The strawberry plants are small enough to hold in a palm, but some of them have blossoms forming. I’m cupping them in my hands and pressing them gently into the earth.
Read articleNative plant nurseries bloom in small towns and reach out to local farms and land trusts. Garden centers have grown here for generations, from local farms to the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge.
Fresh cheese and sourdough: Farmers markets and plant sales — #Berkshireweekend
And suddenly it’s May. We feel the change coming for weeks, fizzing in catkins and lapping up the lower slopes — and then the sun comes out and the maples open their leaves, and the world turns green again.
Read articleYou’re going to meet some gentle people there — #Berkshireweekend
Naumkeag’s annual spring festival is far enough along that the daffodils are wide open and just starting to give ground, and the tulips are all in full blow.
Read articleClay from an outdoor fire-pit carries ‘Volumes’
Wood-firing ceramics in an open-face pit is a volatile craft — Karlene Kantner can spend 12 hours and more stoking the fire when she makes the clay vessels she has shown at Berkshire Botanical Garden.
Read articleCuring cabin fever with bright color — #Berkshireweekend
I’ve walked into the Plant Connector on a winter night, whenNorth Adams is quiet, and Meg Bantle and Laura Tupper-Palches from Full Well Farm are teaching a workshop on how to make flower crowns.
Read articleThankful for the mountains — #berkshireweekend
Windy Hill Orchard grows rows of winterberry bushes every year. You can walk into a sea of scarlet higher than your head, and they’re bright even on cold, cloudy afternoons.
Read articleWhat’s your first real taste of summer? — #Berkshireweekend
You know the feeling when something hits home and you feel your expression shift instinctively — like tasting something that surprises you with its flavor?
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 articleExploring Cummington and the hilltowns in summer
It’s quiet up here. Sometimes I’ll come up to the ridge to get away for awhile, out the back roads … and find unexpected and creative places.
Read articleWing and a Prayer wildflowers glow in high summer
I’m up at Amy Pulley’s native plant nursery on the ridge in Cummington, and it’s transformed in July into a sea of meadow flowers …
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