North Truro • South Truro • Truro

Photo Ops:

Cape Cod Light is Cape Cod’s oldest lighthouse, and it’s photogenic from any angle. Take a tour and enjoy bird’s-eye views from the tower! A site that’s both scenic and historic is Corn Hill Beach, where you can look up at Corn Hill, the place where a group of Pilgrims came upon a Wampanoag stash of corn and fresh water back in 1620.

Favorite Spots: 

Truro’s wild, natural beauty is showcased at the Cape Cod National Seashore’s Pilgrim Heights area, where the trail opens to stunning ocean views. When you want to be where the action is, Payomet Performing Arts Center is the place to be. Their lineup of shows gets more impressive each year, and the oceanside location is a draw in itself.

Mom & Pops:

Open daily year round, Salty Market in North Truro has updated the historic Dutra Building but maintained its homey spirit, making it an irresistible draw. With the arrival of their first child in March, owners Claire Adams and Ellery Althaus will officially be “Mom” and “Pop”!

Don’t Miss!

The Truro Agricultural Fair, held Labor Day weekend, celebrates the sustainable farming that’s reviving the town’s agricultural roots, and has some fun with a pie-baking contest, zucchini race and beauty contest for animals. Another hometown celebration is Truro Treasures, Sept. 21-23, featuring the ever-popular grape stomp.

A day in the life of: Francie Randolph, artist, co-founder of Truro Agricultural Fair and founder of Sustainable CAPE

By Julie Craven Wagner

Too often Truro is experienced as an “on-the-way” town, simply a pass-through connecting the towns of Wellfleet and Provincetown. Such an assumption would shortchange a visitor to the rich subtleties found in the fertile landscape of this Outer Cape hamlet. Francie Randolph, a mixed-media artist, moved to Truro 20 years ago and has been so transformed by the charms found in Truro that she has also transitioned her life’s focus from art to agriculture. Founder of Sustainable CAPE, she cites as her inspiration for starting the Truro Agricultural Fair in 2009 the experience of attending the annual Agricultural Fair while living on Martha’s Vineyard.

“Living on the Vineyard, you had all different kinds of friends. Every year at the fair you would see all of your friends, all of your favorite people: favorite artists, favorite writers, favorite fishermen, favorite farmers, favorite politicians. It was just a wonderful, wonderful event,” she recalls. Truro’s tercentennial set the stage for the first Truro Ag Fair, as Randolph and two other Truro residents, who also happened to be farmers, Stephanie Rein and David Dewitt, conceived of that first fair, making 100 posters and stapling them to telephone poles. The inaugural event experienced attendance of 2,500. “As an artist I knew how powerful this interest was. I was always trying to find special reasons for people to interconnect. The Ag Fair brought together thousands of people instead of a couple of hundred people who might attend one of my openings. Immediately I knew I had to explore the possibility of what this could become,” Randolph says.

That exploration launched Sustainable CAPE, a nonprofit dedicated to agricultural education and preservation. Randolph’s driving force behind the fair was education. “We want to educate people about local food, and how caring for our water and soil produces healthful food, which produces a healthful body, which produces a healthy community,” she says. Her focus on education found a natural forum in the local schools of Truro and ultimately surrounding towns. One of Randolph’s first endeavors was the first Children’s Community Garden, an after-school program delivered through Truro Recreation, which she created with Truro Public Library Assistant Director Maggie Hanelt, who runs the library’s youth services. They grew so much food in that Children’s Garden, fresh produce was delivered to Truro Elementary School, helping to create a Local Lunch Series, and gardening classes. Sustainable CAPE now teaches over 1,200 elementary students annually, from Brewster to Provincetown.

The next phase of Randolph’s commitment to the community of Truro emerged with her efforts to start the Truro Educational Farmers’ Market. Continuing her focus on education, Randolph has distinguished this market from others by incorporating Educational Boards, placards affixed to each of the farmers’ stalls. With artwork created by local children, each farmer provides little-known facts and points of interest as they pertain to the products they offer. The success of the Truro Farmers’ Market has surpassed everyone’s expectations and created a gathering place for the town’s residents and many visitors.

Randolph is also sensitive to the nutritional challenges segments of the population deal with on a daily basis. She says veterans, families receiving public assistance and seniors are incentivized to purchase fresh food at the Farmers’ Market. “We are taking money provided by the government for food and encouraging people to spend it on healthy food from local harvesters.”

A seed was planted in Truro when Francie Randolph moved to town, but her vision, commitment and understanding of the needs of the unique town have grown into a movement.

Julie Craven Wagner is the editor of Cape Cod HOME.