Field Trip: Cricket Creek Farm

We tend to be a bit South County-centric in our food shopping and field trips, but there is one NoCo destination that we make an exception for, and that's Cricket Creek Farm.

CCF is a dairy farm in Williamstown, MA, that produces amazing cheeses, raw milk and butter, as well as fantastic beef, veal, and pork products. At their charming farm store, which is within eyesight of the milking parlor and cheese-making room, you can also pick up a host of yummy local food products like Hosta Hill kraut, Fire Cider, eggs, maple syrup, whole grains, and bread.

Our love and admiration for Cricket Creek started with the products themselves. Whenever we put together a cheese plate, we always serve their unctuous Tobasi, gooey and creamy Berkshire Bloom, and delicate alpine Maggie's Round. But then we visited the farm! We couldn’t get over how beautiful and transparent the whole operation was - the cows grazing, the young apprentices carefully forming cheese, the pigs slurping up whey, a stray cat, and smiles everywhere. At the helm is the lovely Suzy Konecky, farm manager, who enthusiastically works everyday toward building a stronger, thriving agricultural community in the Berkshires.

In our view, Cricket Creek is a model for the future of sustainable local food production - a vertically-integrated farm that focuses on the production of a well-made value-added product. While the farm's focus is on high-quality artisanal cheese production, they need to make good use of their waste products to remain sustainable. So they feed their whey to a small herd of heritage breed pigs, which are then processed and sold frozen from the store. They also sell fantastic beef, which comes from their culled cows and male calves. And looking toward the future, CCF is constantly experimenting with their herd, introducing different genetics and working towards finding the perfect cow for their operation.

But, of course, they don't stop there! Cricket Creek is also exceptionally community oriented. Between the community potlucks they host every Thursday, the farm's generous public open hours, the work they do with several other farms in the area to provide full diet CSA’s, and the educational workshops they host with organizations like NOFA, there's always something going on.

It's a dizzying array of systems and yet, through all of it, Suzy and her team maintain incredibly welcoming smiles - while buying eggs from local farmers, instructing apprentices on when to add rennet, experimenting on cheeses washed in Fire Cider, herding some mischievous calves, getting ready to open an all-local cheese counter at Berkshire Organics, putting together an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign, and taking the time to explain how they make our favorite cheeses. It is so exciting to watch this visionary farm grow, and we are so lucky to be a part of its support system.

Field Trip: Berkshire Food Guild's Midsummer Feast

So we haven’t posted for quite a while (sorry!)... but we have a good reason! We swear! We've really dove head-first into our new lives here in the Berkshires, both personally and professionally, and that's kept us pretty busy. That's why it's fitting that our first blog post in a looooong while should be about the Berkshire Food Guild. 

Since making the big move, we've become deeply involved with the local food culture in the Berkshires, which is incredibly vital and a huge part of why we moved in the first place. In all of our buzzing about, we've been fortunate enough to connect with so many like-minded, energized and talented people. One of things that we love about our new friends is how unfailingly dedicated they are to their respective crafts. They share our belief that revitalizing food-craft traditions is crucial, and inextricably connected to supporting our local foodshed.

And so was born the Berkshire Food Guild, was founded this April by Jake, Jamie Paxton, Jazu Stine, and Jill Jakimetz. 

For their premiere event on June 29th, Jake suggested a Midsummer Feast inspired by our time in Sweden and our love for all things Scandinavian. The BFG was lucky enough to find a partnering farm right away- Mill River Farm, an organic and educational farm right here in New Marlborough, started by our friend Jan Johnson. 

The Midsummer Feast was everything we dreamed it would be. The menu was unusual and exciting, rooted in traditional Scandinavia food, but using all local ingredients. The night started with BFG beverage master Brian Heck pouring biodynamic, natural wines that he imports directly from producers in France. (He later poured coffee he had roasted at his day job: Head Roaster at Barrington Coffee Roasters.) Then, Jan led a tour of her farm, all the while talking about the challenges and joys of sustainable and organic farming. Next, Chef Jamie sent out tray after incredible tray of inventive appetizers like Indian Line pea pesto served on knackebrod that Jill baked using grains from Hawthorne Valley Farm - where she lives and works - that she milled herself. For the main course, Pitmaster Jazu spit-roasted a whole lamb from Kinderhook Farm stuffed with spruce and juniper, while Jamie grilled baby turnips, garlic scapes, and fennel.

The food was delicious, the setting was beautiful, and everyone was in a festive mood... but there were a couple of moments that really, truly made the night a success for us. When Jake and Jazu pulled the lamb off the spit, all of the guests rushed over to watch and ask questions. As Jazu carved the lamb, pointing out the different cuts, and describing what made this lamb so special, the shepherd who had raised the lamb stood proudly by his side. We were blown away by the complete transparency of the meal, and the guests' enthusiastic response to it. 

And then again, at the end of the evening, when Jake asked a departing guest how she felt the event had gone, she said: "Amazing, I have learned so much tonight!" In the end that is our real goal - to further dialogue around the local sustainable food movement. What an inspiring night!

For more photos of the evening, take a look at the BFG's Flickr album full of fantastic shots by the talented Diana Pappas and Tom Bland. 

Field Trip: Moon In The Pond Farm

For years now we've been dying to stop by Dominic Palumbo's farm, Moon in the Pond. Given our enormously high expectations, it would have been easy to leave disappointed. But we didn't, not even a little bit.

Dom has been at the helm of Moon in the Pond for the last 20 years and shows no signs of stopping. A leader of the Slow Food movement in the Berkshires, he runs his farm on biodynamic principals in which animals, vegetables, fruits and nuts all live in pastoral harmony. All of the animals are heritage breed, chosen because they are perfectly suited for our Northeastern environment, and given lots of space to jump, roll and peck around. There are large black pigs running through the woods, Scottish Highlands grazing in the pastures, New Hampshire chickens scratching in pens planted with rye, Dorset sheep nibbling on the hillside, goat kids leaping for feed, and turkeys, ducks and game hens ranging free.

As for fruits and veggies, Moon in the Pond only grows heirloom varieties. Here again Dom has put enormous effort into researching and seeking out the particular vegetables that will thrive in his beds - like Beedy’s Camden kale, one of his current preoccupations. As if he doesn't have enough to do, his next project hopes to be a community seed exchange, and eventually developing strains that are adapted just for this region.

The farm sells your standard meat and eggs both directly to passers-by and to local purveyors, but some of the most exciting things being made here are the value-added products. Like every other detail on the farm, Dom's charcuterie, honey and jams are a reflection of the rich diversity at Moon in the Pond. His honeys are flavored with the farm's hazelnuts, the jams are seasoned with the farm's herbs and the lardo is cured with farm-grown bay leaves. Even the lardo's curing box is made from local marble. And don't get us started on his prosciutto, head cheese and liverwurst.

As Dom walked the landmarks of his beautiful farm, energetically pontificating about everything from Wendell Berry to the history of his favorite strain of onion, to the science of seed germination and ancient Italian recipes, we followed totally mesmerized by his passion and know-how. In an ideal world all farms would look like Moon in the Pond and all farmers would be like Dom. In the meantime, we are pretty lucky that he's just down the road from us, incredibly generous with his time and space. You better believe that when it comes time for us to set up our own small farm, we'll be looking to Moon in the Pond for inspiration.

Field Trip: OFF Bootleg Buying Club

If you've been reading along you may remember when, in late November, we wrote about participating in a beautiful “Pig Party” at Old Field Farm in Cornwallville, NY. At the end of the post we mentioned that "this [was] the beginning of a very exciting partnership” and on March 1st that partnership was officially premiered! It took two exhausting and exhilarating months of planning, meetings, recipe development, and branding but we can proudly say the OFF Bootleg Buying Club launch party went off without a hitch!

The event featured an awesome range of products from the farm - fresh eggs, tea bombs, maple syrup, garlic, tinctures, honey, dried mushrooms and herbs - as well as books and a gorgeous line of hand-made pottery by the artist Paula Greif. Silka also developed a line of thin and crack-ly crackers baked with lard from OFF pigs, available plain or brushed with bacon fat! The crackers were made to pair with OFF value-added pork products, like an amazing rillette which was served at the party. And man oh man did they pair! A bite of rillette schmeared on the bacon fat-laced lard crackers was a mind-blowing pork experience! On top of all that pork eatin', Jake premiered his "Lard Shabbos Candles!"

While artists, chefs, foodies, writers and friends wandered around tasting local food, drinking local hard cider, and buying OFF products we set up shop on the porch where Jake broke down two sides of the most beautiful hog (a Tamworth) he has ever had the pleasure of cutting. All evening guests watched and asked questions about the pig, B+B and OFF as Jake custom cut and tied the pork and Silka wrapped it off. Then off they went, to test the product themselves!

The evening was a huge success and we can’t wait to join in for another!  HUGE thanks Old Field Farm!!