Masthead from old e-newsletter winter
News & Events February 2014
Berkshire Grown  online 
Make a difference -- support local farms,
join Berkshire Grown  here






   



MORE INFORMATION HERE

 








Farming Our  Future: Food - Farms - Community - Succession: a conference  

Saturday February 22, 2014 9 am - 4pm  

Taconic Hills Central School District,
73 County  Road 11A, Craryville, NY 

 

Workshops repeat two times during the day. The first session is at 11:15 am, the second begins approximately 2:00 pm. The full agenda can be found on the homepage.

The Workshop on Farm to Chef Success features Berkshire Grown members:   

Proprietor Nancy Thomas, Mezze Bistro + Bar andAllium Bistro + Bar
(pictured right)

 Chef-owner Dan Smith, (pictured left)
& John Brusie, Vice President, Operations Ginsberg's Foods

 




2081

  • Fresh Fest Film Series

  • Images Cinema, Williamstown, MA

  • Friday, 2/28 through Sunday, 3/2

    A Food and Farm Film Festival

    Films about food, farming, culture and community. Free to attend. All events take place at Images Cinema unless otherwise noted.

    February 28 at 5pm: A Place at the Table
    March 1, 10:30am - 6:15pm: TEDx Manhattan: Changing the Way We Eat (Wege Auditorium)
    March 1 at 3pm: After Winter, Spring
    March 1 at 5pm: Soul Food Junkies
    March 2 at 3pm: Leviathan

     
WATCH at Williams College:  TEDx Manhattan: Changing The Way We Eat

 

TEDx Manhattan: Changing The Way We Eat will be a live stream of the TEDx event in Manhattan, at Wege Auditorium, Williams College.  Each speaker gives an 12 minute presentation on a particular topic.

Click here for more information about the speakers 

 

10:30am-12:30pm:
Peggy Neu (Meatless Monday), Michael Roxyne (Local Food Distribution), Megan Miller (Cricket Flour), Green Bronx Machine, Andrew Gunther (Meat System/ How good intentions went bad), Lance Price (Antibiotics), David Binkle (School Food)

Break for lunch

 

1:40-3:40pm: Sam Van Aken Tree of 40 Fruits, Matt Moore (Art and Food), Regina Bernard-Carreno (Food Racism), Sunny Young, Virginia Clarke (Philanthropy and Sustainable Agriculture), Alison Cayne (Bringing the Food Movement Together), Nikki Henderson (Building Allies)

Break

4:20-6:15: Myra Goodman (In Praise of Big Organic), Saru Jaramayan (Restaurant Workers), Clint Smith (Food Deserts/ Children/Schools), Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, Ken Cook (EWG Database), Tom Colicchio (Hunger and Food Policy)

 

 






Berkshire Grown is collaborating with the Berkshire Visitors Bureau in 2014 on Taste Berkshires.
In the spotlight, Berkshire Grown members: Cricket Creek Farm, Chocolate Springs and Table Six restaurant at the Kemble Inn.
Looking forward to more local food heroes in future Taste Berkshires posts!




What We Are Watching:

Castle Street cafe logo banner Castle Street Cafe:  

Braised Short Ribs in Big Elm Stout

Chef Michael Ballon of Castle Street Cafe in downtown Great Barrington, MA uses local ingredients to create a delicious meal, watch here.   

Ballon has been featuring fresh ingredients from local farms since the 1980s -- before there was a Berkshire Grown!  

 

 

 

 






 
What We Are Watching


Berkshire Bounty Segment Three on WCVB Boston 

Cheese and bread   

 

Ira Grable with Berkshire Blue "Ira Grable was singing the blues when his family's textile business closed in 2000. Today his Berkshire Blue Cheese is a winner, and he is known around these parts as the big cheese...."read here or watch here.  

 

 


"What is cheese without good bread? Just up the road is Berkshire Mountain Bakery, where Richard has been baking a better bread since 1985. I was kind of a bread maniac. Everything was bread. I would sleep, breathe, everything, I would go to countries, different bakeries...."read more or watch here. 
 
  Berkshire Mountain Bakery

 

Furnace Brook wines
"High in the hills of Richmond is Hilltop Orchards, where you might be surprised to find a winery. Furnace Brook Winery was started to make hard cider. Right now it is the fastest-growing niche in the beverage market. We are producing 13 different varieties of wine. The latest thing is this fantastic apple ice wine -- apple ice wine. The orchard was planted in the 1920's and today yields heirloom varieties...." read more or watch. 
 

 

 






 
Join a CSA - Community Supported Agriculture - Farm:  Indian line farm Become a member of a farm, provide funds now for a farmer, and begin picking up your share in June.

What a delicious way to support a local farmer!

See the list of CSA's on Berkshire Grown's Map-o-licious. 





WHAT WE ARE READING  

"The Elders of Organic Farming"

by Carol Pogash, in the New York Times

Tom Willey, left, and Jim Gerritsen converse in the Esalen garden in Big Sur, Calif. Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

"...For nearly a week, two dozen organic farmers from the United States and Canada shared decades' worth of stories, secrets and anxieties, and during breaks they shared the clothing-optional baths.

"The agrarian elders, as they were called, were invited to Esalen because the organizers of the event wanted to document what these rock stars of the sustainable food movement knew and to discuss an overriding concern: How will they be able to retire and how will they pass their knowledge to the next generation?

Keep reading 





 

What we are reading 
"Demand Grows for Hogs That Are Raised Humanely Outdoors"

 

 

 

pigs Caroline Alexander "...Big food businesses from McDonald's to Oscar Mayer and Safeway have promised to stop selling pork from pigs raised in crates over the next decade. Smithfield Farms, one of the country's largest pork processors, announced this month that it was encouraging all contractors raising hogs on its behalf to move to the use of group pens, which have to be big enough for several pigs to live in comfortably, with space to walk around and bed down.

 "The restaurant chain Chipotle and some prominent chefs like Dan Barber and Bill Telepan, both of whom have restaurants in Manhattan, have begun using meats from animals that were humanely raised. Whole Foods and Trader Joe's do a brisk business in such meat..."  





Quick Bites

 

OPEN HOUSE:

Berkshire Harvest Rental Kitchen 
in Lee, MA 
Wednesday, February 26, 5 - 7 pm

Call 413-243-3698 or e-mail bhrk195@gmail.com

 

 

  

 

purple and green veggies Berkshire Grown created a Facebook page 

called Berkshire Grown Online Farmers' Marketplace

- a central place for Berkshire Grown members to congregate and talk supply and demand. 



 

 

 

Thanks for the photo to Peter Cherneff.   

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

 

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MASSACHUSETTS GROWN...and FRESHER!  

  

 

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

 


CHECK OUT MAP-O-LICIOUS FOR FRESH
LOCAL EGGS, CHEESE, MEAT & MORE 
 

BG logoStay In touch!

Berkshire Grown's e-newsletter comes out monthly.  Please send information to barbara@berkshiregrown.org, thanks!  Join Berkshire Grown here.


Barbara Zheutlin, Director
Sheryl Lechner, Outreach Coordinator
413-528-0041