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Berkshire Tidbits: Spring Cleaning, Mushroom Cultivation
By Judith Lerner, Special to iBerkshires
04:05PM / Monday, April 25, 2016
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Sara Volovic and her daughter, Ricki, speak with guests who came to taste Volovic's gefilte fish and charosets preparations for Passover at Spirited Wines in Lenox earlier this month.


Mariette and James Rickard show other gardeners at Canoe Meadows community gardens one of their prized 'peanut' pumpkins at the annual end-of-season garden picnic celebration in 2010.

Last Saturday, April 23, was an Earth Day celebration and inauguration of the new community gardens at the Great Barrington Fairgrounds. This Saturday, April 30, from 9 to noon, will be a day to prepare the community gardens at Canoe Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary in Pittsfield, sponsored by Berkshire Sanctuaries during Massachusetts Audubon's Statewide Volunteer Day, for spring — for the 40th year!

Before that, Pittsfield's community gardens were near the old Burgner's turkey farm, now Berkshire Organics, at the top of Williams Street. Before that, the gardens were on Victory Hill near Crane Avenue and Benedict Road.

Volunteers will spend some hours helping to clean out the accessible raised beds, weed and prepare the herb garden, remove garden debris and lay out the 15 by 20 foot organic community garden plots in preparation for the garden opening the next day, Sunday, May 1.

Garden plots cost $30 for Mass Audubon members, $40 for non-members. Some people have as many as 24 plots and grow everything from peanut squashes to watermelons.

When the morning's work is done there will be a naturalist-led presentation and a pizza lunch for all volunteers.

Saturday is predicted to be a day of sun and clouds in the mid to upper 50s. Dress for the outdoors including sturdy water and dirt accepting shoes and work gloves if you have those plus a refillable water bottle.

Registration is required. Register online or call or email Dale Abrams, 413-637-0320, dabrams@massaudubon.org or by snail mail by downloading the program registration form (PDF 66K).

This family-friendly workday will be led by garden caretaker and coordinator Katie Gladu and Sanctuary volunteer Peter Farrell and is free for Sanctuary members and non-members alike. Unaccompanied volunteers 14-18 must provide written permission from a parent or guardian. Volunteers under 14 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Meet at the Community Gardens Pavilion, 350 Williams St.,

 

The menu for the Haven Supper Club for the week of April 25 will be:

  • Coconut curry braised chicken legs served with baby bok choy and black rice
  • Ginger shrimp meatballs with rice noodles, roasted red peppers, and red onions in a toasted sesame sauce
  • Citrus braised brisket with sautéed kale and roasted potatoes

Entrées come with soup or salad and cost $22 for one to three dinners ordered, $75 for four dinners ordered, $110 for six dinners, $200 for 12 dinners. They can be any of the dinners.

Order by Wednesday, pick up at the bakery in Lenox on Friday. The staff suggests people can order for different meals and can choose among that week's options. Contact: 413-637-8948 or havencafebakery@gmail.com to order and get on their list to received upcoming menus.

 

On Friday mornings in the months of April and May, the Berkshire Audubon Sanctuaries sponsor free walks through Canoe Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary for adults to look for migrating and singing spring birds. Beginners as well as experienced, serious birders are welcomed and included.

The bird species you will hear and/or see will change every week as populations fly through our region.

I am very far from an educated or experience bird watcher but I've gone on this walk many times and it is very fun. It is, also, usually very wet, tromping through parts of the initial swampy wetlands at Canoe Meadows, so wear waterproof and high footwear. Bring binoculars or a scope if you have them and like to use them to spot distant birds.

This coming Friday, April 29, the walk takes place from 8 to 10 but, starting Friday, May 6, walk time will be 7 to 9 as daylight and bird morning food-search are earlier and earlier.

It is not necessary to register, just be at the parking lot off Holmes Road, just east of Pomeroy Ave. in Pittsfield, in time to join the other birders.

Contact Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Lenox at 413-637-0320 or berkshires@massaudubon.org for more information

 

Every year, the City of Pittsfield celebrates Arbor Day with an event at its premier city park, Springside Park, 874 North St. just a bit past the hospital and before Reed Middle School.

This year, the Pittsfield Department of Community Development Parks and Recreation Program will be hosting keynote speaker Brian Clark of the MA/RI Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation at noon Friday, April 29, at the Chestnut Seed Orchard. The event, sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Program and RSVP, will celebrate the establishment of the American Chestnut Seed Orchard within Springside.

Light refreshments will be provided.

This event is free and the city welcomes everyone in the public who is interested in making Pittsfield greener, literally, and bringing these beautiful trees back.

The celebration will take place rain or shine.

 

Berkshire Botanical Garden, 5 West Stockbridge Road/Route 102 at the corner of Route 183 in Stockbridge, 413 298-3926, Ext. 15, gives interesting classes. Detailed enough for professionals and experienced gardeners, clear enough for beginners. I've enjoyed the ones I've attended and I've learned at least the rudiments of whatever I came for, as well.

This Saturday afternoon, April 30, from 1 to 3, in BBG's Education Center, fungi grower Willie Crosby of Fungi Alley in Amherst, will "explain the life cycle of mushrooms and the important ecological role that fungi fill," in his "Cultivating Mushrooms — Winecaps, Oysters, and Shiitakes — at Home" course.

Crosby, who has taught many mushroom cultivation workshops, will discuss several methods of cultivating those specific mushroom and offer "the tools and knowledge to start cultivating mushrooms at home. He himself grows 200 pounds of shiitake and oyster mushrooms on a weekly basis.

Class participants will be given an inoculated mushroom log to take with them.

The cost of the course is $45 for BBG members, $55 for non-members and includes all materials. Call to register, do not try to register online. People who register for three or more classes or lectures at once by phone are eligible for a 10  percent discount.

 

The Yoked Parish of Becket presents its monthly community breakfast at Becket Federated Church, 3381 Main St. across from the Becket Washington elementary school, just past the intersection with Route 8, 413-623-5217. on Saturday, April 30, from 8 to 11.

The all-you-can-eat, homemade comfort food menu usually includes scrambled eggs, pancakes, French toast, bacon, sausage, ham, hash, home fries, fresh fruit, juices, tea and coffee.

All are welcome. Adults $6; children under 12, $3. It's a sweet way to start the weekend.

 


Chef Erhard Wendt preparing wild mushrooms he foraged on his property at the Williamsville Inn in West Stockbridge.

This Saturday, April 30, about 7 p. m., will be the fifth and last dinner designed, gathered, foraged, ordered and prepared by chef Erhard Wendt guest cheffing at The Meat Market, 389 Stockbridge Road/Route 7 in Great Barrington, 413 528-2022.

It is early in the week so Erhard has not come up with his menu yet. Those who love his clean cooking will make their reservations and call TMM later in the week for details.

The dinner will cost $50 plus tax and gratuity plus a cash bar. Call for reservations.

 

This week is Passover, the Jewish holiday that commemorates and celebrates freedom, its difficulties, complexities and, ultimately, its sweetnesses for the last few thousand years.

And, during Passover, as with all Jewish holidays, this is the week Jews and anyone else who loves hearty food, eats the symbolic foods associated with the celebration. Ancient traditions and foods and contemporary interpretations and stylings.

Mingling that long tradition of God parting the Red Sea for Moses and the Jewish people to cross out of slavery in Egypt into freedom and wandering in the desert for 40 years while eating the bread of affliction, matzoh, with the latest events and commentaries and personal applications is built right into each year's Haggadah, the Passover service.

Ten plagues. Four glasses of wine. Four questions. Three pieces of matzoh. Some parsley or lettuce. A cup of salt water to symbolize tears. A burnt lamb shank bone symbolizing sacrifice. A hard-boiled egg. Bitter horseradish.

And eating more matzoh. Matzoh symbolizes not only the affliction, but the freedom itself and the transition between the bitterness of slavery and the sweetness of freedom.

I like matzoh. Plain matzoh. It is just unleavened flour and water. I eat is because it is crunchy and delicious. In fact, writing this, I just had to eat a piece of matzoh. Whole wheat matzoh from Israel spread with roasted red pepper hummus.

Traditional.

Trendy.

It is part of the tradition to eat matzoh with chopped fruits and nuts, or charoset, during the Passover service and during the holiday week. The charoset, another special Passover food, symbolizes both the mortar enslaved Jews spread between the building blocks of Pharaoh's structures and the sweetness of freedom. There is a point in the seder where guests are commanded to eat a piece of matzoh with both charoset and horseradish on it.

Complex combinings of bitter and sweet, symbolism and food.

At other times of year, when it isn't Passover, matzoh might be flavored with onions or poppy seeds. These days, even kosher-for-Passover matzoh could be whole wheat, it could be made out of ancient spelt flour or other ancient grains. It could be gluten-free.

Mingling of tradition and modernity.

Around here, most Jews make their charoset from apples, walnuts, honey, wine and cinnamon.

It is delicious.

And local.

Not so local but, maybe even more delicious, is this recipe for a Sephardic charoset made by Chabad rebbetzin/rabbi's wife Sara Volovic of Pittsfield. It is not too sweet. The ingredients and flavors are Mediterranean. Tropical fruits and nuts, a variety of spices.

Sephardic Jews, the Sephardim, are Jews from Spain and Portugal who dispersed into Greece, the Ottoman Empire and beyond when they were expelled from Spain and Portugal in 1492during the Inquisition. They have different food traditions from Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews.

Sara made this as one of four charosets for a tasting at Spirited Wines in Lenox earlier this month. You can find all four of Sara's recipes here.

The Sephardic Charoset recipe was originally found on the Epicurious website, and purees all the ingredients into a smooth paste. Sara's version was both creamy-smooth and chunky.

Here is my adaptation. Of Sara's adaptation.

Sephardic Charoset

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/4 cup sweet red wine

20 pitted Medjool dates, chopped roughly

3 bananas, cut into chunks

3 tablespoons date syrup or honey

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 cup walnut halves, toasted

1/2 cup unsalted shelled pistachio nuts toasted

1/2 cup whole almonds, toasted

Soak the raisins in the wine to plump them.

Combine the chopped dates, bananas, syrup or honey and spices in a blender or food processor. Blend or process to smoothness of your preference.

Mix in plumped raisins and wine and the toasted nuts. This recipe will make enough dip/spread for a dozen diners.

 


Radishes at the Berkshire Area Farmers' Market that opens this Saturday in the Sears' parking lot at the Berkshire Mall.

The Berkshire Area Farmers' Market, in the Sears' parking lot at the Berkshire Mall at Route 8 and Old State Road in Lanesborough, will open for the season this Saturday, April 30, from 8 to 2.

It will run through Saturday, Nov. 26. It also is open the same hours on Wednesdays through Wednesday, Oct. 26.

Come see the baby plants: herbs, vegetables and flowers and, baked goods, greens, maybe radishes, ramps, scallions, mushrooms and morels.

You can find lots of area farmers' markets and much more at Map-o-licious on Berkshire Grown's website.

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