Plate to Plate

Eating locally in the Berkshires

Bread Bags

bread

Dan has been baking a lot of bread recently, and I’m not complaining. Well, maybe I’m complaining a little, because I can’t stop eating the stuff. Why is bread so good? I know someone who once went voluntarily gluten-free. How could anyone do such a thing?

stelton bread bags

I came across these bread bags by Stelton, from Emmo Home, and I thought they were just wonderful. They have magnets and can be closed and folded over, like little lunch sacks, or stood up tall for corralling baguettes. They are so simple and functional, and seem to subtly suggest that my usual behavior — reach over and tear off a crusty hunk, disregarding the bread knife and cutting board — is perfectly acceptable.

I realized as I was looking at them that I was doing that thing marketers and salesmen the world over desperately hope for: I was imagining them in my house.

And then I was imagining that I could make them.

After I learn how to work my sewing machine.

via

The Cheese Freak

cheese plate

This very fancy-looking cheese plate was demolished by me and a good friend while we were traveling in southern California last spring.

Do you guys know the Cheese Freak?

Well, neither did I until I stumbled upon a reference to him in my friend Lex’s blog. Turns out this particular fromagophiliac (sorry) is a denizen of Boston, Massachusetts. No, it’s not exactly the Berkshires, but the guy travels far and wide for cheese. In fact, back in November he came out here to the Berkshires and to our very own little co-op — where one of the volunteer cheese-cutters is none other than yours truly — in search of Berkshire Blue, a locally made blue cheese. He also picked up some of Cricket Creek’s delicious Tobasi, which he seemed to want desperately to grill between some nice slices of bread. Oh, yes.

But he’s not the first to notice that Tobasi would be amazing melted — Mezze Bistro in Williamstown has been serving up a pretty tasty Tobasi mac & cheese for a while now. Next time the Cheese Freak is in town, he ought to try it.

Go ahead, check out the Cheese Freak’s excellent video blog.

Welcome Berkshire Living readers!

I am just beyond chuffed to be featured as the Click Pick in the most recent issue of the fabulous local magazine Berkshire Living.


Plate to Plate is Berkshire Living's Click Pick

Those of you who are new to the site, welcome! I am delighted to have you here. You can read the most recent posts on the homepage, or explore recipes by category, or, if you’re curious, learn more about me and the inspiration behind Plate to Plate. I’ve compiled a list of locavorish sources over there in the sidebar, but I’m always looking for more. Email me if you have suggestions, or just to say hi. I’d love to hear from you.

What a wonderful little write-up. Thanks, Berkshire Living!

Farm Film Feast

Farm Film Feast poster

I recently — and very speedily, I might add — created a small, simple website for the upcoming Farm Film Feast here in North Adams and Williamstown, MA. If you’re at all local, and interested in sustainable food, rural farming economies, and the like, it will surely be something you’d want to attend. From the press materials:

Eating locally continues to be a growing and necessary movement in the United States. Who produces it, what methods are used, how it reaches us, and how it affects our health, our environment, and our local and global communities are questions that are more important than ever before.

Storey Publishing in conjunction with Images Cinema, Williams College, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Mezze Restaurant is proud to present Farm Film Feast: Five Days of Film, Food, and Discussion in Williamstown, MA from March 10 to 14. More than a dozen films about food and related events will fill the schedule.

The films are cheap — just $5 — and the community-focused events promise to be a lot of fun.

Will I see you there?

Preserved Lemons

preserved lemons

Lemons. They’re on the exceptions list. You know, the list you make up of foods you can’t live without, even when you’re trying to do the eat local thing? I remember putting together an exceptions list for One Local Summer a few years back, and lemons featured prominently — along with olive oil, salt, pepper, and walnuts. And rice (short-grain and brown, please).

But lemons are a necessity in this household. We need them for our water (well, need is a relative term, I guess), for rousing our soups from leguminous torpor, for brightening our garlicky greens. Their zest is irresistible in blueberry muffins and pancakes — and don’t even get me started on the lemon-ricotta pancakes some friends of ours made for brunch a few months ago. Good lord.

preserved lemons in the jar

In the deep of winter here in the Berkshires, I’ve found that lemons go a long way toward perking me up at dinner time. And the perkiest lemons are these preserved lemons. I made them in October for a dish I wanted to prepare for Thanksgiving — you have to make them about a month ahead so that they can, you know, preserve — and I’ve been meting them out ever since. They are fantastic, savory and perfumed, sour and a little bit funky. They provide all the fun of the preserving process with very little of the worry due to all that salt and acid. (I’m not a scientist, so don’t quote me on that one. But it seems right.) And they’ll add an incredible, subtle little bite to whatever you add them to — they’re my secret winter salad dressing staple.

spices for preserved lemons

Before you get started, be sure you have a screw-top glass jar you can store the lemons in. It should be fairly small — you really want to pack them in there. If you can get your hands on Meyer lemons, then you are luckier than I. Supposedly they are better for this purpose, though I’ve found that the regular old lemons have worked just fine. Finally, if these fragrant spices aren’t to your taste, omit them. You could swap in a fat sprig of rosemary instead, or leave it all out. The most important bits are the lemons and the salt.

Preserved Lemons

I haven’t provided real measurements here; just use your best judgment — you really can’t mess it up.

  • Fennel seeds
  • Coriander seeds
  • Cinnamon stick
  • Peppercorns
  • Bay leaf
  • Sea salt
  • Some large, plump lemons, preferably organic, and well-scrubbed

In a small bowl, mix together the various seeds and spices and salt. Add a bit of the mixture to the bottom of your jar.

Make like you are going to quarter the lemons, but instead of cutting all the way through, cut them to within about a half-inch of each tip, keeping them whole. Pack the slits of each lemon with salt and spices and jam them into the jar, leaving very little space between, and adding more salt mixture as you go. Once the lemons are in the jar, add more lemon juice to cover. Leave a bit of space at the top of the jar, but be sure no lemons are poking out. Cover the jar and set aside for a month, shaking the jar every day. You can also keep them in the refrigerator.

When you’re ready to use the lemons, rinse them well, then remove the pulp and mince the peel. Preserved lemons are phenomenal in salad dressing, couscous, or stews.