Food

Discover the best food, farms, and dining in the Hudson Valley, Berkshires, and Litchfield Hills. Rural Intelligence shares local restaurant reviews, seasonal recipes, and stories celebrating regional flavor.

Food

AgriCulture: Instead of Roasting, They're Grilling

AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week, Mark writes: I am much relieved that Saturday before last we dodged another bullet at Turkana Farms. Just after 5:59 p.m., I interrupted chores to yell into the house to

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Food

AgriCulture: Animal Farm

AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week, Peter writes: It is the time of the big change-over at Turkana Farms. Last week our veteran prize ram, Suleyman the Magnificent left for his new home at Pine Hills Farm in

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Food

John Andrews: Reinvigorating the Farm to Table Restaurant

Dan Smith, the chef who opened John Andrews restaurant in 1991 in an old farmhouse in Egremont, MA (on the Berkshire/Columbia County border), has always cooked with as many local ingredients as possible. "They weren't as easy to come by back then," says Smith, who

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Food

Don't Shop! Save the Environment, Become a Forager

By Betsy Miller Food forager Russ Cohen has a shopping list that’s a little different. This week he’ll be looking for Dame’s Rocket Flower (left), which is currently rife along the margins of fields edging wooded areas. When he finds the white or purple flowers, he’ll

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Food

Food, Glorious, Food! Guido's Grows in Pittsfield

As Tanglewood is to music, Guido’s Fresh Marketplace is to groceries. (Or, if you prefer, it’s to food what Jacob’s Pillow is to dance and MASS MoCA is to art.) Whichever analogy you like, it’s incontrovertible that the Masiero family’s grocery stores in Pittsfield and

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Food

AgriCulture: Life and Death Decisions

AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week, Mark writes: Spring mud is still with us. The mud in front of the barn is proving a challenge for our oldest ewes, especially Marina, an eleven year old favorite of mine

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Food

AgriCulture: Kybele Gets Her Dream House

AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week, Peter writes: It has been well over ten years now since we restored our then collapsing barn into a working sheep barn. And we had almost forgotten the arduous process we went

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Food

The Passionate Farmer Behind Paley's Farm Market

Charlie Paley is a fourth generation farmer who knows that the locavore movement in our region depends—ironically— on out-of-towners. "I can tell when the train has arrived at the Wassaic station," he says cheerfully as he stand outside of Paley's Farm Market on Route 343

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Food

Bread Alone

For those who love artisan breads and the basics done right

By Lisa Green

Food

AgriCulture: Awaiting the Impending Storm

AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week, Peter writes: There is a strange silence, an ominous stillness. It is around eight o’clock Thursday morning but instead of a steady brightening the morning continues to darken, the sky taking

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Food

The Dream Away Lodge: A Boho Berkshire Dream Come True

You could call the Dream Away Lodge a living landmark. Surrounded by October Mountain State Forest in Becket, MA, the former roadhouse is a time capsule of Berkshire bohemia, the place where Bob Dylan (photo below), Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie and Sam Shephard made a movie, Renaldo and Clara, in

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Food

Not Just Bread at Bread Alone Café & Restaurant

By Kathryn Matthews For over a decade, discerning carb lovers have been able to get their fix of artisan breads, from French sourdough (levain) and whole wheat sourdough (miche) to baguettes, challah and peasant bread—all made with organic flours—at Bread Alone Bakery in Rhinebeck village. Pastries, too, like

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