Allium Restaurant + Bar on WAMC's Culinary Corner This Week

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GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. – On Wednesday, March 11, Chef Joe Nastro of allium restaurant + bar will be featured on WAMC Northeast Public Radio’s “Culinary Corner” segment. The segment is first in a series of four radio interviews that will highlight selections from allium’s menu.

The WAMC listening area is home to a vast number of restaurants and every Wednesday at 10:35 a.m., WAMC airs “The Culinary Corner.” A member of the WAMC staff visits with a talented chef from a local eatery and together they teach the listener how to make a dish from the chef’s repertoire. This Wednesday’s segment will spotlight allium’s Celery Root and Apple Soup with Sage Oil featuring locally grown ingredients including celery root and herbs from Indian Line Farm and Farm Girl Farm in Egremont, apples from Green River Farm in Williamstown and local cider from Maynard Farm in Connecticut.

Future segments featuring allium restaurant + bar will include Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese, Pizza Dough from allium’s very popular Ten-Dollar Pizza Tuesdays and Wood-grilled Berkshire Pork with Polenta, Broccoli and Crispy Buttermilk Onions. Selected recipes spotlight locally grown ingredients when possible.

Allium Chef Joe Nastro -- Photo credit Jason Houston


The Culinary Corner can be heard as part of The Roundtable on WAMC Northeast Public Radio frequencies and streamed live at wamc.org. Text versions of the recipes – along with a link to the podcast – can be found at wamc.org/culinarycorner.

Opened in May 2007, allium serves New American cuisine with Chef Joe Nastro’s varying seasonal menu focusing on local, farm-fresh ingredients, and features an exceptional, well-chosen wine list to accompany dinner offerings. Selected as Editors’ Choice in Yankee Magazine’s Travel Guide to New England in 2008, allium has also been awarded Boston Magazine’s Best New Restaurant. The restaurant is located in downtown Great Barrington at 42 Railroad Street, and serves dinner nightly beginning at 5 p.m. allium is a member of Slow Food and Berkshire Grown. For more information, call 413-528-2118 or visit alliumberkshires.com.

The full-service restaurant is part of Mezze Restaurant Group, committed to the ‘buy local’ mission providing a wide diversity of fresh, seasonal foods from neighboring family farms, celebrating the bounty of the Berkshire region. Mezze Restaurant Group also includes Mezze Bistro + Bar of Williamstown, Café Latino at MASS MoCA in North Adams and Mezze Catering, which provides full-service event design and planning. For additional information about Mezze Restaurant Group, visit mezzeinc.com.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

ServiceNet Cuts Ribbon on Vocational Farm to 'Sow Seeds of Hope'

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Lori Carnute plants flowers at the farm and enjoys seeing her friends. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Smiles were all around as farmers, human service workers, and officials cut the ribbon Friday on ServiceNet's new vocational farm on Crane Avenue.

Whether it is planting flowers or growing fresh produce, the program is for "sowing seeds of hope" for those with developmental disabilities.

"What Prospect Meadow Farm is about is changing lives," Vice President of Vocational Services Shawn Robinson said.

"Giving people something meaningful to do, a community to belong to, a place to go every day and to make a paycheck, and again, I am seeing that every day from our first 17 farmhands the smiles on their faces. They're glad to be here. They're glad to be making money."

Prospect Meadow Farm Berkshires held a launch event on Friday with tours, music, snacks, and a ribbon cutting in front of its tomato greenhouse. The nonprofit human service agency closed on the former Jodi's Seasonal on Crane Avenue earlier this year.  

It is an expansion of ServiceNet's first farm in Hatfield that has provided meaningful agricultural work, fair wages, and personal and professional growth to hundreds of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities since opening in 2011.

Eventually, the farm will employ 50 individuals with developmental disabilities year-round and another 20 to 25 local folks supporting their work.

The pay is a great aspect for Billy Baker, who is learning valuable skills for future employment doing various tasks around the farm. He has known some of the ServiceNet community for over a decade.

"I just go wherever they need me to help," he said. "I'm more of a hands-on person."

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