Stephen Orr

Truro

Editor, Inside/Out section at The Provincetown Independent

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Articles

A Parade of Hats, With All the Frills Upon Them

1 month ago | provincetownindependent.org | Stephen Orr

PROVINCETOWN — From early Beachcombers’ Balls to the Carnival Parade, people here have never been shy about dressing in costume. One of the latest opportunities, the Provincetown Arts Society’s annual Easter hat party and Easter egg hunt, took place on Saturday, April 19 at the Mary Heaton Vorse house. The idea, now in its third year here, says Gene Tartaglia, the society’s director, carries on a tradition that friends of his in New Haven, Conn. started 45 years ago.
A Lofty Lineage in North Truro

1 month ago | provincetownindependent.org | Stephen Orr

Sometimes you just know when a place is the one. It was 1978 when Anne Webb Johnson and her husband, David, found themselves looking at an unusual house on Hughes Road in North Truro. It was the home of two prominent local artists, Helen Sawyer and Jerry Farnsworth, who were in their 90s and wanted to sell. “I walked through the back door, through the sail loft, and into the living room. Helen was sitting on a sofa there,” says Webb Johnson.
A Cottage Garden in the Dunes

1 month ago | provincetownindependent.org | Stephen Orr

[Hidden behind a rustic wooden fence tiny spring treasures abound: Nodding bluebells, arching ferns, dainty forget-me-nots, and self-sown alexanders in a glowing shade of chartreuse, all knitted together like a tapestry. This exposed seaside location above Cold Storage Beach in Truro is hardly the spot where you’d expect to find a jewel box of delicate spring ephemerals tucked underneath the rough cedars, but here they are.
Salads for When Spring’s Not Yet Green

2 months ago | provincetownindependent.org | Stephen Orr

I have been a fan of shaved salads ever since I had my first plateful at a Brooklyn neighborhood restaurant called Frankies 457 Spuntino many years ago. It was a pale but flavor-packed combination of thinly sliced raw ingredients, mostly fennel, red onion, and celery root — not a vegetable I had eaten uncooked before — lightly dressed with olive oil and lemon and scrapings of Parmesan. Not a single leaf of lettuce on the plate.
A Community for Craftspeople, Customers, and Friends

Dec 11, 2024 | provincetownindependent.org | Stephen Orr

The holiday markets here celebrate a long history of handicrafts made on the Outer Cape. Where there were once bayberry candle makers, rug hookers, net weavers, beach plum canners, and candy cookers, now there are potters, chefs, herbalists, leathersmiths, printmakers, floral arrangers, and sculptors. The markets are popular gathering spots for shoppers, but they also create a welcome feeling of community for makers.
Leftovers Fit for a Diva

Nov 27, 2024 | provincetownindependent.org | Stephen Orr

We ate a lot of convenience foods when I was a kid growing up in the 1970s. There were dinners of Hamburger Helper and Chun King chop suey, but the Turkey Tetrazzini that came from the freezer in a red Stouffer’s box rose above them all. It was cheesy, creamy, and rich. I thought of it as something fancy, even though I was a picky enough eater that I carefully extracted all traces of celery from the noodles and piled them on the side of my plate.
A Vegetable Heavyweight Has Its Day

Nov 20, 2024 | provincetownindependent.org | Stephen Orr

Friends’ Marketplace sells a lot of Eastham turnips — more than you might imagine for a humble root vegetable. “They’re starting to go through over 200 pounds of our turnips per day,” reports Judy Scanlon, one of the premier growers of the heirloom seed strain. “That will only increase the closer we get to Thanksgiving.
A Dressing From Down South

Nov 20, 2024 | provincetownindependent.org | Stephen Orr

People tend to be extremely biased about their Thanksgiving stuffings. They may try an unusual side vegetable or add a new pie recipe beyond the usual pumpkin and pecan (for me, that means three or more pies since the first two are grandfathered in). But when it come to the bread-based accompaniment that sits within, or next to, the turkey, most folks won’t suffer any improvisations. So why am I writing about my favorite dressing? Well, because it’s the best one, of course.
The Hoarfrost Cometh

Nov 6, 2024 | provincetownindependent.org | Stephen Orr

One of the things I love most about living here is being more in tune with nature’s rhythms. Watching tides, Moon phases, storm systems, and bird migrations, I’ve learned to use my senses to notice the daily shifts as the season changes. That said, I must have looked away briefly last week because I was the unwitting victim of what I term Seasonal Denial Syndrome, or SDS. Early October was a second summer.
Ending on a High Note

Oct 23, 2024 | provincetownindependent.org | Stephen Orr

In contrast to its slow, gray springs, the Outer Cape is famous for its benevolent autumns. Just as the earliest crocuses and daffodils give me hope during what one friend calls the January, February, March, March, March doldrums, I aim to extend the end of the fall growing season by adding new late-blooming varieties each year — the later the better to put off the advent of winter.