Pothole Pictures presents “Root Hog or Die”
May 17th & 18th in Shelburne Falls, MA
“Root Hog or Die” captures the lives and stories of the old time horse farmers in Franklin County in their own voices, faces, ingenious technology and well-tended land. According to Pothole Pictures coordinator, Fred DeVecca, “Rawn Fulton’s film provides a vibrant and down-to-earth historical context for the resurgence of local agriculture, CSAs and micro-farming in Franklin County today…It connects us to our neighbors, our history, the land and the farms we depend on and gives us all an opportunity to show our support for local agriculture.”
Nearly forty years after its first release, “Root Hog or Die,” the Franklin County documentary film on the last of the old time horse farmers in Western Massachusetts, re-appears on the big screen in Shelburne Falls. On Friday and Saturday, May 17th & 18th at 7:30pm, Pothole Pictures presents two screenings of “Root Hog or Die” in historic Memorial Hall Theater in downtown Shelburne Falls.
On Saturday, May 18, the film’s director, Rawn Fulton will present the recently re-mastered digital version of the original 56-minute film made in 1974, and will lead a community conversation about farming then and now together with a panel of local farmers. They include farmers and local families whose experience stretches back for generations and who are connected to many of the farmers featured in “Root Hog or Die” – Jim Wholey and the Dole family of Shelburne, and Al Pieropan of Ashfield.
Contemporary farmers with long family roots in Franklin County also include Faith and Peter Williams representing the Our Family Farms dairy cooperative and John and Carolyn Wheeler of Wheelview Farm. Newer arrivals to Franklin County farming include Paul Lacinski and Amy Klippenstein of Side Hill Farm in Hawley and David Fisher and Anna Maclay of Natural Roots CSA in Conway. New Roots brings the horse-powered farming tradition back to Franklin County in a new form – community supported agriculture. Recent Mohawk High School graduate will represent the new generation of young farmers revitalizing agriculture in Franklin County.
Stop by one of the many plant sales happening over the next few weekends around Western MA and pick up raspberries dug fresh out of someone’s garden to take home and grown in your own!
Picking ripe raspberries straight off of their canes and popping them into your mouth is a summer delight that kids can carry with them into adulthood as fond memories from their childhood! But perhaps no other small fruit commonly found in Western MA gardens mystify their owners as do raspberries. And there is no shortage of information out there on how to prune these thorny canes!
As a professional and homeowner I can tell you I am often perplexed on how to prune them after reading one of the numerous tomes written on the subject. To make it easier for families to grow the berries in their home gardens for their children to enjoy, I’ve demystified their care here with 5 simple steps. These steps assume that you have “summer bearing raspberries ” as opposed to “fall bearing raspberries.” Even if this is not the case, this system of care will work fine: Read the rest of this entry »
Here you can see a blueberry bush that has not been pruned for 5 years! It has dozens of branches that are too old to produce much in the way of quality fruit. The interior is cluttered with deadwood and the canopy is filled with branches rubbing against one another.
April is a great month to get the family outdoors and getting their landscape ready for the spring. Families can rake the leaves missed in October, pick up fallen branches, cut perennials back… But the pruning of shrubs is not quite as obvious of a spring chore. While many varieties of shrubs can be pruned at this time of the year, our native blueberries will thrive with regular pruning. Pruning is one of those subjects that often can cause a state of paralysis to even the most seasoned gardener. But when it comes to blueberries, fear not. It is so simple that even your child can do it (providing you tell her that her goat can stay near by).
Just follow these 4 steps:
Get the proper pruning tools. If you have shrubs of any kind you need the following (see image here, left to right): a folding saw, lopper and hand pruner. All of these I purchased locally in Conway at the family owned and operated Oesco. The long handled loppers are good for kids. Fingers are away from blades and the long handles give them the leverage to cut sizeable branches.
Remove any dead, dying or diseased branches.
Remove 1/3 of the oldest branches. Cut the stems at the base as low as possible. Your children can keep up with the brush pulling to clear you an area to work in and to see your progress.
Repeat next year.
Your blueberry bush should now be: a) narrow at base, b) open in the center, and c) free of vegetative clutter
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim McSweeney
Jim is a certified arborist, certified horticulturist, licensed pesticide applicator (needed for the application of organic pesticides in MA) & a professional landscape designer with over 15 years experience. He is also the owner of Hilltown Tree & Garden LLC. Jim is on the faculty at the New England Wildflower Society, teaching courses on a diverse range of topics. He lives and works in Zone 5 (Chesterfield, MA) with his family. Once a month here on Hilltown Families you will find timely gardening tips, from a pro in the field, that can be easily used by both avid and novice gardeners, specific to Western MA.
I wake up in the morning thinking of the billowing steam from maple sap boiling. I love going to sugar houses to see the dramatic plumes of steam rising, to smell the sweet maple aroma, to taste the first of the season’s delicate, delicious syrup…to experience the promise of spring again. My seasonal rhythms are tied to sugarin’; it marks the final gasps of winter and the arrival of daffodils and forsythia and fruit tree blossoms and spring greens and warmth and sunshine.
But this year winter isn’t quite letting go. So when I think of what’s for supper, my desires still lean toward hearty, winter foods. Tonight we’ll have Mushroom Barley Soup. We still have some oyster mushrooms from the grow-your-own kit that we got at the Creamery! I’ll bake a loaf of rye bread, roast some delicata squash, and cook some of our frozen shell beans with our garlic and fresh rosemary from our indoor plant. Amy will make a salad from just-picked fresh and crisp mixed greens from a friend’s hoop house (thanks, Penny!), with the last of our stored carrots and Jerusalem artichokes and red cabbage, and we’ll be reminded that we’ll soon be eating more and more nourishing local foods.
Alice has been co-owner of The Old Creamery since 2000. She and her partner and spouse, Amy, have lived in Cummington since they built their home in 1986. Alice and Amy are very deeply connected to their land; they grow a lot of their own food, eat well (especially during the growing season), feed many friends and loved ones and preserve as much food as possible. Rarely a day goes by that they don’t say “Aren’t we blessed to live here?” Feeding people feels like a calling to Alice. She was brought up with her Italian Gram and her Dad putting something wonderful to eat in her mouth and saying “Here, eat this.” Nothing brings her greater joy than feeding people that she cares about or people that are in need of kindness and nurturing.
Starting seeds in early March is an excellent way to get the whole family excited about the arrival of spring.
Spring is just around the corner and planning your garden with your kids while there’s still snow on the ground can be both fun and educational. There’s no shortage of garden prep that you can be doing right now. Here are five things you can do to plan and prepare for your gardens this summer:
SEED CATALOGS: Gather your kids around and peruse thorough seed catalogs. Not only do some make for good reading (Fedco Seeds is my favorite), but it will give you the opportunity to learn a bit more about the culture of growing specific favorite plants. Let your kids pick out veggies and flowers they’d like to grow in the garden and get them involved in this late winter tradition.
START SEEDS: This is a great thing to do with kids! You have not capitulated on getting them that Golden Retriever they have been asking for, but what about giving them that…eggplant they have been asking for?! Ok, they never asked for it, but think what fun for the whole family it would be to start veggie seeds indoors while there’s still snow on the ground? This morning my 5yo daughter Priya was scooping the soil into planting cell for our garden veggies, while my 8yo son Forrest labeled all the plant tags and I sowed the seeds. It’s a great family activity!
PLAN AN ORCHARD: Get your kids excited about growing fruit in their own back yard by planning an orchard! Even the smallest back yards (providing you have some sun) can accommodate some of the dwarf fruit tree varieties. People are often surprised to find out that I grow over 20 kinds of fruits in my back yard here in Chesterfield, MA. Apple, apricot, plum, peach, pear, asian pear, persimmons, cherry, strawberry (June and ever-bearing), currants, blackberries (thornless and thorny), raspberries (early, mid and late), blueberries (early, mid and late), grapes, hardy banana, hardy orange, paw paw, watermelon, cantaloupe, beach plum & kiwis. All are organically managed.
If you are looking for locally grown and totally funky fruit check out Tripple Brook Farm in Southampton, MA. Slightly less esoteric, but great quality is a family run nursery in upstate NY that I often use, Cummings Nursery.
BUILD A FRAME: Get your kids to use their math skills by helping to design a cold frame or small green house. – Have you been picking spinach, mesclun, chard, kale, etc… over the last month. We have and not with to much work either. At its simplest, with a few old recycled windows, scrap 2×4′s and the carpentry skills of Bob-The-Builder, you are on your way to 4 season gardening.
PERMACULTURE: Plan to incorporate more edibles into your landscape. Why not have a plant do double duty, look beautiful and feed your family? Look through Fedco Seeds and select perennial edibles that you can grow in your own backyard!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim McSweeney
Jim is a certified arborist, certified horticulturist, licensed pesticide applicator (needed for the application of organic pesticides in MA) & a professional landscape designer with over 15 years experience. He is also the owner of Hilltown Tree & Garden LLC. Jim is on the faculty at the New England Wildflower Society, teaching courses on a diverse range of topics. He lives and works in Zone 5 (Chesterfield, MA) with his family. Once a month here on Hilltown Families you will find timely gardening tips, from a pro in the field, that can be easily used by both avid and novice gardeners, specific to Western MA.
Chester is celebrating the beginning of spring with their annual Maple Festival. On Saturday, March 16th from 9am-3pm, families are invited to visit Chester Center to experience old time sugaring first hand and relive simpler times. Families can begin their day with a traditional Country Breakfast, served continuously from 9am ‘til noon at the First Congregational Church (>$). After breakfast, visit local artisans and craftspeople, at the old schoolhouse across the road. Begin the afternoon listening to the sound of the Pioneer Valley Fiddlers, scheduled to play at the church at 12noon. All day long, wagons pulled by tractors or a team of draft horses will carry guests back and forth to High Meadows Sugarhouse to watch the production of maple syrup.
Southern Biscuits Enjoyed with Local Western MA Ingredients
Biscuits
Here’s something you can make for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack…how versatile is that! Biscuits are great any time of day. They taste best slathered with butter, and even better with local honey or your favorite fruity jam. When I first met Amy, my choice of bread to go with any meal was a crusty Italian/French-type bread or a dense, whole grain loaf. Amy grew up in the south, and the way to make a southern gal very happy is to make the very best biscuits imaginable. Brown and crunchy on the outside, moist and flaky on the inside; this was my goal. I quickly became an expert, and in the process I also got hooked on this delicious treat.
I make them in the same amount of time it takes the oven to pre-heat, so it’s a quick addition to any meal. For breakfast, they’re out of the oven in the time it takes to set the table, fry the eggs (local of course!) and light the candle. For lunch or dinner, I make them after I get a pot of soup on, chill them in the refrigerator to make them extra flaky, and then bake them right before serving. Our favorite afternoon snack is hot biscuits, soft butter, sweet jam (from our own fruit), and a smoothie with yogurt that we make from Cummington raw milk (Taproot Commons Farm), blended with frozen fruit and a drizzle of maple syrup. Use Vermont-grown Nitty-Gritty Grain Company unbleached flour for a truly local feast!
Alice has been co-owner of The Old Creamery since 2000. She and her partner and spouse, Amy, have lived in Cummington since they built their home in 1986. Alice and Amy are very deeply connected to their land; they grow a lot of their own food, eat well (especially during the growing season), feed many friends and loved ones and preserve as much food as possible. Rarely a day goes by that they don’t say “Aren’t we blessed to live here?” Feeding people feels like a calling to Alice. She was brought up with her Italian Gram and her Dad putting something wonderful to eat in her mouth and saying “Here, eat this.” Nothing brings her greater joy than feeding people that she cares about or people that are in need of kindness and nurturing.
Screening of A Place at the Table at the Amherst Cinema
50 million people in the U.S.—one in five children—don’t know where their next meal is coming from, despite our having the means to provide nutritious, affordable food for all Americans.
And of the 50 million facing hunger, 135,000 live right here in Western Massachusetts.
A Place at the Table, a new film exploring the issue of hunger in America and uncovering possible solutions, will be screened at Amherst Cinema on March 7th, 2013 at 7pm.
Following the screening, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts Executive Director Andrew Morehouse will lead a panel discussion with Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), who is featured in the film, and UMass Professor Julie Caswell, who will discuss local and national hunger.
The presentation is a collaboration with The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, the leading provider of emergency food in Western Massachusetts that reaches individuals and families with lower incomes and an organization committed to working with our community to reduce hunger and increase food security.
Tickets for the March 7th special screening are available at www.amherstcinema.orgThe film will open for a full run at Amherst Cinema on Friday, March 8th and will run through at least March 14th.
Growing Hope Against Hunger Saturday, March 9th at 10:30am
Growing Hope Against Hungerspeaks to both children and adults with a story that celebrates community as everyone works to help one another — including Brad Paisley, Kimberly Williams Paisley and their Sesame Street friends. Our Sesame friends are collecting foods at a food drive and meet Lily, a new character whose family has an ongoing struggle with hunger. The Sesame characters learn how their simple actions can make a world of difference. Finally, documentary stories present children’s perspectives on food insecurity and illuminate the impact hunger has on families. — www.pbs.org/parents/growinghope
Edible City Saturday, March 9th at 1pm
Edible City documents a broad spectrum of activists, organizations, and inspired citizens, and shows how everyone can get involved in transforming our food system. The film introduces a divers cast of extraordinary and eccentric characters who challenge the paradigm of our broken food system. The movie digs deep into their unique perspectives and transformative work – from edible education to grassroots activism to building local economies – finding hopeful solutions to monumental problems. — www.ediblecity.net.
More Than Honey Saturday, March 9th at 4:30pm
This is the US East Coast Premier of More Than Honey and local honey tasting will take place. — Worldwide, millions of honeybee colonies are dying each year. A complete understanding about its causes is yet to be determined, but one thing is certain: we are not just dealing with a few dead insects, and there’s more at stake than just a bit of honey. “If the bee goes extinct, man will surely follow within four years” is how Albert Einstein might have worded the problem. — Searching for answers More than Honey takes us around the world to meet people living with and off honeybees, gaining spectacular visual insights into the beehive –a fascinating world of fighting queens and dancing workers, of highly sophisticated swarm intelligence, where the individual constantly serves the requirements of the community. The relationship between humans and honeybees tells us a lot about ourselves, about nature and about our future. — www.morethanhoney.ch
A Home Movie Sunday, March 10th at 4pm
A Home Movie is a documentary by local filmmaker Bette Craig about Williamstown farm history, as told by the Rhodes family of South Williamstown, MA. Craig and husband Charles Portz have owned the Rhodes farm house since 1979. Many of the Rhodes family still lives on part of what had been a 300-acre dairy farm. Craig interviewed many family members, including Lillian Rhodes, who married Robert Rhodes in 1921 and lived in the farm house from then until 1972. Robert’s parents bought the farm in 1875. — Followed by reception with Cricket Creek artisanal cheese.
Amy and I were in local food heaven! We were visiting her folks on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It is incredulous to everyone that I chose to go to every farmers’ market within two hours, rather than go for another walk on the gorgeous, tropical-blue-water-white-sand-almost-empty-of-people beach. We did all spend a lot of time together in the woods and salt marshes, watching birds and enjoying the tropical beauty, but if it was a farmers’ market day, the family knew they’d lost me. We ate just-harvested strawberries, oranges, grapefruit, satsumas, eggfruit, red limes, lettuce, mesclun, collards, kale, chard, tatsoi, broccoli, green beans, carrots, red and yellow peppers, chilies, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, onions, and every kind of fresh herb. Amy’s mother graciously shared her kitchen with me, and I joyfully prepared meals from fresh foods grown by farmers that I enjoyed meeting. Simple pleasures. I was in bliss.
Now we’re back in snowy Cummington, and I have to say I’m happy as a lark. My local food choices are limited, but I love our seasons, our land, our foods here. We’re using up our supply of stored foods, so tonight’s dinner choices are potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, winter squash, turnips, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, leeks, carrots, and beets. That’s enough variety for this Hilltowns girl! We’ll have a multi-ethnic menu with sweet potato gnocchi (recipe coming in the future!), roasted Brussels sprouts, snow-covered kale, and today’s recipe, Potatoes Bonda, an Indian potato fritter.
Alice has been co-owner of The Old Creamery since 2000. She and her partner and spouse, Amy, have lived in Cummington since they built their home in 1986. Alice and Amy are very deeply connected to their land; they grow a lot of their own food, eat well (especially during the growing season), feed many friends and loved ones and preserve as much food as possible. Rarely a day goes by that they don’t say “Aren’t we blessed to live here?” Feeding people feels like a calling to Alice. She was brought up with her Italian Gram and her Dad putting something wonderful to eat in her mouth and saying “Here, eat this.” Nothing brings her greater joy than feeding people that she cares about or people that are in need of kindness and nurturing.
Amy might be a southerner by heart and spirit, but she and I are Yankees by practice; we light our first fire as late into the season as we can bear. This necessitates cooking on as many burners (we have 8!) and in as many ovens (we have 2) as possible when we are home and awake for more than a couple of hours. Fortunately, we still have a lot of food preservation happening, so on Wednesdays the burners are going full tilt, along with two heat-producing dehydrators. We are warm while we joyfully put up food to feed us through the rest of the year. But we still try to prepare our meals with heat-generating potential in mind.
We dug the last of our sweet potatoes, and these precious few coveted tubers are beckoning our culinary creativity. Aha! One of Amy’s favorite entrees…Roasted Sweet Potato Lasagne. It requires a nice long burner time to caramelize some onions, and TWO turns in the oven…one to roast the potatoes and one to bake the lasagne. Perfect. I prepare this recipe by making or buying fresh egg pasta sheets. This delicious entree begs to be presented with candlelight and soft music, and in the company of cherished friends. It will open doors to conversation and camaraderie. Trust me…you’ll see!
Alice has been co-owner of The Old Creamery since 2000. She and her partner and spouse, Amy, have lived in Cummington since they built their home in 1986. Alice and Amy are very deeply connected to their land; they grow a lot of their own food, eat well (especially during the growing season), feed many friends and loved ones and preserve as much food as possible. Rarely a day goes by that they don’t say “Aren’t we blessed to live here?” Feeding people feels like a calling to Alice. She was brought up with her Italian Gram and her Dad putting something wonderful to eat in her mouth and saying “Here, eat this.” Nothing brings her greater joy than feeding people that she cares about or people that are in need of kindness and nurturing.
Are your kids allergic to nuts? Maybe you can help Julie Rodrigues Tanguay out with a recommendation for a nut-free bakery. Julie writes, “I’m looking for recommendations for nut-free bakeries, or responsible practices to prevent cross-contamination. Birthday cakes are a must in our family, but I just don’t have time for baking, nor am I any good at it! Any suggestions will be appreciated. Will travel for cake: Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin or Berkshire counties. Good buttercream would really be “the icing on the cake.”
Sarah Kinsman recommends: “2nd Street Baking Co. in Turners Falls is really wonderful about catering to their customers’ needs. I know they recently made an egg free cake for a child with an egg allergy. Their number is 413-863-4455.”
Amy E. Mager recommends: “Maybe contact the Queen Bee Cupcakery about to open in Thornes Marketplace (Northampton)?”
Catherine Chadwick recommends: “Simona’s Gluten-free Baked Goods (Haydenville) can make nut free, corn free, gluten free cakes and cupcakes. Just tell her your concerns… Very nice and honest.”
Katie Green recommends: “Head over to Cafe Evolution in Florence… Molly is so fantastic at making allergy free treats that are sure to please!”
Dawn Hansen Kempf recommends: “Sweet Jane’s in Greenfield…she makes nut-free cakes…chocolate cake is to die for, and the buttercream is the best in town… Sweet Jane’s can make gluten free as well! Cookies, cakes, cupcakes…”
Valerie Gintis recommends: “Woodstar Cafe (Northampton) is a great place to start!”
Quick and Cozy Spicy Chickpeas and Simple Couscous
The diminishing afternoon/evening light seems to get my stomach rumbling for dinner much earlier than our usual late night dinner hour. When I tune into my natural rhythms, my body yearns for meals earlier and sleep much earlier than I am accustomed to. I look forward to tuning in more deeply this winter, listening to and responding to the internal callings that are in sync with the external cues, and finding the rhythms that are just right for Amy and me this winter.
But some nights we get home when it’s dark, we’re tired and hungry, and we want nourishing food on the table quickly. On these nights we turn to Spicy Chickpeas and Simple Couscous, adding a green vegetable for a complete dinner. This is our standard quick meal, often on the table in 20 minutes from the moment we begin thinking about dinner. Amy gets the fire roaring in the woodstove, I cook supper, and in less than a half hour, we cozies up to the woodstove enjoying a nourishing, delicious meal and each other’s company.
Alice has been co-owner of The Old Creamery since 2000. She and her partner and spouse, Amy, have lived in Cummington since they built their home in 1986. Alice and Amy are very deeply connected to their land; they grow a lot of their own food, eat well (especially during the growing season), feed many friends and loved ones and preserve as much food as possible. Rarely a day goes by that they don’t say “Aren’t we blessed to live here?” Feeding people feels like a calling to Alice. She was brought up with her Italian Gram and her Dad putting something wonderful to eat in her mouth and saying “Here, eat this.” Nothing brings her greater joy than feeding people that she cares about or people that are in need of kindness and nurturing.
Dinner on Thanksgiving Day is a meal when extended family and friends come together to celebrate and share the harvest. It’s a holiday when we talk a lot about food, sharing cooking tips and family recipes.. and it’s the final season we’ll be featuring in our 3-part series, Seasons at Our Table.
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Taking a look back this year, at the beginning of Maple Sugar Season in late February, we invited our readers to share with us how Maple Sugar Season gets their family outdoors and participating in the harvest with their community. We also invited them to share their favorite recipe that they like to make for/with their family breakfast/brunch hour. Read what they had to share in our first installment of Seasons at Our Table, “Maple Sugar Season.”
Then at the beginning of the summer we invited our readers to share a family recipe using fresh local produce. We highlighted submissions our readers shared, featuring local produce often bought fresh from our farmers’ markets and road side stands. Read their submissions in our second of three installments of Seasons at Our Table, “Farmers’ Market Season.”
It’s now we conclude with the “Harvest Season.” We’ve ask our readers to share what they serve for their Thanksgiving Dinner and to offer cooking tips. We started by asking for kitchen tips on how to cook a turkey, followed by a request for favorite vegetarian dishes to cook up too:
COOKING A TURKEY
One of our readers asks, “This is the first year our family is to host Thanksgiving Dinner at our house (ack!). I’ve never cooked a whole turkey and don’t even know where to begin. I could surf the net, but many of your readers seem very savvy and I’m hoping these more experienced family cooks could offer their advice- from how to pick out a turkey to how to cook it?”
Kara Kitchen writes, “There are a great selection of local fresh turkeys here in Western MA. We like to do ours on the gas grill; keeps the heat outside, more room in the oven for sides, takes less time, and is so juicy! Just keep it covered w/tin foil and keep adding water to keep a constant 3/4″ in the bottom of pan (we use the one-use tin ones w/handles)-this will keep the meat moist but let the skin get crispy-no need to baste w/the steam caught under the foil!… cuts time in half (>4hrs).”
Michele Yargeau Sexton writes, “You need 2lbs of turkey per person when selecting the size. Remove all the stuff out of the turkey, rinse and dry. salt and pepper cavity, and stuff with celery, carrots, and a little onion. No need to peel the carrots, or trim the celery, it’s only for flavor. Soften butter in your hands, and massage the turkey all over. Make a thick paste of all purpose flour, orange juice, salt and pepper. Brush all over the buttered turkey with a pastry brush. Put in a roasting pan, add about an inch of chicken broth, and cover tightly with foil. Put Turkey in oven @ 250-degrees about 11 hours before you want to eat it (yes, that usually means about 2am.). DON’T TOUCH IT FOR 9 HOURS, DON’T OPEN THE FOIL, NOTHING. The 10th hours, remove the foil, turn heat up to 350-degrees for browning. Remove from oven, let sit about an hour. Carve and Serve.”
Katie Stetson writes, “I usually just truss and oil it put it in the oven at 350-degrees then pull it out just before it is fully cooked – tent it with foil and let it rest for 45 minutes during which time it will finish cooking but not get dry. In that 45 minutes you can finish up the sides in the now empty oven.”
Deborah Hackett writes, “Ok, I know I am old school but…I still put stuffing inside my turkey, the heat kills the bacteria. Cover with foil and cook at 350-degrees for 25 minutes per pound. The last 1/2 hour uncover to crisp skin. Make sure oven rack is low or top will burn. Let rest while getting other side together and serve. Or if you choose ham, I put mine in the crock pot on low for 12 hours.”
LOCAL TURKEYS
Aimee Costa Lalime asks, “Where do you get the fresh, local turkeys?”
Kara Kitchen replies, “This year we got ours (most have to pre-order) from Berkshire Organics in Dalton (they had 3 local choices!), but in years past we’ve ordered through the Cummington Creamery or Lightning Bug Farmstand (on the Plainfield/Cummington town line), which I believe are from Diemand Farms. I think the River Valley Market Co-Op (Northampton) should carry them as well, or at least direct you to one… or find a hunter, they are in abundance out here in the Hilltowns! ;)”
VEGETARIAN THANKSGIVING
For Thanksgiving, some families skip the turkey and serve up a delicious vegetarian feast using local roots, squashes, greens, apples, pumpkins, cranberries and mushrooms instead! What’s your favorite vegetarian dish to cook up for your family Thanksgiving dinner?
Kara Kitchen writes, “Roasted root vegetables! Tossed in EVOO, salt+pepper…even the kids can’t resist the caramelized goodness.”
Bevan Brunelle writes, “Homemade cranberry sauce served warm with orange zest.”
Sienna Wildfield writes, “Tonya Lemos turned me on to fresh from the garden Brussel sprouts sauteed in butter and tons of chopped garlic…. Now it’s a staple for Thanksgiving dinner! Grew 12 plants this year in our garden… just can’t get enough of this deliciousness!”
Tonya Lemos writes, “One of my favs is a Greek dish that seems to have made its way to our Thanksgiving tables over the years… it is Peas cooked in Olive Oil with Garlic and Pearl Onion with A LOT of fresh dill.”
Marya Kozik LaRoche writes, “Lentils and caramelized onions.”
Jennifer Fox writes, “There is a terrific loaf recipe in the Greens cookbook that I make every year. It isn’t vegan (plenty of cheese), but is a huge hit with even the vegetarians who are extremely picky eaters and jealous meat-eaters. The recipe also suggests a mushroom gravy, which is great. – My family veggie “recipes” are also naturally vegetarian. My favorites are candied parsnips and mashed rutabaga (Florida mountain turnip around here!)”
Robin Morgan Huntley writes, “Almond gravy! Delicious and full of vegetarian protein.”
Ana Araujo writes, “Homemade pumpkin ravioli. We’ve been doing this for years.”
Mary-Jane Sackett writes, “Mac and cheese seems to be a favorite around here.”
Anne Schlereth writes, Lentil Balls recipe from the Meatball Shop in NYC. The recipe can be searched on the NYTimes website. They are perfect with all the root veggies at the Thanksgiving table!”
Deanna Dariusz Raczkowski writes, “We are trying Field Roast Cranberry Hazelnut roast this year!”
Robin MacRostie writes, “Pickled pumpkin; cornbread chestnut stuffing.”
Laurie McCullough writes, “I appreciate all these wonderful ideas, thanks!”
Funding for Seasons at Our Table was made possible by a grant from the Massachusetts Woman’s Home Missionary Union, administered by the Parent Education Workgroup of the Communities That Care Coalition.
Let’s Bake Cookies! Berkshire Museum to Host Cookie Contest During Holiday Season
Saturday, December 8th in Pittsfield
Baking cookies with your kids can afford parents a chance to share family their history through recipes while working together as a team in the kitchen practicing math and literacy skills!
Does your family have a favorite and treasured holiday cookie recipe that has been passed down through the generations? Show it off by entering your family recipe in the Berkshire Museum’s cookie contest! The event, which is part of a launch celebration for local author Gina Hyams’ Christmas Cookie Contest in a Box: Everything You Need to Host a Christmas Cookie Contest, will be judged by museum visitors and the recipients of each People’s Choice Award will also get a free family museum membership and a copy of the book! But just participating with your kids alone is an award that can’t be matched!
Families (and individual participants) are asked to bake 4 dozen of their favorite cookie, an endeavor that requires family cooperation and teamwork and provides an opportunity to practice kitchen skills (as well as the basic math and literacy that recipe-following calls for). For an added educational bonus, try featuring as many locally grown and/or produced ingredients as possible, like milk, eggs, butter, maple syrup and honey, and talk as a family about the benefits of eating and buying local.
Inspired to do your own cookie contest yet? The book includes everything a family needs to host their own event, and offers ideas, resources, and more for hosting a cookie contest on any scale! Contests can be held just for fun at family holiday gatherings, used as a fundraiser for a community organization, and more. The contest and book launch will take place on Saturday, December 8th at 2:30pm at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, MA. To enter the contest itself, contact Craig Langlois at 413-443-7171 ex 13, or clanglois@berkshiremuseum.org.
Berkshire Grown will host its popular Holiday Farmers’ Markets in Great Barrington and Williamstown on November 17 -18 and December 15 -16. The markets feature locally grown and produced food during months when farmers’ markets are not open in the region and extend the opportunity for community members to purchase directly from area food producers and farmers. (Photo credit: Peter Cherneff)
Local food isn’t only available during the growing season! A bounty of locally grown and produced foods are available year-round in Western MA, and Berkshire Grown is making these products even easier to purchase by hosting two annual pre-holiday farmers’ markets!
“We’re thrilled to host our 4th annual farmers’ markets,” says Barbara Zheutlin, Executive Director of Berkshire Grown. “We’re extending the season for our local farmers, and offering the community an opportunity to support our local farmers and food producers. The success of these markets depends on everyone participating – we count on the community to celebrate our local food and farmers.”
There will be markets in both Great Barrington and Williamstown, taking place just before Thanksgiving and just before Christmas. Families can stock up on local foods for their holiday meals, as well as to store for use throughout the winter…how delicious does a locavore’s Thanksgiving dinner featuring locally-grown pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, roasted Turkey, sautéed greens, apple cobbler and cider sound?! And wouldn’t friends be excited to receive applesauce made from local apples or locally fermented pickles as a holiday gift?
Shop the array of locally grown produce and animal products, baked goods, preserves, handcrafted gift items and holiday decorations offered by local farmers and vendors at the Holiday Farmer’s Markets, and center your family’s holiday celebrations around your community! Plus have a fun time with activities for the kids at the Williamstown markets, including crafts, face painting and a scavenger hunt.
Markets will take place at Muddy Brook Elementary School in Great Barrington on Saturday, November 17th and Saturday, December 15th, and at the Williams College Field House on Sunday, November 18th and Sunday, December 16th. All markets take place from 10am-2pm, and are sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and Williams College. For more information visit www.berkshiregrown.org or call 413-528-0041.
When our vegetable garden begins slowing down, we begin apple season. We harvest our own apples, visit friends who have apple trees, and gather apples from wild trees and abandoned orchards. It’s apple time early in the morning before work, late at night when we return home, and on our day off. We dry dehydrators full of apples and line our shelves with many glass jars full of delicious apple rings. We freeze and can loads of apple sauce. We make tray after tray of apple fruit leather. We press and freeze dozens and dozens of jars of cider. And there’s still apples in baskets and boxes scattered about the kitchen and dining room. Our favorite apple final resort? Apple Chutney! We can a couple kettles full of apple chutney in jars and eat it all year. It adds a special flair to a quick rice or quinoa or couscous dinner when we get home late at night.
If we haven’t gathered enough of our own apples we supplement them with Scott Farm apples. Their 626-acre farm in Dummerston, VT, boasts more than 70 varieties of ecologically grown apples. They are helping to restore rare and endangered varieties not found elsewhere in our region. Their apples are diverse, beautiful, and delicious. We sell them at the Creamery; it’s an honor to be able to offer foods from so many amazing farmers in our area in this abundant harvest season.
Alice has been co-owner of The Old Creamery since 2000. She and her partner and spouse, Amy, have lived in Cummington since they built their home in 1986. Alice and Amy are very deeply connected to their land; they grow a lot of their own food, eat well (especially during the growing season), feed many friends and loved ones and preserve as much food as possible. Rarely a day goes by that they don’t say “Aren’t we blessed to live here?” Feeding people feels like a calling to Alice. She was brought up with her Italian Gram and her Dad putting something wonderful to eat in her mouth and saying “Here, eat this.” Nothing brings her greater joy than feeding people that she cares about or people that are in need of kindness and nurturing.
Tomatillos at the Burgy Farmers’ Market. (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
Tomatillo and Fresh Corn Soup
We plant LOTS of tomatillos. One of our staple breakfasts is fried eggs, over easy, with salsa verde and Monterey jack melted on top. We can (and use!) dozens of jars each year. We also dehydrate tomatillo slices for winter use. If we’ve preserved all the salsa verde we want, and we still haven’t had our first hard frost, the tomatillos keep producing like crazy and we look for new and exciting recipes. A couple of autumns ago, our friend Madelaine (cook extraordinaire!) prepared what has become one of our very favorite recipes, Tomatillo and Fresh Corn Soup. The combination, and balance, of sweet, sour, and spicy is fantastic. I’ve messed around with the recipe, which originally came from Deborah Madison’s Field of Greens cookbook. When Amy and I freeze our corn for winter use, we freeze some of the water used to cook the corn, and even some of the cobs, to use in this recipe. Enjoying this soup on a cold, snowy, winter’s night brings back a vivid taste of these precious autumn harvest days.
There’s a great variety of fabulous ingredients growing in our gardens right now. Beginning in September here in our hilltowns, the abundant garden harvest feels like it happens on “found time.” We know our first frost can happen at any time, wiping out huge swaths of our precious vegetables and flowers overnight. So we like to prepare and enjoy a banquet, using as many of the vegetables in our garden as possible, every opportunity we get. Mediterranean White Bean Soup uses eleven ingredients that we harvest fresh from the garden. When we add in the five vegetable side dishes that accompanied our supper tonight (green beans, potatoes, pattypan squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers), our meal earns the title of fresh harvest banquet. So the next chilly night, after a glorious day in the crisp and cool autumn air, prepare a big pot of this soup and enjoy the richness and abundance of our local food blessings.
Alice has been co-owner of The Old Creamery since 2000. She and her partner and spouse, Amy, have lived in Cummington since they built their home in 1986. Alice and Amy are very deeply connected to their land; they grow a lot of their own food, eat well (especially during the growing season), feed many friends and loved ones and preserve as much food as possible. Rarely a day goes by that they don’t say “Aren’t we blessed to live here?” Feeding people feels like a calling to Alice. She was brought up with her Italian Gram and her Dad putting something wonderful to eat in her mouth and saying “Here, eat this.” Nothing brings her greater joy than feeding people that she cares about or people that are in need of kindness and nurturing.
Youth Invited to Participate in Hancock Shaker Village’s Annual Pie Contest
Deliver to Village on Sept 28th.
Hancock Shaker Village’s 15th annual Country Fair on Saturday and Sunday, Sept 29th-30th from 10am-5pm promises fun for the whole family with Shaker-inspired games in the Kids Tent, a farmers’ market with samples of heirloom vegetables to taste, vendors and demonstrations of handmade crafts, wagon and pony rides, antique engines and tractors, a pie contest, and a juried quilt exhibition.
Hancock Shaker Village’s annual Country Fair takes place on September 29th and 30th! The festival celebrates the fall harvest and all of the many food-related activities and traditions that the season brings. Especially exciting is the festival’s annual pie contest, which features an amateur division for young baker-extraordinaires! Entries in the contest must be baked at home from scratch, and delivered to the village between 3-5pm on Friday, September 28th. Bakers may use the crust recipe of their choice, and can choose their own filling or use one of the provided recipes from The Best of Shaker Cooking. By participating in the contest, kids can learn shaker history, practice chemistry and math skills in the kitchen, and begin to develop culinary independence and creativity! For more information on the fair, visit www.hancockshakervillage.org or call 413-443-0188.
Looking for pie baking books to inspire you or the youth baker in your home? Here are some suggestions you might find at your local library:
On Saturday, Sept 15th, Hilltown Families partnered with The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts for a field trip that combined both service-based and community-based learning. Our field trip involved a tour of The Food Bank in Hatfield, MA, led by The Food Bank’s Education Coordinator, Molly Coon. Families got to see the facility up-close and learn how The Food Bank operates, who it serves and individuals can support their mission. The group played games to aid in the understanding of the concepts of hunger and could choose from two hands-on volunteer projects: sorting donations and preparations for The Food Bank’s upcoming fundraiser, “Will Bike 4 Food.” Here’s a slide show from our visit:
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Interested in joining Hilltown Families on future service-based and/or community-based learning field trips? Email us at hilltownfamilies@gmail.com to be added to our list of interested families/groups.
Looking for resources to support child(ren)/student’s learning of hunger and food security? Check these out:
At the beginning of the summer we invited our readers to share a family recipe using fresh local produce. Below we’re highlighting 13 submissions our readers posted, featuring local produce often bought fresh from our farmers’ markets and road side stands! Get inspired and thinking about how you can use locally grown fresh produce for your family dinner!
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Kat Allen of Northampton writes: I’m not a great cook, and my husband and I don’t have much time, but we do try hard get our family eating well and to have family dinner each night and we’ve landed on something that works well for us… On a day when we do have some time, we’ll cook up a big load of veggies in a little bit olive oil – usually in a big pan on the stove, sometimes on the grill outside. When possible we’ll get our kids involved in picking out the veggies (at our CSA, at the farmers’ market, or at the grocery store), and chopping up the veggies (a two-handled rocking knife and some clear instructions makes it safe even for our 6-year old).
Then we use these veggies in a bunch of easy, quick ways throughout the week:
Throw it on top of whole wheat pasta – with red sauce, pesto, or just plain
Put it on the table with beans, cheese, and whole wheat burrito or taco shells for make-your-own burritos or tacos
Use it as a side dish with rice and beans (when in a real rush I buy prepared rice and beans at the Greenfield Coop) or chicken and rice (sometimes I buy a cooked rotisserie chicken)
Throw it on top of a pizza crust (prepared or homemade crust)
Mix it in a pan with eggs and milk and call it an eggs bake
Throw it in a pie crust (I use the prepared, roll-out kind) with eggs and milk and call it a quiche
Finally, we just throw some fresh fruit, raw veggies and milk in lunch boxes with these dinner left-overs when we pack lunches each day – viola – meals for a week!
Sandra Dias of Holyoke writes: This is a simple dish, but it’s tasty. I like to slice zucchini and yellow summer squash quite thin, mix it with some extra virgin olive oil and freshly ground black pepper and sprinkle it with grated asiago cheese, then bake it for a half an hour at 375F. We make this simple veggie side dish every summer on our annual trip to Cape Cod and everyone seems to love it.
Becky Castro of Northampton writes: We love fresh salads with baby spring greens topped in a warm garlic dressing… First, gather up your greens: my little ones used to love picking baby spinach, mescalin leaves, and dandelion leaves out of our garden (what ever you have growing works perfectly). Nowadays, I go to the farmers market and use whatever is in season. I still use the dandelion leaves from my yard as they are plentiful!! Then make a bowl full of greens.
Top it off with this dressing:
1 head of garlic roasted or finely chopped
3 T olive oil
2T balsamic vinegar
1T lime juice
1/8 salt
1 med. shallot, finely chopped
Pepper
Squeeze the roasted garlic into a pan. Add oil, vinegar, lime juice, shallot, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until the shallot is softened, like 3-5 minutes. Pour the dressing on top of the greens until coated. You can also add pine nuts and goat cheese. (Once summer and fall come, add kale and beet greens. I have not tried mustard greens or swiss chard but bet they would taste yummy.). Thankfully, both of my kids love garlic and always have.
Miranda Marks of Northampton writes: When I was young, I remember standing knee-deep in rich soil, watching my mom and dad dig, plant and pull up weeds. By the end of the summer, my mom would send us out to pick tomatoes straight off the vine, and basil so fresh I could smell it as soon as I stepped out of the door.- Before my dad died after one of those sun-soaked summers, I was always focused on picking, planting and eating fresh foods. – Last year was the first time I made my own garden, and those hazy memories came back to life. One of my favorite recipes is the classic Italian Caprese, tomatoes, basil, olive oil and mozzarella. – This summer, I can’t wait to eat tomatoes that smell so good your mouth waters.
Ellen Moriarty of Hampden writes: Our family loves veggie pizza on the grill all summer! It has been so much fun for my daughters Hannah and Gracie to work together to create awesome tasting & healthy pizzas. Hannah is our self taught, in-house dough expert. Gracie kicks it into high gear pretending she is an Italian pizza chef. She has the apron, the hat & the accent!
Begin with your favorite pizza dough and roll it out.
Brush one side with olive oil & sprinkle with salt and pepper, grill for a couple of minutes. Brush the top side with olive oil and flip.
You can pre-grill some of the veggies, we like our crunchy so we start piling them on.
Tomatoes, onions, peppers, broccoli, spinach, summer squash, carrots, cucumbers, garlic and your favorite cheese. Cook for a few minutes & enjoy.
Gracie says, “We’re eating a rainbow!” We really enjoyed our fresh, colorful, local veggies from C&C farm last year. Ciao Bella!
Beryl Hoffman of Florence writes: We often make a crustless quiche, and it tastes great with local fresh vegetables in the summer. You can add any vegetables to this recipe — we usually put in spinach and zucchini. And sometimes even my son will try it!
Crustless Quiche:
some veggies: 1 zucchini shredded, a couple handfuls of spinach, etc.
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup cottage cheese
3 eggs
salt to taste
1/2 cup milk
some grated cheese (cheddar works well) blended in and some on top
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until golden on top. Enjoy!
Jackie MacNeish of Ashfield writes: One summer, my grandmother planted a garden full of nothing but basil, garlic and tomotoes. I remember being confused in the beginning of this garden why it only had three ingredients. Later, when we harvested our first batch of each, my grandmother lined the grandkids up in the kitchen and gave us each a task: wash, peel, chop, slice, puree. I was the washer usually! The kitchen would start to smell of mouth-watering pesto. We’d have pesto pasta that night for dinner, but we’d also have frozen pesto to last for the rest of the year! Yum!
Youth Invited to Participate in Tuesday Market’s Annual Pie Contest in Northampton
Tuesday, Sept. 11th, 2012
Kids ages 13yo and younger interested in culinary arts and local food are invited to bake their favorite fruit pie using local ingredients to submit to the Tuesday Market annual Pie Contest happening next Tuesday, Sept. 11th.
Are your kids precocious in the kitchen? Northampton’s Tuesday Farmers’ Market is holding their annual pie contest, and there’s a special category just for kid-made pies (ages 13yo and younger)! The event benefits the market’s Food Stamps x2 program, which provides community members with SNAP benefits the opportunity to buy delicious and healthy local food straight from local farmers. Entrants may submit fruit pies only, and there are special categories for gluten-free pies and most beautiful pie, too!
Baking a pie is a great way for food-enthusiastic kids to learn and/or practice kitchen skills, including basic math and literacy. Utilizing local foods (berries, apples, peaches, milk, butter, or maybe even local flour!) in a pie can also help to connect children with the network of local food that surrounds them – they can learn about the farms that each different food comes from, and maybe even visit to buy fresh milk or pick apples.
Along with connecting kids to the community, taking part in the contest is a way to help them learn skills for a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle. They can learn to appreciate the value of local food, and will begin to acquire the skills necessary to utilize local food to its fullest potential. Visit CISA and Berkshire Grown for farms in Western MA.
Not interested in baking? Just stop by the market to taste some pie!
Entries in the contest should be dropped off at the market (behind Thornes Marketplace in the open space next to the parking garage) between 1 and 2:30pm, and judging will begin at 3, with the kids’ category being judged at 5pm. Steve Herrell of Herrell’s ice cream will be scooping up delicious flavors to accompany pies, too! Yum! For more information, visit www.northamptontuesdaymarket.com.
Check local co-ops and farmers’ markets for freshly harvested cabbage and late summer produce for your next family dinner! (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
Stuffed Cabbage & Garden Tomato Sauce
The weather is softly leaning toward autumn. Though my garden is full of summer’s light and fresh bounty (tomatoes, peppers, basil, zucchini, greens, beans, and dozens of other late summer delights), my appetite begins to lean toward hearty fare. This Italian-inspired rendition of Eastern European Stuffed Cabbage fits the bill for this seasonal transition time, prepared with Fresh Garden Tomato Sauce. Add a salad out of the garden or farmer’s market, a freshly picked flower bouquet (even roadside wildflowers work great), invite a couple of friends, turn on some soft jazz (perhaps Avery Sharpe or Charlie Neville or Swing Caravan!), light a candle, and enjoy life’s pleasures.
As Amy and I headed out to the garden last week to see what was for dinner, we passed our shitake mushroom logs. The weather for us humans has been dreadful, but mushrooms couldn’t be happier! We saw an abundant flush of perfect shitake mushrooms. Hmmm… Let’s see what goes with that. We found some beautiful Chinese cabbage, dug a few carrots, grabbed a few of our onions and garlic that we are curing, picked some of the shitake mushrooms, and made some fabulous egg rolls. If you have any leftover cooked rice, you can make some great Fried Rice (add a scrambled local egg, sauteed diced onion, celery, and carrot, a little tamari and a dash of toasted sesame oil). A little stir fried broccoli from the garden and it’s a feast. What a joy to build a meal around the abundant vegetables and fruits growing in our garden. Food picked fresh, full of life and nourishment, shared with people I love…life doesn’t get any better than this.
I saw many expressions of wonder and awe at the sight of the HUGE local green cabbages near the Old Creamery Co-op’s register these past couple of weeks. We’ve harvested beautiful heads from our garden! After we put up a few jars of lacto-fermented sauerkraut, eaten lots of slaw, stir-fried cabbage with other garden vegetables, stuffed plenty of leaves with rice filling and red sauce, made and frozen lots of egg rolls, then I begin to wonder what to do next. When I run my cooking class series, the Indian cooking session is always the most popular. We prepare 15 or so different side dishes. When we sit down to enjoy our feast after the class, the favorite dish is often Cabbage Lime Pickle. This is a fresh-tasting side dish that fits with many different menus. It’s a good way to use up a lot of cabbage, and the leftovers store well. It’s a simple and quick recipe.
Alice has been co-owner of The Old Creamery since 2000. She and her partner and spouse, Amy, have lived in Cummington since they built their home in 1986. Alice and Amy are very deeply connected to their land; they grow a lot of their own food, eat well (especially during the growing season), feed many friends and loved ones and preserve as much food as possible. Rarely a day goes by that they don’t say “Aren’t we blessed to live here?” Feeding people feels like a calling to Alice. She was brought up with her Italian Gram and her Dad putting something wonderful to eat in her mouth and saying “Here, eat this.” Nothing brings her greater joy than feeding people that she cares about or people that are in need of kindness and nurturing.
Berkshire County Digs in to Assist Local Food Pantries
Donations of cabbage, tomatoes, greens, carrots, potatoes, onions, and others make a surprising addition to the food sent out to pantries and allow the creative cooks at meal sites to add another dimension of nutrition to their meals. (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
The first items that many individuals reach for when donating to a food drive or food pantry are canned or boxed non-perishable items. Now many community organizations in Berkshire County are reaching for shovels as a means to stretch donations and provide those in need with a source of nutritious, organic, locally-grown produce.
Each Tuesday morning the parking lot at the Berkshire Community Action Council (BCAC) springs to life as organizations arrive in pick-ups, vans, and sedans as a tractor trailer filled with food donations from The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts arrives. But, also waiting to be loaded into those waiting vehicles are over 600 pounds of fresh organic produce, harvested three hours earlier less than five miles away. Donations of cabbage, tomatoes, greens, carrots, potatoes, onions, and others make a surprising addition to the food sent out to pantries and allow the creative cooks at meal sites to add another dimension of nutrition to their meals.
Russell Moody, the minister at The Church of Christ in Pittsfield has created the “Giving Garden,” A 200-by-80 foot organic garden proudly displayed on the rolling hill in front of their building. This is the first year for the Giving Garden. With an average weekly donation of 500 pounds the crop yield has peaked at nearly 800 pounds, all going directly to local food pantries and meal sites. The entire garden is supplemented and maintained through donated plants and 100 percent volunteer-driven harvests. Dozens of volunteered man-hours go into producing those 600-plus pounds of food each week.
The Church of Christ is not the only organization localizing food donations in Pittsfield. The Unitarian Universalists of Pittsfield also have a dedicated garden space, along with a mobile chicken coop to provide much needed protein to the local agencies. You can listen to the Unitarian Universalists Garden radio webcast, and find more information about the program here!
There are also community gardens popping up throughout the Berkshires. Schools, housing complexes, and little swaths of green space have been allocated for organic gardens with some or most of the harvest going directly to local food pantries and meal sites.
(Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
With fresh, organic produce speed is of foremost importance. On Monday August 20th, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts received a large donation of organic eggplant. The produce was sorted and inspected at 9am Monday morning and later packaged and organized for shipment. On Tuesday morning The Food Bank’s tractor trailer arrived at BCAC at 10:25am. By 12:30 as the First Methodist Church in Pittsfield is beginning to prepare it its Harvest Table meal for the evening, food pantry clients are choosing that very same eggplant that was donated to The Food Bank only one day earlier.
With so many new and exciting ideas to assist your local food pantry and The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts find out how you can donate in your community and fight hunger in your backyard.
Join Hilltown Families on an organized field trip to The Food Bank of Western MA in Hatfield on Sept. 15th at 1:30pm. Our field trip will involve a tour of the Food Bank where 7.6 million pounds of food gets sorted every year! Participating families/groups can see how the facility operates with pallets of food, the walk in freezer, forklifts and staff management. Games as a group will be facilitated to aid in the understand of the concept of hunger, and there will be a hands-on volunteer project. This is a free event, open to all! To sign up, click on the banner.
Hilltown Families Field Trip
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts
Saturday, September 15th at 1:30pm
Tour the warehouse, walk through the freezer, see the types of foods that are being sorted, and observe forklifts transporting pallets of food onto delivery trucks. Play a trivia game following the tour to recall some of the key facts about how The Food Bank works. – Join Hilltown Families on Saturday, Sept. 15th at 1:30pm for an organized field trip to The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Hatfield, MA.
We’ve set a date for our field trip: Saturday, September 15th at 1:30pm in Hatfield, MA!
Our field trip will involve a tour of the Food Bank in Hatfield, where 7.6 million pounds of food gets sorted every year! Participating families/groups can see how the facility operates with pallets of food, the walk in freezer, forklifts and staff management. Games as a group will be facilitated to aid in the understand of the concept of hunger, and there will be a hands-on volunteer project. This is a free event, open to all!
If your family or youth group is interested in joining us, please sign up now. We will need to know how many folks are joining us and the age range of the youth participants. Submit the information below and we will follow up with a confirmation and more details.
The large leaves of Napoleon basil make great sandwich fillers! (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
The drought, deer, and heat have slowed down our garden quite a bit, but the list of chores is still long and the available time is still short. We find ourselves creating quick meals from the garden. Pasta with one of many possible pestos is a standard. We have a great variety of greens in our garden, and we’ll make pesto with combinations of basil, arugula, cilantro, mint, chard, spinach, purslane, chickweed, garlic scapes, and parsley. Here is a basic Basil Pesto recipe, along with many ideas for variations. We make a quick salad and a cooked vegetable with whatever the garden has ready. Tonight we’ll have stuffed baby pattypan squash, heaps of blanched broccoli sautéed with olive oil and garlic, and a salad with mixed lettuce leaves, anise hyssop, cherry tomatoes, salad turnips, beets, carrots, cucumbers, and a little hard-boiled egg or local cheese for protein. We’ll cook up a delicious, nourishing meal in less than a half hour, counting harvest time!
Alice has been co-owner of The Old Creamery since 2000. She and her partner and spouse, Amy, have lived in Cummington since they built their home in 1986. Alice and Amy are very deeply connected to their land; they grow a lot of their own food, eat well (especially during the growing season), feed many friends and loved ones and preserve as much food as possible. Rarely a day goes by that they don’t say “Aren’t we blessed to live here?” Feeding people feels like a calling to Alice. She was brought up with her Italian Gram and her Dad putting something wonderful to eat in her mouth and saying “Here, eat this.” Nothing brings her greater joy than feeding people that she cares about or people that are in need of kindness and nurturing.
Combine science and chocolate to learn about how microwave ovens work.
This week’s experiment turned into a two parter. It started out as one experiment, but it just kept getting longer and longer. Over the years I have learned that people are much less likely to read a long experiment (much less try it), so I chopped it in half.
Part of the reason it got so long was that it is such a neat experiment. How often do you get a chance to examine electromagnetic radiation and even measure its wavelength (next week) while melting and eating chocolate?
To try this, you will need:
a microwave oven
waxed paper
several chocolate bars
a large plastic, glass, or paper plate. Do not use metal!
Start by looking at the inside of the oven. If it has a turntable to rotate the food (most do), remove it. We want the chocolate to stay in one place, not move around.
Cover the plate with waxed paper, and then place the chocolate bars (unwrapped) on the plate to form a solid layer. You want the layer of chocolate to be as flat and even as possible.
Place the plate of chocolate in the oven and set the timer for 30 seconds. Depending on your oven, you may have to cook it a bit longer, but I learned from experience (see this week’s video) that cooking too long gives you a LOT of smoke and a mess.
After 30 seconds of cooking, check the results. You should find that there are spots where the chocolate is melted, and maybe burned, and other places where it is not melted at all. Why?
Your microwave oven works by producing microwave radiation. No, its not radioactive! This is electromagnetic radiation, which also includes visible light, radio waves, ultraviolet light, radar, etc. Microwaves can cause water molecules to vibrate, producing heat to cook your food. OK, so why does your oven have hot spots, instead of cooking evenly?
Instead of just blasting microwaves around, your oven produces something called a standing wave. The easiest way to imagine a standing wave is to look at one. Get several feet of rope, and tie one end to a doorknob. Hold the other end move back to take up most of the slack. You don’t want the rope tight. Start shaking the rope up and down, and notice the way the rope wiggles. By adjusting how fast you shake the rope, you can find the point where it produces a stable pattern. Some parts of the rope will always be moving up and down, while other points will not move much at all. Its easier to see in the video than it is to describe, but you should recognize the pattern when you see it. That is a standing wave. The points where the wave is moving up and down a lot would be the part of the wave that produces a lot of heating in the oven, producing the burned spots. The part of the wave that does not move much would not produce much heat, giving you the cooler spots in the oven. That is why you need a turntable to move the food through the hot spots, to heat it evenly.
Do you have a favorite children’s book that touches on the topic of food security/scarcity you care to share? Hilltown Families is collaborating with The Food Bank of Western MA on compiling a list of kids books that have to do with fighting hunger, soup kitchens, food banks, etc. for their Youth Action Hunger program.
Cara Letendre recommends: Tight Times. Written by Barbara Shook Hazen. Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.
Sarah Buttenwieser recommends: A Chair for My Mother. Written and illustrated by Vera B. Williams.
Katryna Nields recommends: Meet Kit (American Girls Collection: Kit 1934). Written by Valerie Trip. Illustrated by Walter Rane. – “The Kit series from American Girl is about a girl living through the depression. It shows lots of economic insecurity. I cannot remember if it specifically deals with food scarcity. This is a chapter book series not a picture book. But I think it does a great job of teaching about the Great Depression.”
Melissa Carta Miller recommends: Out of the Dust. Written by Karen Hesse.
Julie-Ann Silberman-Bunn recommends: December. Written by Eve Bunting. Illustrated by David Diaz.
Carlen Arnett recommends: Lu and the Swamp Ghost. Written by James Carville & Patricia McKissack. Illustrated by David Catrow. – “A story about a friendship between a hungry runaway boy and a girl with a family. Beautiful, funny, consoling with really enthralling moments.
Amy Meltzer recommends: Gettin’ Through Thursday. Written by Melrose Cooper. Illustrated by Nineka Bennett.
Melissa Wells Flynn & Ron Quinlingotta recommend: Stone Soup. Written/illustrated by many different authors/illustrators.
Katryna Nields recommends: Stone Soup. Illustrated by Jon J. Muth.
Mary Tessier Curro recommends: Stone Soup. – “We read different versions of Stone Soup, and then make stone soup as part of our kindergarten curriculum in Holyoke, MA.”
Jessica Campagna Wehry writes, “Where is close to Pittsfield for PYO organic blueberries? I’ve been dying to bring my son!”
Sue Lowery writes, “Blueberry Hill on Washington Mountain Rd in Washington, MA (just outside Pittsfield) is amazing and wonderful. Roy and Marilyn Wiley are the owners, and are delightful folks.”
Amanda Gadd writes, “Whitney Farms (Chester) off of Route 8 is lovely. They have a free petting zoo complete with a peacock.”
Kathy McDonnell Elsea writes, “Maddie and I picked at Birdhaven Blueberry Farm in Southampton and I’m secretly planning to go back tomorrow. Only got 8 lbs!”
Megan McD Kenburn writes, “Kenburn Orchards Bed & Breakfast on Rt 2 in Shelburne is great! $2.89/lbs or less if you pick more than 10 lbs. It’s not far from the Greenfield Rotary if you are driving towards Shelburne Falls. Great berries, nice people.”
Susan Loring-Wells writes, “Just picked blueberries with my daughter this afternoon on River Road just South of Route 116 and Sugarloaf Mtn. Not sure whether it’s located in Sunderland or Whately. It’s about 1/2 mile – mile down on the right from Rte 116. I’m sorry I don’t know the name of the place. The berries were delicious and abundant.”
Kim Nestor-Carlino writes, “Quonquont Farm in Whately has an unbelievable crop this year! Got one full quart off of one bush. Delicious and low spray.”
Dawn Klein writes, “Whitney Farms in Cheshire, MA. Great nursery and deli too! With a huge playground area and petting zoo!”
Karen Lucas writes, “Dickinson Farm in Granby, MA. Love it there and tons of yummy big blueberries!”
Sienna Wildfield writes, “Summit Farm in Plainfield has PYO organic berries and Benson Place in Heath has low bush blueberries. “
Philip Korman, Executive Director of CISA writes, “Contact info and location for all PYO found at the CISA website — you can also change the zip code at the end of the URL for your location!
Fresh radishes and asparagus at the Williamsburg Farmers’ Market. (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
I’ve so enjoyed the first of this season’s local cukes. At the Creamery, we have the first tomatoes and the first cukes, picked fresh from the Fydenkevez Farm in the valley. I peel the cukes, cut off big chunks, and generously salt them before popping them into my mouth and singing praises. I love the crisp freshness and the bright flavor. Add sliced or chopped tomatoes cut into chunks and drizzled with a bit of aged balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with a few fresh basil leaves and salt, and I’m transported. These are the moments I’ve been waiting for, longing for, since last autumn.
From our own garden, we’ve been getting lost in the sugar snap pea patch, sitting out and stuffing ourselves full of the plump, crisp, sweet treasures. The radishes have also been excellent. I’m reminded of a recipe I’ve used in my Indian cooking classes, Sautéed Sugar Snaps and Radishes. This dish is fabulously fresh and flavorful. We have plenty of local sugar snaps and radishes at the Creamery. Give this simple dish a try and let me know what you think.
Alice has been co-owner of The Old Creamery since 2000. She and her partner and spouse, Amy, have lived in Cummington since they built their home in 1986. Alice and Amy are very deeply connected to their land; they grow a lot of their own food, eat well (especially during the growing season), feed many friends and loved ones and preserve as much food as possible. Rarely a day goes by that they don’t say “Aren’t we blessed to live here?” Feeding people feels like a calling to Alice. She was brought up with her Italian Gram and her Dad putting something wonderful to eat in her mouth and saying “Here, eat this.” Nothing brings her greater joy than feeding people that she cares about or people that are in need of kindness and nurturing.
Welcome to Hilltown Families, a grassroots communication network for families living in Western Mass, established in 2005 by hilltown mother and long time activist Sienna Wildfield.
"Hilltown Families keeps us connected with all the amazing educational and cultural activities and resources that abound here in W. Mass and curates them in a way to let us know just what’s out there for the many varied interests of our young families and communities,while creating networks of support and growth." - Kara Kitchen (Plainfield, MA)
The Hilltown Family Variety Show (HFVS) airs Saturday mornings on Valley Free Radio, 103.3FM WXOJ, Northampton, MA from 9-10am with encores on Sunday from 7-8am. Playlist and podcasts are posted immediately following broadcast. Listen to our archived shows at any time: HFVS Archived Shows.
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Information provided on Hilltown Families (HF) is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Reasonable efforts are made to provide the most accurate information, but no guarantees of any kind can be made. Information can be changed without prior notice. Please check with 3rd parties to confirm all listings for date/time, cost, location and age appropriateness before attending. Opinions expressed on HF are that of the writer and not necessarily that of HF. In no event shall HF be liable (directly or indirectly) for any losses or damages causes (or allegedly caused) in connection with HF. All health and wellness related information is for entertainment purposes only and should not be used to substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis. All provided links are provided as a courtesy and not as an endorsement.
The exhibit will be on display at the Forbes Library in Northampton for the month of February 2013, and at the City Hall Gallery in Easthampton from Sept 13-Dec 11, 2013. - We're currently booking shows for the Spring/Summer of 2013 and for 2014. Each exhibit is a unique showcase of images that correspond with the season and venue. Contact us to inquire about hosting this fundraising exhibit for Hilltown Families in your town/venue.
Jim is a certified arborist, certified horticulturist, licensed pesticide applicator (needed for the application of organic pesticides in MA) & a professional landscape designer with over 15 years experience. He is also the owner of 
I wake up in the morning thinking of the billowing steam from maple sap boiling. I love going to sugar houses to see the dramatic plumes of steam rising, to smell the sweet maple aroma, to taste the first of the season’s delicate, delicious syrup…to experience the promise of spring again. My seasonal rhythms are tied to sugarin’; it marks the final gasps of winter and the arrival of daffodils and forsythia and fruit tree blossoms and spring greens and warmth and sunshine.
Alice Cozzolino
BUILD A FRAME: Get your kids to use their math skills by helping to design a 
Biscuits
Potatoes Bonda
Amy might be a southerner by heart and spirit, but she and I are Yankees by practice; we light our first fire as late into the season as we can bear. This necessitates cooking on as many burners (we have 8!) and in as many ovens (we have 2) as possible when we are home and awake for more than a couple of hours. Fortunately, we still have a lot of food preservation happening, so on Wednesdays the burners are going full tilt, along with two heat-producing dehydrators. We are warm while we joyfully put up food to feed us through the rest of the year. But we still try to prepare our meals with heat-generating potential in mind.
Are your kids allergic to nuts? Maybe you can help Julie Rodrigues Tanguay out with a recommendation for a nut-free bakery. Julie writes, “I’m looking for recommendations for nut-free bakeries, or responsible practices to prevent cross-contamination. Birthday cakes are a must in our family, but I just don’t have time for baking, nor am I any good at it! Any suggestions will be appreciated. Will travel for cake: Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin or Berkshire counties. Good buttercream would really be “the icing on the cake.”
The diminishing afternoon/evening light seems to get my stomach rumbling for dinner much earlier than our usual late night dinner hour. When I tune into my natural rhythms, my body yearns for meals earlier and sleep much earlier than I am accustomed to. I look forward to tuning in more deeply this winter, listening to and responding to the internal callings that are in sync with the external cues, and finding the rhythms that are just right for Amy and me this winter.
, will be judged by museum visitors and the recipients of each People’s Choice Award will also get a free family museum membership and a copy of the book! But just participating with your kids alone is an award that can’t be matched!
When our vegetable garden begins slowing down, we begin apple season. We harvest our own apples, visit friends who have apple trees, and gather apples from wild trees and abandoned orchards. It’s apple time early in the morning before work, late at night when we return home, and on our day off. We dry dehydrators full of apples and line our shelves with many glass jars full of delicious apple rings. We freeze and can loads of apple sauce. We make tray after tray of apple fruit leather. We press and freeze dozens and dozens of jars of cider. And there’s still apples in baskets and boxes scattered about the kitchen and dining room. Our favorite apple final resort? Apple Chutney! We can a couple kettles full of apple chutney in jars and eat it all year. It adds a special flair to a quick rice or quinoa or couscous dinner when we get home late at night.
. By participating in the contest, kids can learn shaker history, practice chemistry and math skills in the kitchen, and begin to develop culinary independence and creativity! For more information on the fair, visit 
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