SALISBURY — The popular Noble Horizons Chili Cook-off, a highlight of the Fall Festival, returned this year after a one-year hiatus. More than 150 people came to Noble on Sunday to sample 35 different types of chili (15 made by professional chefs, 20 by amateurs). The judges for the professional category were Carol Lalli, former editor-in-chief of Food and Wine magazine; Michelle Scicolone, editor of “Joy of Cooking,” and Irene Sax, a former food editor for Newsday. The amateur entries were judged by tasters in a People’s Choice vote. This year, three chefs tied for first place. All three won stuffed chili necklaces made by artisans in Stockbridge, Mass., as well as gift certificates to the Country Store at Noble. This year for the first time the contest was held at Noble, in the community room. In recent years, it had been held on the town Green, in front of The White Hart inn —although the first competition 10 years ago was held behind what is now the Country Bistro in Salisbury (when it was Thyme Enz Harvest). “Despite exhaustive efforts to secure a new in-town location after the White Hart closed, we could not find a location able to handle the event’s needs,” reported Caroline Burchfield, director of community relations for Noble, and the organizer of the cook-off. “We regretfully canceled plans for the 2011 cook-off and hoped that the White Hart Green would be available in 2012. When it became clear that it would not reopen in time for the 2012 Fall Festival, we made the decision to move to Noble Horizons.”A special shuttle was available for transportation along the Chili Trail from the center of town to the Cobble Road retirement village. “The number of guests always varies by the weather,” Burchfield said, “but we were at absolute full capacity at the peak of the event. The weather drove us indoors, and it worked beautifully. A nice byproduct was the opportunity it afforded Noble residents to enjoy a festive afternoon with fellow community members.”This year’s cook-off was sponsored by St. John’s Episcopal Church and ConnecticutCare.Live music by Goza had the judges and tasters dancing to a mellow salsa beat throughout the event. The top three prizes in the professional category this year went to the Oakhurst Diner in Millerton (first place), the Boathouse Restaurant in Lakeville (second) and LaBonne’s Market in Salisbury (third). The three nonprofessionals who tied for first place were Stephen Smith with his Texan Red; Ryan Castaldi with his Sasquatch Chili and Geoff Sherrill with his Celestial Chili.
Latest News
Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
Provided
Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
