Much more than the Mall
By Providence Phoenix Staff

Best plant sale for a good cause
If next May's 14TH ANNUAL RARE & UNUSUAL PLANT SALE of the Southside Community Land Trust is as successful as the 13th, a lot of help will go to the organization's urban agriculture and environmental education programs. More than $26,000 was raised this year - $9000 more than the year before. More than 1100 people attended the plant-perusing and free music. From heirloom tomatoes to pink thunbergia, all the plants are organically raised and include exotic flowers, culinary, and medicinal herbs, as well as vegetables donated from throughout the state. Through the SCLT, more than 200 families on the Southside and West End of Providence are raising food on five acres of former vacant lots. The fundraising sale is held over the course of a weekend at City Farm, on the corner of Dudley and West Clifford streets.
109 Somerset Street, Providence | 401.273.9419 | www.southsideclt.org

Best person to raise a stink about
That would be Matt Jennings, cheese-monger extraordinaire and proprietor of FARMSTEAD CHEESE, an East Side shop devoted to artisanal cheeses. A New England Culinary Institute grad who cooked on Nantucket for a few years, Jennings found his raison d'être at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, and he's never looked back. He travels to northern Vermont to round up cheeses made from goat's and sheep's milk (Lazy Lady or Blue Ledge Farm) and Massachusetts for alpine-style sheep's milk (Willow Hill) or goat's milk (Carolyn Hillman). He also imports from the West Coast (Sally Jackson or Cowgirl Creamery) and a few products from Europe. And he stocks breads, patés, and condiments to accompany the cheeses. Most importantly, he's an extremely knowledgeable guide through the world of cheese. Just let him know which cheese smell - dirty socks or wood-burning stove - turns you on, and he'll find just the wheel for you.
186 Wayland Avenue, Providence | 401.274.7177

Best [and safest] way to meet a pirate
It's easy to overlook the summer's annual free MARITIME HERITAGE FESTIVAL, since it's all been happening in a remote and undeveloped corner of South Providence for the past five years. Sponsors are Providence Piers, developers who hope to see their 11-acre waterfront parcel become a multi-use complex of shops, condominiums, artists' studios, and conference center. Meanwhile, attention is being drawn to the location by a festival that features music, food, and crafts booths, plus pirates, militia encampments, Revolution War battle reenactments, and the occasional tall ship that might stop by. There are activities for children, too. Check it out next August 18-20.
180 Allens Avenue and Conley's Wharf, Providence | 401.486.6661 | www.providencepiers.com

Best bridge over troubled waters
Maybe not troubled as much as turbulent would describe the Blackstone River at Slater Mill in Pawtucket. During this past spring's RIVERSING near the waterfall, it was a challenge to project voices above the rushing water, but with singers on both sides doing a call-and-response to "Down By the Old Mill Stream," it worked just fine and was repeated three times. Nearby, on the grounds of Slater Mill, were eight stages with 80 acts that ranged from folksingers to rock musicians, storytellers to spoken word performers, puppeteers to chorales. With the Pawtucket arts scene growing stronger every day (Stone Soup Coffeehouse, the Gamm Theatre, Mixed Magic Theatre) and with RiverSing tuning in to people's basic need to sing together, this is one bridge that won't take years to build. 401.724.2200 | 401.727.4700 | www.tourblackstone.com

Best spot for city and country mice
There's nothing like the vibrant colors, vivid smells, and friendly faces at a farmers' market to brighten the day of any downtown business person or city dweller. In the heart of the financial district and next to the RIPTA terminal is Providence's very own MONDAY MARKET, operated by Farm Fresh Rhode Island from late June through October 31 from 1 to 6 pm. More than a dozen vendors cluster on either side of the sidewalk at the Biltmore end of Kennedy Plaza, displaying wares that range from artisan bread to fresh-made pastas, flash-frozen seafood to farmstead cheeses. In between, local farms bring the more standard fare of organic eggs, grass-fed beef, and homegrown fruits and veggies, from berries and melons, apples and peaches, to heirloom tomatoes and greens and squashes of all shapes and sizes. Organizers are planning for a year-round market in the future.
At the Bank of America City Center, Kennedy Plaza, Providence | www.farmfreshRI.org

Best glimpse of pre-tobacco-industry-settlement America
Gilbert Stuart is the painter famous for the portrait of George Washington that's on the $1 bill. (So famous, even in his day, that he referred to the painting as "my $100 bill" because that's what he could get for knocking off another reproduction.) Nearly as interesting, in its own way, is the GILBERT STUART BIRTHPLACE AND MUSEUM, the site of America's first snuff mill, where tobacco was ground into what substance abusers employed before they discovered cocaine. The national registered landmark also contains an herb garden, a grist mill, a fish ladder clambered by thousands of herring in the spring, and an authentically restored and furnished 18th-century workingman's home. A rowboat may be rented to fish or relax around the pond. The museum is open April through October, Thursday through Monday from 11 am to 4 pm; admission $5 for adults and $2 for children 2-12.
815 Gilbert Stuart Road, Saunderstown | 401.294.3001 | www.gilbertstuartmuseum.com

Best spooky city walk [minus mugging]
Yes, H.P. Lovecraft confused his own, twisted identity with that of Providence, but do you know which house on Benefit Street is the one from whose basement he described dark spirits swirling forth? Everyone is aware that Edgar Allan Poe conducted an ill-fated courtship of Sarah Whitman in the stacks of the Providence Athenaeum, but does anyone know how scary the prospect of marriage was to the poor, sensitive poet? You can ask about that and more on a nail-biting PROVIDENCE GHOST WALK led by Rory Raven. He's a parapsychology buff who conducts séances and has a stage act as a mind reader. Every Saturday and Sunday in October, the Ghost Walk leaves from the front of the Athenaeum, at Benefit and College Streets, at 3 pm. Subsequent tours will be scheduled to meet demand. They cost $5 (tranquilizers extra).
401.454.0977, roryraven.com

Best surround-sound in the city
Let's hear it loud and clear: there's nothing like live music to stir a crowd. It can get them dancin', singin', 'n' talkin' to their neighbors, lingering on memories brought back by the music. That was certainly true this past summer at the second annual SOUND SESSION, a festival of international music, dance, and spoken word performance. Sponsored by Providence Black Rep and the City of Providence, events took place at Waterplace Park, Black Rep, and in the middle of Westminster Street. Music included jazz, soul, house, hip-hop, rap, Afrobeat, Cuban, Haitian, Brazilian, Panamanian, and Trinidadian. Providence-based vocalist Emeline Michel mixed rhythms from her native Haiti with social and political lyrics. Organizers view it as a "baby brother" of Newport's famous JVC Jazz Fest, and they are confident it will continue to grow. You can be part of that by attending the third annual festival next July.
401.621.6123 | www.providenceblackrep.com

Best beach day
Sure, you don't know what the weather will be, but you do know that the beaches and the buses will be free on the 18th annual GOVERNOR'S BAY DAY next summer (close to the first Sunday in August each year). RIPTA runs the Beach Bus Express directly to Roger Wheeler, Salty Brine, and Scarborough beaches, which avoids the headache of parking and doesn't do more harm to the ozone index. Several state parks host special events, such as live music, boat rides and, at Colt State Park, a free barbecue lunch! If it's cloudy or drizzly, go anyway - it might clear up by the time you get there. It's summer; you can always walk or beachcomb in a light rain. Why not choose a beach you've never been to and explore it for a day? This is, after all, the Ocean State! 401.222.2080 | www.governor.ri.gov/bayday

Best pocket-size national park
For basic bragging rights, every state needs a national park, even Li'l Rhody, two of which would fit inside Yellowstone National Park with room for nearly 500 Roger Williams Parks (the one with the zoo) to spare. With a little help from Antoinette Downing, who spearheaded saving Benefit Street from urban renewal, the ROGER WILLIAMS NATIONAL MEMORIAL was established on 4.5 acres of landscaped park in 1984. Appropriately, the location is at the spring around which the anti-Puritan outlaw and his freethinking followers settled in 1636. The memorial includes exhibits, slide shows, and a four-minute video in a visitor information center staffed by National Park Service personnel. The center is open seven days a week from 9 am-4:30 pm; admission is free.
North Main and Smith streets, Providence | 401.521.7266

Best use for that plaid jacket
Ach, but the Scots are a manly lot. Many hundreds of years of men wearing skirts have weeded out the weak and self-conscious from the gene pool. Every May at the Washington County Fairgrounds, the RHODE ISLAND SCOTTISH HIGHLAND FESTIVAL takes place for a day, rain or shine. The activities and competitions certainly show them to be an animated folk. But if skirling bagpipes trigger your instinct to phone the ASPCA, you can trot off to other events. There are the caber and Scottish hammer tosses, in which a tall pole and a 56-pound weight, respectively, are hurled. Women vie in the haggis and rolling pin tosses. Clydesdale horses will clop and Highland dancers most certainly will fling, in both performance and contest. Even kids attending get to play traditional games. General admission is $10, seniors and children $9.
www.riscot.org

Best vicarious thrills without messing your hair
Consider it a kind of desensitization therapy. You have a fear of flying, and although you always pack a knapsack-sized parachute as your carry-on, you nevertheless get this nagging image of tugging the ripcord to no avail. You need to watch it working right. The Rhode Island Army National Guard's LEAPFEST INTERNATIONAL PARACHUTE COMPETITION is the biggest and oldest static-line parachute competition on the planet, with its 24th anniversary coming up in August. The competition involves teams of four jumpers aiming to land as close to the target as they can. Points are given for speed, too, with competitors timed from helicopter exit at 1500 feet to drop zone landing. Participation is open to all military-qualified parachutists of whatever rank. This year there were 250 jumpers from 11 countries aiming for a big orange X at Peckham Farm in West Kingston.
www.riguard.com

Best chance for a traditional Thanksgiving
Buxom butterball turkeys straining the table are a far cry from the wild variety at the original celebration in 1621. That was after Squanto kept the Pilgrims from starvation by teaching them how to live off the land. Today the longest living forerunner of that event is celebrated in Rhode Island. The Narragansetts' August powwow, more formally known as the GREEN CORN THANKSGIVING, is the largest and most significant of the tribe's 13 annual thanksgivings, on record as being held on the reservation for 330 years. The festivity celebrates the harvest, praises the Creator and expresses hope for another bountiful year. Activities include a peace pipe ceremony, a ritual honoring those who have died over the year, drumming, dancing, traditional foods and arts and crafts. Admission $4 for adults and $2 for children.
Old Mill Road, off Route 2, Charlestown | 401.364.1100 | www.narragansett-tribe.org