Pies and Pawpaws, Worth the Time
A crate of pawpaws, a handmade pie crust class, and what gets lost when food is made to ship. From Red Shirt Farm Market in Lanesborough, MA.
Greens in February
Winter greens that came through the cold sweeter, and a Berkshires CSA that works like an account in your name instead of a box.
The September Slump
Two cars in the lot on a Tuesday, and what it takes to keep a year-round farm store in Lanesborough, MA open after the tourists leave.
The Real Cost of Real Food
A question at the building supply store sparked this: what real, local food actually costs, and where the money goes.
Meet Your Honey: Fahey Family Honey Farm
A Vermont family keeps more than 300 hives. Their raw wildflower honey is now on the shelves at our Lanesborough, MA farm store.
Are These Organic?
Our peaches aren’t organic. The honest answer is about when a grower sprays, and why.
Why Your Cucumber Has Scars
Pale scars on a cucumber are healed beetle bites. They don’t change the taste.
What Grandma Knew
My grandmother never thought about nutrition. She thought about feeding people, and mostly got it right.
Why Winter Kitchens Keep a Pot on the Stove
Bone broth is bones, water and time. Ours is made in the store kitchen from pasture-raised bones grown a few miles away.
It Takes a Village to Feed a Village
A few weeks after my retina detached, I walked back into the farm store. It was running fine without me.
A Shared Harvest: Why CSA Still Matters
The CSA idea was born in the Berkshires in 1985. What it was for, how it got blurred, and how ours works.
The Farm Never Sleeps
People ask when we close for the season. We don’t. How a buried heat battery and a blanket of row cover keep spinach growing in January.
Across the Counter
A Marine veteran at the register told me he shouldn’t be alive. We disagreed about politics and shook hands anyway.
This Store Belongs to You
After a lifetime in the fields, I’m working the counter. What I got wrong, what’s on the shelves, and what we’d like to hear from you.
Let Your Tongue Vote
A Carmen pepper, eaten in the row. What flavor tells you about how food was grown, and three things worth tasting this week.
The Power of Choice
I went to Walmart for office supplies and stopped in front of the organic lettuce. Two heads of lettuce, two food systems.
The Taste of Home
A customer from Belgium picked up a bunch of beets and said, “This reminds me of home.” What he meant, and why the food system he described is possible here.