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: Tomatoes with Trepidation

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Peter writes: While the livestock side of the farm is burgeoning (3 piglets, 2 calves, and our 18th lamb so far this season, as well as 125 turkey poults and 40 goslings arriving next

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Food

AgriCulture: A Round Trip To and From the GreenHouse

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Peter writes: Well, sad to say, the value-added farm products described in our April 1 bulletin were only a wonderful fantasy. Alas, we at Turkana Farms have no chocolate flavored eggs, no alcoholic melons,

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Food

Fresh: A Digestible Documentary About Food

Fresh, which screens this Sunday at the Moviehouse in Millerton as part of their free FilmWorks Forum series, is not just another "ain't it awful" documentary about the villainous food industry. More upbeat and folksy than the recent Food Inc., Fresh, makes quick and fair-minded work

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Food

New England Meets Mexico Maple Custard

A week in Oaxaca inspired me to mingle the maple season here with a classic Mexican dessert — flan with a New England twist. Fried from my trip, I preheated the oven and laid out the ingredients. Then I remembered something — a fabulous custard recipe from Lindsey Shere’s Chez Panisse

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Food

AgriCulture: The Compleat Farmer, At Last

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Mark recounts the final stage of his embrace of farming. Picture this: a gray-haired lawyer in overalls on a soggy raw early March day, crawling at full speed for the third or fourth time

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Food

Happy Trail: Hudson-Berkshire Beverage Trail to Launch in April

Christopher Matthews, a wine and spirits writer and educator, divides his time between Manhattan and Red Hook, Dutchess County. He has been the wine and spirits columnist for New York Law Journal Magazine since 2004, and has written about food and drink for Epicurious.com and the Culinary Institute of

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Food

Warren Kitchen & Cutlery, A Cut Above

Kitchen supply stores in malls or on Main Streets are likely to have something for everyone—items that dazzle those who like to cook, those who like to entertain, and those in the market for something a little different to taste. Warren Kitchen & Cutlery in Rhinebeck is not like

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Food

AgriCulture: Can Value-Added Products Save the Small Farm?

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Peter writes: Well, you heard about our “Virgin Birth” at the farm in last week’s blog. Yet another unforeseen consequence came our way last month. You may remember that a year or so

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Food

The Locavore Way: Potatoes for Any Season & Any Reason

My husband, Tommy, who at times I affectionately call “Mr Potato Head,” kindled my passion for potatoes early in our 26 year marriage. Half Irish Catholic, half Irish Protestant, he grew up eating potatoes at every meal. These days, we often roast 5 pounds at a time for the two

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Food

Berkshire Preserves Launches with a Tasting at Guido's

It all began, as so much food sleuthing does, with a memory. "In 1969, I traveled to England for the first time," says Barbara Fields, sole proprietor of a new company Berkshire Preserves™, which officially launches this Thursday with a tasting at Guido's. "My then-husband

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Food

AgriCulture: Animal Behavior 101 Styles of Mothering

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Peter writes: Since most of the "how to farm" animal care books we have consulted seem to treat animals as objects, or mere commodities, and thus ignore much of their behavior, we

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Food

BOLA Granola: The Best in the Berkshires - And Beyond?

Everybody in our region knows someone who makes really great granola. Michele Miller’s husband, furniture maker Peter Murkett, was convinced that her granola was truly exceptional. Two years ago, he encouraged her to try packaging her very crunchy, not-too-sweet, savory blend of oats, almonds, brown sugar and pumpkin seeds.

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