Sweet corn and peaches … the flavors mean late summer. The later fruits are ripening, storing energy from months of sun. After a long day I slipped out one evening to check out the farm stand at Chenail’s on the way up toward Mount Greylock.
It was dusk and near closing time, and quiet twilight in the fields, and I looked through the last of the ears they’d picked that day. And then I slid into Wild Oats for fruit from Apex Orchards.
We have a good month more of warm weather, but round about now we feel the year begin to turn, when the plum tomatoes ripen at Caretaker Farm, and the Joe-Pye Weed is open in the wettest corner of the yard, and golden rod is starting to show in the meadows. And I want to get out into it while it’s here.
This weekend, my mother and I canned the tomato purée and picked peaches at the orchard up the road from her house … and made crisp with oats and cinnamon, and two batches of jam.
This weekend …
Corn stands and farm markets are open, from the Chenail Farm in Williamstown to Whitney’s in Cheshire and more. Peaches are ripening, and meadows at the Thomas Palmer Brook Preserve and marsh at Jackson Pond show late summer color.
Whitney's Farm Market in Cheshire grows its own sweet corn — and offers it in vintage style.
Goldenrod blooms at Thomas Palmer Brook Preserve in Great Barrington.
Arrowhead blooms by the boardwalk at Jackson Pond in Stockbridge.
The stream runs through wildflowers and meadow at Thomas Palmer Brook Preserve in Great Barrington.
Peaches ripen on a young tree at Olsen Farm in Lanesborough.
A cluster of yellow flowers open in August in the marsh around Jackson Pond at the foot of Yokun Ridge in Stockbridge.
Shrubs bloom in August in the marsh around Jackson Pond at the foot of Yokun Ridge in Stockbridge.
Events coming up …
Find more art and performance, outdoors and food in the BTW events calendar.
