August Food Shopping

Great Barrington Farmers Market
www.gbfarmersmarket.org

Taft Farm
119 Park Street
Great Barrington, MA
www.taftfarms.com

Nejaime's Wine Cellar
60 Main Street Lenox, MA
www.nejaimeswine.com


I spent a few hours yesterday shopping, as I had never been to the Great Barrington Farmer's Market (Saturdays 9-1pm). The Lee market is on Friday AM, so this year I have yet to make it there. The Lenox and Lee markets are humble compared to Great Barrington and I have heard GB pales in comparison to Sheffield's (Friday mid afternoon) - but I haven't made it down to Sheffield yet for that event. GB had a number of farms with everything you would hope - except I couldn't find corn. I did get a pint of mixed variety cherry tomatoes that were perfect, however, and there were fresh beets, lettuces, greens of all kinds, etc. The folks working the booths were consistently polite and happy to discuss the best tomatoes for gazpacho versus the best for salads, for ex. The Berkshire Mountain Bakery booth had a selection as complete and well stocked as that at the main bakery in Housatonic. There were also several other bakeries represented, but I couldn't help but stick with the tried and true this time around. One the web site, several cheese makers and fresh meat from a farm in Lee were listed as vendors, but I didn't see them.

One note of caution - don't expect to find some kind of authentic "rural life" experience here - this a farmer's market for upscale weekenders and their many pure bred dogs. In fact, one beautiful giant schnauzer was keeping things lively - which made me contemplate the wisdom of whoever first decided to create a giant terrier breed in the first place. I am quite happy with a 30 pound one, thank you. I shudder to think of a giant, bouncing, too smart for her own good Wheaten.

To find corn, I stopped at GB's Taft Farm on the way home. Last year they were lamenting the rain but this year the produce was plentiful. I left with sweet corn (fabulous) and cucumbers (makes you realize how watery the supermarket version is - theses had a real melon-y taste). And I had a pick up a homemade cinnamon sugar donut - a treat even for those like me that don't really like donuts! There are pies and sweet breads aplenty, and a nice deli for sandwiches as well. Taft has more of a feel that it serves both the year round residents and us visiting weekenders.

Finally I stopped at Nejaime's Wine Cellar and Cheese Shop in downtown Lenox. I suspect the cheese monger at their Lenox store in a strip mall near the Pittsfield line is more knowledgeable, but in this location there was still an impressive selective of cheese. The wine prices are a bit on a the high side, but I have found their selection to be generally excellent.