Monterey Chevre -- A goat cheese unique to Berkshire County

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Across the verdant landscape of Monterey, and a little off the beaten track, lies Rawson Brook Farm. This small family-run farm, with its low-fenced paddocks and unassuming barn and outbuildings, is the birthplace of Monterey Chevre (pronounced “shev”), a type of goat cheese. “We got our license to produce cheese for sale in 1984 and have been making Monterey Chevre ever since,” said Rawson Brook Farm owner Susan Sellew. Monterey Chevre is a fresh, soft, and smooth goat cheese. Although reluctant to compare chevre to cream cheese, Sellew agrees that their textures are similar. Besides the mild, plain chevre, Rawson Brook Farm also makes various flavorful varieties like thyme and olive oil chevre. According to Sellew, goat’s milk is more easily digestible than cow’s milk. “We can assimilate it much more quickly. Some people that think they may be lactose intolerant, might not be. Goat milk has lactose, but maybe they just have a hard time digesting cow’s milk.” Rawson Brook Farm is currently home to seventy goats: mostly females, three breeding males, and over a dozen kids. The majority of Sellew’s goats are American and French Alpines, but she does have several white-haired Sanaans and one Nubian for variety in her product. “Nubians have richer milk but produce less of it,” explained Sellew. “There’s higher butter fat and protein in their milk.” She has bred her Nubian goat, Delight, to an Alpine in hopes that the resulting kids will produce the same rich milk in greater quantities. Fifty goats are milked twice each day using milking machines. Each goat averages one gallon of milk per day and it takes one gallon of milk to produce one pound of cheese. “We make 350 to 400 pounds of chevre each week,” said Sellew. Each year, the farm begins producing cheese in the middle of March through to the first week of January. Goats are seasonal breeders that go through a five-month pregnancy. Sellew tries to breed them in October so that they can bear kids come March. The yearly break in cheese production is due to the fact that goats do not produce milk in the last half of their pregnancy. “Goats usually bear twins or triplets,” Sellew stated, but sometimes single kids, or even quadruplets, are born. Out of the 100 to 120 kids born each year at the farm, Sellew keeps approximately 12 to raise as future milkers. Sellew has had goats since the 1970s — during what she calls her “homesteading days” — at a farm in northern New York where she met a French woman who taught her various goat-cheese-making techniques. Sellew stated matter-of-factly, “I’d fallen in love with goats and one thing led to another.” Soon after, Sellew decided to open Rawson Brook Farm in the Berkshires “because I grew up here and love it here.” Still, she is a business woman and admitted that she also thought Berkshire County “would be a good location since it’s between New York City and Boston.” Although quite a broad range for distribution, Sellew expressed confusion over the fact that “over the years, I hear a lot that people have said they’ve gotten Monterey Chevre in areas I don't distribute to. I do all my own distributing; I know where my cheese is sold.” As far as she knows, Rawson Brook Farm is the only one in Monterey that produces chevre. “I think that maybe people try it somewhere and they like it.” Sellew speculated, “Then they assume that a soft goat cheese is Monterey Chevre, that it’s a type of cheese, not from a specific farm in Massachusetts. Maybe consumers think all chevre is Monterey.” Sellew stated that her cheeses could be purchased at her farm, but that this is secondary to her main distribution to stores and restaurants. Monterey Chevre can be purchased as close to home as Guido’s in Lenox, the Berkshire Co-Operative Market in Great Barrington, Creative Gourmet in Tanglewood, Random Harvest in Craryville, Stockbridge Wine in Stockbridge, and Brandow's in Hudson — or as far away as Zabar’s in New York City and at several Bread and Circus locations in Boston — just to name a few. The cheese can also be found at many restaurants, including Aubergine’s in Hillsdale, N.Y., the Castle Street Café in Great Barrington, the Seven Hills Inn in Lenox, the Williamsville Inn in West Stockbridge, The Old Mill in South Egremont, and The Last Chance Café in Tannersville, N.Y. Although her business has thrived, Sellew considers her goats more than just income-producers. “I take them on hikes with me and they stay by my side.” While scratching behind the ear of an obviously grateful goat, she stated, “They’re all very friendly. People always seem sorry that they don’t have a treat for the goats when they walk over. They don’t understand that they aren’t just looking for food — they really just appreciate the attention.”
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John Barrett III Announces Run to Retain House Seat

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Incumbent John Barrett III has announced his bid for re-election to the 1st Berkshire District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
 
Citing a lifetime of "serving, fighting for and believing in" the district, the former longtime North Adams mayor decided to make a bid to remain in the seat he has held since winning a special election in 2017.
 
"Over the last few weeks, I gave it a lot of thought, and I've talked to a lot of people," Barrett said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "They've told me, if there's ever a time when we need experience and leadership, it's going to be the next co uple of years.
 
"I decided to go based on them more than anything else."
 
Barrett is challenged in the Democratic primary by Andrew Fitch, a current North Adams city councilor, who announced his bid on Feb. 3.
 
The state primary is scheduled for Sept. 1.
 
The Northern Berkshire legislative district includes the City of North Adams and the towns of Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Florida, Hancock, Hinsdale, Lanesborough, New Ashford, Peru, Savoy, Williamstown and Windsor.
 
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