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

At the Farmer's Wife in Ancramdale, the Son-in-Law Also Rises

Even before Dorcas Sommerhoff opened The Farmer's Wife, her café and takeout shop in the heart of Ancramdale in 2002, she had spent more than a decade as the go-to caterer for savvy residents of Dutchess and Columbia Counties who craved earthy but sophisticated country cooking for small

By Editor

Food

Soup & Sandwich Salvation! Amenia's Back in the Kitchen

Besides a post office and a library, every small town needs a breakfast and lunch spot where you can rub shoulders with the neighbors or pick up a homemade cup of soup or a hearty sandwich to eat on the run. For a long time, the Cozy Corner was the

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Food

AgriCulture: Chicken is Not What It Used to Be

AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week, Peter writes: “A rose is a rose is a rose”, Gertrude Stein (left) once famously said. If she were alive today she would not, however, be able to say: "A chicken

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Food

Hudson's First Indoor Market: It Might As Well Be Spring

It may take more than one swallow to make a spring, but one farmer's market seemed to do the trick for Hudsonites on Saturday, March 5. It felt as if the entire town had turned out to celebrate this first-ever Indoor Spring Market held in the fellowship hall

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Food

Chatham's Back Alley Nano-Brewery

by Christopher Matthews We all know that size matters, and that bigger isn't always better. This is especially true with breweries and beer. A local case in point is Chatham Brewing, located in a back alley off Main Street in the Village of Chatham, NY. Don't

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Food

AgriCulture: Farm Animals Are Not Pets

AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week, Peter writes: We tend to give all the praise and attention to our ewes as they give birth to and mother their lambs, taking for granted the not inconsiderable efforts of our

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Food

Mazzeo's

The enormous restaurant embraces you with a hearty Italian-American gemütlichkeit

By Lisa Green

Food

Restaurant at The Rhinecliff Finds Its Groove

By Kathryn Matthews As owners of the historic Rhinecliff Hotel, James and David Chapman—Englishmen and brothers—like to keep it fun. They spent five years and $5 million transforming the once dilapidated Queen Anne-style building into a nine-room boutique country hotel that re-opened three years ago. But the rambunctious

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Food

The Boathouse

Warm and rustic, infusing traditional New England style with fine dining elegance

By Lisa Green

Food

Bridges to Spring: Winter Farmers' Markets, a Blossoming Trend

In the wake of recent and ongoing snow storms, memories of leafy green local produce and last fall's bountiful harvest have all but faded for many of us. But we don’t necessarily have to resign ourselves to shrink-wrapped meat and produce shipped from halfway around the world

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Food

Self Sufficiency: Amputate Or Cut It Off An Inch At a Time?

AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Peter writes: A few days after writing my Thanksgiving bulletin about our ongoing attempts at self sufficiency, I happened upon what was to me a shocking article entitled “Turkish Villagers Become Strangers

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Food

Limited Addition: Tivoli Bread & Baking’s Bûche de Noël

By Kathryn Matthews “If it’s not in my heart, it’s not on my counter,” says Mike Gonnella, a.k.a. “Mikee,” the baker and owner of the perennially popular Tivoli Bread & Baking. This holiday, he shares l’esprit de Noël in his heart by making a limited

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