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Red Lion Chef Takes Top Honors at 'Lamb Jam'
The Red Lion Inn's Brian Alberg took home the top prize in the American Lamb Board's "Lamb Jam" on Sunday. According to Eat Drink RI, which covered the event at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Alberg's lamb shoulder and kale meatballs, featuring Farm Girl Farm of Egremont's smoked tomato puree and parmesan crustade won not only best overall dish and best shoulder dish, beating out 18 other chefs.
Berkshire Brewing Co. was also there serving beverages along with some notable Boston brewers.
Albert, president of Berkshire Grown's board of trustees, will go to California to compete against Lamb Jam winners from around the country.
A major supporter of using locally grown produce for Berkshires dining, Alberg has organized the upcoming "Preserving the Berkshire Harvest" with other local chefs at the James Beard House in New York on Mrch 2.
Last Day for Paczki
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| Melissa checks a student's dough for elasticity. | Lisa Mendel samples the results. | Gooey but so good. |
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, that means, if you follow Polish tradition, you'll be eating a lot of doughnuts today. But not just any doughnuts.
Paczki is a special jam or jelly-filled fried pastry made with butter and eggs in the dough. They're rich, light, delicious and most people have forgotten how to make them.
That bothered Lisa Mendel. Lisa is the organizer of the Polish cooking classes taking place once a month on Sunday mornings at the Polish National Alliance in Adams. She decided to ask Melissa Langenback, who teaches breadmaking at Different Drummer's Kitchen, to give a class on making the lighter-than-air treats.
So on a frozen February morning, a dozen ladies from the community gathered to learn to make paczki from scratch.
iBerkshires was there and thanks to the videography of local film maker Steven Borns, you can peek into a few of the steps that go into this pre-Lenten treat.
Of course you can eat paczki any time you can find them (try the Big Y) but if you want to be traditional, today's the day.
Know Your Farmer Photos
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Lenox Library Hosting 'Spring Tonic'
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The event hints at the green season to come while promoting locally grown products and healthy living. The family activity will include an indoor farmers' market, live bluegrass and jazz music, sign-ups for farm shares and a drawing for a gift basket of farm goodies.
At noon, a panel of health experts will speak on "Eating Healthy at Every Age." At 12:30, the indoor farmers' market will open, featuring local vendors selling their wares and farm shares. Vendors will also have samples, recipes and brochures to give away. Local bluegrass musicians Andy Gordon and Paul Rice and the jazz group Too Human will perform. Attendees who visit all the vendors will have the chance to enter a drawing of a gift basket full of local farm bounty.
Hundreds of people attended last year's Spring Tonic, and this year's plans are bigger and better. The event is free and open to the public.
For further information as a vendor or visitor: 413-637-2630 or shawkes@lenoxlib.org.
Get to Know Your Farmer at Local Food Expo
As spring approaches local farmers are planning their crops and deciding what food to grow for our communities. On Thursday, Feb. 16, from 5-7 p.m. at 107 Main St., North Adams, members of the community are invited to meet many of our local farmers from cheese makers and beekeepers to Community Supported Agriculture and farmers market growers. This is the annual "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" event.
Local farming is seeing a come back in our region from people keeping chickens in their back yards to farmers growing produce that's sold in local markets and restaurants. It's the connection to the land, and the community, that helps our local agricultural economy grow. Our local farms also do more than just sell their bounty. Farms work with the local food projects to make sure that what isn't sold does not go to waste but back into our community to feed people who might not otherwise have access to fresh, local produce.
As a core group member of Hoosac Harvest, I'm looking forward to this event that will include Berkshire Farm Apiary, Wildstone Farm, Cricket Creek Farm, Wild Oats Market, Many Forks Farm, Country Dream Farm, Berkshire Grown, Berkshire Food Project, North Adams Farmers Market and more.
Hoosac Harvest will also be present and is looking for community members to help fulfill its mission of a vibrant food system in which all members of the northern Berkshire community participate and have access to locally grown, healthy, sustainably-produced food. Hoosac Harvest currently raises funds to subsidize 20% of the CSA shares at Square Roots Farm, enabling low-income community members to participate fully. We need people power to do more including growing a row in a backyard garden for the local food pantry to a cadre of volunteers to help with gathering unharvested produce from local farms to serving on the core group.
Joins us on Thursday for this free event and meet the farmers, mingle with friends and celebrate the bounty of the Northern Berkshires.
Participating farmers include Wildstone Farm, Square Roots Farm, Cricket Creek Farm, and Country Dream Farm. Also participating are beekeeper, Tony Pisano, Sunshine Bagels, Wild Oats Market, North Adams Farmers Market, Berkshire Grown, the Berkshire Food Project, and more.
Stephanie Farrington of