The Market: A Grocery Store Takes Pittsfield Back to the Future
Jim Benson, the owner of The Market, finds it depressing when people have to do their grocery shopping at Rite Aid. Until last week, if you lived or worked in downtown Pittsfield and wanted to buy a half-gallon of milk, paper towels, and a box of cereal, Rite Aid was the default option. But with the opening of The Market, an old-fashioned corner grocery with a 21st century sensibility (the cash registers are iMacs), there is now a cheerful, locally-owned place to not only buy milk and cereal but also everything from organic produce and fresh flowers to Ioka Valley Farm maple sugar and artisanal marshmallows.
Benson, who also owns Mission Bar + Tapas across the street, deputized Jazu Stine, his former executive chef, to build and manage a corner store that could be a cornerstone of the community, catering to both longtime residents as well as urban homesteaders like themselves who’ve settled in Pittsfield. “I have chosen to live in Pittsfield because I want to live in a city in the Berkshires, not a country village,” explains Benson, who grew up in the midwest. “Mission is a city kind of bar—we serve food until midnight. The market is a city grocer, and we’ll deliver. The idea is not to be upscale necessarily but to be nice.” The Market’s $3 hot dog is upscale and very nice. It’s made with grass-fed beef from Fox Hill Farm in Ancramdale, NY, and it’s served with Woodstock Farm brown mustard, Real Pickles sauerkraut on a locally-made Clover Town Baker brioche bun. You can get a side of excellent cole slaw or potato salad for $1, which makes for a satisfying, healthy lunch.
The Market is the archetypal bourgeois bodega. It carries a well-curated assortment of modern necessities: Seventh Generation paper towel, Tom’s of Maine toothpaste, The New York Times, frozen organic edamame, Bob’s Red Mill grains, Peace Cereals, and Annie’s mac-and-cheese. There’s a wide selection of olive oils, vinegars, potato chips, and Koyo instant-broth organic ramen noodles ($1.29) for budget-conscious college students. (Photograph left by Jay Elling.)
While Benson and Stine care deeply about the quality of the products they sell, their larger goal is to improve quality of life in their adopted city. “That’s why we’re staying open until 8 p.m.,” says Stine. “If we closed at 5 p.m. that wouldn’t change downtown life.” Stine, who grew up in Westchester Couny and first came to the Berkshires to work for the Ferrin Gallery, built most of the store himself, spending weeks stripping paint to reveal the original checkerboard transom windows. He made shelves and counters from an old maple that once stood in front of Canyon Ranch, and he used brown kraft paper to make a decoupage floor. One of the best discoveries Stine made when he first started working on the store was that it had a gorgeous view across the street to St. Joseph’s Church and its expansive front lawn. He built a narrow counter by the windows where patrons can sit on stools and drink a coffee or eat lunch, and enjoy the view. “It will be really beautiful whet it leafs out in spring,” he says.
The Market’s graphics were designed Minc House, which is another one of the businesses being incubated by Benson from a communal office in George Whaling’s Greystone Building. The office—a graciously proportioned two-bedroom apartment with a fireplace—is where Benson often puts up bands that play at Mission and it is headquarters for the Word X Word Festival that he started last year. “What it all boils down to is there are now a bunch of creative people doing really cool stuff in Pittsfield,” he says, “and now they have someplace to shop for food.”
The Market
391 North Street, Pittsfield, MA; 413.395.9766
Monday - Saturday 8 a.m.- 8 p.m.
Sunday 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 01/26/10 at 12:05 PM • Permalink
Food Shopping: Delicious Holiday Gifts
One size fits all. But that’s just one of many good reasons to give edibles as gifts. Food gets shared, which is always festive. And the fact that it is ephemeral is a nothing but a plus—who among us has room for another tchotchke? Besides, a gift of food supports all the wonderful farmers, bakers, chocolatiers, and chefs who contribute so mightily to the quality of life around here.
White Christmas
The Red Barn Restaurant no sooner closed for the season, than it promptly reopened as a weekends-only take-out shop specializing in Bert Goldfinger’s prepared entrees plus lots of locally-made goodies in jars, such as the Tortured Orchard Spreads made in North Egremont by the mother-daughter team Sandra and Amanda Walley—perfect for assembling into your own gift basket. Or you can make a friend smile with one of Mrs. Goldfinger’s (better known as Christine Jones) old-fashioned 4-layer coconut cakes, $24; or her smaller, square coconut Lady Cake, $14.
The Red Barn
47 Old Post Road (Route 9H)
Ghent, NY; 518.828.6677
Rara Avis
Sometimes one exotic item is enough—a tin of caviar leaps to mind. Alternately, clockwise from upper left, chestnut honey in a clay crock from Spain, $25; Unio Moscatel, a sweet Spanish vinegar, $12.50; a twelve-year-old, syrupy, rich balsamic vinegar from Modena, $48; Panforte, a traditional Italian pastry from Sienna in two sizes, $16 & $28.
Olde Hudson
434 Warren Street
Hudson, NY; 518.828.6923
All Local, All Organic
This home-delivery service has a range of baskets. The one shown here contains 1 bag of a locallly-roasted Berkshire Blend coffee, 1 Berkshire Bark Chocolate, 2 Harney Juices, 1 organic orange, 1 organic pear, 2 organic apples, 1 tray of locally-made Cookiehead cookies, 1 locally-made Klara’s Gourmet Cookies, 1 bag of locally-made Biscotti Babies, 1 pint of local maple syrup, 1 bag of local [ancake mix, all nicely arranged in a wicker basket, with a gift tag attached; $59.99. Local delivery available.
Berkshire Organics
813 Dalton Division Road (Burgner’s Farm)
Dalton, MA; 413.442.0888
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Buttermilk Pancakes in a Bowl
This assemblage consists a 1-lb. bag of Southfield Store’s own buttermilk pancake mix, a bottle of local maple syrup, a wooden spoon and two cotton dishtowels, all artfully spilling out of a Mason & Cash batter bowl; $49.50.
Southfield Store
163 Main Street, Southfield MA; 413.229.5050
Customerized Gift Baskets
Annie & Chris Whalen, who, as Bella Flora, are Guido’s in-house florists, do great gift baskets, ranging from The Student @ $75, a care package with a snackish bias, to a big one suitable for a family of epicures @ $125. They even have highly customized gluten-free and vegan options. Best of all, phone orders are encouraged, and local delivery is available.
Guido’s Fresh Marketplace
Great Barrington, MA
Pittsfield, MA
413.442.9912; ext. 148
Local Bread from Somewhere Else
Bread Alone, Daniel Leader’s bakeries in Boiceville, Woodstock, and Rhinebeck, NY, feature the whole-grain and sourdough breads he learned to make in the bakeries of Paris more than twenty years ago, secrets he shared in his first book, Bread Alone. Now, with his latest, Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe’s Best Artisan Bakers, $35, Leader shares the latest intelligence on how to bake such new-wave wonders as a sourdough baguette made with spelt, flaxseed, and soy, a recipe he picked up at an organic bakery in Alsace, and how to duplicate the award-winning Italian country loaves he learned to make in Genzano, outside of Rome. Once strictly local, these breads and others just as cutting edge now can be made by anyone, anywhere, thanks to Leader’s painstakingly detailed instructions.
The Bookloft
322 Stockbridge Road
Great Barrington, MA 413.528.1521
A Boxed Set of Olive Oils
Among the many gift boxes and baskets available at Bizalion’s, the one we covet most is this selection of olive oils—2 each from France, Spain and Italy—chosen by them from their exciting range of bottle-your-own oils so we can compare and contrast them at home; $59.95
Bizalion’s Fine Food
684 South Main Street
Great Barrington; 413.644.9988
Handmade Chocolate Truffles
Nobody ever regretted receiving a box of these chocolate truffles. Even if the recipient was hoping for something else—a Maserati, say, or an engagement ring—instant consolation is at hand. Owner Joshua Needleman, who grew up in the spa town of Lebanon Springs, NY, understands that chocolate is no mere food or flavor, it is an aphrodisiac, an antidepressant, a stimulant, a mood enhancer, and, always, especially in the form of truffles, a gift. A 20-piece custom assortment of chocolate truffles, $35. Phone and internet orders are welcomed; shipping can be arranged.
Chocolate Springs
55 Pittsfield Road
Lenox, MA; 413.637.9820
Dutch Treat
Berkshire Mountain’s Holiday Bread is a close approximation of a Kerststol, the traditional Dutch Christmas bread. Trained primarily in the Netherlands, baker Richard Bourdon recreated this confection from memory and sells it only during the holidays at his company headquarters in Housatonic, as well as at Guido’s and McEnroe’s. Studded with golden raisins, candied ginger, and apricots, the center has a pocket stuffed with almond filling. According to Bourdon, the Dutch heat a slice, then scoop the filling out of the pocket with a knife and smear it on the bread.
Berkshire Mountain Bakery
367 Park Street (Route 183),
Housatonic, MA: 413.274.3412
Light and Luxurious
Macaroons, those meringue confections that are crispy on the outside, chewy within, are usually flavored with coconut, chocolate or almond extract. At Harney & Son tea shop in Millerton, 3rd generation master tea blender Emeric Harney is flavoring these delicacies with tea. He keeps experimenting. Last weekend, he offered three flavors—lavender, rose & jasmine—to enjoy with tea in Harney’s café or to purchase to go, beautifully packaged in gift boxes, @ $12 per dozen.
Harney’s Tea Room
Main Street, The Railroad Plaza
Millerton, NY; 518.789.2121
Old Fashioned Christmas Cookies
The cookie-meister here offers several gift options, including this 8-inch Party Bowl containing 4 1/2 dozen cookies—ginger molasses, crispy chocolate chip pecan, oatmeal raisin, butter pecan, crunchy oatmeal cranberry, or peanut butter; $29. Other, smaller bowls start for as little as $7.
Sweet William’s Bakery
Salisbury, CT; 860.435.8889
The Hudson Valley Express
Gigi Market’s gift baskets can be customized to contain any number of local and imported products, but two items are constants: Gigi’s private-label Sicilian olive oil—a time-tested favorite that has been winning friends by sitting on the tables at Gigi’s Trattoria in Rhinebeck for the past eight years, $18 per litre—and owner Laura Pensiero’s popular new cookbook, Hudson Valley Mediterranean.
Gigi Market
227 Pitcher Lane
Red Hook, NY; 845.758.1999
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 12/08/09 at 11:55 AM • Permalink
Berkshire Organics: Fresh Produce Plus, Delivered to Your Door
All photographs by Sean McLaughlin
Fresh-picked, organic vegetables year ‘round, from as nearby as the weather will allow, delivered to your door once a week.
No, this is not some pie-in-the-sky fantasy; this is Berkshire Organics, a business founded in May 2008 by Aleisha Gibbons, now 30.
Gibbons, who grew up in Berkshire County and now lives and works in Dalton, sensed a need. “I looked on-line and saw that there’s a ton of these businesses out west. Boston Organics does a similar thing, and they’ve been going since 2001,” she says. “Still, I thought it would a part-time thing. But within the first month, I had left my full-time job, and, by summer, I had to hire additional help.”
Berkshire Organics customers receive an e-mail on Tuesdays with a list of what’s going to be in their baskets that Friday. A typical basket at this time of year might include acorn squash, carrots, potatoes, onions, apples, pears, cauliflower, braising mix—chard, kale, mustard greens, “wonderful for sauteeing,” according to Gibbons—and a head of lettuce, all from local farms. Then from farther afield, there might be a Florida avocado, some oranges and bananas, all certified organic. There is also a list of alternatives. By reply e-mail, the customer makes as many substitutions as he/she likes. A minimum order is $25 and includes delivery to your door.
“At first, I didn’t think it would be able to go year ‘round, but, in fact, we’re just getting into our busy season now. In summer, there are lots of other options—farm stands and farmers’ markets every few miles.” To meet the wintertime demand, quite a number of Berkshire Organics’ farmers are experimenting with greenhouse produce for the first time this year. Until local supply meets demand, however, Gibbons will continue to work with Enterprise Produce in Whatley, MA, 45 minutes east of Dalton. ” They have a winter CSA program,” she says. “They work with small, organic farms all along the east coast—Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia—that ship to them overnight. They are trying to change the food distribution system.”
Berkshire Organics now has over 400 home-delivery customers in three states—Berkshire County and the western Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts, southern Vermont, and, just recently, they expanded to eastern Columbia County in New York State. Aleisha’s husband Brian Gibbons has come on board; he and his twin brother Brendan do most of the deliveries. “And I have 4 part-time employees,” Aleisha says. Delivery subscriptions are flexible, with frequencies ranging from once, to once in a while, to once a week.
Gibbons recently opened a retail store in Dalton, where walk-in customers may get the same produce basket that Berkshire Organics delivers for 10% less. “Fifty of our subscribers come in to pick up their baskets,” she says. Others just drop by to buy some produce, possibly at deep discounts, depending on the day. On Sundays, prices are reduced by 25%; by Monday and Tuesday, they’re 40% off. “Those sale days are very busy in our store,” says Gibbons. “It’s an affordable way to buy organic produce.”
In addition to vegetables, Gibbons has recently added fresh bread, eggs, meat, granola, cheese, yogurt, maple syrup, mushrooms, homemade soups, and fresh-cut flowers to her list of weekly offerings. She also does gift baskets, in wicker, instead of Berkshire Organics’ standard green plastic, that include heirloom fruit and locally made jams, syrups, cheeses, breads and baked goods from The Sweetish Baker in Great Barrington, who, Gibbons says, “works with local and organic ingredients, and also offers a lot of vegan baked goods. We even have a gluten-free baker.”
Asked (pleadingly) if she has any plans to extend her delivery area deeper into Columbia County and perhaps farther south into Litchfield and Dutchess, she replies, “We would love to find drop-off points—other businesses that would want to work with us.”
Berkshire Organics
Dalton, MA; 413.442.0888
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 11/04/09 at 10:32 AM • Permalink
Migliorelli Farm—a Heavensent for Hudson
In 1933, when Angelo Migliorelli emigrated from the Lazio region of Italy to New York City, he brought along some broccoli raab seeds, which he soon planted on land he acquired in the Bronx. He and his son Rocco farmed and peddled vegetables there until the mid-1960s, when Rocco was forced to sell to the developers of Co-op City. Undaunted, he moved Migliorelli Farm north to Tivoli in Dutchess County. Thirty years later, in 1998, Ken Migliorelli, Rocco’s son, sold the development rights to his famiily’s farm to Scenic Hudson, with a conservation easement that allows it to remain farmland forever. Today, the Migliorellis grow more than 130 varieties of fruits and vegetables there, including the same strain of broccoli raab Angelo carried with him when he crossed the pond. Migliorelli Farm provides fresh fruit and produce to over 30 fresh markets a week both locally and in New York City. As their website says, “We grow it, we pick it, and we sell it, and it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Now, once again, the Migliorellis have extended their reach to include a smallish produce and grocery store on the corner of 3rd and Warren Streets In Hudson. “I’ve always fished for an indoor market,” says Mercedes Wallner, Ken Migliorelli’s long-time partner in life and work. “But there’s too much else going on in Dutchess. We have our own farmstands, and there’s Adams. Besides, it would be way more expensive there.”
So they picked Hudson. “I didn’t really know Hudson,” she says. “But I wanted to do it where there was a real need. I didn’t realize how much need there was.”
Wallner says she’s amazed by the reception the store has received, most enthusiastic, not surprisingly, “from the people who live within walking distance. Some come in two or three times a day,” she says. “Once to pick up a yogurt, then they’ll drop by later to see if any new prepared foods have come in. They ask for recipes. I encourage them to try different greens. If somebody keeps buying kale or spinach, I get them to try bok choy.”
In addition to every known cooking green, the store presently features an exhaustive range of root crops, salad greens, tomatoes (including heirlooms), and the last of the season’s sweet corn. With winter approaching, however, that will soon change. “We have apples all year, pears into the winter, our own donuts. We have a root cellar, and greenhouses; still, we will have to buy some stuff—salad greens, organic hothouse tomatoes— from other farms. It’s a whole other thing, buying greens from someone else. It’s going to be hard to keep the prices down.”
Presently, the prices at Migliorelli seem to compare favorably to those at the supermarket chains. “I went to Price Chopper,” Wallner says. “Apples were $1.25 per pound; ours are $1.00, and we picked them that morning. Their pears are $1.39 a pound, ours are $1.20.”
One upside of a waning growing season: Wallner will have time to focus on turning the store into the mini-Adams/Whole Foods of her dreams. “We’re putting in a freezer so we can carry free-range meats and poultry, we’re going to have a grain dispenser for cous-cous and rice.” And they will also ramp up their range of prepared foods, which already include roasted chickens from The Red Barn, as well as pot pies, fish cakes, and stews from Eat Good Food, another local resource.
“I have a dream of collecting everything for a dinner in one stop,” she says. “You can do that, going from vendor to vendor, at the Union Square Greenmarket.” Before the winter is out, Wallner is determined that she and everyone else in Hudson will be able to do that here, as well.
Migliorelli Farm
302 Warren Street, Hudson; 518.828.3277
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 10/27/09 at 04:01 PM • Permalink
The Sweet William’s Smell of Success
Sweet William’s Bakery is no longer the worst-kept secret in Falls Village, CT. For the past two and a half years, Jason Young has baked cookies during the week for his wholesale accounts (including Guido’s and the Berkshire Co-op Market) and officially opened only on Saturdays to sell his layer cakes, tea breads, cheesecakes and decadent cream scones. “I make the scones with heavy cream and butter,” he says, which helps explain why they sold out every week in Falls Village.
Now, Young is baking scones Thursday through Sunday at his new shop on Main Street in Salisbury, CT, which was a failed ice cream parlor before his lighting-fast, two-month gut renovation. “People keep walking in and asking if we will have ice cream cones and the answer is no,” he says with his impish grin. “We do have ice cream sandwiches made with our cookies and SoCo ice cream—chocolate chip with vanilla bean ice cream, almond with coffee ice cream, and ginger molasses with ginger ice cream. I think two cookies and a scoop of ice cream for $3.25 is a bargain.”
Raised on a farm in Iowa, Young came east a decade ago to work in the arts after a stint as the box office manager for the Minnesota Opera. “I interviewed at the Roundabout Theatre and New York CIty Opera but I could not afford to live in New York City on the salaries,” he says. “So I got a job at Merrill Lynch. I was the assistant to 12 litigators. I did their archiving and filing. It was awful.” He kept looking for jobs in the arts and one day while Googling he found an ad for a box office manager at Barrington Stage Company. He got the job, arriving in Sheffield, MA for the very first time in the summer of 2003. “I had never been to this part of the world and I fell in love immediately with the Berkshires and northwestern Connecticut,” he says.
After the summer, he returned to Merrill Lynch (and enrolled in night and weekend pastry classes at the Institute of Culinary Education), but he yearned for the country. When he returned to Barrington Stage for the summer of 2004, he decided to stay in the Berkshires permanently. He took a job as a baker’s assistant, bought a condo in Housatonic, MA, and then had his kitchen certified so he could bake commercially from home. He debuted his line of Sweet William’s cookies (his middle name is William) at the Berkshire Botanical Garden‘s annual Harvest Festival in 2004. “The ginger cookies were a huge hit,” he says. “I sold out of everything I’d made for the entire weekend the first day. I went out and bought all the molasses I could find in Great Barrington and stayed up all night to bake more ginger cookies.” (The ginger cookies have become his signature and best-selling item.)
He soon outgrew his home kitchen and rented space from Guido’s in Pittsfield, where he started supplying all the desserts for Berger’s Specialty Foods. It was a great set up until he decided to move in with his boyfriend, John Phillips, who happened to live in Falls Village. “It was just too far away to commute every day,” he says. Young found a small space for rent tucked behind Falls Village’s quiet Main Street where he could install a commercial kitchen. “I planned to do wholesale only,” he recalls, but the residents of Falls Village had other ideas. “People just started showing up!” he says. “And they wanted more than cookies.” They wanted birthday cakes and tarts for holidays, and he reconfigured the space for retail. He expanded his assortment to include the Royal Warrant-worthy scones, delectable cheesecakes, cupcakes, brownies, and candied nuts. “The residents of Falls Village really liked the idea of a bakery in town and they have been incredibly supportive.”
Nevertheless, he knew he needed a more visible location to grow his business and when the space in Salisbury became available he jumped at the opportunity. (He plans to use the Falls Village space for its original purpose—wholesale cookie baking.) In his sunny new shop with walls he painted the color of cookie dough, he has a refrigerated display case for his layer cakes, which have cream cheese or buttercream frostings. “We make everything from scratch with fresh, whole ingredients,” he says. “We will do special orders for any occasion, but we won’t do fondant flowers and we won’t screenprint your dog’s face on a cake. Everything we do is simple, handmade, and old-fashioned.”
Sweet William’s Bakery
19 Main Street, Salisbury CT; 860.435.8889
Thursday - Saturday 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.; Sunday 8:30 a.m. - 2 p.m
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 07/22/09 at 09:12 AM • Permalink
The Return of the Farmers’ Markets
Across our region, several of the major farmers’ markets 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. In Rhinebeck, by tradition, they will be giving free seedlings to moms for Mother’s Day.
Berkshire Area Farmers’ Market
Old State Road/Berkshire Mall parking lot, Lanesborough
May 2 - October 28
Wednesdays & Saturdays 8 AM - 2 PM
Chatham Farmers’ Market
15 Church Street (Route 203)
June - October
Fridays 4 - 7 p.m.
Great Barrington Farmers’ Market
At the historic train station behind Town Hall.
May 9 - October 31
Saturdays: 9 AM - 1 PM
Great Barrington Nutrition Center Farmers’ Market
94 West Avenue
June 3 - September 2
Wednesdays: 3 - 6 PM
Hillsdale Farmer’s Market
Town Park behind Town Hall (Routes 22 & 23)
June - October
First and third Saturdays, 9 a.m. - noon
Hudson Farmers’ Market
6th and Columbia Streets
May 10 - November 22
Saturdays: 9 AM - 1 PM
Kent Farmers’ Market
Kent Green
May - October
Saturdays 9 a.m. - noon
Kinderhook Farmer’s Market
7 Hudson Street (Village Green at Route 9)
June 6 - Mid-October
Saturdays 8 a.m. - noon
Lenox Farmers’ Market
Main Street at Triangle Park (across from the Mobil Station)
May 8 - October 9
Fridays: 2 - 6 PM
Litchfield Hills Farm-Fresh Market
Route 202, Litchfield
June 13 - mid-October
Saturdays 11 AM - 1 PM
Millbrook Farmers’ Market
Front Street & Franklin Ave
Memorial Day - October
Saturdays 9 AM - 1 PM
Millerton Farmers’ Market
Dutchess Avenue
May 23 - Columbus Day
Saturdays: 9 AM - 1 PM
Norfolk Farmers’ Market
Route 44 & Shepard Road
June 6 - October 31
Saturdays: 10 AM - 1 PM
North Adams Farmers’ Market
77 Holden Street
July 12 - October 25
Saturdays: 8 AM - noon
Otis Farmers Market
2000 East Otis Road
May 9 - October
Saturdays 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Pawling Farmers’ Market
Charles Colman Boulevard next to the Pawling Chamber of Commerce Building
July 11 - September 26
Saturdays, 9 a.m. - noon
Rhinebeck Farmers’ Market
Rhinbeck Municipal Parking Lot on East Market Street
May 10 - Thanksgiving
Sundays: 10 AM - 2 PM
Sheffield Farmers’ Market
Main Street
May 22 - Columbus Day Weekend
Fridays: 3:30 - 6:30 PM
Stuyvesant Farmers’ Market
Railroad Station at Riverview Street
May 8 - September
Fridays: 4 - 7 PM
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 07/09/09 at 06:19 PM • Permalink
Farming: The Mid-Life Crisis Career Option
Roberto Flores’s face is a familiar one in the Berkshires. For 15 years, he owned and operated Seven Hills Inn, a 60 room mansion hotel next door to The Mount in Lenox, which he sold last spring. But he’s a fresh face at the farmers’ markets in Sheffield and Millerton, where he’s been selling baby bok choy, mizuna, baby turnips, radishes and assorted greens since May. “You can come to my table and make a really great salad,” he says. Flores, 43, is living out his (and, perhaps, your) fantasy. Until this spring, Flores’s only agricultural experience was mowing the neighbors’ lawns as a kid and helping in the extensive vegetable garden in Ashley Falls, MA, planted by his partner, Maria Nation, who cooks out of her garden all summer long and had dubbed her property Good Dogs Farm. 
“We have a contest every summer to see how long we can go without going to the grocery store,” says Flores, who did not start thinking seriously about farming until this winter. He had spent last summer finding new venues for the 19 weddings and conferences that had been booked into Seven Hills before the sale. (The new owners wanted to turn the old mansion into a private residence again.) “We sent some of the brides to Ethan Berg’s Winthrop Estate and some of them to Cranwell,” he says. “I really did not feel free from the inn until the last wedding happened in October.”
Flores decided to take some time off to consider what to do next, because he had been coerced into becoming an innkeeper by his father. “I had been in Bank America’s training program in Houston when my father told me he’d bought this inn at a real estate auction and sent me up north to run it with my sister who was living in Lenox,” recalls Flores who grew up in south Texas. “I was so cold at first. I wore my ski pants until April.” Gregarious and sensitive, he mostly liked being an innkeeper, keeping tradition alive for Seven Hills’ clientele who liked the Catskills-style service with full meals and entertainment. “In the 1950s, Seven Hills was the only resort in the area that did not discriminate against Jews,” he explains. But as the old-timers, who would come for a week or two, faded away or bought second homes, the new generation of guests only wanted to stay for a night or two. “And then when the Comfort Inns and Days Inns opened, it really did us in. We kept things alive by doing as many as 26 weddings a year.”
It wasn’t until snow was covering the two-acre meadow between Maria’s vegetable garden and the Housatonic River that Flores settled on the idea of becoming a farmer as his third career. With farmers living on either side of him, he knew that if he tilled the fallow meadow that he would have rich loamy, chemical- and pesticide free soil for growing crops. He consulted with nearby farmers including Dominic Palumbo, Laura Meister, and Ted Dobson. “They all told me that I had to get some experience and get my hands dirty,” he says. He wasn’t willing to wait an entire year to start his new business. So in March, Flores flew out to Ojai, California, a valley rich with groves of orange, olive and avocado trees, which has been called the Berkshires of California. He bunked with Maria’s sister, Jane Handel the co-publisher of the magazine Edible Ojai, and introduced him to Peter Wilsrud of Avogadro’s Garden Farm, who let Flores work by his side for six weeks so he could ask questions every step of the way. “When I went out to California, I was planning to grow only a few simple things—garlic, onions, potatoes—but Peter convinced me to grow a bit of everything. He told me I had to grow white turnips called haruki. I cut them up for people at the market, and they go nuts. If you marinate them, they become addictive.” (You slice the turnips, marinate in a couple of tablespoons of rice wine vinegar with lime zest, coarse salt and pepper; chill for a an hour.)
As he walks through his one-and-a half-acres planted with carrots, potatoes, arugula, haricots vert, fava beans, pumpkins, and tomatoes, Flores has the quiet confidence of someone who has been working the land for decades. He explains that even as newbie, he shares the exact same challenges and goals as veterans like Palumbo. “We have the same soil and weather,” he says. “We grow things to bring to market.” (He’s also been selling to local businesses like Berkshire Harvest Restaurant, John Andrews, and Stage Coach Tavern.) He says he has a deep sense of satisfaction from his new work. “Growing food is such a healthy thing to do in every way,” he says. “It’s such a right thing to do.”
While farming is strenuous, it’s not as stressful as being an innkeeper which was a 24/7 job. “I don’t miss getting calls to plunge toilets at 2 AM,” he says, grinning. Farming has changed his outlook on the weather, too. “I hated the rain when I was an innkeeper because it would ruin a wedding,” he says. “But now I am thankful every time it rains.”
Good Dogs Farm
Ashley Falls, MA
Sheffield Farmers’ Market - Fridays, 3:30 -6:30 p.m.
Millerton Farmers’ Market - Saturdays 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 06/30/09 at 06:22 PM • Permalink
At Long Last, It’s Strawberry Season Again
Bonnie & Ron Samascott at the Lenox Farmers' Market on May 29
If you’re a regular at the Lenox Farmers’s Market or Hudson Farmers’ Market, you’ve already had a taste of summer. For the last couple of weeks, Bonnie and Ron Samascott of Samascott Orchards in Kinderhook have been selling their incredibly juicy and sweet berries from their 1,000 acre farm in Columbia County. They promise to have berries every week from now until the end of June, which means you should take every opportunity you can to make strawberry shortcake, strawberry jam, and strawberry ice cream. If you want to pick your own berries (and peas) at Samascott, you have to wait until June 11. If you want to pick strawberries today, you can head over to Mead Orchards in Tivoli, NY which opened for the season on June 3 and where you can pick daily from 3 - 7 PM.
Our other favorite pick-your-own farms were not open as of June 3, but they will be any day, so call or check their websites. (The farms’ websites are not always up to date so it’s usually better to call.)
Pick-Your-Own Farms
Green River Farms, Williamstown, MA; 413.458.2470
Ellsworth Farm, Sharon, CT; 860.364.0025
Mead Orchards, Tivoli, NY; 845.756.5641
Samascott Orchard, Kinderhook, NY; 518.758.7224
Thompson-Finch, Ancram, NY; 518.329.7578
If your favorite pick-your-own farm is not listed here, please leave a comment and tell us about it.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 06/03/09 at 05:22 PM • Permalink
Dominic Palumbo: The Egghead Organic Farmer with a CSA & a Fan Club
Dominic Palumbo is an organic farmer in Sheffield, MA, whose acolytes admire his mind as much as they relish his meat, pork, eggs, chicken, and vegetables. “The honest, unpretentious way Dominic goes about the business of farming, his devotion to tradition, and his unimpeachable integrity make him the touchstone for the locavore and Slow Food movements in the Berkshires,” says Great Barrington cheesemonger Matt Rubiner, who believes Palumbo’s liverwurst is “unrivaled” and his pancetta “as good as any in Italy.” Palumbo is co-leader of Slow Food Western Massachusetts and was a speaker at the Slow Food/Terra Madre conference in Italy, last fall. (His talk begins about one-minute into the video above.)
Palumbo, 53, arrived in the Berkshires some two decades ago as a weekender. “I didn’t come here with the intention of farming,” he says. But he knew horticulture because he was running a landscape business in New York that specialized in penthouse and brownstone gardens. When he heard that the Greenmarket in New York was having trouble finding purveyors of organic food, he decided to try growing vegetables in Sheffield. “To get into the Greenmarket you had to explain everything you were going to plant and what it would yield. I formulated a plan for a farm that did not exist,” he says. “For eight years, I hauled vegetables down to New York City every week. I started growing mesclun. At that time, mesclun was coming from France!”
Slowly, he started adding animals to the farm. Initially, he got chickens and then sheep because he thought they could eat his grass instead of his having to mow it while providing him with food. Now he has a little bit of everything—sheep, dairy cows, cattle, pigs, geese, goats—which makes Moon in the Pond seem like one of those mythical family farms from old children’s books. He has no qualms about bringing his animals to slaughter—he becomes rhapsodic when talking about the sublime flavor of capretto, which is baby goat—but he has deep respect for all his animals and treats them humanely during their lives. “You learn so much about human nature from animals,” he says. “Do you know why children are called kids? Because they behave like baby goats! You learn why a person is called cocky or pig headed.”
Palumbo can be as stubborn as a mule, which endears him to many foodies such as Lester Blumenthal of Route 7 Grill in Great Barrington. “What I respect most about Dominic is his ability to not compromise and always stay on the best possible path for growing things the correct, uber-organic way,” says Blumenthal. “Dominic has inspired me and plenty of others to embrace Slow Food. I would not own a farm-to-table restaurant if not for Dominic, who has been a great source of ideas, motivation and insight.”
He spreads the gospel about organic farming through his apprentice program at Moon in the Pond and by working with farmers and chefs. “The difference between Dominic and other organic farmers is his willingness to teach,” says chef Jeremy Stanton of the Fire Roasted Catering Company, who has plans to open a Berkshires butcher shop specializing in locally raised meats. “He is so full of knowledge. His Scottish Highland steaks are by far the best steaks I have ever tasted. But he charges a lot for them, and they are so worth it.”
Moon in the Pond has a reputation for not only high quality but high prices. One way Palumbo has made this more palatable is by having a CSA for meat and vegetables: you can purchase “Bacon Bucks,” which guarantees you beef and pork at the best prices. You can buy meat at Moon in the Pond all year-long (call ahead to make sure someone is there to help you) and during the summer at the farmers’ markets in Great Barrington (Wednesdays), Sheffield (Fridays) and Millerton (Saturdays). You can buy his cured meats at Rubiner’s, but only close friends get his raw milk that he says tastes like melted ice cream. “There is something exceedingly meaningful about drinking raw milk,” says Sheffield neighbor Maria Nation, who trades her fresh baked bread for milk. “This is the purest form of nurturing we experience outside of breast feeding a child. It is primal. Dom is one of the few farmers I would trust to deliver this primal experience.”
Palumbo is confident that prices for locally raised food will come down as demand increases. “That’s what happened in the supermarkets. You can find organic everywhere now,” he says. Still, he is not comfortable with the perception that eating well is a privilege, but he has no patience for people who say that they can’t afford good food. “How can you afford not to? Think about that,” he says. “I take to heart that food is not a luxury item. It is the center of everything I stand for. There is a moral imperative in producing organic food.”
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 04/15/09 at 10:21 AM • Permalink
Wild Hive Farm: Living the Locavore Life
Don Lewis has raised the bar for anyone who wants to run a community-oriented small-town cafe serving locally grown food. A baker who uses only Hudson Valley grains that he mills himself, Lewis has made his Wild Hive Farm Cafe and Bakery, which he opened last November in Clinton Corners, a paradigm of the Locavore Life. Lewis, who grew up on farm in Middletown, NY (which is the subject of a children’s book by his brother) has been making his living as a baker for decades. “I’ve been selling at the New York City greenmarket and other farmer’s markets since 1982,” he says. “About ten years ago, I found a farmer in the Hudson Valley who agreed to try growing grain for human consumption.”
Initially, Lewis bought pre-milled flour from farmer Alton Earnhart in nearby Millbrook. (Their collaboration was celebrated in a New York Times story in September.) “The first time I stuck my hand in it I realized it was entirely different than any flour I’d ever worked with,” he recalls. In the beginning, only 8 percent of the flour he used was local. Now, 100 percent of the organic flour he uses is local and he mills it all himself (and you can buy bags of it to bake with yourself at his cafe/store.) Lewis started out as a beekeeper and his initial baking efforts were honey-based pastries. “My grandmother was a big influence,” he says. Over the years, his repertoire has expanded to include sweet and savory baked goods ranging from onion rye and challah/brioche to Mediterranean spinach pie and rugulah that literally melts in your mouth. “We use our own yogurt cheese in the dough for the rugulah,” he says. “We only use local ingredients.” Everybody says that, but is it really possible? “Yes, we build the menu out of what’s available,” he says proudly. “We stick to the boundaries—I don’t like to call them limitations—and we have storehouses full of carrots, beets and watermelon radishes.” (His favorite winter salad is julienned watermelon radishes with salt, pepper and apple-cider vinegar.) For salad greens, he relies on three nearby farms: “Little Seed in Chatham has pea sprouts, Conuco in New Paltz has sunflower sprouts, and Sorkolo in HIghland has other lettuces.” Besides his own baked goods—including pizza and guilt-free cinnamon buns—he carries cheese from five local dairies as well as local eggs, apples, pears and dried beans. He plans to get a glass freezer for organic and grass-fed meat and become an old-fashioned, newfangled neighborhood grocer.
Although he has decades of experience as a greenmarket retailer, running a cafe and shop is a new challenge. “I love it,” he says. “I had known this space forever. It was once a general store and various cafes and I knew how much the town needed a gathering place. And I needed to expand my baking and milling operation so it all came together. The community is really excited by the regeneration of this space and they love being able to get a hot loaf of bread on their way home from work.”
Wild Hive Farm Bakery & Cafe
2411 Salt Point Turnpike, Clinton Corners, NY; 845.266.5863
Tuesday - Sunday 8 AM - 5 PM (cafe closes at 4 PM)
Full breakfast and lunch menu Friday - Sunday; tea, coffee, baked goods, soups and salads Tuesday - Thursday
