![]() “They come to take their pre-prom photos. Even teenagers revel in the visuals, Wayne says. Besides mowing the fields, Bill collects antique farm equipment and displays it here. Swaths of this 230-acre preserve, open to the public and owned by the trust, are freshly mown thanks to Bill Hathaway, a farmer who lives across the street. When I pull into Pardon Gray Preserve to meet Wayne Browning of the Tiverton Land Trust, there’s a painterly cast to the early-morning light sifting over the land, misty at the edges of the old Gray Family Historical Cemetery nestled into the fields. Photo Credit : Mark Fleming Putting the Farm in Farm Coast Photo Credit : Mark Fleming Walker’s Roadside Stand has been a fixture in Little Compton for more than 40 years. Walker’s Roadside Stand has been a fixture in Little Compton for more than 40 years. A quiet, wide-spreading feeling that makes it easy to take a deep breath. Artists-a heap of them-are taking it all in and giving it back. The fishermen are off gathering their fruits of the sea. And now that I’m finally here, I discover something unexpected. I’ve heard about this stretch of farmland mingling with the coast for years. They are everywhere-such as Walker’s Roadside Stand, in Little Compton, where Coll Walker has been ensconced for 40 years, spilling out fresh-picked summer squash, round-faced sunflowers, fuzzy peaches. But the biggest, most exuberant crop seems to be farm stands. I spot a sign with a brown squiggle … I think it’s meant to be a spud. Up close, however, it is stamped with its own particular beauty: sudden bursts of meadow, shingled barns, blue water, and tidy rows of things green and growing. On a map, it is a blip, no bigger than a thumbnail, stretching from Tiverton down to Little Compton, then east into Massachusetts, to include Westport and Dartmouth. Photo Credit : Mark Fleming Fishermen beginning their workday in Sakonnet Harbor. The dual personality of the Farm Coast shines through in a sweeping view of Little Compton’s pastures and woodlands. And now, driving deeper into a world of boats and barns, I am caught, suddenly, in a tangle of narrow roads channeled between stone walls of such height and artistry that by rights they could seek their own representation. ![]() More fields unfurl down to the brine-an unexpected pairing that works, like salt and pepper. Off to the west, light flicks across the water, sparkles in the deep dimples of salty Narragansett Bay. ![]() Sweet, dry, drying on this hot summer day in Tiverton.
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