Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast - Brewster By The Sea Inn & Spa

Gardening has become a passion for me since we purchased our inn on Cape Cod six years ago. This weekend I had the pleasure of planting our vegetable garden with my mother and daughter's help. As I was listening to my mother's wise words about how to sow the seeds and watching my daughter's delight in having her hands in the dirt,  I smiled at the pure pleasure of having three generations working together to plant our summer garden!

I actually grew up taking for granted the large garden that my parents maintained when I was little. We always had fresh vegetables on our table that were either just picked from our garden our frozen or canned for our winter enjoyment. To this day, I have never tasted a sweeter corn on the cob then I remember eating as a child fresh from our garden.

As a young adult, I married and moved to Houston to raise my own family and with the weather being so hot, I was happy with a  small flower gardens by  the front door. When we purchased our inn, which had several overgrown flower gardens and plenty of room to create some new gardens, my mind immediately went to work thinking about where we would create a new vegetable and herb garden. Since then we have designed and created 3 compost bins, a tomato and pumpkin garden, a large vegetable and herb garden and many new little flower gardens. I am forever hooked!  There is something so pleasurable about planting some seeds, watching them grow, watering them daily and harvesting the fruits of your labor.

This year we tried some new items and have become experienced with what does well in our climate. We love Nasturtiums which are a beautiful flower and are an eatable garnish.. We grow several types of parsley, basil, thyme, chives, garlic and dill which we use daily for our seasoning in our breakfasts. We grow several types of fresh lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini and squash. Every year I learn something new and every winter I start thinking about how I am going to lay out the spring garden.

So this year, as I was organizing all of our seed packets on the  lawn, with my mother sitting in a chair beside me and  my daughter tilling the soil with the rototiller, I realized what  a perfect moment in time  I was experiencing.. My mom is healthy and at 83 still makes a good portion of the inn's cookies and is a constant role model for our entire family. She was delighting in sharing her garden stories and telling us that we need to make our rows perfectly even. (April and I smiled because we both are not perfectionists as she is ) April was already talking about creating a garden in her back yard when she purchases her first home in Boston. And so the  tradition continues....my mom passes on all of the tricks of gardening that she has learned over the years.My husband and I add some new ideas and creations that we like and our daughter April has visions of the garden she will grow some day.....how perfect!.    

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Is spring here yet? At our Cape Cod bed and breakfast we have decided that spring is definitely here because our guests have seen whales swimming close to the Cape Cod bay beaches and someone built a beautiful sand castle at our treasured Paine's Creek beach.

For many years, we happily lived in Houston, Texas were we raised our family. The one thing I always missed was experiencing the change in seasons that I grew up with back in the Berkshires. I think spring will always be my favorite season since it represents a rebirth for everything in life. After spending so many months inside there is something so exhilarating when you walk out in the sunshine and watch all of your favorite flowers and plants starting to grow. During the summer months we spend a good portion of our time maintaining and enjoying our beautiful gardens. We tell our guests that it is our little slice of heaven that we like to share with them. Right now the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, the lilacs budding and the robins are busy building their nests in our scrubs and trees. We have had a nice jump on our spring chores since we have had quite a few warm days to be outside.

We were especially delighted to share in the excitement when our guests came back from their day of exploring to tell us about the whales that they unexpectedly saw on Corporation Beach in Dennis. Several whales were swimming close to shore and they could see them breaching through the waters. On the same weekend my husband Byron went down to our favorite beach to get some shots of the sunset and he was tickled to find the first sandcastle on our favorite beach.

So it really must mean that summer is truly coming....we have flowers in bud, whales in the bay and sandcastles on the beach. Oh the joys of living on Cape Cod!

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Just a few updates.

Costa Rica was really nice, we planned the perfect vacation for us and came back rested and ready to deliver the finest in hospitality. We would love to share our vacation in pictures and words. Several guests are already bringing their Frommers and Fodors books with them when they stay at Brewster By The Sea Inn and Spa to talk about their plans. We have posted unprocessed pictures on facebook (byron cain) if you want to be a friend and keep in touch that way.

We have already burned for the first time, raked the lawn, started edging and cleaning out the hydrangeas while soaking up the sun the last few days. We are way ahead of our spring chores already. It seems like we should open the pool anytime and start mowing the lawn.

Photography has been spotty this year, but, this one picture makes up for the whole winter.
. Click on the picture for the larger view.

Finally, Brewster has a sister town, Budleigh-Salterton in the UK and a very fine blogger tracking events in both towns. You will definitely enjoy Michael'w writing.

We are definitlely booking up quickly this year, so make sure you make your plans ahead of time.

happy belated Easter / Passover to each and all.

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Truffles (chocolate) are a special treat at our Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast. Every night when our guests leave for their evening meal, we turn down their beds, turn on soft lights and classical music and leave a truffle of the evening on their pillow. These award (Donna & Byron) winning truffles are truly a little piece of heaven.

First attempt to embed a youtube video in our blog. "making truffles in an elevator", bear with the the video through the introductory music.




So you may ask what is a truffle and what makes it so special? A truffle is actually ganache (a mixture of melted chocolate and heavy cream) covered with chocolate. Distinct added flavors such as Carmel, Hazelnut, Irish cream and Key Lime make these chocolate morsels the ultimate treat. We are fortunate to have a wonderful chocolatier right up the street who supplies us with our truffles. Our guests have always raved about the chocolates and we have carried the same flavors for the full 6 years that we have been innkeepers at Brewster by the Sea.

This past week my husband and I decided to visit our local, very popular coffee house in Orleans, the Chocolate Sparrow. As we were waiting for our lattes we checked out their candy case that was filled with their homemade truffles. We decided to have some fun and purchased 2 of every kind they carried. As we were driving home we decided to have a truffle tasting with our family the next evening.

We are blessed this winter to have two of our children staying with us at the inn while they are job hunting and attending classes. My mother also lives with us so our evening meals are always filled with a lively discussion. Tonight we mentioned that we wanted to have a truffle tasting. Even our son who does not have much of a sweet tooth thought the whole thing sounded like fun. We gathered our regular truffles, the new sampling and even added some Godiva Valentine chocolate to add to the mix. Our daughter April sliced each of the truffles in half so that we could each have a sampling of the different flavors. We all were ohhing and ahhing over each bite. After tasting far too many chocolates to keep our middles in line, we all agreed that our truffles were the best. They were velvety smooth and dense with distinct natural flavors.

So rest assured if you decide to visit us at Brewster by the Sea, your bed will be turned down and you will return to find two perfect chocolate truffles on your pillow!

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How do our Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast Guests find good dining? The short answer is that we send them our restaurant list painstakingly built over the last 6 years and that we modify at least twice a year. We quickly realized that a getaway anywhere is not happy if your dining experiences do not meet your expectations and soon after that we learned that while most of our guests expectations are similar, a few people require a little more attention. Donna and I believe we give excellent service to our guests that stay with us as we can spend time with them to make sure that their individual expectations are met.

What would you do if you were not staying at Brewster By The Sea Inn & Spa?This post is really a review, from our perspective, of the google results for Cape Cod Dining and for Cape Cod Dining Reviews.



Trip Advisor - This site is fascinating to use in the context of dining. The very top rated restaurants are often Clam Shacks, Ice Cream Joints and the like. Very good restaurants are often nailed to the wall with bad reviews that ask how could any restaurant not have a child's menu or not serve French Fries. The good news, from our perspective is that a user can cut through this type of noise fairly easy to get at reviews that will better answer questions. The fact that Trip Advisor works so well for the Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast industry is somewhat easy to explain. B & B afficionados are typically, in New England, well aware of minimum standards and they are the ones that write the reviews.


Cape Coddster is a great site built by a community of users that love Cape Cod. There is no pay to play, no chance to game the system without it being called out. Think of this website as gigantic set of bulletin boards where you can hold public discussions with other people that love the Cape.   The example pertinent to our current posting is the good to excellent dining on Cape Cod forum.

Cape Cod Times Online You will find just a few professionally written reviews of restaurants here. For the general user this is not very useful, but for us local Cape Codders we may find a useful nugget in the offseason. An example is this review of Chatham Bars Inn Tavern in the off season. This is the kind of Dining we would recommend to our Brewster By The Sea Inn & Spa guests.

The rest of the examples given below are less useful. Please feel free to give me pointers on finding high quality reviews of dining on Cape Cod!!!!

Concierge
This site does allow reviews. The link provided above only shows 5 restaurants in the Lower Cape. Abba is definitely on our list and the link here to Abba shows their style. Not many restaurants listed, few reviews, you must sign up to the service to use if fully and restaurants probably have to pay to be on the site.




Cape Cod Dining - is collecting a good overview of dining spots, They break up the list of restaurants by region, although it looks like they wish to break it up by town in the future. It looks like the restaurant must purchase links back to their websites and to have additional detailed information. Did not see any user reviews. Future additions to the site will include videos, meet the chefs and probably more.
Cape Cod Dining Guide is similar to the above site in that there are no reviews and that it is clearly a pay to list upon site. It allows for a nominal search for food type and Breakfast / dinner etc. Many of our favorite (finer dining) restaurants were not on this list.


Cape Cod Restaurants is a again a pay to play site. A little better design in that maps and itemized details are easily had. Again, if the restaurant has not paid, they will not show up well on this.

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Byron and I are innkeepers on Cape Cod and we are continually amazed at the many different  hats we wear to make our inn successful. We are dedicated cooks, hosts, servers, plumbers, computer wizards, decorators, event planners, ... just to name a few. A favorite hat is helping couples plan a romantic getaway for their sweetheart to Brewster By The Sea Inn & Spa !



February is special to us and this description gives a great idea of why!!

The February birth flower is the iris. The warm, deep color of the iris is a harbringer of the luxuries of spring, as we know February has long been a month known for romance and love. The iris comes in a few colors including cool blue and snowy white, remembrances of winter. The iris flower meaning are faith, wisdom, and hope.  

We make every single day of February our Valentines day and our special package for the month is called " February is for Lovers".  This helps many of our guests plan their romantic time away throughout the entire month. This year we created a fun new package that includes a couples massage with a chocolate theme. What Valentine's Gift would be complete without chocolate!

Cape Cod has many additional attractions throughout the month for our guests to enjoy. On February 6th, Osterville becomes the “Chocolate Capital of Cape Cod” as it's picturesque Main Street plays host to the third annual Chocolate Fest. Anchored by chocolate art and tasty exhibits, store raffles, sales and promotions and featuring the “Great Chocolate Dessert Contest”, the entire village is preparing once again to yield to the temptation, fun and pleasure of chocolate in all its varieties and flavors. The Osterville Chocolate Fest offers tempting events from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is sponsored by the Osterville Business & Professional Association.

The SheArt Network is sponsoring a  Valentine’s Day Art and Fine Craft Sale on Saturday February 6th from 10-3 at the Old Jailhouse Tavern in Orleans. Items for sale by Cape Cod Women Artists include paintings, jewelry, pottery, photography, textile designs, knitwear, prints, and paper creations. Find that special Valentine's gift or just something for yourself! 

Chatham is sponsoring a fun event called Paint the town Red. where local merchants decorate their shops with a paint the town red theme.


We would love to hear about your special Valentine's day tradition.   Send us a note.  

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Donna and Byron are going to talk sweet. hot and spicy here, but first a word on our breakfasts.  They are a special time at our Cape Cod Inn and Spa, and we are continually testing new things to keep our menu fresh and creative. We do keep a lot of the tried and true menu items, however, we find a lot of fun in merging new finds into the mix! This post is a little twist on how we are both sweet and spicy! Follow us over the fold for the quest to find out who is sweet and who is spicy. 





Donna - Perhaps I am the old fashion sweet one and my husband is the spicy, hot and adventurous one.  Byron - Perhaps I am the really sweet one and my wife is the spicy hot one, except we are talking about food, right??!!
Donna - Even as a child, I remember the family raspberry patch. We had a summer tradition of harvesting the berries and making jam and pies for everyone to enjoy. I almost took the berries for granted and never noticed what a small container of raspberries cost at the grocery store. When we purchased our inn 6 years ago my mother offered to donate all of the raspberry jam she had in the freezer for our guests to enjoy. We  realized that we did not have enough supply when she decided to sell her home back in the Berkshires and to move in with us. Byron  quickly ran back to the Berkshires and started digging up the raspberry bushes in order to transplant them in our back yard.  We now have had our very own BBTS vintage Raspberry Jams since 2007. Since Raspberry plants take a few years to start producing in any quantity......let me say in a nutshell, we rationed our supply....Hopefully not disappointing our repeat guests that kept asking us to sell them jars to take home.   I am happy to report that we now have in our freezer Vintage 2009 and a nice big raspberry patch that we hope will produce many jars of jam this summer. So now on to the spicy....

Byron - two notes about the spicy side of things here on Cape Cod.  We went to a restaurant, now closed, that featured coastal cooking including New Orleans style food.  I thought, YEAH, and asked for Jalapeno Peppers.  Fifteen minutes later the waitress comes back and says they do not know what they are, but are these peppers close?     THEY WERE SWEET FOR GOODNESS SAKES.    Well, we know that New Englanders are generally reserved, including their food of course, and I resigned myself to just a little store bought tobassco sauce and seldom even asked our guests if they wanted a little spice in their life, oops, I mean on their food.  Then one day a long haired 60 year old hippie with a pony tail to his waist is eating breakfast at our Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast and he surreptitiously whips out a bottle from his back pocket and douses the eggs and potatoes with it.  Oh dear, is it possible?   He is the mad food chemist from Mechanicsville New York with Pre Apocalyptic and Armageddon hot sauces.  and our absolute favorite, "The Smoking Habs". This is an incredible mole style Habanero sauce. So we now keep a a case of the Smokin Habs on site to spice up your savory dishes and all is well now that we, Donna and I, are fully integrated personalities, sweet, hot and spicy.

So, when you come to Brewster By The Sea, you should get both the spicy and the sweet at breakfast from Donna and Byron. Being a Bed and Breakfast far away on Cape Cod, you should be prepared to bring your own hot, sweet, and spicy nature to your getaway as well.

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