News: The Return of the Farmers’ Markets
Across our region, several of the major farmer’s market are back in business for the season. What might you find this weekend? Various lettuces, spring mix, mesclun, arugula, kale, chard, broccoli rabe, asparagus, rhubarb, peas, mushrooms, spring garlic and herbs. You can also shop for milk, cheese, poultry, meat, fish, honey, maple syrup, wine, flowers, bread, pickles, jams, pies. There will also be lots of bedding plants for your garden and cut flowers. Every farmer may not show up the first weekend. In Hudson, they are calling it a “soft” opening, but promise that at least 20 vendors will be on hand by June 14. The Rhinebeck market is celebrating Mother’s Day by giving away free seedlings to all mothers compliments of the River Garden Flower Farm in Catskill, NY.
Great Barrington Farmers’ Market
At the historic train station behind Town Hall.
May 10 - October 25
Saturdays: 9 AM - 1 PM
Hudson Farmers’ Market
6th and Columbia Streets
May 10 - November 22
Saturdays: 9 AM - 1 PM
Kent Farmers’ Market
On the Kent Green
May 10 - October
Saturdays: 9 AM - noon
Lenox Farmers’ Market
55 Pittsfield Road (Route 7) at Aspinwell
May 9 - October 17
Fridays: 2 -6 PM
Rhinebeck Farmers’ Market
Rhinbeck Municipal Parking Lot on East Market Street
May 11 - Thanksgiving
Sundays: 10 AM - 2 PM
New day!
May 29 - October 9
Thursdays: 3 - 7 PM
Sheffield Farmer’s Market
New location!
Massini’s lot, 1/2 mile north of town center on Route 7
May 9 - October 10
Fridays: 3:30 - 6:30
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/08/08 at 07:16 AM (0) Comments • Permalink
A New BBQ Joint by the Housatonic
Vicki Halliday grew up in Texas, and her good ole girl attitude is reflected in Smokin Barbecue, the West Cornwall restaurant that she co-owns with her friend Dan Evans. Less than a hundred yards from a prime fishing and canoeing stretch of the Housatonic River, Smokin Barbecue is the type of joint where you can arrive in your waders or wet clothes, and sit down to a draft beer and baby back or country style ribs (in two sizes: $12.95 or $19.95), which come with a choice of a side such as potato salad or baked beans. The greenest thing on the menu at Smokin Barbecue is coleslaw, and Halliday says that she’s not planning to make changes any time soon. “This is my idea of a real barbecue place,” she says in a Texan twang, which means no reservations and no credit cards, either. There are old fashioned pinball machines to help pass the time if you have to wait. “Most kids who come in have never seen them before,” says Halliday. “They get a real kick out of them.”
The search for the right barbecue sauce for the ribs was easy, because it was Dan’s homemade sauce that inspired the restaurant in the first place. And it’s a picture of Dan dressed as an aborigine (at a Halloween party several years ago at Mohawk Mountain) that became the label for Dangerous Dan’s Sauce, which is for sale at the restaurant ($6.50) as well as local markets. “We started bottling the sauce last year in Russ’s kitchen,” explains Halliday, referring to Russ Sawicki, who owns the nearby Wandering Moose restaurant. “And people went crazy for it. People use the sauce to spice up Bloody Marys and meatballs, and vegetarians put it on tofu. They use it for the damndest things.”
9 Railroad Street; 860.248-3127
Thursdays (after Memorial Day) 5 - 11
Fridays 4 - 11
Saturdays noon - 11
Sundays noon - 5
Cash only
Tell-a-FriendPosted by Dan Shaw on 05/07/08 at 08:55 PM (0) Comments • Permalink
Oaxacan Night at the Southfield Store
The Southfield Store during the day
The Berkshire Babe was in heaven. “Wow!” she said. “This is the best mole I’ve ever had—it’s sweet, smoky, spicy, with layers of flavors. It gets better with every bite.” The mole, which was served with an astonishingly juicy and flavorful pork tenderloin ($20), is on the menu every Thursday when the Southfield Store has its Oaxacan Night. Since last year, the Southfield Store—an old general store that was gentrified in restrained Martha Stewart-style by a previous owner—has been owned by Peter Platt and Meredith Kennard of the redoubtable Old Inn on the Green. Now, they’ve let their chef—Gustavo A. Perez who worked with Peter at Wheatleigh years ago—cook the food of his native state on Thursday nights. “It’s hard to find real Mexican food in the Berkshires,” says Perez, who makes every taco and tostado to order. “That’s why the food comes out slow, but I think it’s worth it,” he says. It certainly is.
Waiting is part of the experience. With only six tables and a no reservation policy, the Southfield Store is not for Type A personalities. There is a small bar and full liquor service so you can have a margarita or a glass of wine during the inevitable wait. But if you check your attitude at the door, you can enjoy home-style food that is plated as if it were haute cuisine. Everything we had on our first visit made us happy: Crispy fish tacos ($9), chicken tamales with tomato sauce ($8), Quesadlila Oaxacan Style with queso fresco and mushrooms ($8) and tostados topped with quesillo ($8). The Berkshire Babe’s boyfriend vowed to return next Thursday to try the Pozole, Ensalada with Cactus leaves and Chile Releno. “But I’m not sure I want you to tell anybody about this place,” he said.
The Southfield Store
163 Main Street, Southfield MA; 413.229.5050
Breakfast & Lunch: Monday - Saturday, 7 AM - 5:30PM, Sunday Brunch 8 AM - 2 PM
Dinner: Thursday - Sunday, 5:30 - 9
Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/02/08 at 06:42 AM (3) Comments • Permalink
Summer Shares: Time’s Running Out to Join a CSA Farm
If you want to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm this summer you don’t have a moment to hesitate: Roxbury Farm in Kinderhook just sold its remaining shares on April 4. In northern Dutchess County, Sisters HIll Farm in Stanfordville is no longer accepting members, and Hearty Roots in Tivoli has a waiting list. Here’s a list of CSAs in our region that as far as we know are still accepting members. Some of these farms are not certified organic by the USDA even though they use organic farming methods. But forget labels: these farms allow you to see where your food is grown and get to know the men and women who are feeding you. It’s always better to eat local.
If we’ve left out a CSA farm in our region that is still selling shares, please let us know. And if you have tips for how to get the most of a farm share (like how to cook Swiss chard, kale and the other healthy greens that most CSAs grow), please go to the Comments section at the bottom of this post and share your wisdom.
Berkshire County
Caretaker Farm
1210 Hancock Road
Williamstown, MA
413-458-9691
Season: June - February
Pick-ups: Tuesday & Friday afternoons; Saturday mornings
Share: $365/$565 + $110 per adult per household
Farm Girl Farm
Pumpkin Hollow Road
North. Egremont, MA
413-528-1952
Season: mid-June through mid_November
Pick-ups: Tuesday afternoon or Saturday mornings
Full-share: $515; Summer Shares (mid-June - Labor Day): $360
Holiday Farm
Holiday Cottage Road
Dalton, MA
413-684-0444
Pick-ups: Tuesday or Thursday afternoons; Saturday mornings
Season: mid-June - late October
Large Share $400; Small Share $225
Indian Line Farm
7 Jug End Road
South Egremont, MA
413-528-8301
Pick-ups: Tuesday and Friday afternoons
Season: June - November
Regular Share: $550; Summer Share (June - Labor Day) $425; Working Share $350
Columbia County
81 Roxbury Road
Hudson, NY
518-851-2331
Pick-up: Tuesday afternoons
Season: June - October
Regular Share $425; Single Share $225
Hawthorne Valley Farm
327 Route 21C
Ghent (Harlemville)
NY; 518-672-7500
Pick-ups: Thursday afternoons
Season: June - November
Vegetable Share $440; Fruit and vegetable share $590
Red Oak Farm
1921 Route 9
Stuyvesant, NY
518-799-2052
Pick-ups Tuesdays & Friday
Season: May - November
Share: $385
16 Summit Street
Philmont, NY
518-672-5509
Pick-ups: Tuesday & Friday afternoons; Saturday mornings
Season: June - November
Share: $400
Litchfield County
Chubby Bunny Farm
Undermountain Road
Falls Village, CT
860-824-4362
Pick-ups: Tuesday & Friday afternoons
Season: June - November
Full-share: $575; half-share $325
Posted by Dan Shaw on 04/09/08 at 09:44 AM (3) Comments • Permalink
Chives: A Savory Second Act in Lakeville
Chef/owner David Wilburn with his wife, Sally
When you hear that a former New York investment banker has opened a restaurant, you don’t expect to find him behind the stove. But David Wilburn, who spent twenty years at PaineWebber, is in the kitchen six nights (and days) a week at Chives, his four-month-old restaurant in Lakeville, CT. Though he’s been a serious gourmand and weekend chef for 25 years, Wilburn is still a businessman, and he wasn’t about to let an amateur run his restaurant. So he enrolled in the 14-month program at the Center for Culinary Arts in Shelton, CT, before opening Chives. “Cooking school was the most fun I’d ever had as an adult,” he says. Wilburn used his teachers as his advisory council for the restaurant, asking their advice about kitchen design and operations. He even hired a classmate half his age to be his executive chef. 
Wilburn and his wife, Sally, who runs the front of the house, envision Chives as a white tablecloth restaurant with serious food but no pretensions. “We expect people to come in jeans,” says Sally, who worked as a paralegal in a white-shoe law firm when they lived in the city and took charge of the restaurant’s decor. “We decorated it as if it were our living room,” she says, noting that she splurged on Brunschwig & Fils curtains and Ralph Lauren paint. “We tried dozens of yellows and it was the best.”
David’s passion for cooking is reflected in the complex flavors he brings together in dishes such as prawns with grilled fennel salad and green-and-yellow zucchini “tartar” ($11); seared blackfin tuna and soba noodle salad that comes with both candied and pickled ginger($12); crispy-skin organic salmon with a saffron cream sauce ($24); spring-pea ravioli with mascarpone, pine nuts and fried spinach leaves ($18). “I spent two weeks coming up with that dish,” he says. To encourage diners to order appetizers, the Wilburns include a green salad with every entrée.
Like all eco-conscious, community-minded foodies, the Wilburns try to buy as much as possible from local sources. “We’re so happy Sky Farm in Millerton told us they will have lettuce in three weeks,” says Sally. “We get our free-range chicken from Herondale Farm in Ancramdale and we buy grass fed beef from Whippoorwill Farm in Salisbury.
Besides baking all of the restaurant’s bread and desserts (like the profiteroles, left), David also makes his own pasta and ice cream. “On Saturdays, I bake the English muffins for our Sunday brunch eggs Benedcit—nobody does that,” he boasts. Sally shoots him a forgiving look and says wryly: “And we may find out why.”
As restaurateurs in a town where they have lived for more than a decade and where their two younger children attend the regional public high school, the Wilburns expect that there is, at most, only two or three degrees of separation between them and their customers. Says David: “We feel like we are hosting a dinner party in our home every night.”
Chives
2 Ethan Allen Street, Lakeville, CT
860-435-8893
Dinner: Thursday - Tuesday 5:30 - 9:00; café until 10; bar until 11:00
Brunch: Sunday 11:30 - 3:00
Closed Wednesday
Posted by Dan Shaw on 03/25/08 at 06:19 PM (1) Comments • Permalink
