This weekend we celebrate Father’s Day in the United States. Many of us will take a moment to thank the special caregivers in our lives who offer us their love, kindness, and support. Taking them out to celebrate? Our slate of programs can set the stage for a fun-filled day for the entire family. Check out our BBQ’s and picnics, featuring live music, pizza, beer, and more. 

Special events for the holiday weekend include the Father’s Day Pizza & BBQ Bash at Appleton Farms in Ipswich & Hamilton, Father’s Day Bluegrass BBQ at Powisset Farm in Dover, and Yoga and Family Yoga at deCordova in Lincoln. 

This Friday is the one and only Friday the 13th of 2025, and what better way to celebrate than by watching Friday the 13th (1980) and Friday the 13th (2009) outdoors in Rocky Woods in Medfield! Our friends at the Coolidge Corner Theatre are back for the annual tradition. Popcorn, candy, beer, wine, and seltzer will be available for purchase. 

Head to a cooking class! At The FARM Institute on Martha’s Vineyard, learn how to prepare and enjoy unique perennial foods in an engaging workshop. Harvested from the Food Forest at the MVP Charter School, a wide range of greens, herbs, currants and medicinals will be prepared and tasted during the class. Instructors Roxanne Kapitan, who created the garden, and cookbook author Cathy Walthers, will wow participants with new tastes and garden possibilities for their own backyard. This program is free of charge thanks to a grant from the Cedar Tree Foundation. 

At Powisset Farm in Dover, join Sweet Harvest: a Strawberry Picking and Cooking Class. Begin your experience with a stroll to the strawberry fields, where you can pick the strawberries straight from the patch. After Harvesting, head to the kitchen classroom for a cooking demonstration, transforming freshly picked strawberries into Strawberry and Garlic Fermented Honey Salsa, Strawberry Ice cream topped with a Toasted Mint Peanut Coconut “Gremolata”, and Strawberry Mixed Green Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette and Fennel pollen. 

Take a tour! Inside, outside, by foot, by boat, by truck, we have it all! This weekend, enjoy a special Curator’s Tour: of ‘a good many hands’, on exhibit now at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard. Join Senior Curator Christie Jackson for a behind-the-scenes view of the exhibit ‘a good many hands’ with special access to objects and the stories behind them. On Nantucket, Coskata-Coatue Natural History Tours are back. Take a sunset kayak tour with Crane Outdoors, in Ipswich. Engage your curious budding gardener or adventurer in our new Little Sprouts in the Garden series, a monthly themed program to connect your child with the natural world around us. This month’s program at Long Hill in Beverly is a Pollinator Story Trail. Or, if you’re on the South Shore, take a Bird Walk at World’s End in Hingham.