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Community Corner

Patch Passport: Venture Out

Revisit your younger days when you hopped in the car, started the engine and drove off in search of something fun. The Sunday Patch Passport maps out where you can go on a 15-, 30- or 60-minute drive from your home.

JFK National Historic Site, in Brookline, 15 minutes away 

The birthplace of John Fitzgerald Kennedy looks more residential than presidential, but still holds many ties to the country's 35th commander in chief. It's now in the condition in which you would have found it when JFK was born in 1917, thanks to a restoration undertaken by the President's mother after his death. JFK lived in the Brookline house for 10 years before his family moved to New York City.

Hours: May - Sept, 10am - 4:30pm; Oct - April, closed
Parking: On-street: free
Services: Gift shop, Ranger, Restrooms, Tours
Museum fee: $3 for adults, free for children under 18

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The Concord Museum, Concord, Mass., 37 minutes away. 

The Concord Museum, located on 53 Cambridge Turnpike (200 Lexington Road) has an incredible wealth of information about the early Americas and the 18th and 19th centuries, all directly connected to the town.

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A brief rundown of the galleries includes: Native Americans in Concord, Intellectuals in Concord covering Emerson, Thoreau, the Alcotts and Hawthorne, Revolutionary and Anti-Slavery Movements, complete recreations of 18th and 19th century rooms, ceramics and textiles in Concord, West Concord's storied Cattle Shows,and  even a room dedicated to early clock-making with interactive displays to show off the impressive, early technology.

The galleries themselves are just the icing on this historical cake. Interactive segments litter the museum. A table in the museum's special section, "When Duty Whispers – Concord and the Civil War" (on the second floor in the Wallace-Kane Gallery and running now until Sept. 18), provides a detailed look at the importance of correspondence in the Civil War and urges patrons to write a postcard to soldiers currently fighting overseas, which the museum later mails.

Hours: Mon - Sat, 9am - 5pm; Sun, noon - 5pm
Handicap Accessible: Yes
Ticket information: Tickets available at the museum.
Student discounts: Yes
Senior discounts: Yes
Coat/bag check: No
Parking: Free lot

Kimball Fruit Farm Stand, Pepperell, MA, an hour away. 

Kimball Fruit Farm sells fruits, vegetables and herbs at farmers markets in Greater Boston, but the farm also opens its fields to visitors who want to pick their own crops. 

Go to the farm in mid-June to pick strawberries, July August and September to pick raspberries, and September through October to pick a variety of apples. And pick your own pumpkins from September through Thanksgiving. 

The farm is open seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., June through Thanksgiving. 

Call the farm at 978-433-9751 to schedule a pick-your-own visit. 



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