Winter Edition 2024 - Digital Edition
“I think we have the ability to continue to offer really quality recreational opportunities within the park. But we don’t feed and house people in the park. That happens in the towns. And that’s where we have to have, again, this ongoing conversation about what do we want our collective future to look like?”
Inside an inconspicuous blue building off the side of the highway in North Truro, lies one of Cape Cod’s most adored businesses — Atlantic Spice. It’s a food-lover’s dream, filled with high quality spices, oils, condiments, cooking gadgets, and more (not to mention the staggeringly impressive wall of tea in the back, which contains a wider variety of products than you are likely to find anywhere else on Cape).
Eleanora Irving, who owns the business along with her husband Mark and their business partner Neil Hanscom (who operates another store all the way out in San Francisco), says that quality is central to their business model. Whether sourcing lavender from Provence, saffron from Spain, or whole peppercorns from Indonesia, “We really try to get the best thing,” Irving says.
Before opening the store, Irving and her husband were both teachers in the Provincetown school system. But when Hanscom introduced the two to his business on the West Coast, Irving says they “fell in love” with the idea.
And it’s no surprise that locals (as well as many online customers from around the country) have also fallen in love with the incredible quality that Atlantic Spice delivers. “The store has taken on a world of its own,” says Irving, “I know this might sound a little cheesy, but we really have the best people, the best clients.” These clients are partially tourists and daytrippers, yes — but also a number of restaurants and other businesses in the local area and beyond, who source much of their supplies of herbs and spices from the North Truro purveyor. In a way, Atlantic Spice is the great equalizer of Cape Cod — everyone here, tourist or local, seems to have shopped there at some point.
And the trip is well worth it. The store’s prices can be hard to beat and the selection is outstanding. Notably, some hyper-specific varieties of tea cover the shelves, ranging from greens to blacks to oolongs and pu-ers — some of which you otherwise might find yourself driving an hour or two up the Massachusetts coast or scouring the internet to find. These and other unique products make Atlantic Spice an absolutely vital location for local shoppers.
Irving says the key to the business’s success lies in their employees. “We’re pretty proud about our staff,” she says, “Our staff, I have to say, is quite knowledgeable and they’re constantly looking for new products.” Additionally, she says the store is incredibly lucky to have a team that loves to cook and test out new products, especially ones they might be unfamiliar with. The result is a level of expertise that can dramatically improve the shopping experience.
It’s clear that Irving and her team are incredibly passionate about what they do, and about the diverse range of customers they serve. Some order online, some in-person, and some even do all their business by mail or by phone. But to Irving, it doesn’t matter. “Everyone’s a customer,” she says, “It doesn’t matter if they come in and [just] buy a spice jar for $2.50 — everybody is a customer [and] we try to treat everyone equally.”
Larkin Poe, who last performed at Payomet in September 2022, win Best Contemporary Blues Album for Blood Harmony
Béla Fleck, who last performed at Payomet in July 2022, wins Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for As We Speak with Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, and Rakesh Chaurasia
Béla Fleck also wins Best Global Music Performance for the song “Pashto” on the same album
Buckwheat Zydeco Jr., who last performed at Payomet in July 2023, wins Best Regional Roots Music Album for New Beginnings
Blind Boys of Alabama, who last performed at Payomet in April 2022, win Best Roots Gospel Album for Echoes of the South
In mid-January, several members of the Payomet Team attended the APAP Global Performing Arts Conference in New York City. APAP|NYC is the world’s premier gathering of the performing arts presenting, booking, and touring industry, as well as the annual members conference of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals. Payomet’s leadership team– Kevin Rice, Lara Henry, Allison Welch, Ellen Rubenstein and Jeanne O’Neil– spent four intense and rewarding days/nights soaking up ideas, sharing industry knowledge, previewing showcased artists, meeting with agents, and learning a ton about how the performing arts industry is evolving and adapting to challenges.
Aside from seminars on topics ranging from the Impact of AI on Presenting and Touring, Contemporary Circus, Operational Safety and Development, Marketing and Community Engagement– the team surveyed national and international touring acts at clubs and venues across Manhattan, including globalFest at Lincoln Center, which showcases emerging artists from around the world. And if that wasn’t enough, Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of The Equal Justice Initiative, gave a moving and powerful keynote address, reminding us all why the arts matter, especially during these fracturious times. His words still resonate, “Hopelessness is dangerous. Hopelessness is the enemy of justice”. Mr Stevenson was joined on stage by Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist for the New York Philharmonic and the first African-American principal player in the organization’s history.
APAP is truly a phenomenal resource for a regional, site-specific performing arts center like Payomet and it is thrilling to meet up with cohorts in such a highly attended and social environment. APAP fosters collaborations and learning connections amongst artists, agents, presenters, and other industry professionals – all while expanding networks and strengthening our collective future.
By Jaiden van Bork
This fall, Jennifer Flynn took over as the superintendent of the Cape Cod National Seashore, following former superintendent Brian Carlstrom’s promotion to regional director of the Intermountain Region of the National Park Service in Denver. Flynn arrives in this position at a pivotal time for the seashore, and amidst a number of developing environmental, social, political, and economic concerns for the region. But as a former employee of the Seashore, where she started her Parks Service career, Flynn may very well be the perfect candidate to tackle these complex challenges. Jaiden van Bork spoke with her via video call this past month, to get a sense of what’s next for the Seashore.
[The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity]
You began your NPS career as a temporary employee at the Cape Cod National Seashore. How does it feel to be returning to this location after more than three decades of work with the Parks Service?
Well, how does it feel? My first thought was, it feels great. I mean, I started my career on the Cape, I met my husband here — I’ve worked all over the country, but we’ve always come back here. My two older children worked with the Seashore as seasonal employees also, so we’ve come back as a family over time. And so it is really comfortable being here, you know? It really does feel like a homecoming in lots of different ways. And so I am super grateful that my career let me come back to sort of finish where I started.
What would you say that you are looking forward to most about living on the Cape?
Frankly, I am just so happy to be back in this natural environment. I love to be on the beach, beachcombing. I’ve been walking the beach all winter. I truly just love this natural environment. And so that has been so nice to be able to leave the house and go walk on the beach for half an hour and listen to the surf and just sort of get grounded.
The other piece for me is being part of these communities again. I’ve said to folks before, I sort of grew up here; I started working for the seashore when I was 20, I left when I was 26 and married. And I just love being in the Outer Cape. I had different part-time jobs with some of the towns and so I’m just really excited to get re-immersed in the community again, too….
There are so many different amazing beaches and hiking trails that the Seashore contains, do you have a favorite and why?
I do. I’m gonna have to probably come up with more than one favorite (I feel like I favor a town), but I adore Herring Cove. One of my most favorite things to do is to walk Herring Cove at low tide and go out towards the race. That is just such an ever-changing, natural landscape there. My oldest son and I really enjoy going there in the summer and just floating and walking and just spending the hours in that environment. Most of the time I worked here, I worked in Provincetown and Truro, and I lived some in Wellfleet — so most of my time has been spent North. We [also] spent a lot of time at Marconi as a family. Now we live near Marconi. So I’m sure we’ll be there a lot too. But Herring Cove will always sort of have a very special place for me.
For locals here, we’re super familiar with all of the sort of complex challenges that are faced by this particular park and this particular environment. What are you most concerned about and what challenges are you thinking about in terms of the Seashore coming into this position?
Yeah, so there’s a couple, of course. I’ve been in just my sixth or seventh week of work, so I’m starting to get my feet under me, but clearly, I still have a lot to learn.
Coming in, clearly, climate change is going to be something that we have to actively address. We’ve already seen beach erosion just in this last storm — we’ve lost dune, you know, cliff under some of our structures. And so, that is clearly not something that’s going to stop. So, how we’re gonna manage moving forward to still provide access for folks and to provide recreational opportunities for folks — but in a sustainable way — is clearly a big challenge in front of the park.
I think — like the rest of the community — affordable housing and how to support our employees is clearly something that needs to be on my radar. I came from the Washington office working on national issues related to firefighter health and wellness, and that came up over and over again — housing. You know, what are the living conditions for folks? And while I’m not on the national platform anymore, sort of all politics are local, right? I mean, the same challenges our folks have, and the challenges that our entry-level employees have are the same challenges that employees in the towns, working for the local businesses have. So thinking about how we allow for folks to live and work here is something that I’m very interested in, being part of the solution around and thinking about.
The other thing that is clearly on my radar — again, largely from my work [over] the last three and a half years — is fire. I was responsible for wildland fire for the entire National Park Service. And so I’ve been thinking a lot about defensible space around structures and making sure that if we have a fire, we have options — that we give the firefighters the best opportunity to be successful. So, thinking about that, and working with the towns around fire breaks and clearance around homes. Those sorts of things are probably the three things that walk in the door with….
You mentioned wanting to practice sustainability and preserve the environment, while also enabling access for people. Here on Cape, obviously, it’s an incredibly tourist-driven economy, which generates significant revenue. I wonder if you think there’s a conflict between wanting to conserve this space and also have this kind of tourism industry.
I’m not sure I would frame it as a conflict. I mean, there’s a sustainability or a carrying capacity question — which I think is a much broader question beyond the Seashore. When we think about things like available freshwater, waste water, trash — that’s a bigger community conversation. [But] when I think about the Seashore and the Seashore’s carrying capacity. I think we have the ability to absorb additional recreation.
When I worked here in the 90s, very frequently, our parking lots filled. And as a visitor over the last decade, it’s very rare that you can’t get into a beach parking lot if you want to go to the beach. And talking with the staff, we don’t have those sorts of days often where we’re turning people away. So, I think the seashore has the ability to absorb visitors and we have parking, we have bathroom facilities. I think the bigger conversation and perhaps the conflict is: as a community, how much can we absorb if we have limited resources? You know, again, freshwater is the one that comes to mind. I think those are the pinch points.
I think we have the ability to continue to offer really quality recreational opportunities within the park. But we don’t feed and house people in the park. That happens in the towns. And that’s where we have to have, again, this ongoing conversation about what do we want our collective future to look like?
This past year, the seashore announced that it was going to be demolishing these 44 different buildings throughout the park. Could you tell me a little bit about that project and how it’s going at this particular moment?
I’m sure that’s not what I actually can speak to very deeply. What I can say is that it’s done. I know we’ve completed the demolition. And I’m not sure if all of the site restorations are done or not. But that would be a better question for the deputy superintendent. I just don’t have the details on that one.
Aside from what you mentioned earlier, in terms of the challenges that you’re thinking about — are there any sort of specific goals that you have in mind, in terms of what you want to make happen?
No, I mean, I’ve worked with the seashore now three times — I was here in the 90s, came back in 2008 on a detail working for the superintendent’s office, and now in 2024, I’m back. So, I really have tried not to come in with a preconceived notion, right? The seashore that I knew, in the 90s as a temporary employee – it’s evolved in the last 30 years. And so, I’ve been intentional about trying not to presuppose what the most urgent factors are and really listen to the staff and listen to our partners about what needs my time and attention most urgently. I brought goals I’ve already talked about — I would really like to make the Seashore a most [desirable] workplace. I think it’s a great place to live and work and I hope we continue to draw really great talent to the seashore.
As a superintendent, my job is to work with all of our communities and partners — and we have a lot of them. I’m really looking forward to understanding all of our different partner missions and figuring out what our role is in that relationship. And how do we elevate their work, while they support the seashore? And so, I absolutely want to spend this summer, this year, really getting to know our friends and partners. And I think, by next fall, I might have some more specific goals, but I really want to hear and see what the current state is, before I make presumptions about where we need to go based on my past experience.
A Note from the Editor
Hello, North Truro (and the rest of the towns too, I guess)!
We’ve been away for a while. It’s felt like years — decades, even — since the last issue of the Truro Tent has graced the countertops of local businesses. You may have even wondered if we’d forgotten about you, dear reader. But the Truro Tent never forgets.
As the only outdoor music venue in Barnstable County with its own newspaper (as far as I’m aware), we feel obligated to provide you with top-notch reporting on the goings-on of the Payomet multiverse. And oh boy — have we got an issue for you this month!
I had the pleasure of speaking to Jennifer Flynn, the brand new superintendent of the Cape Cod National Seashore this past week. Flynn has returned to the Cape (a familiar location for her), to replace recently-promoted former superintendent Brian Carlstrom, who had served in the role since 2018. As stewards of some of our most significant (and most fragile) natural resources on the Cape, the leadership of the Parks Service plays a tremendously important role in life in the region.
Inside, you will also find a Sponsor Spotlight on the beloved Atlantic Spice, as well as a briefing from some members of our team who attended the APAP Global Performing Arts Conference this past January.
Also make sure to check the front cover for some updates from the recent GRAMMY awards ceremony, where multiple Payomet alumni had some big wins.
All in all, it’s a whopper of an issue — which just goes to show that after all, it’s worth it to stick around for the off-season!
Catch you in the spring!
– Jaiden van Bork, Editor, the Truro Tent
