Thanksgiving: Give Thanks for Top-Notch Take-Out
Thanksgiving is one holiday that’s tailor-made for at least partial takeout. Cooking a turkey is challenging enough (okay, maybe for some of us, even that’s too challenging). Then add all those must-have sides (What? No mashed white potatoes, in addition to the sweets and the dressing?!), plus all that baking! Here’s what some of the splendid professional cooks in our region are offering to take off our over-challenged hands and into their own far-more-capable ones:
The Berry Farm
2309 Route 203, Chatham; 518.392.4609
The Berry Farm will be offering mostly baked items—pumpkin bread, zucchini and banana breads, cookies, scones, pies. They also have homemake soups, such as potato leek, heirloom tomato, and squash.
The Bottle Tree Grocery
1415 County Route 7, Ancram; 518.329.0444
At the Bottle Tree Grocery in Ancram, chef Tim Cocheo, formerly chef de cuisine at Wheatleigh in Lenox and at Waltze in NYC, is offering butternut squash soup with rosemary and orange, a molasses-brined organic turkey, a chestnut-shitake stuffing (either vegetarian or with sausage); a sweet potato gratin with cranberry, celery, and onions; roasted root vegetables with thyme
carrot, parsnips, potato, yellow squash, zucchini, and shallots; and blue cheese creamed spinach.
Cricket Creek Farm
1255 Oblong Road, Williamstown; 413.458.5888
Cricket Creek Farm in Williamstown has three-berry crisp, cranberry walnut rolls by the dozen, Indian Pudding, and while you’re at it, why not pick up some of their home-made butter and oatmeal, too.
Farm House Bakers
5 Phillips Road, South Egremont; 413.528.0324
Farm House Bakers will be at Dewey Memorial Hall on Route 7 in Sheffield on Saturday, November 22nd from 9:30 - 1, with pies, cakes, and cookies. If you want their amazing sweet potato biscuits, you’ll have to special order them in advance.
Gigi Market
227 Pitcher Lane, Red Hook; 845.758.1999
Gigi’s has a huge take-out menu with many special items for Thanksgiving including turkeys of all sizes, which they sell as is, brined and oven ready, or fully cooked (these should be reserved in advance—everything else is expected to be available up to more-or-less the last minute). Hot hors d’oeuvres include pumpkin-and-brie risotto puffs and acorn squash fritters with a maple glaze; cold hors e’oeuvres, baby beet tapenade with croustade, and bacon-&-cheddar deviled eggs. Among the many sides are maple-pumpkin polenta, butternut squash crema, herbed stuffing with dried cranberries and walnuts. And desserts: all sorts of seasonal fruit pies, cobblers and rustic tarts. Sides and pies can be picked up prior to Thanksgiving either at Pitcher Lane or by arrangement, in Rhinebeck. On Thanksgiving Day, pick up until noon at Gigi Market only, where the picturesque farm space is available as of this writing for parties of 25 or more. (Interested parties should call 845.758.8702.)
Berger’s Specialty Foods at Guido’s Fresh Marketplace
1020 South Street, Pittsfield; 413.442.9912
Berger’s, the deli at Guido’s in Pittsfield, prefers that you pre-order so you’ll be certain they haven’t run out of what you want; on the other hand, if you don’t mind gambling, neither do they. You can waltz in as late as the day before Thanksgiving and you’ll probably find most of their sides and desserts in the deli-case. (Don’t count on finding a last-minute turkey, however, and certainly not one that’s pre-cooked.) They recommend starting with a mini baked Brie stuffed with just fruit or nuts too, followed by butternut bisque with apples, then either turkey or ham (oven-ready or pre-roasted by them) with such sides as butternut squash cooked with fresh sage, garlic, white wine, extra virgin olive oil, vegetable stock, and Reggiano Parmesan; Yukon gold potatoes with milk or cream, fresh herbs, Manchego cheese, and LOTS of garlic; “rainbow” carrots cooked with shallots, olive oil, fresh herbs, and chopped garlic; wilted radicchio, green beans, onions, & Reggiano Parmesan; sweet potato puree with butter, toasted pecans, fresh thyme, and maple syrup; and two types of stuffing—wild mushroom or Bartlett pears, toasted pecans, dried cranberries, and organic apple juice; plus all the usual desserts and Peach Praline, too.
The Marketplace at Guido’s Fresh Marketplace
760 South Main Street, Great Barrington; 413.528.9255
The Marketplace at Guido’s in Great Barrington wants you to order your turkey (precooked or oven-ready) by Thursday, November 20th; for all other prepared dishes (and there are scores of possibilities), you’ve got until 5 p.m. on Sunday, the 23rd. Among the twists on traditional delights: corn chowder; spinach-and-roasted red pepper casserole; caramelized carrots with orange; basmati-and-wild-rice salad with dried cranberries; rosemary whipped-cream biscuits; and a chocolate bark assortment. But this brief excerpt does not begin to do justice; check out their website for the full menu.
Haven Cafe & Bakery
8 Franklin Street, Lenox; 413.637.8948
Haven is specializing in sides and desserts and needs all orders by November 20th for turkey gravy, sausage stuffing flavored with Grande Marnier, maple-ginger roasted root vegetables, Yukon gold/butternut squash gratin with pecan crust, orange-spice cranberry relish, mashed potatoes with celeriac, apple-and-sage stuffing, pumpkin-bourbon cheesecake, and cranberry-almond caramel tart, as well as all the more usual desserts.
Red Devon
108 Hunns Lake Road, Bengall; 845.868.3175
The all-organic Red Devon in Bengall has got the whole meal covered. Call now and they’ll fax or e-mail you an order form for everything from an artisan cheese platter with grapes and crostini to start, to home-made pumpkin ice cream for dessert, and every conceivable traditional thing in between, including oyster-mushroom soup, roast turkey (or, if you prefer, oven-ready), giblet gravy, cranberry-orange compote, sausage-sage cornbread stuffing, roasted brussel sprouts, kale with warm bacon vinaigrette, parker house rolls, etc. Only troubling detail: you need to place your order by noon on November 20th.
The Old Inn at the Southfield Store
162 Norfolk Road, Southfield; 413/229.505
You have until Saturday, November 22, to place your order,and you can reserve a 12 pound free-range Hudson Valley turkey either fully roasted or uncooked. There are, of course, pies—such as apple crumb and southern pecan—as well as an autumn salad with frisee, endive, radicchio, beets, bacon, walnuts, apples, blue cheese and red-wine vinaigrette. The tantalizing sides include fricassee of autumn vegetables, mousse of spiced sweet potatoes, cranberry citrus relish, and pear, chestnut and sage stuffing. All orders must be pre-paid and picked up between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Wednesday, November 26, or Thursday, November 27.
Beté Avon Kosher Catering
48 Russell Street, Great Barrington; 413.528.5225
If you want to serve a pure glatt Kosher dinner for 8 to 10 people, this caterer will do the whole megillah for $330: “beyond belief” challah rolls, sweet-potato-leek soup, honey-glazed turkey, giblet gravy, rustic bread stuffing wtih sundried cranberries and sausage, rosemary roasted carrots and potatoes, haricots verts, cranberry-orange compote, pumpkin pie, and triple chocolate fudge brownies. You can also order à la carte but there is a $180 minimum and all orders must be made by 5 p.m. on November 20. Pick up in Great Barrington before 12:30 p.m. on November 27. Delivery can be arranged for an extra charge. For a menu, email:
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McEnroe Organic Farm
Route 22/44, between Amenia and Millerton; 518.789.4191
It’s hard to believe but McEnroe’s says that you can order the day before if you are really that unsure about your holiday plans. You can get organic turkeys, Heritage Bronze turkeys and even deep-fried organic turkeys. You can start the feast with organic chopped liver, mini crab cakes or butternut squash soup. The sides range from southwestern jalapeño cornbread dressing to whiskey glazed organic jewel yams. Besides pies for dessert, there are blueberry or raspberry crumbles and pumpkin cheesecake. Open Thanksgiving Day from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 11/17/08 at 07:33 AM • Permalink
Found! A Perfect Local Camembert
In these trying times, one way to help our community and ourselves is to spend what money we have left as close to home as possible. Toward that end, food writer Jan Greenberg, who keeps an eye on gastronomic developments in Dutchess County, has made a wonderful discovery, especially for devout locavores.
“Oh my god!,“ I thought, after my first bite of Rory Chase’s Camembert, “If I were in France, this would be one of those cheeses I pack in my suitcase and hope that the sniffer dogs don’t catch me.“
Rory Chase (above) grew up in Pine Plains on Chaseholm Farm, the dairy his grandfather founded in the mid-1940’s. Rory’s father left Chaseholm to join the Peace Corps and obtain a degree in economics, returning to run the farm when he was thirty years old, and Rory was an infant. Following his father’s example, Rory went to Tuft’s University, and then he moved to California where he lived for seven years. He returned to the farm last year and, in addition to working with his father, founded the Amazing Real Live Food Company from which this aptly named, truly amazing Chaseholm Camembert comes.
In an area that was once home to over fifty dairy farms, Chaseholm is now one of three that remain. It houses a herd of eighty cattle, thirty five of which currently produce milk. Theirs is one of the thirteen farms participating in Hudson Valley Fresh, a dairy cooperative founded by orthopedist-dairy farmer Sam Simon to keep dairy farms viable by guaranteeing farmers a fair price for their milk. Another guarantee: to get milk into stores no more than thirty-six hours after it leaves the cow.
The Chaseholm cows are raised on grass with hay and corn silage supplements, and their milk tastes clean and sweet. Rory also uses milk from the pampered cows of neighboring Ronnybrook Farm to produce not only the fragrant, smooth, creamy Camembert, but a mild, tasty queso blanco and fresh farmer’s cheeses in flavors such as fresh dill and horseradish. Right now, production is limited but he is building a creamery that should be operating by the end of October. It will enable him to expand both quantity and variety.
Meanwhile, if you see Chase’s Camembert in a store (outlets below), my advice is to buy it; they run out fast. This is the perfect cheese to pair with fall apples and pears. I’ve kept it in the refrigerator for over a week, and it’s been fine. Just take it out a few hours before serving. —Jan Greenberg
Adams Fairacre Farms, Poughkeepsie; 845.454.4330 (also in Kingston & Newburgh)
Hudson-Chatham Winery, 1900 Route 66, Ghent; 518.392.2598 (after November 1)
McEnroe Organic, Route 22, Millerton; 518.789.4191
Montgomery Place Orchards, 8 Davis Way, Red Hook; 845.758.6338
Pecks Food Market, E. Church Street, Pine Plains; 518. 398.6622
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 10/13/08 at 11:16 AM • Permalink
A Family Vineyard Takes Root
A lot of deskbound urban executives dream of one day owning a vineyard, but few pursue the dream as studiously as Carlo DeVito, owner with his wife Dominique of the Hudson-Chatham Winery. Instead of building castles in the air, DeVito, Editorial Director of Sterling Publishing (“We all,“ he says ruefully of the vineyard-owning set, “seem to have day jobs,“), wrote a book, East Coast Wineries, a Complete Guide from Maine to Virginia (Rutgers University Press). “That helped me decide on the Hudson Valley,“ he says. “I wanted to be in New York State because they are making some great wines here. And the Valley is gorgeous, very fertile. Besides I’ve always lived near water.“
In February ‘06, the DeVitos, who have twin sons Dylan (left in photo) and Dawson, now ten, closed on a fourteen-acre farm in Ghent. That May, they put in three acres of grapes, with the intention of adding two or three acres each year. Alas, the first year’s backbreaking labor met with heartbreak last year: an entire year’s growth was lost to deer. Now surrounded by an electrified fence (“Not how we imagined it, but…“), the vines are on their way again. “It’s one step forward, one step back,“ Carlo says.
One giant step forward from the start was discovering Ralph Cooley III, a neighbor whose grandfather Ralph Cooley I, had run a dairy farm, Brisklea, where the DeVito’s now live and work. “When we moved here, someone recommended that we contact Ralph to help with the farming,“ says Dominique. “So we called him, and he and Carlo hit it off. He is now our farm manager. It’s nice that a family that was historically in farming has reconnected with the agricultural life.“
“We do not have any estate wines at this time,“ Carlo says. Even without last year’s setback, it would have taken three summers before they could make wine from their own grapes, a milestone they hope to achieve next fall. Meanwhile, they bring fruit and juice from vineyards around the state to their own wine-making facility, where they then finish the wines—everything from further fermentation to blending, bottling, and packaging. Steve Casscles, a Greene County resident who has won multiple awards in amateur winemaking competitions, is a consultant and one of the suppliers of grapes. They will continue this practice even after their own vines are mature enough to yield a crop. “There are parts of the state that excel at certain styles of wine—Riesling in the Finger Lakes, Merlot on Long Island,“ he says. “In the Hudson Valley, it’s Baco Noir and Seyval Blanc. We just bottled some Baco Noir from the Casscles Vineyard in Athens.“
After spending two summers at the farm, Dominique DeVito and the twins finally pulled up stakes in Freehold, NJ and moved to Columbia County full time. At the winery, Dominique’s charming shop specializes in artisanal food products from local cheesemakers, sugarmakers, and chocolatiers. Yet even with all these fabulous treats so close at hand, when it comes to seeking a reward for the boys, who attend Chatham Middle School and help in the vineyard when they are not too busy kicking a soccar ball around, “We con them by promising Dairy Queen,“ Dominique says. Among the many chores: mashing the fermenting grapes with a baseball bat (photo above).
Hudson-Chatham Wines are available at several Columbia County outlets—East Chatham Wine & Spirits, Kinderhook Wine & Spirits, Fairview Wines & Spirits in Hudson, and, of course, at the Hudson-Chatham Vineyard store. “We also do lots of special events,“ says Dominique. One coming up next month: A Psychic Fair with tarot-card readings. The DeVitos themselves no doubt will be hoping for a glowing prediction for next year’s crop.
Hudson-Chatham Winery
1900 Route 66, Ghent 518.392.WINE (9463)
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 09/23/08 at 09:09 AM • Permalink
Pickles with A Soul from a Falls Village Farm
At the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center farm in northwestern Connecticut, they don’t just grow potatoes, tomatoes, and cabbage, they cultivate a new generation of Jewish farmers. Every summer and fall, two groups of 14 young men and women between the ages of 20 and 29 spend three months as fellows in the Adamah (Hebrew for “ground”) program, working with Shamu Sadeh, an environmental studies instructor, Jewish educator, writer, organic gardener, and wilderness guide. The Adamah program is holistic; it integrates organic farming, sustainable living, Jewish learning, teaching, and contemplative spiritual practice.
For the past few years, Sadeh has been working to make the farm a source of revenue for the not-for-profit center, which is a pan-denominational Jewish version of the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck. Besides growing crops for the kosher dining room, donating veggies to a local food bank, and delivering produce every week through a CSA program to a synagogue in Westchester County (in a truck that runs mostly on old vegetable oil), Shamu has been developing a branded product line. After much experimentation, the Adamahnics, as they are known, have mastered making pickles, sauerkraut, dilly beans, kimchee, and schug (a Yemenite chili sauce) which they bottle in their newly licensed commercial kitchen. This summer, they harvested 8,000 pounds of cucumbers.. “The challenge is washing them and getting them in brine the day you pick them,“ he says. Now, you can find the jars, which have pretty botanical labels with Hebrew letters, in the refrigerator cases at local food stores such as the Berkshire Co-Op Market, Guido’s, Rubiner’s and LaBonne’s.
The Adamahnics (who look like they could all be extras in Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock) will be hosting a family-friendy Feast in the Field fundraiser on Sunday, September 21, where they will serve a dairy brunch featuring vegetable frittatas, homemade chevre from Isabella Freedman’s own goats, croquettes with roasted eggplant and feta cheese, as well as pickles (half- and full-sours), sauerkraut and dilly beans. “We’ll have a tent in our sadeh [field] on Route 126,“ says Shamu, “And we will also be unveiling the plans for our new farm on Beebe Hill Road. We have worked with Dave Jacke who is one of the authorities on permaculture in our region. It will be a teaching and working farm that is efficient and sustainable.“
Feast in the Field
Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center
116 Johnson Road, Falls Village, CT; 860.
Adults $100; children free
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 09/17/08 at 02:22 PM • Permalink
Open Season on Apples & Pears at Philip Orchards
Three generations of Philips: John, his nephew Rhys, mother Julia, and sister Leila.
“You always think this year’s apples are the best ever,“ says Julia Philip of Claverack. “Or you always think last year’s apples were better. Depends on your nature.“ Julia knows nature. Now 83, she has been running Philip Orchards year round since her husband John Van Ness Philip Jr., a writer and editor at McGraw Hill and elsewhere, died in 1993, leaving her the farm that had been in his family for the better part of 300 years. With weekend help from her children and their children, Julia has not only managed to keep the Philip Orchards afloat, she has kept up with the latest growing practices. Using Integrated Pest Management (invited insects eliminate unwelcome ones, thus greatly reducing dependence on chemical pesticides), Philip Orchards apples, pears, and plums invariably win multiple blue ribbons at the Columbia County Fair. This year alone, clever Julia snagged six.
The term “family farm” suggests one thing in the Midwest, quite another in the Hudson Valley. In the Midwestern model, it is the sole support of a nuclear family, very much a hands-on enterprise. In the Hudson Valley, from the earliest days, many farmers were educated gentlemen who made most of their money (often quite a lot, in fact) doing other things. Property was passed from generation to generation. The challenge to each: to earn enough from the land to make it self-sustaining.
Such has been the case over the centuries with the Van Ness Philips. In 1732 they bought the southermost sliver of 600,000-acre Rensselaerwyck, a vast parcel that the early Dutch family, the Van Rensselaers, had purchased from the Mohicans. Today, the Philips still own one hundred acres of that original 296-acre tract.
“I have lived here for fifty years,“ Julia says of Talavera, the house one of her husband’s forebears built in 1802. Deliberately snubbing the stodgy Dutch style, William Van Ness chose instead to erect a testament to his own prosperity in the more modern Greek Revival style. A little more than a century after that, Julia’s father-in-law, an engaged farmer and New York attorney whose wife was a Stott (owners of the Stottville woolen factory that had supplied the Union Army), switched from growing once profitable hay, in trouble by then, thanks to Henry Ford’s Tin Lizzie, to orchards. New York and Boston were primary markets for fruit, and the McIntosh had caught on in England, as well. The farms of the Hudson Valley, with their easy access to the railways and the port of New York, were a convenient source.
The Philips have been growing fruit there ever since. In 1966, Julia and John shocked their farming neighbors by leading the way on U Pick, eliminating the middle man so their customers could get fresher fruit at lower prices by picking it themselves. Despite dire warnings that amateur pickers would damage their trees, the Philips followed their progressive instincts. Within fifteen years, it had become a widespread trend.
This year, according to Julia, a cool spring and heavy rains have resulted in a nearly perfect crop—most varieties are large and sweet. The exceptions: Bosc pears fell prey to a frost at their peak of bloom, and many of the Red Delicious apples turned out to be disappointingly small. Julia’s advice, pick them selectively.
Philip Orchards
270 Route 9H, Claverack; 518.851.6341
Daily 8 - 6
September 5: Bartlett pears, Jonamac apples, blackberries, raspberries
September 12: McIntosh, Cortland, Spartan apples and Italian plums
September 19: Empire, Honey Cristp, Idared, Macoun, Greening, Jonathan, Golden Delicious, and Matsu apples; Anjou and Harrow Sweet pears
October 3: Northern Spy, Rome, and Lady apples
The story of the Philip family is told in a wonderful book by Leila Philip, Julia’s daughter, who teaches creative writing at Holy Cross in Worcester.
A Family Place: A Hudson Valley Farm; Three Centuries, Five Wars, One Family (Viking/Penguin)
The Spotty Dog Books & Ale
440 Warren Street, Hudson; 518.671.6006
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 09/08/08 at 04:39 PM • Permalink
King Corn: How It’s Done at Howden Farm
At this time of year, everybody serves corn on the cob and everybody claims that their local farm stand has the hands-down best corn in the region. The people who go to Howden Farm in Sheffield are among the most vociferous, and so are the folks who buy their corn at Silamar Farm in Millerton (NY), LaBonne’s in Salisbury (CT), and the Co-op in Great Barrington (MA), because what they are buying is Howden Corn, too.
“We pick it in the morning and deliver it for that day’s sale,‘ says Bruce Howden, who grew up on this farm by the Housatonic River. He moved away for 30 years and ran a B&B and graphic design business in Vermont before returning home in 1998 to continue and honor his father’s legacy. “We’ve been selling sweet corn here since 1948,“ he says.
It’s the freshness, Howden believes, that makes his corn distinctive. “It could be the soil and it could be the agricultural practice,“ he says, “But I get up at 5 AM to pick our corn. Some people pick corn in the afternoon, but I think it makes the corn starchier. We’ve built our reputation on seven days a week delivery.“
He says it was not hard to get back into the agricultural life after 30 years away from it. “It’s like riding a bike, but there weren’t bikes with ten speeds back then,“ he says in a drawl that makes him sound like a New England version of Truman Capote. “The farming business has become very scientific. You test the soil and find out what nutrients it needs. You just don’t buy 10-10-10 and hope for the best.“ While farming is not an easy life, it’s not as grueling as it was in his father’s day. “We have a brand new mechanical corn picker—we’ve nicknamed it Conrasaurus Pix—and it works perfectly,“ he says cheerfully.
Though he has 35 acres of sweet corn under cultivation, it is the 40 acres of pumpkins that really get him animated. “My father developed something called the Howden Pumpkin,“ he says. “It became the gold standard in the industry. You’ll see it in all the seed catalogs.“ His father also developed something called the Howden Biggie. “Its average size is 43 pounds,“ he says proudly.
Howden sells pumpkins to places like Ward’s Nursery, and he has a pick-your-own patch at his spread in Sheffield along with a hay maze for small children and hay rides through the fields on autumn weekends. But he laments that pumpkin growing is not what it was. “It’s like the Christmas tree business,“ he says. “A lot of people have gotten into it in small ways if they have a little bit of extra land.“
Instead of thinking about slowing down, Howden is thinking about expanding, even though he has sold the development rights to almost all of his land—more than 200 acres—to the State of Massachusetts, which will keep them in agriculture in perpetuity. “We closed on that on July 25, which was quite a big deal,“ he says. “I have five acres of small fruit right now and I would like to grow more.“
Right now, he is focusing on harvesting corn and spraying the pumpkin patch so the vines and stems are sturdy. “A good pumpkin to my mind has to have a good stem,“ he says. Does he have any special tricks for cooking corn? “No, I just boil or grill it,“ he says, but he does have a tip about not cooking it. “You can munch on corn raw, which is what we often do in the fields,“ he says. “And if you’re making a corn salad, you really don’t have to cook it at all.“
Howden Farm
303 Rannapo Rd, Sheffield, MA; 413.229.8481
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 08/21/08 at 06:39 AM • Permalink
It’s PYO Blueberry Season
We went blueberry picking the other day at Windy Hill Farm in Great Barrington. Picking them requires patience and perseverence, but doesn’t everything worthwhile in life? In the back of our minds, we were thinking of the first stanza of Blueberries by the great New England poet Robert Frost:
You ought to have seen what I saw on my way
To the village, through Mortenson’s pasture to-day:
Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb,
Real sky-blue, and heavy, and ready to drum
In the cavernous pail of the first one to come!
And all ripe together, not some of them green
And some of them ripe! You ought to have seen!
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Where to Pick
Barton Orchards
Cty. Rt. 7, Beekman/Poughquag Rd, Poughquag, NY; 845.227.2306
Daily: 9 AM - 5 PM
Ellsworth Hill Orchard & Berry Farm
461 Cornwall Bridge Road/Route 4, Sharon, CT; 860.364.0025
Daily: 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Greig Farm
223 Pitcher Lane, Red Hook, NY; 845.758.1234
Daily 8 AM - 8 PM
Mead Orchards
15 Scism Rd., Off Rt. 9, Tivoli, NY; 845.756.5641
Weekends only: 10 AM - 5:30 PM
Samascott Orchards
5 Sunset Avenue, Kinderhook, NY; 518.758.7224
Daily: 8 AM - 6 PM
Windy Hill Farm
686 Stockbridge Road; Great Barrington, MA; 413.298.3217
Daily: 9 AM - 4 PM
If you know of a berry patch we overlooked, please leave a comment below. And call ahead to make sure that there are still berries on the bushes.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 07/16/08 at 07:02 PM • Permalink
Grass-fed Beef (and Authentic Farmhouse Style) in Salisbury
Allen and Robin at their back door
Robin and Allen Cockerline, who raise grass-fed beef in Salisbury, CT, are not the type of farmers who’d call their house “stylish” or describe their hamburgers or hot dogs as “gourmet.“ But their good taste is quite evident at their quaint shop at Whippoorwill Farm, where they sell their meat (tenderloin, brisket, sausages, sirloin, pork chops and more) on Saturdays from 10 AM - 4 PM.
The Cockerlines are anything but quaint. They are unreconstructed hippie-artists-turned-farmers who’ve been making a living from the land since the early 1970s, when they dropped out of the Montserrat art school in Beverly, MA. They eventually found their way to Falls Village CT, where they were dairy farmers who milked their cows daily and grew hay and corn for feed. It was never an easy life and only got tougher over two decades. “There’s a saying in the dairy business, Get big or get out,“ says Allen, who decided to get out.
As the millennium approached, Allen started selling his dairy cows and transitioned to raising cattle. Traditionally, even pasture-raised cattle are fed grain the last few months of their lives to fatten them up. “That’s what makes American beef sweet,“ he says. “But I decided not to add that layer of Twinkie fat. I thought they looked their best straight from the pasture.“ Allen’s intuitive belief that grass-fed beef was superior was confirmed by a seminal New York Times Magazine article, Power Steer, in 2002. “Michael Pollan put grass-fed beef on the map,“ says Allen.
The Cockerlines put themselves on the map eight years ago when they designed a corn maze and started selling beef at White Hollow Farm in Lime Rock and realized that it could be a decent business. Three years ago, they bought a run down farmhouse on two acres along the Salmon Kill that borders 60 acres of protected land that they have permission to use for grazing. As artists, they saw the possibilities of the property, and Robin has decorated their house with humble antiques and overstuffed furniture that’s impervious to dirty dogs and muddy boots; it’s country style at its most authentic.
They have developed a loyal following at their once-a-week shop where they also sell their own eggs, Sky Farm greens, and Adamah pickles and kraut. They’re still surprised that customers favor more expensive cuts (tenderloin is $25 pound), though Robin and Allen think the hamburger ($5 a pound) is the tastiest of all, and their all-beef hot dogs (7 for $10) are succulent without seeming heavy. Allen surmises that the problem with the hamburger, which is 92% lean, is that people do not understand how to properly cook it. “I tell everybody the same thing,“ he says. “Don’t press down the burgers when you grill them. You’re not getting rid of fat since there’s hardly any in ours. You’re pressing out all the juice.“
Allen plastered the walls on the fireplace wall and installed a vintage wood stove. The green quilts on the white sofas hide dirt and can be easily washed. Stacks of art and design books feed their imaginations and conversations.
There’s no need for curtains because the views of the pastures should not be blocked.
The dining room table was made by a friend’s father; mismatched chairs mean that it’s easy to add more to the table without upsetting the balance.
The table is set for an ordinary weekday dinner: grilled grass-fed beef, a salad of Sky Farm Greens, mashed turnips from Chubby Bunny Farm and a bottle of red wine.
The Cockerlines’ border collie, Maggie, rests after playing soccer with a visitor. She likes to play ball with Whippoorwill Farm’s customers.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 07/10/08 at 11:54 AM • Permalink
Bizalion’s Is Le Source for Pluperfect Picnics
A humble ham-and-cheese sandwich does not sound like picnic fare fit for Tanglewood, unless it comes from Bizalion’s, a cafe and charcuterie in Great Barrington. Jean-Francois Bizalion, who grew up in France, creates sandwiches that are unapologetically un-American. On a crusty baguette made daily by a baker in Pittsfield, he spreads sweet butter with a few whisper thin slices of jambon and gruyère and slivers of cornichons. To my mind, the sandwich always seems to taste better when you get it to go and it’s been wrapped in white butcher’s paper so when you open it you feel like you’ve given yourself a gift.
All of the sandwiches (such as pâté maison, salami, avocado and brie) are equally understated and deeply satisfying. Jean-Francois is a stickler for ingredients, which reminds you why France was historically considered the culinary capital of the world. “The picnic tradition in France goes back to the early 19th century,“ he says. “Think of Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe.“ 
Bizalion’s offerings are well edited because Jean-Francois likes to sell only what he knows how to make perfectly like pain au chocolat, quiche Lorraine made with locally raised bacon, or a mustardy vinaigrette that’s an old family recipe.
Bizalion’s is an old-fashioned family business with an unlikely pedigree. Before Jean-Francois and his wife, Helen, moved to the Berkshires, he was a fashion editor in New York City. Now, he and Helen live in Sheffield with their daughters (Isabelle, 5, and Anouk, 3) and his children from his first marriage (Julien, 21, and Chloe, 16) often work in the store on weekends. 
Almost five-years-old, Bizalion’s has succeeded despite its awkward location in Great Barrington between a Mobil station and a cemetary. “Lunch has really taken off which was not part of the plan,“ he says. There are a few small cafe tables, but it’s the long communal table that gives Bizalion’s the air of an expatriates’ salon where all are welcome. “People tend to shop more after they’ve eaten lunch, it seems to open their appetites,“ notes Francois, pointing to his innovative olive oil bar where you can taste before filling a decanter with oil from Turkey, Lebanon, Italy or Greece. (If you go for breakfast, you must order his incomparable fried egg, which, and I don’t exaggerate, verges on being a work of art.) Now that he’s firmly rooted in the community, Jean-Francois is making more local food connections, and he often has a stand at the Sheffield Farmers’ Market. He’s carrying “exquisite” free range chickens from Wolfe Spring Farm in Sheffield and he’s having Chubby Bunny Farm in Falls Village raise a pig for him, which he’ll use to make rillettes, bacon and prosciutto—all wonderful fillings for future sandwiches.
Bizalion’s
684 Main Street; 413.644.9988
Tuesday - Friday 8 - 5:30 ; Saturday 9:30 - 5:30; Sunday 9 - 4
Closed Monday
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 07/02/08 at 10:07 PM • Permalink
Robin’s Candy Store: The Sweet Smell of Excess
There’s a fine line between whimsy and wacky, and Robin Helfand is the tightrope walker behind Robin’s Candy Store, which opened on Main Street in Great Barrington on June 21. She’s taken the old White Knight Records space and renovated it so that it feels like a sweet shoppe with a pedigree. “You see those glass cabinets in the back?“ she says. “I got them from Gatsby’s [which just closed after decades on Railroad Street] who got them from another store in town so they’ve been in Great Barrington for 70 or 80 years.“ She unearthed the original worn floorboards and hung crystal chandeliers that lend the shop an Old World flavor. “When my daughter and I were in Italy, we noticed that all the candy shops have chandeliers,“ she says.
A resident of Lakeville, CT, who runs the Millerton Market and Millerton Card & Candy in nearby New York, Helfand sees herself as another one of the independent retailers who make Great Barrington a distinctive pedestrian-friendly town where chain stores are not welcome. She envisions giddy, sugar-fueled families strolling the sidewalks eating her Italian ice, gelato and ice cream, and carrying shopping bags of licorice, gummy bears and chocolate bars to eat at home.
Helfand contends that a candy store is the great equalizer, a place where anyone can afford to treat themselves to a sweet pick-me-up. And she is trying to make sure that people of all food sensitivities will find something they like. She notes that vegans can have her Italian ices (made by Richie’s in Boston) and that she’ll always have at least one no-sugar added ice cream (made with Splenda.) “We are trying to develop a gelatto with soy milk, too,“ she says.
Helfand has apparently never met a candy concept she didn’t like, and the store has everything from a 9 pound Nestle Crunch bar ($98) to Cricket Lick-Its (lollipops with a genuine cricket inside). There’s a self-serve dispenser with 24 different colors of M&Ms and another one with just as many varieties of jelly beans. And there’a mind-boggling assortment of 50 types of licorice. “We sell more licorice than chocolate,“ says the number-crunching Helfand, who hopes to bring Robin’s Candy Stores to other walking towns like Rhinebeck, Woodstock and Northampton.
The store is meant to be a fantasia for all ages, and everyone who walks in seems enamored of the toy train chugging along a track around the perimeter of the store and crossing a bridge overhead in the center of the shop. Helfand is enough of a realist to recognize that many parents and dentists will disapprove of her store, so she is handing out free toothbrushes with the message Keep That “SWEET TOOTH” Healthy!
Robin’s Candy Store
288 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA; 413.528.8477
Sunday - Wednesday 11 AM - 9 PM
Thursday - Saturday 11 AM - 11 PM (subject to change)
A toy train chugs along a bridge that spans the center of the store
