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

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 was

By Editor

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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Food

Roast Chicken Chinese Style

Amy Cotler, who will be signing copies of her book The Locavore Way at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 23, at The Bookloft in Great Barrington, says: You’re going to like this juicy bird, which will perfume your kitchen with ginger and anise and arrive well-browned with hoisin

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Food

AgriCulture: Efficiency Has Its Own Costs

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Mark writes: When I left the farm Tuesday, our sow, Miranda, extremely pregnant, her udders swollen with milk, was barely stirring herself out of her farrowing hut, not showing her usual enthusiasm for her

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Food

Healthy & Hearty French Toast

"Challah makes a great French toast, but the old hippie in me always tends towards whole grains," says Amy Cotler, author of The Locavore Way: Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Food. "The recipe developed because I had guests coming and I wanted to serve

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Food

AgriCulture: The Road to Turkana, Part 3

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Peter writes: It's a new year and our sheep are on the qui vive, producing a baby lamb every few days, six so far. And all of them are black, their wool

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Food

Tropical Butternut Bisque

On a snowy day, this soup reflects my locavore’s craving for the Caribbean — coconut with a touch of fiery ginger and cayenne pepper party with butternut’s sweet silky texture. The Berkshires and Hudson Valley produce fabulous butternut squash, and happily the local stuff is still around. Roasting it

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Food

AgriCulture: The Carnivore's Dialectic—Food for Thought

Just before the holiday break, Peter Davies of Turkana farms in Germantown wrote about eating heritage breeds in order to save them (to refresh your memory, please scroll down). Enid Futterman, editor of the periodical, Our Town in Claverack, NY, wrote to Peter and his partner Mark Scherzer to express

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Food

Old Chatham Country Store & Café

Comfort food with a gloss of sophistication

By Lisa Green

Food

AgriCulture: The Road to Turkana, Part II

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Peter writes: A few days after Thanksgiving, a doctor from Washington State left a message on my answering machine: "I saw those turkeys in The New York Times a couple of days ago

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Food

Last Minute Latkes for Locavores

You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy these potato pancakes, using local apples, parsnips, onions, sour cream and potatoes—if you can find them. (I had trouble, but don't get me started; I'm proof that it's not always easy to practice

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Food

AgriCulture: Food Production and Health Care

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Mark writes: Just when I think I have things somewhat figured out, along comes someone with a whole new angle to set me to rethinking. Several weeks back, I speculated that perhaps the family

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