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Berkshire Tidbits: Harvest Fests, Historic Fare Fill Weekend
By Judith Lerner, iBerkshires Columnist
07:35AM / Tuesday, October 06, 2015
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A grilled chicken and avocado sandwich with bacon and pest from The Hungry Traveler food truck that will be at the Berkshire Botanical Garden Harvest Festival.

Great Barrington Historical Society
Bake Sale Features Historic Goodies

Saturday, Oct. 10
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Barbara Syer, president of the Great Barrington Historical Society thought it would be a better idea to have a bake sale than a tag sale to entice visitors to come to the Captain Thomas Wheeler House, the town of Great Barrington's museum and the Historical Society's headquarters.

An interesting bake sale.

With James Parrish, another Historical Society volunteer, Syer worked out a menu of doable baked goods from the 18th century, the period when the original one-room Dutch-built cottage was developed by Captain Wheeler into a Revolutionary War era farmstead.

"You can tell the difference between the Dutch and the English building styles in the wall support beams and the floorboards," Syer said.

Syer, who is 90, has a lifetime of old-fashioned recipes she could turn to. She chose her own baked beans and brown bread made with molasses recipes and used the original Jenifer House ginger-molasses cookie recipe. Parrish contributed a recipe for Hoosic loaf cake.

And a free glass of cider will be given to all who come to the museum or the sale.

"I will bake the brown bread in coffee cans and we will sell whole breads for $4. We will sell 1-pound containers of baked beans for $1.50. We'll sell six very large but not huge cookies for $5. As for the cake, we will sell it by the slice, $2 a slice.

Historic Society executive director Debbie Opperman said Syer is a woman who collects apples from the tree in her front yard and makes them into applesauce.

"I doubt that you will see anything from Betty Crocker come from Barbara," Opperman said with a laugh.

"The idea was to bring some people down to the Wheeler farmstead," she said of the bake sale.

"The farmstead, we call it a farmstead, has been in the Wheeler family for five generations," Syer told me. "It is on its original site. There was probably a large site, originally, but it's down now to an acre and a half. There are barns, though; the shells are still there. They can be restored if there is ever money."

"We decided to keep the museum open every Saturday all year round," she said, "from 10 to 2, and my hope is to have the cookies always available for sale every Saturday all year round, too. And, maybe, a free glass of cider. We'll see."

Hoosic Loaf Cake

Hoosic loaf cake is mysterious to me, but I found a recipe in "The Pocumtuc housewife, a guide to Domestic cookery as it is practiced in the Connecticut Valley" on Google. The book, by Several Ladies, was first published in Deerfield in 1805, reprinted with additions in 1897 and revised in 1906.

There's only ingredients, no directions. It sounds like a rich pound or sunshine cake elegantly flavored with wine and nutmeg.

One and three-fourths pounds of flour and the same of sugar, three-fourths of a pound of butter, three-fourths of a pound of raisins, a pint of milk, four eggs, a glass of wine, one nutmeg, a teaspoon of soda.

Here's how I would make it.

First soak the raisins in warm water to plump them. Then, drain them and set them aside on paper or cloth tea towels to dry a bit.

Next, finely grate the nutmeg. Whisk the nutmeg and the soda into the flour. Then whisk the drained, dried raisins into the dry ingredients and set them aside.

At this point, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 9-inch loaf pans very well. Sprinkle the pans with flour. Shake out any excess flour.

Beat the butter and sugar together until they are fluffy. Beat the eggs into the butter-sugar one-by-one until well combined.

Beat the wine and the milk together and gently fold them into the butter-sugar-eggs in three or four batches alternating with the flour-raisin mixture to make a smooth batter.

Pour the batter into the buttered loaf pans. Bake until they begin to pull away from the sides of the pans and a broom straw or toothpick or the like inserted in the middle of each comes out dry. Turning the pans front-to-back after 20 minutes will promote even baking even baking. I do not know how long the cakes will need to bake. 30 minutes? 1 hour? Don't check the loaves until you see them pulling away from the pan sides. Serves 18 to 36

 

Townmade Food Only
at the Ashfield Fall Festival

Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 10 and 11
10 a. m. to 5 p. m., rain or shine
Admission: Free, goodwill donation to park

The Ashfield Fall Festival will fill Main Street/Route 116 this Saturday and Sunday. It was started in 1969 to celebrate Ashfield by showcasing its artisans and businesses, raising funds for the Ashfield Citizens Scholarship Fund, allowing Ashfield service organizations to raise their own funds and giving Ashfield youth an avenue to develop and use creative, social and business skills.

Bigger than ever over 5,000 people are expected the Fall Festival still does all those things.

It's like an old-fashioned fair with tallest sunflower and heaviest pumpkin contests hosted by the Ashfield Agriculture Commission. But there's no midway with carnival rides or carnival food.

Instead festivalgoers will get a real feel of how Ashfield eats from any of the two dozen or so vendors. Less than a handful from nearby towns.

The Boy Scouts are serving pumpkin spice doughnuts and cider, coffee or water. The Firefighters' Association has chili, clam chowder, curly fries, chicken nuggets, spaghetti with with or without meat and many other choices at the fire house. There's apple pies and cheese at the library.

Also available will be homemade soups and grilled cheese sandwiches as well as fruits and vegetables from local farms at the First Congregational Church. St. John's Episcopal Church has beverages and blueberry sweets.

Various schools are bringing caramel apples, assorted pies and baked potatoes with toppings.

The Lion's Club is making hamburgers and hot dogs, the Snowmobile Club will have kielbasa grinders while the Rod and Gun Club is going for vegetarian chili and cheese nachos.

This is maple syrup country and the Ashfield sugar houses are offering treats like maple cotton candy and fried dough topped with maple cream, maple sno-cones and more.

Ashfield Hardware is making hot applesauce sundaes; Mo's Fudge Factor, fudge apples; Gloriosa is serving tea and scones; Country Pie Pizza, Italian foods and pizza; and Elmer's Store has a large variety starting with breakfast burritos and pancakes in the morning, then crawfish pasta, pulled pork sandwiches and lots of desserts with a beer garden starting at noon. Flakey Bakers has an interesting menu with chicken pot pie and biscuits, a veggie sandwich, Indian pudding, chocolate zucchini cake, Fair Trade coffee and more.

Farmers are offering cordials and condiments, fresh garlic, heirloom apples, organic non-pasteurized cider and evergreen products.

There will be activities, dance and music, artisans, book and tag sales, face-painting and more.

Ashfield is a pretty town at the junction of Routes 112 and 116. Admission is free but parking attendants collect donations for the scholarship fund. Dogs are not allowed. Information: info@ashfieldfallfestival.org or ashfieldfallfestival.com.

 

Berkshire Botanical Garden
Harvest Festival 2015

Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 10 and 11
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission: $5, free 12 and younger

The 81st annual Berkshire Botanical Garden Harvest Festival, filled with activities, entertainment and sales, again features lots of interesting food this weekend, most of it local.

There's take home food like fresh, unsprayed vegetables from Woven Roots Farm in Tyringham; vinegars and dressings from the Botanical Gardens own Herb Associates; herb and spice-infused honeys from Golden Goddess Honey of Northampton; cheddar cheese, granola and more from Gould Farm in Monterey; preserves, pickles, salad dressings and dessert sauces personally made by David Davis of Hillhome Country Products in Norfolk, Ct., Hosta Hill is bringing their lacto-fermented foods — sauerkraut, kimchee, tempeh and pesto — from Housatonic. Among others.

In the let's eat it while we're here category, there are lots of local food and drink choices.

In the drink line, Barrington Brewery will come with its seasonal Great Barrington-made beers; Bruce, whom I do not know, will be making fresh lemonade; and No. Six Depot Roastery and Café has their own coffees, teas and more.

For savory eating there will be barbecue chicken, ribs, pulled pork and beef ribeye with sides from Lakota BBQ in Richmond; breads, flatbreads and more from Naga Bakehouse in Middletown Springs, Vt.; Raven & Boar Farm from East Chatham, N.Y., is coming with dried sausages and more under their Hudson Valley Charcuterie name; Fox Hill Farm from Ancramdale, N.Y., is bringing their grass-fed/grass-finished burgers, sausage-on-a-stick, hot dogs and more as Papa Dog; and so many more vendors.

There will be homemade potato chips, kettle korn, cotton candy, corn dogs, bratwurst and other sandwiches, Lebanese and Middle Eastern food, vegetarian and vegan potato pancakes, quesadillas, potato pancakes and Greek food. There will even be two food trucks on the grounds. And lots more.

There will be sweets from Berkshire Bakes (aka Madeleine's Bakery formerly of North Street in Pittsfield); longtime chocolatier Catherine's Chocolates of Great Barrington; Dutch Desserts will bring its unique latticed tarts and other goodies from the Kinderhook, N. Y. bakery; Ioka Valley Farm is bringing maple treats from Hancock; Meadow Farm Market in Lee will bring pies and breads; Studious Baker of Pittsfield will have his baked goods including many gluten-free; and, of course, SoCo ice cream will round out the day.

Berkshire Botanical Garden, 5 West Stockbridge Road, Stockbridge; 413-298-3926, info@berkshirebotanical.org. All proceeds benefit the Garden's education program.

 

5th Annual Anything Goes
People's Choice Pie Contest

Sunday, Oct. 11
3 p. m.
Dewey Hall, Route 7, Sheffield


For most of the last nine years, Barbara DelMolino, always active in the Sheffield community, has run pie contests there. First, during the town fair; since 2011, as a stand-alone, people's choice contest with prizes sponsored by King Arthur Flour.

She was inspired to create her pie contest when she entered Gina Hyams' "Pie Contest in a Box" pie contest in 2010. She won second prize.

"Gina's Pie Contest Box has everything you need. I've been using it ever since. Some people came from as far away as Troy, N.Y., to see how we did it and I showed them the box and the book," DelMolino told me.

This Sunday, Oct. 11, is Sheffield "Anything Goes People's Choice Pie Contest" day at Dewey Hall.

The Sheffield Friendly Union Library Association, the organization that administers Dewey Hall and of which DelMolino is a member, asks the public to, "Bake a pie; or, come to eat and buy a ballot for $5 and be a pie judge." After they judge them, pie contest judges get to eat the pies.

Pies that won prizes in previous Sheffield pie contests are to be recreated and brought to be sold in a silent auction after the contest.

DelMolino said the association raised $801 at the pie contest last year.

"I used to specify what the money was to be used for but, this year, I didn't. They can use it for maintenance or for heat; $800 can heat the place for a month in the winter," she said.

Call Barbara DelMolino, 413-229-8696, to register your sweet or savory pie in either the youth or the adult category.

 

Alford Fire Department
Pancake Breakfast

Sunday, Oct. 11
7:30 to 11:30 a.m.

This Sunday, the all-volunteer Alford Fire Department, led by Fire Chief and Fire Inspector Steve Berkel since 1979, will serve a pancake breakfast to lots of people. Pancakes, sausages, butter and maple syrup, orange juice, coffee and tea.

Chief Berkel said, "It's always the Sunday of the Columbus Day weekend which, also, usually corresponds with Fire Prevention Week."

This year, Fire Prevention week ends the day before Alford's breakfast.

"We normally do about 300 people. It could be 250," he said.

That's a lot for a town of less than 500 residents.

"You got your full timers but it's a little different on the weekends. If the have houseguests they bring them along. A lot of people come from the previous years, they do it every year. And people come from surrounding towns."

"It's gotta be 40 years, now, that we have it. It used to be in town hall but, now, we hold it at the fire station [at 86 North Egremont Road which runs between Seekonk and Alford Roads]. We normally put some signs, little posters up around town."

"It's $8 for adults, children half price, $4, infants free. We don't sell tickets, people pay at the door."

The money raised by the breakfast will be used to buy equipment for the Fire Department, he said.

"Alford is a town of their own. They still have a dairy farm or two in town," Berkel noted.

 

Have a Cup of Ceylon Tea
At Whitney Center for the Arts

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 6 p. m.
Admission: Free with reservation

David De Candia, Sri Lanka Tea Board ambassador to the U. S. and Canada for Ceylon tea, will be at the Whit on Wednesday evening, Oct. 14, to present and taste/cut six to 12 teas from Ceylon.

He will speak about Ceylon teas and tea in general, answer questions about tea from the audience and teach the art of tea cupping which is what tea tasting is called in the tea world where De Candia is considered quite knowledgeable.

Email reservations are recommended at Tix@thewhit.org. Whitney Center for the Arts, 413-443-0289, is at 42 Wendell Ave.



Berkshire Food Web Sets
Launch Party, Book Signing


Wednesday, Oct. 14
6 to 8 p.m.; Hotel on North, 297 North St., Pittsfield, 413-358-4741

The Nutrition Center, a regional non-profit whose mission is to inspire a healthy relationship with food through counseling, education and cooking regardless of people's ability to pay, has recently created the Berkshire Food Web, an extremely useful online food access directory of over 150 verified local resources. The Food Web lists food pantries, community meals, farmers' markets, farm stands and community gardens throughout Berkshire County and in the Amherst-Northampton area.

Peter Stanton, director of The Nutrition Center, said that human services organizations already find Berkshire Food Web "an invaluable resource."

Next Wednesday, Oct. 14, The Nutrition Center is hosting a launch party to celebrate the completion of this initiative. The gala event features Leanne Brown, grad student turned food activist turned author who is just beginning her book tour, as the speaker.

Eat on North and Red Lion Inn executive chef and director of food and beverage Brian Alberg will provide hors d'ouvres of his own creation and some based on recipes from Brown's book, "Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day."

There will be entertainment from Lucky 5 hot Gypsy jazz band, gift bag give-aways and a silent auction including non-food and food themed items from local establishments such as Allium Restaurant & Bar, Berkshire Co-op Market, Berkshire Mountain Distillers, Domaney's Liquors, Dottie's Coffee Lounge, Guido's Fresh Marketplace, Lenox Natural Foods, Methuselah Bar and Lounge, Nudel Restaurant and many more supporters.

Attendance is by ticket only, which can be purchased here.

Harney & Sons Master Tea Blenders and Hotel on North are the major sponsors of the launch party and they and Berkshire Co-op Market, Berkshire Farm & Table, Berkshire Grown, Guido's Fresh Marketplace, Healthy Pittsfield (a community partnership gathered under the City of Pittsfield Health Department), Sisters for Peace (giving community to empower, educate and support women and girls) are sponsors of Berkshire Food Web.

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