New Restaurant: Ferry Street Food & Drink

By Martha Bezzat Bonnie Blanchard contributed to this story. Behind every cucumber is a vine, and behind every vine is a gardener. Here are stories of Malden gardeners and why they love the green. Some of our interviewees asked that only their first name be used. Peggy Mixes Flowers and Veggies for Her “Quiet Place” Walking through Peggy’s vegetable garden in Ward 4 brought on salad cravings. Cucumbers vines wrapped around trellises, and green tomatoes seemed to watch as you walked among them. Peggy started gardening 34 years ago and grows her vegetable and flower gardens in her front yard, so they often invite neighborly chats which lead to her sharing her vegetables. Her garden is “her quiet place.”   She grows juliet tomatoes, romas, zucchini, summer squash, hot peppers, carrots, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, early girl tomatoes, basil, cilantro, parsley, romaine lettuce, banana peppers, spinach, swiss chard, kale, green beans, black beauty eggplants, and Japanese eggplants. She bought raised beds for her vegetable garden from Costco, as well as other gardening supplies, like soil and fertilizer.  Peggy rotates her crops […]

Photos and Text by Nicholas Forgione After more than 20 years of selling toy soldiers, board games, books and hobby supplies, the Hobby Bunker is retreating from 33 Exchange Street.   From its cavernous location beneath “the old CVS” at the eastern end of Pleasant Street, the Hobby Bunker was a place for local gamers and hobbyists to meet for games, show off their work in the store’s display cases, and purchase stuff for their  hobbies.  The Hobby  Bunker is also one of the last places in Malden, other than Stop & Shop and Walgreens,  that sells books.  According to its website, The Hobby Bunker will relocate on April 1 in Wakefield at 103 Albion St.  For Al, a Malden resident and long-time employee who asked that his last name not be used, this is more than a business relocation. “It is kind of crazy.  I have been coming here since I was a kid.” For Al, the Bunker leaving Malden represents the end of an institution. The gaming tables are a meeting place, similar to a local bar.   The staff knows its customers: Al has a pretty […]

Was the intent to keep incumbent Councilor-At-Large Debbie DeMaria off the November 3 ballot when the executive director for the Massachusetts Republican Party Brian Wynne and Malden Attorney Michael Williams filed a last-minute complaint with Malden’s city clerk, the Board of Registrar of Voters and the city solicitor?