Pumpkin tarts and spicy chocolate mousse … clam chowder and crusty baguette … where does New England meet a French pâtissière? In Stockbridge, Claire Raposo runs the Lost Lamb bakery and cafe.
Read articleThe Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook savors local stories
On a warm and quiet day, Elisa Spungen Bildner was sitting with Kim Wells, the farmer at East Mountain Farm in Williamstown. They had walked up into the woods where his pigs forage in summer …
Read articleA-Ok Barbecue spices up take-out in style
She is an Australian artisanal bread baker trained in New York. He is a former Manhattan chef and a butcher — a Russian Hungarian Jew from Connecticut. Together, at A-Ok, they are inventing Berkshire barbecue.
Read articleCamp closures affect local businesses in the pandemic
In a normal summer, I would be a counselor at URJ Crane Lake Camp, and right about now, my friends and I would be walking into West Stockbridge on our hour-off for a muffin and iced-tea from No. Six Depot Roastery and Café or a grilled sandwich from the Public […]
Read articleThe Prairie Whale adapts in a Covid world
At the Prairie Whale in Great Barrington, strings of lights are gleaming above the tables on the lawn. Most of the chairs are full on a Friday night, and voices carry over the grass. The diners and the waiters are all wearing masks.
Read articleRound House Bakery closes at Hubbard Hall and regroups in the pandemic
Scott and Lisa Carrino have built a local community around the Round House Bakery Café, and the pandemic has closed their restaurant at Hubbard Hall. They will keep their bakery running at Pompanuck Farm in White Creek.
Read articleThe Foundry gathers independent and generous souls in West Stockbridge
In its first year, the Foundry has become the kind of place where musicians from Pittsfield High School may play informally on the patio, or a cast of New York and local actors may share a potluck and talk late.
Read articleFarmers Markets ripen across the Berkshires in summer
A table at the front holds hand-turned bowls. I once saw that dark rippling on creamy wood in an old farmhouse near here, and the man who lived there told me it was spalted maple, and fungi cause that pattern, but they often leave the wood too brittle to work, so […]
Read articleIoka Valley Farm serves maple syrup in mud time
The steam off the boilers smells richly sweet. The whole room is filled with it — open the door and step in, and you’re dipped whole into damp, warm air and the scent of maple sap boiling down.
Read articlePleasant and Main brightens a winter day
My first impression was that you couldn’t get more essentially New England than this. My second was that I didn’t know anyone in New England could make this cup of coffee. I first came to Pleasant and Main in Housatonic on a winter evening after a snowfall. It was tea-time […]
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