Afternoon: CHECK-IN: Please arrive at the hotel between 3:00-4:30pm. Check into your room at the front desk and then register with Road Scholar staff in the Main lobby. At this time you'll be given a welcome packet containing your name tag, up-to-date itinerary and other useful information.

Dinner: Dinner is served at local restaurant.

Evening: ORIENTATION: After dinner we will have our Orientaion. This will provide you with information about the hotel, program itinerary, instructors, venues and on site staff.

Lodging: Holiday Inn Express

Meals Included: Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel.

Morning: FIELD TRIP: This morning we visit Kenyon Corn Meal for a presentation on Johnny Cakes and and a program on grist mills in Rhode Island. Kenyon's Grist Mill is the oldest operating manufacturing business in Rhode Island. Although our current building dates back to 1886, we've been grinding meals & flours on site since 1696. Our single pass grinding process is between two, very large Westerly, Rhode Island granite millstones. This method of grinding continues to withstand the test of time to be the health conscious choice. Our genuine stone ground cornmeal is most popular, especially stone ground white cornmeal (or johnny cake meal) to make johnny cakes. This traditional Rhode Island food dates back to the colonial time when Native American Indians introduced corn to the settlers. At first, they were known as "journey cakes". Settlers often took them along on their journeys. But, as Rhode Islanders were more known for dropping "r's" in words, "journey cakes" slowly became "johnny cakes". Kenyon's has always been available for milling farmer's grain into meal or flour, a tradition that the Drumm family has proudly upheld. We are currently working on a team effort producing local rye flour and bread with Schartner Farms in Exeter, Seven Stars Bakery in Providence, and Farm Fresh Rhode Island. Throughout the years, we have always supported local farms and have been continuously looking for and grinding native grains when available, such as the rare crop of Rhode Island Flint corn. Although we try very hard to purchase our grains as local as possible, it is also important to consider the farming methods used. As always, we do not use, or source grain with any additives, pesticides or preservatives.

Lunch: Enjoy a traditional seafood lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon: FIELD TRIP: Afternoon Class and visit to the Newport Vineyards. Newport Vineyards was originally planted in 1977 on a hill overlooking Rhode Island Sound with the goal of producing fine wines and as a way of preserving beautiful agricultural land from rapid development. Aquidneck Island is blessed with one of the most desirable farming areas in the country, if not the world. This extraordinary micro-climate is created by a combination of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream to the south and the moderating effects of Narragansett Bay. These conditions provide a long, cool growing season ideal for developing complex flavors in wine. Since the original vineyard plantings in the 1970s, Newport Vineyards, under the ownership of John and Paul Nunes, has grown to 60 vineyard acres.

Dinner: Dinner at the Atlantic Beach Club

Evening: FREE EVENING: Relax at the hotel.

Lodging: Holiday Inn Express

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast is served at the hotel

Morning: FIELD TRIP: Today we visit an The Green Meadows Organic Farm, owned by descendants of the Patton family for a presentation on organic farming and CSA farming. Green Meadows Farm is a property with a long history as a private estate. The main house has been dated in its central part to 1786. Successive owners added pieces to it over the years, hence its rambling character! Major and Mrs. George S. Patton Jr. bought the property in 1928. The Pattons lived here only occasionally until World War II, when Beatrice Patton took up residence, expecting to welcome her husband home from the war, to retirement. Unfortunately, an untimely vehicle accident caused General Patton's death in 1945, so he was never here in extended residence. Mrs Patton lived here until her death in the hunting field in 1953. Upon his retirement after 34 years as a career Army officer, the next George Patton and his family moved here permanently in 1980. Major General Patton was determined to make something more of his property than "leisure land", so with the help of agricultural, environmental, and forestry experts -- and the advice of seasoned farmers -- he initiated Green Meadows Farm, originally as a blueberry operation. Naming his fields for brave soldiers who had lost their lives in service with him in Vietnam, he and his farm personnel have worked hard to maximize the potential of the land.

Lunch: Lunch is served at the Green Meadows Organic Farm.

Afternoon: FIELD TRIP: Afternoon Lobster Cruise w/speaker in Kennebunkport, Maine. Hop aboard a real lobster pulling boat and learn about the industry as you watch the captain pull up the traps revealing the day's catch.

Dinner: Dinner at the Historic Colony Hotel.

Evening: PRESENTATION: This evening, enjoy a discussion with a local food expert.

Lodging: Ogunquit River Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast is served at hotel

Morning: FIELD TRIP: This morning we meet two local experts in the city of Portland. Our guide will take us on an exploration of this port city. Learn the history and its connection with the fishing industry. Our second presenter will speak more on the history of fishing and the Casco Bay.

Lunch: Lunch at local restaurant featuring a traditional Maine Lobster Roll

Afternoon: Program at the Cold River Vodka Distillery. The idea for Cold River Vodka originated with brothers Lee and Donnie Thibodeau. Growing up in Presque Isle, the heart of Maine’s potato country, they listened to their father and uncles tell about their history of turning potatoes into vodka. However, the realities of tending to the potato crop and the rigors of the annual harvest left little time. Three years ago, the idea of commercially producing vodka resurfaced between Donnie and Lee as they were driving back to their childhood home in Presque Isle. After years of thinking of business ideas and talking about the future of Maine’s potato industry, the two decided to make the best vodka from Maine potatoes. Maine’s agricultural industry is always searching for ways to add value to staple crops. This goal complemented the Thibodeaus’ desire to preserve Maine’s open space and become the only distillery in the country that would oversee its entire production – from planting potato seed to bottling vodka. They called longtime friend Bob Harkins, who had recently left his post as a ski area executive, and asked him to explore the feasibility of producing vodka using Maine potatoes and Maine water. With that call, the business was born. The three needed someone who knew distilling and soon discovered Chris Dowe. After a decade of installing and consulting on breweries across the country, he wanted to spend more time with his family in Maine. The four partners and their wives chose the name Cold River Vodka. Glaciers carved the Cold River through the backbone of western Maine millennia ago. From the aquifer that this clear, pristine river feeds, the distillery takes its water. From a dream to a reality, from the ground to glass, from spud to super-premium spirit — this is Cold River Vodka. This program is followed by free time in Freeport.

Dinner: Lobster bake dinner at Foster's York Harbor Pavilion

Evening: EVENING ENTERTAINMENT: Sing along with the Captain at Foster's York Harbor Pavilion

Lodging: Ogunquit River Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast is served at hotel

Morning: FIELD TRIP: Visit the Flag Hill Winery and Distillery for program and tasting. Established in 1990, Flag Hill has grown from a family operated business to the largest vineyard in NH with an established winery producing distinguished wines from our own vineyard. Embarking on a new venture, owner Frank Reinhold secured Flag Hill as the first distillery in NH in 2004, producing high quality distilled spirits such as General John Stark Vodka and Josiah Bartlett Barrel Aged Apple Brandy.

Lunch: Lunch en route to Vermont

Afternoon: PRESENTATION: Meet with local goat farmer who will talk about and demonstrate goat milk products.

Dinner: Dinner is served at the Brandon Inn

Evening: EVENING ENTERTAINMENT: Light entertainment in the living room

Lodging: Brandon Inn

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast is served at the inn

Morning: FIELD TRIP: Program at Neighborly Farms for a program on organic cheddar cheese making. Established as an operating dairy farm more than 30 years ago, Rob and Linda Dimmick along with their three children Bobby, Bailey, and Billy are continuing the tradition on the family farm. Nestled in the rolling hills of Randolph Center, Vermont, Neighborly Farms decorates the countryside with its red barn and white post and beam farmhouse built in the 1800s. The farm operates on 168 acres with cropland and grazing fields to support the dairy and a sugarhouse for producing pure Vermont maple syrup. The clean and tidy barn is home to 48 Holsteins—the black and white cows that symbolize rural living at its very best.

Lunch: Enjoy lunch prepared by local Vermont restaurant.

Afternoon: FIELD TRIP:Program at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill with guided tour of process. In 1974, Eric and Francine Chittenden, descendants of Vermont’s first governor, were starting out as farmers near the base of the Cold Hollow Mountains in rural northwest Vermont. They started making apple cider for friends, with a press that Eric picked up somewhere. (Eric was always finding cool old stuff.) Before long, the couple saw real business potential in making cider the true, traditional way. Eric and Francine created a vision. They would make enough cider to distribute to supermarkets, and become a real Vermont tourist attraction. Searching for the perfect location, they settled on Route 100 in central Vermont, between Waterbury (with its Interstate 89 exit) and Stowe (with lots of skiers and tourists). In 1976, they bought the old Gibbs farm in Waterbury Center. After decades of additions, the old place sure doesn’t look the same! Added has been a Jelly Room, large production facility, two cold-storage rooms — for apples and finished product — and a large bottling facility. But the original barn still houses our cider press and our store, where we make our cider donuts and feature specialty foods, baked goods, cheese, honey, maple syrup, hot beverages, and lots more Vermont goodness. The Chittendens lived in the house, raising their three kids there, right up till they sold the business in 2000 to Paul Brown and his wife Gayle. Our final stop today is at the Morse Sugar Farm w/traditional sugar-on-snow. The Morse ancestors who helped settle Central Vermont were taught how to tap maple trees by Native Americans. Hot Rocks were used to evaporate the sweet sap until only sugar or "sinzibukwud" remained. Pioneers could boil a year's supply of sugar thus making Americans self-sufficient in sugar production. Ben Franklin promoted massive sugar production in the Northeast to make the country less dependant on "foreign" sugar.

Dinner: Dinner is served at the inn

Evening: Free evening

Lodging: Brandon Inn

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast is served at the inn

Morning: EXCURSION: Visit the Vermont Country Store in Rockingham where you will enjoy samples of many of Vermont's fine foods. Continue on to RI for drop off at the TF Green Airport in Providence and independent departures from Newport hotel.

Lunch: Lunch along the way

Afternoon: We will drop off at the TF Green Airport in Providence at around 1:30 PM and then at the Holiday Inn Express at 2:30 PM for departures. Please do not make plane reservations before 3:00 PM.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch