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Berkshire Tidbits: Leaping Into Spring
By Judith Lerner, Special to iBerkshires
04:34PM / Monday, February 29, 2016
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Frogs for Leap Day at Catherine's Chocolates in Great Barrington.

Maple trees are waking up all around the Berkshire area. At this point, this changeable but pretty warm winter, everybody is already tapping in the sugarbushes. Sap is running intermittently and being boiled into gallons of syrup.

Most producers have syrup to sell. Some producers have already made hundreds of gallons.

This is past weekend all the sugarhouses that serve sit-down meals opened up to serve their fresh syrup. Most of them like to have visitors come watch the syrup being made in the sugarhouse, too.

Here's who's open for you to eat homemade pancakes and waffles and "anything you can put maple syrup on!" as Tom McCrumm of South Face Farm at the Ashfield/Plainfield corner, said last week.

Helen Gould said she and her family will be open every day, starting Saturday, Feb. 27, serving pancakes from 8:30 to 2 at their Gould's Sugarhouse, 413 625-6170, on the Mohawk Trail/Route 2 in Shelburne. Gould's is open for pancakes during both the sugaring and the foliage seasons.

She said, "The guys are in the woods, of course, tapping."

Ioka Valley Farm, 413-738-5915, Route 43 1/2 mile west of Jiminy Peak Resort, 4 miles east of Route 22 in Hancock, has been serving its over-the-top menu in the Calf-A since Valentine's Day weekend and will continue doing so Saturdays and Sundays between 8 and 3:30 through Sunday, April 10.

The Leab family serves seven flavors of pancakes including apple-cinnamon, butterscotch chip, M&M and pecan. They make their French toast from their own cinnamon bread and they serve a "dream sandwich" of ham and cheese on their French toast with maple syrup.

Strawberries, whipped cream, ice cream, homemade applesauce and strawberry sauce, mini corn muffins, maple ice cream pie ...
 


South Face Farm Sugarhouse is open weekends until April 3.

Tom McCrumm and Judy Haupt and their staff will serve pancakes, waffles, corn fritters, French toast and more at South Face Farm Sugarhouse restaurant, 413 628-3268, 755 Watson-Spruce Corners Road in Ashfield, on Saturdays and Sundays for six weekends, from 8:30 to 3, starting Saturday, Feb. 27, through Sunday, April 3. They'll be closed on Easter Sunday, March 27.

Tom and Judy use ingredients from local farmers including homemade breads for their French toast and Bart's ice cream from Greenfield just up the road. They make their batters from scratch every day. Real homemade pancakes and waffles and corn fritters.

I used to take my mother here at least once a sugaring season in the last decade of the last century. They say this is the last year they are planning to serve. Sad, sad.

Check out their enticing menu here. The Massachusetts Maple Producers Association has a larger list of maple producers.
 
This last week of February has a little tail, an extra day, Monday on Feb. 29, before leaping into March.
Kathleen Sinico, former owner and mother of the current owner of Catherine's Chocolate Shop, 413-528-2510, 260 Stockbridge Road/Route 7 in Great Barrington, kindly searched for, ordered and managed to get frogs for Leap Day.

"Milk chocolate frogs are in the shop right now, darling," she said. "They're funny looking frogs."
 
Also for Leap Day, The Whitney Center for the Arts, 42 Wendell Ave. in Pittsfield, is having a free evening of music and dance, a Leap Day Celebration at the Whit, on Monday, Feb. 29, starting at 6 p.m.
 


Red Apple Butchers has offered chili and cornbread to go.

Jazu Stine, owner, butcher and chef of Red Apple Butchers (partnered with Berkshire Organics in a refurbished farm store at the corner of Dalton Division Road and William Street in Dalton) has started using his locally raised, pastured, housemade products for hot cooked food to-go on Fridays and Saturdays. Stine said it will be ready earlier but it is hot to eat from 3 to 7 p.m. for best dinner take-out.

Since he began earlier in February, he has made pulled pork sandwiches and smoked local pasture-raised beef short rib chili with housemade cornbread, beer bratwurst sausages with cabbage and onions as well as split pea soup with bacon and smoked pork, sausage and pepper and beef and barley stew.

This past weekend it was smoked beef short rib chili with cornbread and the introduction of a new dish he calls "Night in Tunisia" roasted pork loin.

What makes these to-go dishes special is that they are fresh-from-the-butcher food. Call ahead, 413-442-0888, to reserve.
 
Rubiner's Cheesemongers & Grocers, 413-528-0488, 264 Main St. in the center of Great Barrington, offers free delivery around our area on orders more than $100. There's a scheduled Friday route and a Saturday route.

But, for what Rubiner' calls anytime in-town delivery, there is no fixed schedule and no minimum order. In-town includes Alford, both South and North Egremont, Great Barrington, Housatonic which is, technically, Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, Richmond, Sheffield, the Stockbridges. And Pittsfield by special arrangement.

Owner Matthew Rubiner says he "personally selects the cheeses and every specialty grocery item" in his store. These range from the weekly fish order that comes through Portland, Maine, to Matt's beloved chocolates. Visit the store for some ideas. Then order to your heart's delight. Call to find out what new items have come in.
 
Vong's Thai & Vietnamese Restaurant, the new name on what had been Paul's Greek Restaurant, 157 Seymour St. on the corner of Wahconah Street in Pittsfield, might be opening on Tuesday, March 1. Owner Jae Chung has not confirmed this but his staff at Jae's Asian Bistro in Lenox shared the information.

Chi Bui, owner with her father, Billy Nhan, of Tahiti Takeout, the Chinese restaurant next to Wahconah Park and one block west of Vong's, told me Jae had said earlier this year that he would be opening a Thai restaurant in the space sometime in March.

"The little imp!" Chi laughed. "He made no mention of it being Vietnamese also."

Chi and Billy are, originally, from Vietnam.
 
With this last week of snow and ice and icy rain and wind, we know it is still winter and soup weather.

Wild Oats Co-op is continuing with its Soup of the Week series. Free samples on the hot bar on Wednesdays from noon to 1.

Last week's soup was turkey, vegetable and wild rice. This coming Wednesday, March 2, the Soup of the Week will be coconut curry French lentil soup.

Here's my adaptation of Wild Oats' first Soup of the Week: Minestrone Soup

1/4 cup olive oil
6 stalks celery, chopped
4 carrots, peeled, chopped
3 yellow onions, chopped
1/4 cup tightly packed minced fresh parsley
2 tablespoon tightly packed fresh thyme leaves. minced or not as you choose
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup red wine
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
3 ounces Parmesan Reggiano in a single piece
5 cups water
2 cups cooked or canned white beans

optional: variety of vegetables of your choice such as summer or winter squash, potatoes or sweet potatoes, your favorite greens, leeks, more herbs

In a large, heavy pot, over medium high heat, heat the oil until it shimmers but does not yet smoke. Add the chopped celery, carrots and onions. Sauté while stirring for 5 minutes. Add parsley and thyme. When the onions begin to caramelize/become shiny and limp and turn golden, stir in the tomato paste until it is incorporated.

Turn down the heat to medium to avoid burning. Cook 5 minutes more.

Pour in the red wine. Stir to deglaze the pot/scrape up and incorporate vegetable bits which have sautéed to the pot. Allow the wine to evaporate while stirring. When the wine has almost cooked out, add the diced tomatoes and piece of Parmesan cheese. Stir and simmer for 10 more minutes.

Add the water, beans and any other vegetables you choose. Adjust heat to maintain simmer. Cover pot. Simmer 30 minutes. Remove cheese. Grate.

Serve soup with bowl of grated cheese on the side to sprinkle.

In February, Sloane's Restaurant and Bar, 413-637-1364, a part of Cranwell Resort & Spa in Lenox, began again offering discount coupons for meals in the local papers. The discount of 25 percent off on a meal is good for about a month.

Cranwell head of sales and marketing Norma Probst said, "Sloane's chef, Marcos Gomez, has created a new menu as of January 2016." The menu is on the website.

I just got a taste of some of the new dishes. I'll tell you what I liked.

If you like crab, I recommend the small, solid sweet lump crabmeat cakes. They are not breaded or deep fried and are served with a spicy fresh salsa or as sliders.

Both my dining partner and I particularly liked Sloane's spinach salad, which was sparked with fresh pomegranate seeds and spiced, toasted sunflower seeds, had sweet little cubes of real, not canned, beets, was served with two crunchy, breaded deep-fried fingers of goat cheese and dressed with a very good lemon maple vinaigrette.

The Creekstone Farms beef in the Berkshire Blue burger was outstanding. Even though it was lean, not chuck but more like sirloin, it was juicy and flavorful. The kitchen even cooked it rare as I requested. The oversize burger is served on Berkshire Mountain Bakery toast and comes with the crumbled blue cheese and onions caramelized in Ioka Valley Farm maple syrup. A nod to the Berkshires.

The pulled pork was rich, tender, sweet and a bit vinegary and spicy as it should be. The housemade veggie cake was mild in a pleasant way, made with lots of beans and served with fresh vegetables — not your usual veggie burger.

I also got a taste of the housemade gnocchi. A little bit seared with melt-in-your-mouth interiors. The friend who shared my meal practically licked the bowl clean of the Chardonnay cream sauce.

He also loved the New England clam chowder and dessert of solid fudgy chocolate cake served with housemade cherry-Drambuie ice cream.

Sloane's casual dining includes fresh, elegant, local choices. It serves a small selection of soups, salads, sandwiches and burgers, wings, nachos, housemade potato chips and a variety of tacos, some pasta dishes, a bit of chicken, salmon and a pastrami spiced grilled sirloin steak.

Enough choices. Just to let you know.
 
Chef Julie Gale, owner of At the Table Cooking School in Hillsdale, N.Y., will continue her hands-on participation Cooking at The Chef's Shop series with her "Back to Basics 3" class Thursday, March 3, from 6 to 8 p.m.

She will be teaching a meal of spaghetti and meatballs with homemade bread and Caesar salad. The class of no more than 12 students then gets to share the dinner.
 
The cost is $60 per person for a single class, $150 for a series of three. Payment is required in advance with a 48-hour cancellation policy. The Chef's Shop, 31 Railroad St. in Great Barrington, offers class students a 10-percent discount on purchases made on a class day. For more details or to reserve a place in any classes: 1-800-237-5284, 413-528-0135 or Email@TheChefsShop.com.

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