Details Here 

SPOTLIGHT ON FARMED + FORAGED SPONSORS

The dates, prices and menus for Farmed + Foraged vary. Some restaurants will be celebrating only on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Please contact participating restaurants directly for accurate information on when they will be offering Farmed + Foraged, their menu options and pricing.

The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge will present a special Farmed + Foraged three-course dinner menu crafted from foraged items, local dairy, eggs, greens and locally sourced meats.  

Dinner will feature a first course of Smoked McEnroe Organic Tomato Soup with Bacon on the Side Bacon, Foraged Ramps and Equinox Farm Arugula or McEnroe Organic Asparagus with Sunny Side-Up Graceful Acre Bantam Egg and Shaved Berle Farm Bovinaburg.  

The second course will include Braised Bacon on the Side Pork and Ramp Ragu with Zehr Farm Mushrooms and Scape Sprouts or Lila's Spicy Lamb Meatballs served with Minted Old Chatham Sheep's Milk Yogurt and Spring Herbs.  

Dessert will feature Barrington Coffee Roasters Crème Brulee with Salted Caramel Biscotti and High Lawn Farm Cream or Ronnybrook Farm Vanilla Ice Cream and Ioka Valley Farm Maple Syrup Redux.  

The prix fixe meal is $45 per person (not including tax or gratuity). Berkshire Grown will receive a contribution of $15 from each prix fixe dinner sold. In addition, several Farmed + Foraged items will be available a la carte. As has been the tradition for many years, The Red Lion Inn features sustainable dinner specials on Sundays and Mondays and a daily sustainable breakfast.

The Route 7 Grill in Great Barrington will feature a three-course Farmed + Foraged menu including House-made Local Ricotta Gnocchi with Asparagus, Zehr Farm Shiitakes, Pine Nuts and House-made Milk House Farm Bacon followed by Whey-braised Milk House Farm Pork Loin with Young Spring Carrots from Indian Line Farm and Rawson Brook Chevre Cheesecake. The dinner is $35 per person or $47 with wine or beer pairings.

Mezze Restaurant Group will spotlight locally grown items with Farmed + Foraged prix fixe menus at Allium Restaurant + Bar in Great Barrington and Mezze Bistro + Bar in Williamstown. The restaurants will feature foraged edibles including spring ramps, nettles and the first of spring greens from local farms.

Baba Louie's Sourdough Pizza in Great Barrington and Pittsfield will feature Equinox Farm Arugula Salad with Prosciutto, Campari Cantaloupe Caviar and Cricket Creek Farm Cheddar Profiteroles plus a special White Queen Pizza with Fresh Mozzarella, Pickled Ramps, Braised Chicken, Roasted Shallots and Parmesan, drizzled with Ramp Pesto.

Guido's Fresh Marketplace will spotlight free samples of Farmed + Foraged-inspired dishes from the Guido's Kitchen at both Pittsfield and Great Barrington locations on Friday, May 20 from 1 pm to 6 pm. In both store locations, customers can shop for the freshest local farmed and foraged edibles to try out recipes of local seasonal foods in their own kitchens.  

Guido's will also present their Renovation Celebration on May 19^th through the 21^st from 9 am to 7 pm at both store locations. Foodies will enjoy great savings, many samples, special guests, daily $100 Guido's Gift Card raffles and more. Complete event details at guidosfreshmarketplace.com.

The Berkshire Co-op Market in Great Barrington will present their hot food and salad bar peppered with local spring greens, fiddleheads and leeks along with local produce from area farms. Saturday, May 21 will also feature a Farmed + Foraged special demo from 1 pm to 3 pm.

More details here 

Where the Wild Things Are

Foraging walks in the Berkshires throughout the month of May

Wild food walks, lead by experienced and passionate instructors, will focus on responsible harvesting techniques, recipes and the history of foraging in the Berkshires. Find more about the guides and walks here  

In support of the Berkshire Farm & Table mission, the Williams College Sustainable Food and Agriculture Program is the official sponsor of Where the Wild Things Are with Berkshire Grown, Mezze Restaurant Group, The Porches Inn@MASS MoCA and Slow Food of Western Massachusetts supporting the event.

Russ Cohen -photo by Ellen Vliet Cohen

Farmers Markets are opening!  

         Hurray!!!!!!!!!!               Support your local farmer

Friday May 6: Lenox Farmers' Market

Saturday May 7: Great Barrington Farmers Market

Berkshire Area Farmers' Market at Lanesborough  

Farmers Market of Otis

Saturday May 21: Norfolk, CT.  

Friday May 27th:  Sheffield Farmers' Market  

Saturday May 28th:  Park Square's Bank Row in Pittsfield, MA

Williamstown Farmers' Market 

 FIND FARMERS' MARKETS  on MAP-O-LICIOUS 

Sheep to Shawl Festival May 7 from 11 am to 3 pm

at Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation

What We're Reading

"Carrot souffle? It's in there. Kale chips? Check. Spring greens saute? Roasted roots? The kickin'est chocolate zucchini bread? You betcha. How about insights into how naming a food affects your kids' experience of it? Or the number one way to get your children to enjoy vegetables? Or easy lunchbox strategies? Or research into whether you are, in fact, destroying your children's lives if you don't sit down to a family dinner every single night? Yes, yes, yes, and yes (and "no." You are probably not destroying their lives.)"

 Read more 

 
Corby Kummer writes about the "lively debate and healthy disagreements"at "The Atlantic's Food Summit" which took place in DC April 26, 2011 more here, and writes about the fabulous idea Alice Waters promoted "free universal school lunch."  

"Alice [Waters] came to Washington-"like Mr. Smith," she said as she started-to put forward her new utopian scheme: free universal school lunch:

Alice Waters: "Now imagine what it would mean for agriculture and rural economies if every school and university had a lunch program that served its students only local products that had been sustainably farmed. Twenty percent of the population of this country is in school. If all these students were eating together and consuming local food, agriculture would have to change overnight to meet the demand. Domestic food culture would change too, because people would grow up learning how to cook affordable, wholesome, and delicious food. Think of that. Good food would become a right and not a privilege."

She acknowledged a few of the, oh, inconvenient obstacles that might stand in the way:

Alice Waters:"To make this a reality, we need more pilot programs at all levels. When these pilots are good enough we will have the momentum and best practices to seek the mandate and the public funding to make them a reality throughout this country. This will cost money. Maybe the greatest obstacle we're going to encounter is learning to pay the real cost of food, which means to pay upfront and learning to pay a good living to the farmers and the ranchers and the dairymen who are preserving the precious resources of our planet and nourishing us at the same time."

Quick Bites

DISCOVER THE:  

Berkshire Grown Online Farmers' Market

a 24 hour Farmers' Market! 

Self-propelled by Berkshire Grown members, the page will benefit those of you who choose to participate in it. Farmers and food producers can post what they have available, and chefs and community members can comment or contact suppliers directly with requests for product or more information.   

Thanks for the photo of The Berry Patch's "Luscious Lettuce" to Dale Ila Riggs who posted it on Facebook.

Berkshire Grown offers this as a networking service and bears no responsibility for transactions.

MASSACHUSETTS GROWN...and FRESHER!  

 If you are traveling through Massachusetts check out this map, support our local farmers throughout the state!

Refrigerated trucking available throughout Berkshire, Hampshire, and Franklin Counties, and soon to be extending to Springfield, and east on the Pike through Framingham.  Very reasonable rates.  Contact Paul at Sidehill Farm; 413 625 0011, or paul@sidehillfarm.net.        Paul M. Lacinski   

  A Sustainable Agriculture and Healing Arts Project Seeks Unique Landowner and Home: