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| Pickity Place's "Grandmother's House" with the luncheon room through the door and to the right. |
We recently visited Pickity Place in Mason, New Hampshire, off in the middle of the state not that far from the Massachusetts border. We happened on it some years back with its attractive acreage that supports flower and herb gardens, its gourmet herbal luncheon, its little paths, and shopping opportunities for such as soaps, herbs, jams, whisks, note cards, etc.
It seems that this little red cottage was built in 1786 and used by the artist, Elizabeth Orton Jones, as a model for her illustrations in the 1948 Golden Book edition of
Little Red Riding Hood. Now, as one would imagine, the cottage has taken on the character of Grandmother's House with an appropriate wolf in a big four-poster bed plus red capes-with-hoods, grandmotherly lace caps, and, of course, various editions of the story on display.
With a seven-year-old in tow, we thought it a good place to spend a Sunday afternoon complete with a delicious lunch. Pickity Place only serves lunch ... with a new menu each month. Everyone eats the same thing making service easy with choices only between a meat or a vegetarian dish as well as hot or cold drinks including mocha coffee, orange spiced tea, and lavender lemonade. (There was also a children's menu with sandwiches as well as a Little Red-Riding-Hood basket that contained a crispy red apple and a newly-baked chocolate chip cookie.) Of the three sittings--11:30, 12:45, and 2:00--we picked the earliest. The dishes are made with Pickity Place's home-grown herbs (fresh or dried depending upon the season) and decorated with their edible flowers.
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| Butternut Squash Soup with Pistachio Oil |
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| Radish and Pear Salad over Baby Kale |
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| Pork Tenderloin Chimichurri over Safrito Rice. (The vegetarian choice was Acorn Squash with Root Vegetable Couscous.) Plus Sauteed Autumn Greens. |
We were also given lovely chewy rolls with a garlic butter spread.
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| Pumpkin Cheesecake with Sweet Walnut Dust (Divine!) |
After lunch, we wandered into the gift shops, the herbal drying shed, and the herb and perennial gardens.
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| Looking down toward the Drying Shed |
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| Inside the Drying Shed |
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| Another view |
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| Some of the herb gardens |
For more information, go to www.pickityplace.com
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