Monte Levin and Gary Lazarus of Compass offer an immaculate contemporary lakefront home on the shores of the legendary Stockbridge Bowl. See how architect Pamela Sandler transformed a lake house on the shores of Lake Onota. A report on real estate sales in the first quarter of 2025. Plus, recent sales and gardening columns and a home-cooking recipe.
In Berkshire County, roughly 10 percent of residents are food insecure, which means they do not have reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.
So the next time your family (or belly) asks what’s for dinner, fear not: Creative, local options abound, which means you can think outside the kitchen—and the box—and make it through March well-fed and ready to tackle the long-awaited spring.
“Our day is about collaborating — in particular the collaboration of farmers,” said Barbara Zheutlin, executive director of Berkshire Grown, to an impressive group of participants who gathered at Sky View Farm in Sheffield to kick off the day-long farm tour.
Once upon a time, Kate hatched and raised a beloved Shetland goose, a rare breed that, fitting a fairy tale, lives on as the namesake and mascot for White Goose Gardens.
You won’t find weekly pickups at Medicine Buddha Botanicals, nor will you find baskets of farm-fresh veggies. Rather, this CSA has just four pickups a year and they’re filled with tinctures, salves, teas and other goodies.
“Community Supported Agriculture is a relationship between farmers and consumers. It is sharing the risk and also sharing the bounty... the term was literally coined in my dining room in 1986.”
-- Elizabeth Keen, owner of Indian Line Farm in South Egremont, Massachusetts
In his letter to the editor, John Donovan writes: “There is a wonderfully growing appreciation for Organics today. Simply put, organic farming is the creation of new soil through wise, natural, husbandry and farming techniques.”
This year there are 140 members who pick up their shares on Tuesday or Friday from June 1 through to the end of October. Indian Line also offers working shares, which is a discount in exchange for 30 hours of work on the farm. Some people will work the barn on pickup days, and others help in weeding or harvesting.
In her letter, Joyce Scheffey of Great Barrington writes: "The CSA is a good way, perhaps the only way, for a community to ensure its food well into the future."
There are many paths to becoming a farmer but Meister’s struck me as delightfully unusual – she majored in Art History at the University of Pennsylvania, and went on for a Masters degree in the same field at Tufts.
In planning the garden my emphasis is on staple crops that store without any preparation and fit into the existing storage “infrastructure.” Additional priorities include planting produce that is expensive to purchase in winter or not available organically grown.
“There is a generation of young people eager to farm; however, they do not know where to turn.”
-- Lisa MacDougall of Mighty Food Farm, a 2009 Microloan recipient
According to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, roughly one in eight people continues to experience hunger in this part of the Commonwealth, an eye-opening fact. Furthermore, one in five children lives in food-insecure households.
