Sweet corn and peaches … the flavors mean late summer. We have a good month more of warm weather, but we feel the year begin to turn when the golden rod shows in the meadows.
Read articleKids and lambs meet at the Shaker Village
The barn is different on a spring night. Calves lie in the hay like deer in the undergrowth. Lambs sleep on their mother’s backs, and sometimes a chicken will join them for the warmth. ...
Read articleChestnuts are roasting — over the river and through the woods
I’ve never cracked a hard-boiled egg on my dashboard before … The whole day has been like this, zany and surprising. We’re picnicking in my car in unexpected sun, eating with our fingers, in the middle of an expedition.
Read articleWe have liftoff into the Northern Lights (Nov 17 newsletter)
The berries make a vivid streak along the road, and there’s something buoyant about that wash of color now against a grey sky.
Read articleOlsen Farm feeds the community
Kristen Tool and her husband, Chris Wheeler, keep six hives near a massive apple tree that has lived here, like his family, for a hundred years. They are building contemporary ways to support their family farm — and food systems and food security in the Berkshires at the same time.
Read articleIt’s a beautiful morning — I think I’ll go outside for awhile — #berkshireweekend
The earth felt cool and damp, and the sun was warm on the church steps, and I was holding a clump of bergamot in my arms. The Hilltown Seed Savers held a plant swap ...
Read articleBaby animals return to the Shaker farm
Bill Mangiardi holds a lamb a few days old. She has a twin brother, and their mother has not been feeding them equally, so Mangiardi offers her a bottle of warm milk from a generous nanny goat. ...
Read articleGreenhorns film seeks a new generation of farmers
A child licks the dasher from a hand-crank ice cream maker. A young couple bake bread in a brick oven. Greens sprout in a warehouse in Oakland, and a cheesemonger opens a stall at a green market in Manhattan. ... From Northeast hills to bay-area sprawl, they all belong to a new generation of farmers.
Read articleYoung farmers celebrate the land
They are awake in the dark, washing last week’s milk bottles. They are kneeling in the birthing pen, holding a newborn kid goat. They are setting out seedlings in trays and tuning up the 1940s tractor.
Read articleFarms offer maple syrup in sap houses — and online
Syrup and sugared nuts and fudge-like cream … the sap is boiling, and maple growers are expanding in the Berkshires with web shops. You can stop in for a quart or order one from home.
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