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Berkshire Tidbits: Rhubarb Festival Returns
By Judith Lerner, Special to iBerkshires
05:40PM / Wednesday, May 25, 2016
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Cups of rhubarb chili are served to guests for tasting and judging at the 2015 Lenox Rhubarb Festival in this photo supplied by the festival. The Rhubarb Festival takes place this weekend.

This week is the hoped-for time for the reopening of 20 Railroad Public House in Great Barrington under its new owners, partners Laura Shack of Firefly Gastropub in Lenox and Ben Downing — not the state senator but a 32-year-old Great Barrington native.

Downing, with longtime good relationships in town, will manage the pub.

"We see ourselves as bringing back an icon," he said of the work he and Laura are doing on the restaurant previously known as 20 Railroad Street. "But we don't want to undo what's worked."

He said they will emphasize craft cocktails, craft beers and a wine list and, in January, when it will be quieter, they plan to add a wood fired pizza oven.

Their meats will all be hormone and antibiotic-free. They will grind their own beef for burgers and have a housemade black bean veggie burger and a veggie version of québécois poutine, a gravy and cheese curd-smothered French fry dish that out comforts comfort food.

The chef will be Drew Jacobs from New York state.

"We will have 20 different desserts, all housemade and they will always be changing. Right now we have cheesecake, caramel panna cotta (molded, chilled, jelled Italian cooked cream) and a strawberry-rhubarb cobbler."

"We will be middle range in price but real food costs money. That said, I do not want to serve anything I don't feel proud of. That is why we won't serve anything frozen," he continued.

Ben said he left Great Barrington to live in California. Twice. But he had to return.

Even before the doors reopen, with the work he has had doing renovations and reconceptualizations, he said, "I am humbled over support I've had here, so far. I love the Berkshires."

"We're getting very close," to the reopening, he concluded.

 

Thursday, May 26, 6:30 to 9 p.m., the last Manger! Boire! Eat! Drink! of the season will take place at Chez Nous Bistro, 150 Main St. in Lee, 413-243-6397.

Co-owners Rachel Portnoy, pastry chef and her husband Franck Tessier, chef were recently in San Francisco. Inspired by the Mediterranean tastes and techniques of San Francisco chef, traveler and cooking teacher Joanne Weir, the couple have created their version of "a fresh and seasonal California-French style dinner." Including some California wines they are enthusiastic about with importer Eric Solomon European Cellars.

They will be making, demonstrating and serving carrot hummus with vegetable chips, beef roulade with mushrooms and, for dessert, a very timely rhubarb crostata/Italian pie or tart.

The casual evening of cooking demo, dinner, wine-pairing, recipes and fun food conversation costs $35 plus gratuity and tax. Call for reservations.

 

Friday, May 27, is Member Appreciation Day, all day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., at Wild Oats Market, 320 Main St./Route 2 in Williamstown, 413 458-8060, wildoats.coop. Member-owners receive 5 percent discount on many purchases throughout the store. And, there are certain discounts on beer and wine for all shoppers.

There are also this month's Co-op deals available. Whole Wild Oats pizzas are $1 off. Market made muffins and quiche slices each have 50-cent discount. Fresh 16-ounce housemade smoothies are $4.49. There are sales on Cabot butter, Murray's chicken thighs, organic grapes, cheese, wine, many sorts of snacks, bug spray and much more.

Local suppliers such as Klara's Gourmet Cookies out of Lee and Williamstown's own Cricket Creek Farm will be at the store giving away free samples of their products.

Here is the tentative schedule of product samplings:

  • 11 to 1 Maplebrook Farm from Bennington, Vt.
  • 11 to 2 Crescent Creamery and Hill Spring Dairy both from Pittsfield
  • 12 to 3 Klara's Gourmet Cookies from Lee
  • 1 to 3 Tierra Farms from Valatie, N.Y.
  • 3 to 5 Gammelgarden from Pownel, Vt. and Lefty's Brewing from Greenfield
  • 4 to 6 Ideal Wine distributors from Medford

 


Produce at the farmers market from year's past.

The Lenox Farmers Market will open for the season on Friday, May 27 between 1 and 5, back in the center of town, again.

It was to have been situated in Lilac Park where many town events and fairs take place. But the same voices — really, only two of them — that pushed the farmers market out of town a few years ago raised an outcry that has forced the market to a smaller space but still on Main Street in the center of town.

Those two objecting businesses have been given free booths at the farmers market.

The market will now be hosted by the town library, across the street from municipal parking, a convenience for shoppers.

Johannah Hunter, newly the Lenox Farmers Market manager this year after many good years with Rose Levine at the market's head, tells me that this years vendors will be Assembly Coffee Roasters, Auntie Elsie's Oatmeal Crisps, Berkshire Mountain Bakery, Brattle Farm, Cricket Creek Farm, Dutch Desserts [pies and cookies], Farm Country Soup [and other prepared dishes], Grace Hill Farm [chemical-, antibiotic- and hormone-free artisanal cheeses], Green Meads Farm Herbals, Hill Home Products [jams, jellies, butters and curds], Mary's Bakery and Kitchen/Mary Zabian, Matt's [gluten-free] Cookie Bars, Samascott Orchards, Simply Soaps, SoCo Creamery [ice cream] and Taft Farms.

Many old faces with beloved products and a few new ones to brighten up the mix.

Johannah says she hopes to announce additional new vendors, "once we find the first couple of markets go smoothly."

The town should expect more people coming in especially for the farmers market on Friday afternoons through September and those people staying to shop in and, perhaps, dine as well in downtown Lenox.

 

You can start your Memorial Day weekend with the Yoked Parish of Becket monthly community breakfast at Becket Federated Church, 3381 Main St., across from the Becket Washington elementary school, (413) 623-5217. on Saturday, May 28, from 8 to 11.

It's always homey, down to earth and friendly.

Their all-you-can-eat, comfort food menu usually includes scrambled eggs, pancakes, French toast, bacon, sausage, ham, hash and home fries are prepared by parish members before and during breakfast. The meal is accompanied by fruit, juices, tea and coffee.

All are welcome. Adults $6; children under 12 $3.

 

The Berkshire Co-op Market's Kids Can Cook program will be moving to the Great Barrington Farmers Market, 18 Church Street, as of Saturday, May 28th, through Saturday, Sept. 3, 2016.

Between 9 a. m. and 1 p. m., The Nutrition Center of the Berkshires will bring their Food Adventures program to the farmers Market so kids can learn how to make healthy snacks with the freshest produce using ingredients found right at the market.

 

The Copake-Hillsdale Farmers' Market will open for the season this Saturday, May 28, from 9 to 1  at Roe Jan Park, 9140 Route 22 in Hillsdale, N.Y., 1/2 mile south of Route 23. The market will run through Saturday, Oct. 29.

Most flower, fruit and vegetable farmers at this market raise their crops organically including Common Hands Farm with husk cherries and strawberries on their stand; longstanding Earthborn Garden; Hawk Dance Farm; Honey Dog Farm that adds honey along with vegetables; Little Apple Farm & Cidery brings certified organic apples; the huge Markristo Farm with organic everything including bedding plants at this time; and Yonderview Farm House.

Berkshire Mountain Bakery will be there with their breads, pizza crusts, croissants and more, all made from grains grown in untilled soil. The Gluten-Free Dessert Kitchen will have cakes, cookies, muffins, pies, quiche and scones. Grannie Frannie's Homemade Pleasures will have coffee cakes, fruit pies, muffins and turnovers. Philmont Community Supported Bakery features new, uncorrupted grains in their pastries and malt-leavened (rather than yeast-leavened) breads.

Grass-fed, grass-finished beef, free-range eggs and whole chickens will be at the Diamond Hills Farm booth. Kress Family Farm will sell sandwiches, crystallized honey, beef, lamb and pork.

Vendors will bring their cheese, cold cuts, craft beer, wine, honey, maple products, pickles, sauces — and more!

 

Saturday is Rhubarb Festival Day in Lenox. From 10 to 3 at the library. Outdoors under the tent in the Roche Reading Park, rain or shine.

But before the festival itself, Church on the Hill congregation will serve a rhubarb or plain pancake breakfast with real maple syrup, sausages, juice and coffee at their brown Chapel at 55 Main St. beside Lilac Park. Adults $5, children 10 and under $3.

This will be the 3rd annual Rhubarb Festival at the library, 18 Main St. Lenox native Suzanne Pelton, the founder and power behind the festival, has been bringing it to life since last fall. The town was so delighted to start the Lenox season with a Memorial Day weekend event that the Selectmen "awarded the festival a budget."

She has gathered Lenox-only chefs for a rhubarb chili contest and sweet and savory baked and other rhubarb treats from area chefs and cooks.

"Restaurant chefs competing for best rhubarb chili bragging rights," are, she said, Café Lucia, Cranwell Resort, Firefly Gastropub, Haven Café & Bakery, Kripalu Center and Olde Heritage Tavern.

From 10 to 1, "Visitors taste each entry and vote for their favorite," she said.

Berkshire Bakes, Firefly Gastropub, Kimball Farms Lifecare Retirement Community, Les Collines Preserves, Mary's [Zabian's'] Kitchen, The Scoop (makers of Blondie's ice cream), Sweet Treats , The Sweetish Baker, Trinity Church of Lenox, Ventfort Hall Museum of the Gilded Age, Wheatleigh and, perhaps, others are all bringing rhubarb goodies, some including strawberries, to sell. There will be coffeecake, cookies, crisp, cupcakes, ice cream, jams, jellies, macarons, pies, pinwheels, savory hand pies, turnovers and whoopie pies..

"Wheatleigh contacted me last week," Suzanne said. "They really wanted to participate. They're going to sell rhubarb macarons, a house specialty."

There will be fresh rhubarb for sale, rhubarb juice, rhubarb soda and potted rhubarb plants as well. And the festival will be selling rhubarb recipe booklets so you will know how to make your own rhubarb dishes.

George Lavalle, Kimball Farms executive chef said that he will be the one making all the strawberry-rhubarb, cherry-rhubarb and blueberry-rhubarb pies with his own butter pie crusts.

Mini pies?

"Full size and mini. A little of both," he said. "And I'll be supplying recipe cards to go with each of the pies."

She did a lot of searching to come up with all her rhubarb items. She is still looking for rhubarb jigsaw puzzles, tea towels, crossword puzzles and the like.

I did not have to ask Suzanne, lover of rhubarb and a terrific cook and baker, how this festival came about. I was in on its inception.

A few years ago, I wrote a story about her baking the last of her garden rhubarb into one of her signature rhubarb upside-down cakes and turning the last pound remnants into rhubarb marmalade, which she found irresistible.

She so enjoyed her rhubarb and lamented its current neglect that I suggested, almost as a joke, that she start a rhubarb festival.

Lo, the next spring, there it was. Inside the Lenox Library on a rainy June Saturday. Chili contest and all.

She said the other day, "This morning I realized only six days to go. How did it sneak up on me? But I'm ready, and it's going to be fun and another big success!"

On Monday she drove "all over town posting rhubarb signs."

Suzanne is the Rhubarb Queen of Berkshire County. The festival now has a handsome logo, a website, and a Facebook page. She's worked hard to get the word out.

Successfully.

Vendors from as far away as Medford just outside Boston and Craryville, N.Y., wanted to be part of the festival. Seven hundred and fifty people attended the 2nd Rhubarb Festival that had to close at 1:30 because it ran out of food.

Come early. Vote for your favorite chili. Eat some rhubarb ice cream. Drink some raspberry-rhubarb soda.

Much as I love zucchini parmesan ...How can zucchini compare?

 

Bascom Lodge at the top of Mount Greylock in Adams, 413-743-1591, has been open for a couple of weeks and is hosting its first free event to celebrate the start of the 79th season. The lodge's 7th annual Native American Festival is Saturday, May 28, from noon to 6 followed by a Native American inspired dinner by reservation and a campout/sleepover in the teepee for those who reserve one of the limited spots.

The afternoon will include a blessing of the mountain, a teepee raising, exhibits, native artists and crafters, storytelling, drumming, music and dancing.

For the seventh year, Fidel Moreno of Healing Winds will lead the blessing of the mountain and shepherd the guests — this year there will be 16 adults plus children — who stay for the overnight in the tipi.

Abenaki Drum will drum and lead dancing.

Chief Roger Long Toe will bring his storytelling, including stories for children around the fireplace in the lodge lobby during the afternoon and the Indian explanation of the origins of the universe and the stars during the overnight stay.

The dinner menu will start with watercress, apple, dried cranberry and hickory nut salad to be followed by a choice of braised rabbit in hard cider with savory vegetables or grilled salmon with a succotash including ramps or corn cakes with peppers in a fresh tomato sauce and stuffed with wild mushrooms. There will be housemade blackcurrant sorbet for dessert.

Chef-partner John Dudek said there are still ramps on the mountain.

"Ramps are the first green thing you see on Mount Greylock in the spring," he said. "They're a bit below the lodge. In the woods. Millions of them."

John said the weather is predicted to be cloudy or wet. But, he believes, because it will be such a warm day and night, in the 80s and the 60s respectively below the mountain, that there will just be a heat-induced afternoon thunderstorm, after which the sky will clear and the night will be at least partially clear.

"That night, Mars will be closest to Earth in its orbit so it should be largest in the sky," he said.

Call for more information and dinner and overnight reservations.

 

Kushi Institute, 198 Leland Road just up the hill behind the Becket General Store in the center of North Becket, 800-975-8744, is holding its free spring open house Saturday, May 28, from 2 to 6.

There will be two mini cooking classes and movement and meditation classes plus a lecture on macrobiotics as a sustainable approach to personal health and, as a bonus, diagnosing the presidential candidates. The Kushi store will be open and visitors can take informal tours of the lovely hilltop property.

Come for lunch at 12:30 or dinner at 6:30; both $15 each. Call to reserve a place at the open house or for a meal.

 

Gedney Farm, 34 Hartsville-New Marlborough Road/Route 57 in New Marlborough, 413-229-3131, , the other romantic fine dining and lodging establishment in New Marlborough, is working with Spirited Wines of Lenox to  present a 5-course/5-wine Iberian spring wine pairing dinner and pre-dinner wine tasting at 6:30 on Saturday, May 28, hosted by Spanish and Portuguese wine expert Augusto Gabriel.

The evening begins at 5:30 with a complimentary pre-dinner wine tasting with light tapas of spiced roasted almonds, chorizo sausage with breadsticks, Manchego cheese and membrillo, a typically Spanish sweet spread made of quince (a relative of apples and pears) paste.

Executive chef Rob Burnell and chef de cuisine Peter Miscikoski have crafted an Iberian menu using many local ingredients, as is their style. If you want vegetarian options, please let the Farm know when you make your reservations.

The dinner will be $85 plus gratuity and tax. Call Gedney Farm for reservations.

dinner menu

1st tapas

bacalao/cod cakes with Romesco aioli and oregano oil

Anima Negra, Mallorca Quibia 2014

2nd tapas

tortilla a la Flamenco with Mill River Farm eggs, asparagus, caramelized onion and tomato

Pago de Valdoneje, Bierzo, 2014

1st main

paella marinera/baked rice with seafood of halibut, shrimp, calamari and mussels

Finca Valpiedra Rioja Reserva, 2008

2nd main

entrecote all i pebre/strip steak in garlic sauce with pearl onions and roasted potatoes

M.O.B. Dao Tinto, 2013

cheese course

queso Cabrales with granadinas (black currant or pomegranate) and apricot-thyme marmelada

Smith Woodhouse LBV 2002

 

Holistic health coach Margaret Lively of Stephentown has been making pickles for the last five years. And she is excited about them. Pickles. Both brine pickled and lacto-fermented.

She recently posted a recipe in her Decades of Health enewsletter that caught my attention.

"It was about pickling veggies. All types of veggies. Not just turning cucumber into pickles but, in fact, preserving veggies of every type, size, color and flavor using a simple pickling process which allows them to anaerobically ferment in brine."

She said lacto-fermented vegetables you make using starter and salt, "create their own self preserving, acidic liquid which includes probiotic and enzymatic value."

"The flavor of both pickled and lacto-fermented foods may be very similar but their nutritional make up is different," she told me.

As an integrative nutrition health coach who lives the seasonal whole foods life, Margaret helps individuals and business groups both locally and all over the country "regain balance in their lives through food, movement, and meditation," working with them in her home, by phone, via Skype and as the on-site wellness coach for the administration of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

Here's the gist of her pickling story with her inviting recipe:

Margaret Lively's Pickled Vegetables Made Easy

Pickling creates an environment in which tired veggies are rescued from decay. A simple combination of salt, acid and fermentation with bacteria seals the deal.

Maybe your grandmother or mother pickled her own veggies or maybe you purchase them in the store because you love the taste — either way making your own pickled goodies guarantees the best freshness, flavor, ingredients, and nutrition right in your own kitchen!

2 cups any vegetables you like:

I have used carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, green beans, onions, peppers, radishes

1/2 tablespoon fresh or dried herbs and/or spices you like:

I have used caraway, coriander, cumin, dill, mustard seeds, peppercorns, red pepper flakes, rosemary

1 cup any kind of apple cider vinegar plus the Mother of vinegar cellulose and bacteria

1 cup filtered water

1 tablespoon Celtic or Himalayan salt

1 teaspoon coconut sugar, optional

Wash and cut up your vegetables as you like. Pack them into a clean glass mason jar.

Add fresh and/or dried spices to the packed jar.

In a medium saucepan bring vinegar, filtered water salt and sugar, if using, to a boil.

Pour your just-boiled brine over the veggies in the jar.

Tighten the lid on the jar.

Place the jar in the back of your refrigerator for three weeks.

Pickled veggies will keep in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.

 

 

At 6:15 on Friday, June 3, Chez Nous Bistro, 150 Main St. in Lee, 413 243-6397, and Spirited Wines of Lenox present their Eric Soloman wine pairing dinner, 5-courses, 5-wines.

The evening's menu and wines will be as follows:

smoked tomato and cucumber tartare with Mimolette, a firm, aged, annatto-seasoned French cheese

Chateau Puech-Haut Prestige Dry Rose 2015

organic Scottish salmon mi-cuit cured with lemon, pepper and herbs, served with fresh fennel confit/preserves

Clos St Jean Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc 2014

house-made agnolotti/filled raviolilike pasta pillows served with duck confit in a Cipollini onion broth

Domaine Lafage Tessallae Old Vines Carignan 2013

herb and grain mustard-crusted New Zealand rack of lamb with minted pea purée

Clos St. Jean Chateauneuf du Pape 2012

lavender and lime soufflé

Chateau Tirecul La Graviere Les Pins Monbazillac 2012 (Dessert White (500ml)

The cost of the dinner will be $85 plus gratuity and tax. Call for information and reservations.

 

The Nutrition Center, Dottie's Coffee Lounge, Guido's Fresh Marketplace: Interesting collaboration.
 
On three upcoming Tuesday evenings for about an hour starting at 6:45, on May 31, June 14 and June 28, The Nutrition Center/TNC of the Berkshires, which subtitles itself as inspiring a healthy relationship with food, is hosting a series of nutrition presentations at Dottie's Coffee Lounge, 444 North St. at the corner of Maplewood Ave. in Pittsfield.

Peter Stanton, TNC's founder and executive director called the series "a fun event" the other day. Dottie's creator and owner, Jessica Lamb, thought "he presentations would be a good thing."

The series will cover Sugar: America's Favorite Drug on Tuesday, May 31, presented by Lisa Nelson, MD, medical director and TNC nutrition counselor Molly Ferioli, MNT; Eating for Energy on Tuesday, June 14, presented by Cindy Geyer, MD and TNC Maura Benton; and Farmers Market Cooking on Tuesday, June 28 presented by Danielle Debye, RDN and TNC nutrition counselor and Jack Taliercio, MS RDN.

Each evening will include lecture and discussion, cooking demos, tastings and recipe sheets.

Peter said, We have gotten inquiries from our patrons in the past who have wanted us to do this kind of event in a public place and Dottie's was willing to do it."

In recent years, TNC has presented nutrition workshops and cooking demos at other Pittsfield venues such as Redfield House and the Christian Center.

Each class will cost $15 but, if you register for all three at $45, you will receive a Guido's gift card worth $50.

Peter explained that "Guido's [Fresh Marketplace in Great Barrington and Pittsfield] has been a great advocate and supporter of our programs for a long time."

Caitlin Loverin, special events and marketing coordinator at Guido's said the gift cards were "part of a collaboration we've done with TNC using the gift cards to support health and nutrition in the community."

Call TNC at 413 429-8110 or eMail maura@tnc413.org to register or for more information.

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