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Longtime Greenfield Chief of Police Brian Giammarino, center, has retired. Also pictured are Sgt. Frank Shea, left, and Officer Mike Eneguess. -
The opening weekend of Flag Leaf Bakery at its new location in Greenfield saw long lines of loyal customers. The Blackfire Farm shop is open at the same location. -
Crowds lined up at the opening of Flag Leaf bakery in the end of June. -
Jesseca Timmons
Probably the biggest news in Greenfield these days as that our beloved police chief, Brian Giammarino, has retired. Giammarino nearly retired a few years back, but he stayed to help the town during staff shortages.
The chief being who he is, he did not want any fanfare or fuss made about his departure. Many thanks to Giammarino for his long years of service — always with patience, and always with a smile — to the Town of Greenfield. Best wishes to the chief in his retirement!
Greenfield is incredibly fortunate to have Sgt. Frank Shea stepping in to run the Police Department in the interim. Keep up the good work!
The other big news in town is that Flag Leaf Bakery and the Blackfire Farm farm shop are now open! It is a little startling to drive through Greenfield on Friday and Saturday mornings and see a long line of people outside the historic building known as “Blacksmith Shop” — which does contain an actual blacksmith, Vinnie Anfuso of the Greenfield Forge.
If anyone is not familiar with Flag Leaf Bakery, they have a cult following all across New England. People will drive hours for their pastry, bread, pretzels, bialys, scones, what my mother-in-law called “bars,” cookies, pie by the slice and pizza.
Flag Leaf is especially known for “cruffins,” which are muffin-shaped concoctions of croissant dough and homemade cream filling. They are worth waiting in line for, snow, sleet or heat wave.
Flag Leaf is currently launching its pre-order website. It will have a limited amount of products available for people who are not able to wait in line or are coming from a long distance; but most of the stock will be available for people who wait in line.
Flagleaf’s online shop will be open every Thursday morning unless otherwise posted, with the menu posted until Friday at 6:30 a.m. for Friday pickup. For a Saturday pickup, orders at the online shop will be open Friday at 2 p.m. until Saturday at 6:30 a.m. Please note if you order online, you will still have to wait in line to pick up your order, so Flagleaf recommends coming closer to noon if you have purchased baked goods online.
Flag Leaf’s online ordering can be found at flag-leaf-online.square.site. You can find live announcements on their Facebook and Instagram pages.
Flag Leaf would also like to remind people to please not park in the Delay’s Harvester Market parking lot if the lot next to the bakery is full. There is parking available on the street around the common as well as in the town lot behind the Harvester lot.
The Blackfire Farm shop brings meat and produce grown right here in Greenfield or at Blackfire’s land in Hancock. Support our local farmers, sustainable practices for the land and humane farming. For information, go to blackfirefarmnh.com.
Somehow it is already the fourth annual Greenfield Cardboard Regatta. This year’s regatta is Aug. 9, 9 a.m. to noon. As always, the Greenfield Recreation Department (also known as the very hardworking Kayla Kokal) is partnering with the Greenfield Recycling Center to provide cardboard. Just stop by the Recycling Center and ask CJ or Bill for large cardboard for your boat, and they will help you out.
The Recreation Department will award prizes for Most Spectacular Sinking, Fastest Vessel, Best Design and Best Dressed Crew. There will also be a Town Departments Showdown. Will the Recycling Center defend its title? Will the library make a powerful showing? Will DPW put their engineering know how to work? Find out on Aug. 9!
Recently, my sister and her family were here on their annual visit from New Zealand. This year, they stayed on Gregg Lake and were captivated by the beauty of the lake. One of my nephews said, “There are no lakes like this with forest-y hills like this in New Zealand.”
Since New Zealand is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, it always makes me happy to hear how much my nephews love New Hampshire. One thing they especially love is “how many lakes there are to swim in,” and that it is “never crowded!” They are especially fond of our little town beach at Sunset Lake, and they love Mi Corazon Mexican Grill. How lucky are we in Greenfield?
Jesseca Timmons is always looking for ideas for The Greenfield Beat. You can reach her at jtimmons@ledgertranscript.com.