Rural Intelligence (Page 693)

Food

AgriCulture: The Mysterious Impulse to Garden

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Peter writes: Recently we mailed off our very ambitious vegetable seed order to Fedco and expect to wait the usual two weeks or so for delivery. Unbelievably, it is almost time to begin planting

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Community

New Year, New You...(And Some Sweetheart Deals)

Kathryn Matthews is a lifestyles writer based in New York City and Red Hook, Dutchess County. She frequently writes about travel, health, food and leisure for the New York Times, Town & Country and O Magazine. On New Year’s Eve, you swore that THIS YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT. You’

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Style

Prince Charles' Gardener Tells All

Debs Goodenough, Head Gardener to TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall will be the featured speaker at the Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Annual Winter Lecture to be held on Saturday at Monument Mountain Regional High School Auditorium in Great Barrington. “We are delighted that Mrs. Goodenough

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Parties

The "Radioactive Bodega" Pre-Party

The IS 183 Art School of the Berkshires annual costume ball has become a cult even that attracts more than 400 partygoers of all ages. The theme of the party is always playful—Sushi-a-Go-Go in 2007, Rock the Opera in 2008, the Hair Ball in 2009—and

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Community

Twenty Questions for "Devotion" Author Dani Shapiro

In the dozen years since Dani Shapiro published her best-selling memoir, Slow Motion (Random House), she has become a full-time country resident and written several well-received novels like 2007's Black & White. Now, with her just-published memoir, Devotion (Harper, $24.99), which chronicles her

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Food

AgriCulture: Which Chicken? The Fatty or the Funster?

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Mark writes: I promised a couple of weeks ago to come back to the issue of chicken. I love the taste and texture of the plump Cornish cross chickens we raise, and attribute these

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Community

The Salisbury Ski Jumps - Our Winter Olympics

For 84 years, the Salisbury Winter Sports Association (SWSA) has promised Olympic level competition at the Annual U.S. Eastern Ski Jumping Championships, and the SWSA is good to its word. Last year, we got to see Pete Frenette compete on historic Satré Hill. This year, he's not

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Food

Sweet Simplicity: Black & White Truffles

These are extraordinary in their ease and simplicity — fresh local cream mingles with the best chocolate you can find. I used Belgium Callebaut chocolate with cream from Highlawn Farm, where the vista is classic New England and Jersey cows bat their long lashes. I couldn’t find local butter (but

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Food

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

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Parties

Jason Houston's Solo Exhibit Opens at the Ferrin Gallery

Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Pittsfield: Thursday, January 21 was something of a double-header for Jason Houston (near left with gallery owners Donald Clark and Leslie Ferrin.) The evening began with the reception for his solo photography show, Family of Mine, at Ferrin Gallery, and continued

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Food

AgriCulture: The Road to Turkana, Part IV

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. Given the tragedy that has recently befallen a local farmer (see Media Matters on the Home Page), Peter, who wrote this week's blog, was quick to point out that the following litany of complaints

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Arts

Reading List: Recent Books by Local Authors

Peter Biskind, author of such film classics as Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures writes an intimate, revealing and balanced biography of a Hollywood legend in Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America (Simon & Schuster, 2009). In it, Biskind makes the case that, for all his excesses,

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