hot air was getting out – all a measure of energy efficiency. Thermal images were captured of about 3,000 of the 4,400 homes combined in the two towns. “If your home is too far back from the road or there are trees in …

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Meet Your Neighbor

Getting to Know GREEN'S Greg Horner

This week's "Meet Your Neighbor" is Greg Horner, who is a big part of green living in Hamilton and Wenham.

Name: Greg Horner Street: Home Street, Hamilton. Family: Wife, Caroline; two girls, Zoe, 5, and Gillian, 3, plus a cat and some chickens. Occupation: Program Officer at the Cedar Tree Foundation in Boston, a national philanthropic foundation that supports nonprofits across the country with grants. I manage the sustainable agriculture grantmaking, which involves understanding the environmental and health impacts of the way we grow food in this country, identifying strategies for changing agriculture and finding strong nonprofits to invest in. My grants cover a lot of territory, but they include work on beginning farmer training, urban agriculture, pesticide reduction, the Farm Bill, and market-based initiatives such as eco-labels, organic …

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