Shopping: The Best Granola in the Berkshires - And Beyond?
Michele Miller making BOLA Granola in Great Barrington this week
Like so many of our culinary discoveries, Michele Miller’s BOLA Granola entered our consciousness when we saw it on the shelves at Guido’s. Miller, a Berkshires native who has been cooking professionally since 1974, decided to try marketing her own granola less than two years ago. It’s now being sold in stores across New England, including Whole Foods, and it was just named by the magazine Everyday with Rachel Ray as the “best traditional” granola sold in supermarkets in the USA.
Hudson Valley Restaurant Week: Special Menus for Mud Season
Going out to a favorite restaurant is a sure cure for Mud Season Melancholy, and Hudson Valley Restaurant Week (which runs now through March 28) comes just in the nick of time. A host of restaurants we love—including La Puerta Azul in Salt Point, Red Devon in Bangall, and Stissing House in Pine Plains—are offering three course, prix-fixe menus for $20 at lunch and $28 at dinner.
Openings: A Photo Exhibit Salutes Berkshire VeteransOn Friday night, March 12, at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, patriots of all stripes turned out for the opening of the Berkshire Veterans Photography Project. Photographer Bill Wright, who served in the Air Force during the Gulf War, has been taking heroic portraits of men and women who have served in uniform for our country, including 99-year-old Margaret Haggerty who was an Army nurse during World War II. |
The Wandering Eye: Pancho 1994-2010Regular readers of the Wandering Eye had come to know Pancho, Carey Maloney’s chihuahua, as the blog’s comic leitmotif. Now Pancho’s funny, little light has gone out. His torn up master (though who mastered whom will always be in question) has given his sidekick a proper send off—“a New-York-Times-style obit, above-the-fold, with a picture.” He was a very good boy. |
Shopping: A Farewell Tag Sale at Jack's GrillFor the past seventeen summers, Jack’s Grill in Housatonic, MA, was the most family-friendly restaurant around. A love child of the mighty Fitzpatrick family, who own Country Curtains and the Red Lion Inn, Jack’s was famous for its cozy decor, which featured shelves filled with collectibles, such as quirky birdhouses and cookie jars. Now everything is being sold on March 20. |
Community: A Contest for CreativesThe folks at Berkshire Creative are co-sponsoring an initiative with Crane & Co., the esteemed Dalton, MA stationers. In an attempt to broaden their base of freelancers, even as they goose their product lines, the 200-year-old firm is seeking sophisticated ideas from the region’s pool of freelance artists, illustrators, designers and copywriters, who will be rewarded with freelance work. |
RI Selects: Live MusicOn Saturday, March 20 at Infinity Hall in Norfolk, CT, you can hear folkie Tom Chapin sing “Go Away, Sarah Palin, Go Away” (and you can see a video right now on our Music page.) Also this week: Bella’s Bartok, the region’s premier acoustic Balkan gypsy rockabilly punk circus band, plays the Well in Great Barrington, Close Encounters with Music celebrates Bach’s birthday at the Mahaiwe, and the De Capo Chamber Players make their annual appearance as part of Celebrate Bard! |
AgriCulture: The Making of a Farmer, Chapter IIIn the Making of a Farmer, Part I, Mark Scherzer told us of a childhood and young adulthood passed in profound alienation from nature. Now, in Part 2, he relates how, by following Peter Davies’ lead, he was gradually seduced by gardening, particularly vegetable gardening, which, he finds, exceeds ornamental gardening when subjected to the rigors of cost-benefit analysis. |
