MEMBER SIGN IN
Not a member? Become one today!
         iBerkshires     Berkshire Chamber     Berkshire Community College     City of Pittsfield    
Search
Berkshire Tidbits: Thanksgiving Specials
By Judith Lerner, Special to iBerkshires
01:16PM / Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Print | Email  


As the holiday approaches, everything is coming up Thanksgiving. Most of the Tidbits in this week's column will be about Thanksgiving as well. With just a smattering of the many, many food producers who go out of their way to create ultra-satisfying fare here in the Berkshires.
 
Free Thanksgiving Dinner
at Breaking Bread Kitchen

Thursday, Nov. 19; 5:15 to 6 p.m.

Chef Julie Gale and the team from Hevreh of the Berkshires will be making and serving a Thanksgiving dinner at the weekly Breaking Bread Kitchen at American Legion Post 340 on Route 7 in Sheffield this Thursday, Nov. 19.

Gale said the menu will be turkey with stuffing and gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds, rolls, cranberry sauce and homemade deep dish apple pie with whipped cream.
Salad fixings and the rolls have been donated by area food markets. Taft Farms in Great Barrington donated the apples for the pies.

Gale was proud of her team and named them all, including her husband Peter, Mel and Ellen Greenberg and at least a dozen others. Mel Greenberg created Breaking Bread Kitchen in 1999.

Everyone is welcome to come to this free Thanksgiving dinner.
 
Barrington Brewery Brewplate
Brews Up Dinner Specials

Weeknights & Sunday

In their 20th year brewing beer and serving from-scratch locally sourced food in Great Barrington, Barrington Brewery, 420 Stockbridge Road/Route 20, 413-528-8282, just keeps doing what they do under the good-humored and knowing management of executive chef Odil Carpenter and owners Gary Happ and Andy Mankin, also the brewer. And their old and newly discovering customers love it.

They serve well-made brewpub food like cheddar ale soup using their own ale and ale bread using the same, starters including the Plowman's Lunch of sausage, cheese, apples, homemade chutney and ale bread, salads, sandwiches, burgers, lunch and dinner specials including grass-fed burgers and steaks, seafood dishes, casseroles and interesting vegetarian comfort foods like their sweet potato veggie pot pie and their spinach and eggplant casserole.

They make their own dressings and sauces and all their own desserts. Their beers, ales and stouts are delicious.

Everything is reasonably priced, especially their nightly Brewplate Specials, one dish each weekday and Sunday night, which often include a salad or soup course and a basket of their ale bread. These range from an old-fashioned roast beef or a roast pork dinner for $10 to a lobster roll or barbecued ribs and brisket for $12 to a Thursday night prime rib dinner and a Friday night New England friend seafood dinner. There is no take-out on Brewplate Specials.
 


The farmers' market will be open at the Berkshire Mall
this weekend.

Gould Farm Harvest
Barn Bakery & Café

Saturday & Sunday, 9 to 3: Self-service Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 10 to 3

Gould Farm in Monterey is a residential therapeutic community helping adults with mental illness move toward recovery, health and independence. They use everyday meaningful work as a major part of their therapy, to sustain themselves on the farm and to engage with the public.

Their tiny (they have 28 seats including those at the counter), delightful and quirky Roadside Store and Café at 275 Main Road serves breakfast and lunch using many farm-grown and made products from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. It is currently run by the calm and competent, creative excellent cook-of-natural-foods Fiona deRis for the last seven years.

Gould Farm also has operated the Harvest Barn Bakery & Café, 413-644-9718, as an elegant, urban bakery in a barn on their campus, 100 Gould Road off Route 23.

Saturdays and Sundays, the Harvest Barn serves soup, salad, quiche and pastries, tea and coffee worthy of a Madison Avenue café. Customers can sit in this peaceful, dreamlike setting looking out over the corrals of calves and cows, drinking fine tea, eating a muffin or a scone or a tart with Bavarian cream and local blueberries. Surreal. Uplifting. Delicious.

Wednesday through Friday, Harvest Barn-made products like cookies, sourdough breads, cheddar cheese, yogurt and eggs, maple syrup, honey, jam and more are available for self-service purchase on the honor system.

The Harvest Barn Bakery & Café will be open this weekend before Thanksgiving, Nov. 21 and 22, but will be closed the weekend following Thanksgiving, Nov. 28 and 29.

In addition, the bakery takes orders for Thanksgiving tarts, pies. cookies and more until this Sunday, Nov. 22. And takes orders for breads, cookies, pies, cheesecakes and pastries in general. There are order forms at the bakery/café.

To make inquiries or place a telephone order, call baker/manager Nathan Yaple at 413-644-9718 between 9 and 4, Monday through Friday. If you call on weekends a Harvest Barn staff member will take your order.
 
 
Elder Services of Berkshire County
Thanksgiving Dinner With Trimmings

Thursday, Nov. 19

Most of the Elder Services senior meal sites around Berkshire County, from Great Barrington to North Adams, will serve a turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, butternut squash, a roll and pumpkin pie for lunch this Thursday.

Only four of the 15 sites will not serve the holiday dinner because they do not serve a meal on Thursdays, butHomebound Meals on Wheels recipients will receive the Thanksgiving dinner.

The suggested donation is $2 for adults over 60.

Times range from 11 to noon depending on the site. Reservations must be made at the specific meal site of your choice by Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. Times and contact information for each meal site are on the last page of the free Berkshire Senior newspaper available at many places around the county; or on Elder Services website.
 
 
Connecting with Community
Kosher Thanksgiving Meal

Thursday, Nov. 19; noon

Jewish Federation of the Berkshires serves a freshly made kosher Thanksgiving dinner to seniors 60 and older at Congregation Knesset Israel, 16 Colt Road in Pittsfield this Thursday, Nov. 19.

Chefs Cindy and Peggy will have pureed winter squash soup, roasted turkeys, made gravy for the mashed potatoes, made Brussels sprouts and there'll be cranberry sauce, baskets of rolls, apple dumplings for dessert and tea.

You do not have to be a member of the synagogue, kosher or Jewish. Or even a senior. All are welcome. Non-seniors just pay a higher price for the meal. The kosher meals are part of Elder Services senior nutrition program.

The suggested donation for adults 60 and older is $2; the cost is $7 for adults under 60. Call 413-442-2200 to make reservations before 9 a.m. on Thursday.

"Stories of the Greenfielder Rebbe and other surprises," a free program given by storyteller David Arfa for which no reservations are necessary, will precede the lunch at 10:45 a.m.
 
 
Pittsfield Free Community Dinners
at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

Thursday, Nov. 19; dinner is served 5:15 p.m.

Dan Moon is a culinary arts teacher at Taconic High School and coordinator of St. Stephen's Table in Pittsfield. Since Monday, his culinary classes have been making preparations like roasting the turkeys for Thursday evening's free community Thanksgiving dinner at St. Stephen's Table.

"We try to have respect for the food and treat it the way we'd like to be treated," he said on Monday. "We're all just a few paychecks away from needing a meal. Things can get a little out of control.

"I'll probably make some pumpkin breads. The culinary students will help. Honestly, I haven't thought about the desserts yet. I haven't asked anyone for pies. We are blessed to be busy."

The volunteer staff will spend Thursday afternoon hours making green salad with seasonal vegetables, cutting loaves of bread preparing pans of vegetables to roast, peeling real potatoes then boiling and mashing them with butter using a gigantic wooden masher, organizing the desserts into generous portions, etc., etc., making Thanksgiving dinner for 100-plus eager diners.

When dinner begins, Ralph Casey, head of Taconic's Social Studies department will have brought the students he mentors in Youth United to serve bowls of salad, brimming plates of turkey and fixings and whatever this year's desserts might be.

All are welcome at St. Stephen's Table, 67 East St., entrance around the corner on Allen Street.

 
 
Free Thanksgiving Dinners
Delivered
to Homebound Seniors
Deadline to reserve Friday, Nov. 20
 
Three community groups — one each in South, Central and North County — are set to deliver free dinners on Thanksgiving Day to Berkshirites who are homebound or have no one to spend the holiday with.
Representatives of the First Congregational Church in Great Barrington say they would like to deliver Thanksgiving dinners to any South County senior who is unable to prepare their own dinner or is not spending the day with family or friends. They will bring the dinner between 11:30 a. m. and noon on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 26.
 
Call Grace Zhell at 413-528-2810 to reserve your meal by Friday, Nov. 20. Provide your name, address, phone number and the number of dinners you need.
 
In the Central Berkshires, the Christian Center in Pittsfield will deliver Center-made Thanksgiving dinners to the homebound of any age on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 26. Call 413-443-2828, Monday through Friday between 8:30 a. m. and 2:30 p. m. to reserve dinner. They do not have a deadline for reservations.
 
All Saints Episcopal Church in North Adams will deliver Thanksgiving dinners to seniors who have no other means of getting a holiday meal. To reserve dinners call 413-664-9656 between 1:30 and 5:30 p.m. by Friday, Nov. 20. If you call at another time, leave a message on the answering machine with your name, address, phone number and the number of dinners you want to reserve.
 
 
Berkshire Food Project in North Adams
Serves Free Thanksgiving Dinner
Monday, Nov. 23; doors open at 4 p.m. until whenever
 
On Monday afternoon, executive director of the Berkshire Food Project Valerie Schwarz and her team of chefs and volunteers will prepare and serve more than 200 guests a lavish, festive Thanksgiving dinner a few days early. She's been organizing this for many years.
 
The goings on in preparation are lively. Schwarz is coordinating quite a production.
 
"Tracey Agnew, a local professional cook and a friend, will be cooking our turkeys for us this year using the ovens at Olympia Pizza, formerly Michael's Restaurant in Williamstown," Schwarz began. "We have been cooking butternut squash for weeks and freezing it ... "I’m making the stuffing.
 
"Williams, MCLA, MountainOne Bank of North Adams and other community members are coming in on Sunday to help peel 200 pounds of potatoes and 80 pounds of Florida Mountain turnip. We will also be carving and making gravy.
 
"The First Congregational Church of Williamstown is, once again this Sunday, hosting their annual Pie Palooza. Folks are asked to bring in two pies, one for the congregation to test and vote on and the other to be donated to the BFP."
 
No reservations are needed and all are welcome to First Congregational Church, 18 Main St. in North Adams.
There will be no lunch at BFP on Monday and Thursday this week.
 

Community Thanks Supper
Set at Berkshire South

Tuesday, Nov. 24; seatings at 4, 5 and 6 p.m.
Reservations due by Monday, Nov. 23

Berkshire South Community Center, 15 Crissey Road just east of Route 7 in Great Barrington, started serving chef-prepared free dinners for the community in 2009. They hosted their first Community Thanks Supper that same year.
 
The meal is served buffet style with offerings from many local farms, food producers and markets and from individuals. People are encouraged to sit with strangers and make new friends.
While the dinner is free donations are always accepted.
 
Call Berkshire South at 413-528-2810, Ext. 10, at least 24 hours in advance of the dinner to make your reservations.

 
Williamstown's A-Frame Bakery
Has Yummy Seasonal Offerings

Weekdays from 6:30 to 3; weekends, 7 to noon.

Sharon Sutter, baker and co-owner with her husband, Richard, of the improbable and tiny purple A-Frame Bakery, 1194 Cold Spring Road/Route 7, is spending her nights at the oven to come up with her butter-filled signature, seasonal baked goods.

The bakery will be open extra hours the two days before Thanksgiving, from 6:30 to 6:30, then closed for the holiday and Friday. But it will be open that Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 to 5 p.m.

Melt-in-your-mouth fruit muffins, scones and tea cakes, biscotti, sweet-baked nuts, chutney and conserve, cheesecakes, tarts and pies and delicacies like pumpkin roll with pecans and maple cream cheese frosting, lemon curd tart or bittersweet chocolate tart or mini-apple cider doughnut muffins are among the baked goods you can pick up (if you're lucky) or order for assured holiday pick up.

Stop in or order through 413-458-3600 or aframebakery@verizon.net.
 
 
Last Berkshire Area Farmers Market
Scheduled at the Berkshire Mall

Saturday, Nov. 21; 8 to 2

This Saturday will be the last time to get your greens and squashes, apples, pears and flowers from Blossoming Acres, Jaeschke's, Ken Wirtes and the other Berkshire Area Farmers Market mainstays until next spring.

Come buy your Thanksgiving and storage crops. Come say goodbye for the season.
 
 

Berkshire Grown Thanksgiving
Holiday Farmers Market

Saturday & Sunday, Nov. 21 & 22; 10 to 2

This last weekend before Thanksgiving, we can stock up on foods fresh from the farmers we've been buying from all summer and fall. Berkshire Grown, our local farm-to-table support organization, is again holding its holiday farmers markets in Great Barrington and Williamstown.

Dozens of local farmers and food producers will, for the seventh year, bring their fruits and vegetables, breads, pies, jam, honey, maple syrup, nut butters, meats and cheeses and much more to brighten our pantries, tables and feasts.

I always find I am able to buy my last little seckel pears of the season from Maynard Farms of Ulster Park, N.Y., when they come to the Berkshire Grown Holiday Markets.

Barbara Zheutlin, executive director of Berkshire Grown, is excited that, "Every dollar we spend grows the local food economy by putting money directly into a farmers' pocket."

The market will be held at Monument Valley Middle School, 313 Monument Valley Road, Great Barrington, on Saturday and at Williams College Towne Field House, 82 Latham St., Williamstown, on Sunday.

The markets are free and fun with tastings, music and activities for children. They will be equipped to process EBT cards/ SNAP benefits on site.

Through events, workshops, promotions, advocacy, and education highlighting locally grown and produced food, Berkshire Grown helps to create a thriving local food economy.

Iredale Mineral Cosmetics and Williams College are among the major sponsors.
 
 


Chef Julie Gale leads a class at the Chef's Shop.

'Cooking at The Chef's Shop'
Classes in Great Barrington

Sunday, Nov. 22; 3 to 5 p.m.

On Nov. 22, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, chef Julie Gale will be back to lead the hands-on class in preparing four Thanksgiving side dishes: tarragon creamed pearl onions, rutabaga with caraway, jalapeno corn soufflé and cranberry-kumquat sauce.

The Chef's Shop offers participants a 10-percent discount on purchases made on a class day. Cost is $60 per person for a single class, $150 for a series of three. Payment is required in advance with a 48 hour cancellation policy. For more details or to reserve a place in any classes: 1-800-237-5284 or 413-528-0135 or email@TheChefsShop.com.
 
 
Turkey Dinner Every
Sunday in the Lion's Den

Sunday evenings; 5 to 8

The Lion's Den, underground at the far end of the Red Lion Inn, 30 Main St., in Stockbridge, is the nightly Stockbridge music scene. And it serves a limited menu of upscale snack and pub plates: New England clam chowder, French onion soup, cheese and cured meat plates, salads, sandwiches and their nightly, modest priced Pub Specials.

The specials menu has spiffed up in the last few years. It includes free range chicken, local beef and lamb, a Mediterranean-style seafood stew, a pasta Bolognese.

But the Sunday Pub Special has never changed. It has always been and still is the Red Lion Inn Turkey Dinner with stuffing and cranberry sauce, maybe gravy and mashed potatoes, it's hard to find out, exactly. But this dinner is served from whenever the Den opens, from noon, and does not have to wait until dark to appear on the plate.

While dining hours in the Lion's Den are from 4 to 10 or 11 p.m., from noon on Saturdays and Sundays, Pub Specials are served only between the hours of 5 and 8 p.m., except the Sunday Turkey Dinner special, which is served from noon to 10 p.m. All Pub Specials cost $14 plus tax and gratuity.

This is probably useful to keep in mind if you are a turkey dinner fancier and it is February, or April, or high summer.

Comments
More Featured Stories
Pittsfield.com is owned and operated by: Boxcar Media 106 Main Sreet, P.O. Box 1787 North Adams, MA 01247 -- T. 413-663-3384
© 2008 Boxcar Media LLC - All rights reserved