You can sit on the terrace on a summer night with Rodin and Renoir behind you and look out over the reflecting pool to cows in the pasture at The Clark Art Institute.
READ MOREThe milking parlor smelled of hay and frost. Standing in the barn on a winter day, I remembered the dairy on my grandparents’ farm. I was young enough then to climb on the pasture fence and look up at a dairy cow. I would rub her forehead. She would lip my shirt and lick my elbow with a rough tongue.
I was looking for a wheel of cheese for my dad, who gave me those days years ago. And this is why I like local shops. They’re places that feel like they belong somewhere. They have their own scents and sounds and ideas, and I like meeting the people who keep them running.
On a rainy Saturday afternoon, I can be talking with the owner of the bookshop about what’s new on the shelves and what’s going on with the Hoosac River. A song comes on the speakers that I first heard DJing in the college radio station, and someone new to town drifts in to join us.
The experiences are alive around us, as the people are, and a taste or a scent can bring them vividly close.
Local shops and artisans
filter by location or typeBear and Bee Bookshop
Jennifer Stevens and Rye Howard took the leap of opening a bookshop in a pandemic, with focuses in science fiction and fantasy, health and the land and more.
READ MORECheshire Glassworks
In her studio, Jill Reynolds is making glass beads. She melts a rod of colored glass over a flame until it runs like taffy and then catches the strand of glass it around a thin metal wire, turning it …
READ MOREChocolate Springs
Joshua Needleman makes his own chocolate from scratch in Lenox. Dark chocolate caramelized hazlenuts. Melting bars of ganache flavored with raspberry or spice. Chocolate Springs is half kitchen and a wizard’s lair. And it is also a café.
READ MOREPlant Connector
Boston ferns hang overhead, trailing long green fronds, and tiny begonias sit in the window … The Plant Connector is a warm, bright space, and it’s vividly green.
READ MOREWild Soul River
On a winter night, the lights are warm. The walls are lined with jars of rose petals and spearmint, gentle herbs, and chairs sit in a circle by the window inviting you to put your feet up and sip your tea.
READ MOREArrowhead
Herman Melville and his family were living in the Berkshires, in a farmhouse in Pittsfield, while he wrote ‘Moby-Dick’ in the 1850s. From his desk, he could see the outline of Mount Greylock above the surrounding hills, and it reminded him of a sperm whale’s back in the water, when the whale came up to breathe.
READ MOREGreylockWorks
Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry have renovated a 240,000 cotton mill on Route 2 near the North Adams / Williamstown line into GreylockWorks, a center for local food and events.
READ MOREThe Bookstore
The Bookstore in Lenox has been ‘serving the community since last Tuesday’ for more than 40 years with contemporary fiction and a deep collection of poetry, Judaica, science, history … and readings in the Get Lit wine bar.
READ MOREWilliamstown Farmers Market
Duck egg tacos with hot sausage and greens? Baklava and fresh moussaka? The Williamstown Farmers Market brings Farmers, food producers, artists and artisans to Spring Street from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday from May to October.
READ MORETunnel City Coffee
A college hangout and an anchor on Spring Street for decades, Tunnel City roasts its own coffee and has a loyal following — it roasts its own blends locally in the renovated Norad Mill in North Adams.
READ MOREDottie’s Coffee Lounge
Even the name swings like speakeasy jazz. Dottie’s Coffee Lounge is a classic. It’s neighborhood hangout with fairground lights and vintage clothing and local artwork on the walls.
READ MORENorad Mill
Moresi & Associates has drawn more than 40 local businesses to the renovated Norad Mill — artists and artisans, coffee and local wines, vintage records, yarn shops and even rocks and minerals.
READ MOREMoon in the Pond Farm
Dominic Palumbo raises Highland cattle, Jersey geese, Dorset sheep and other heritage breeds, as he grows vegetables and forages for local flavors and aromatics.
READ MOREWindy Hill
The farm market carries blueberries and garden plants in the summer, apples and pumpkins in the fall, winterberry and wreathes and evergreens in the winter.
READ MOREBerkshire Mountain Bakery
or more than 40 years, Richard Bourdon has been baking European-style sourdough breads in an old brick building that once belonged to the Rising Paper Mill.
READ MOREHigh Lawn Farm
You can stop in for ice cream or farmstead cheese and sit at a picnic table, looking across the field where the young calves are out to pasture — High Lawn Farm in Lee now has its own creamery store.
READ MORESohn Fine Art
Photographer Cassandra Sohn founded Sohn Fine Art 2011, focusing on contemporary photography and unconventional mediums.
READ MOREShire Breu-hous
Andrew Crane and Nick Whalen have opened the Shire Breu-Hous in the Stationery Factory in downtown Dalton and turned a corner of the old mill into a restaurant and microbrewery — they have a dozen brews on tap.
READ MOREStationery Factory
An old brick mill in the heart of Crane & Company territory has been renovated into space for arts and small businesses. It has a mainstage with professional sound and lighting, and often hosts live music on Saturday nights.
READ MOREBerkshire Mountain Café
French toast from sourdough chocolate bread, with local maple syrup; cherry pecan French toast with sweetened goat cheese and honey … imagine the possibilities. Aura Whitman, former owner of Café Reva, has joined forces with Berkshire Mountain Bakery’s pizzeria and café — and they are forces of nature.
READ MOREWing and a Prayer
Cardinal flower and turtlehead, marsh marigold and hazel bushes, St. John’s Wort and wild iris … Amy Pulley grows and offers native plants at Honey Hill.
READ MOREHancock Shaker Village
From 1783 to 1960, a Shaker community lived and farmed here. Today the village is a living history museum known for its Round Stone Barn, with farm animals and CSA gardens, art and craft, and dinners and music.
READ MOREWhitney’s Farm Market
From spring to fall, Whitney’s Farm Market on Route 8 is open with greens, fruits and vegetables, pick-your-own berries in season, deli sandwiches and ice cream, and the garden center carries perennial and annual flowers and more.
READ MORENorthshire Bookstore
I’m standing by a pyramid of hardbacks in Northshire Bookstore in Manchester. I’ve wanted to come here for years, and it’s living up to the anticipation. The shelves are almost twice as tall as I am.
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