There’s something magical about Concord, Massachusetts. A persistent and insistent energy over the course of centuries has attracted artists, innovators, writers, revolutionaries, philosophers, abolitionists, social justice warriors, scholars, and a whole host of leaders and creative disrupters. They live among us today, and I had the great honor to sit down with two artists - Gregory Maguire and Andy Newman – in their Concord home to learn about their creative journey, and also about the very special place they created to raise their three adopted children.
Nestled in the sitting room of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s beautiful Concord home, I find myself in a cozy atmosphere that downplays the importance of the leather-bound volumes surrounding us as we chat. Photos of Doris and her late husband, Richard N. Goodwin (Dick Goodwin, as he was widely known), are hung alongside images of the Queen of England, Presidents – both Democrat and Republican, and even Che Guevara. These portraits are intermingled with family photos and treasures brought back from faraway lands. The impressive woman in front of me is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a frequent guest on news channels and talk shows, a world-renowned speaker, a powerful role model, and a sought-after mentor. Today, however, in this inviting home designed as much for family and entertaining friends as it is for creating award-winning books, I have the true pleasure of sitting with my friend and neighbor to talk about her amazing life.
Downtown Concord is always a popular destination on summer afternoons, and perhaps nowhere is this more visible than on the porch at the Colonial Inn in Monument Square. “It’s incredible,” says Andy Seidel, the Inn’s General Manager. “Once we put the tables out in the spring and we get those first few nice days, we basically see it full from there on until the end of fall.”
Meet Kristin Canty - entrepreneur, owner of three restaurants and a farm, innovator, busy mother of four, and ardent advocate for reconnecting people to the earth and animals that are the building blocks of our food.
In a quest to help her son who was plagued by severe allergies since birth, Kristin learned about the principles of ancestral health - based on pasturing farm animals, raising crops without pesticides, and placing an emphasis on the consumption of raw and fermented foods.
