Thanks for taking us in, Mom!!
We arrived at Mom's home in Deerfield, Ma. during the Labor Day weekend. Mom has such an in-depth knowledge of, and love for, her local community that she immediately put on her tour guide/concierge hat and went to work. Franklin County is described as the most rural county in the state of Massachusetts. So, first on the agenda was a lovely lunch at Hope and Olive, a locavore destination in Greenfield. Next, was a shopping tour of the local farms and their produce including fresh picked corn, tomatoes, squash, white and yellow peaches. Such a tour would be incomplete without a stop at Clarkdale Farms -- a large local fruit farm in the area. We purchased apples, white peaches and yellow peaches, along with veggies. Of course Paula & I had to also purchase new t-shirts from them. They feature a checkerboard tablecloth pattern with an apple in front, regardless of color. This time Paula chose red, I chose a deeper burgundy red.
In 2014, Western Massachusetts and Franklin County were included in a petroleum pipeline proposal. As part of the proposal, Clarkdale Farms was to be closed by imminent domain. The local community quickly organized in opposition to protect Clarkdale and other farms and succeeded in killing the proposal. Clarkdale Farms is in its third generation of family ownership and is still going strong as are many other family farms in the area. If you concentrate on the second picture, and maybe blow it up, you can see the apple trees across the field.
With Mom expecting music friends from England in the next few days we had to create a lattice top peach pie, an apple pie, and an apple crisp to assure they would have plenty of desserts. Here's a look at the peach pie.
One of the places we toured with Mom was Kringle Candle in Bernardston, MA. It's an offshoot of Yankee Candle, thankfully not as large. We had a lovely lunch there as well at the Farm Table Restaurant.
Entrance to Kringle Candle.
No comments:
Post a Comment