Loaves of white bread are entering and leaving the oven on a long wooden paddle. Rounded boules cooling, rich with chunks of dark Belgian chocolate — and ciabatta, seven grain bread, potato and onion …
Read articleExplorations — Great Barrington in holiday season
One day when I had a story interview in the Southern Berkshires, I came early to wander through downtown Great Barrington, looking for locally made gifts.
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 articleThe Ancient Beauty of the Hoosic and the Housatonic
Tricia De Souza’s North Adams podcast continues with an in-depth look at the life, history and future of the Hoosic River.
Listen to podcastQuilting thrives with a contemporary energy
From college dorms to quilt shops, an old New England artform is alive in the Berkshires, in patterns and textures from leaves and landscapes to contemporary abstract color.
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 articleUnexpected encounters around the full moon (October 20 newsletter)
Mindy Miraglia is good at finding places like this. She and Berkshire Camino are leading a guided walk on a fall morning from Housatonic to Chesterwood …
Read articleMeadows turn golden below three-mile ridge (August 18 newsletter)
The day is bright with a heat we rarely feel up here in the mountains, and the brook runs shallow here in the sand with Joe Pye weed on the banks …
Read articleW.E.B. DuBois strengthens the soul of a community (February 17 newsletter)
This morning I remembered a day in July in a garden along the Housatonic River. A woman was singing in a strong, rich alto, leading a spiritual in the W.E.B. Dubois memorial garden, and we were thinking about how he felt about the town where he was born.
Read articleWill Amado Syldor-Severino speaks to silence
Will Amado Syldor-Severino, a senior fellow with Americorps Massachusetts Promise, is holding his three-week-old son, Abi, on a winter day, as he talks about diversity, his work with local teens and painful issues too often left unsaid.
Read article