Pittsfield Rye, Baking Quality Bread for 90 Years

Faces at the Farmers Market By Ruth MelvillePhoto by Bruce Frisch Every Saturday morning during the outdoor market season, the Pittsfield Rye and Specialty Breads Company pulls its van up in front of Town Hall and starts to unload a cornucopia of freshly baked bread. There is a bread for every bread lover’s taste: seeded, […]

A Provençal Summer Evening With Friends

Notes From a French Kitchen By Marie-Christine Perry The farmers market beckons, full of this summer’s bounty, and conjures Provence, France, where every small village market on the hills offers an abundance of the local favorites – shiny purple eggplants, large juicy tomatoes, pale green and yellow zucchini, and sweet peppers in a variety of shapes […]

Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation

The Norfolk Food Pantry Is Running Low on Supplies According to Lynn Deasy, one of the volunteers who manages the Norfolk Food Pantry, more than 40 million Americans live in households that don’t have the resources to buy good, nutritious food. Even in Norfolk, 20 to 30 percent of the children at Botelle Elementary School […]

Revamp of Norfolk Website Offers Visuals of Town

Subscribers can get weekly email update of town events By Wiley Wood Last month, visitors to the town website saw a video showing a little boy, Calvin, climbing the stairs to the viewing platform on Haystack Mountain with his parents’ encouragement. But when Calvin gets to the top of the stairs, he finds himself staring […]

Robocalls: Aiming to End Them

Deluge of calls driving people crazy By Jude Mead I’m losing the battle! Yesterday I received 14 robocalls on my landline and five on my cellphone. For years I never answered a number or name I did not know. Today, however, I have to use the same caution when I see a name or number […]

Norfstroms Celebrates One Month of Recycling Success

And a few lessons earned By Kelly Kandra Hughes “Welcome to Norfstroms!” Friendly volunteers greet residents as they approach the latest addition at the transfer station—an 8’ x 20’ shed that houses everything and anything from dinnerware and glasses to shovels and rakes. The shed, named Norfstroms by a town contest, is a collaborative, experimental […]

Art, Yearning and Bad Behavior in 1930s Mexico

Historical fiction from a Norfolk novelist By Wiley Wood Courtney Maum has a new book coming out: a novel, “Costalegre,” set in Mexico during the mid-1930s, told in the voice of a 15-year-old girl. In the foreground are the girl’s wealthy, spoiled American mother and the boatload of ego-driven artists she has brought with her—rescued—from […]

The Litchfield County Choral Union Celebrates 120 Years

Honoring the Stoeckel legacy By Colleen Gundlach The year was 1899 when Carl and Ellen Battell Stoeckel decided to honor her father, Robbins Battell, by starting a choral festival in Norfolk. The Stoeckels had been opening their home, Whitehouse, for musical gatherings for several years, so it was a natural offshoot for them to expand […]

WIN, WIN for Norfolk

 Town festival celebrates its fourth year By Doug McDevittPhoto by Bruce Frisch Most great ideas come when we least expect them. In a dream or a daydream, during a conversation with a better half when we should be listening, or while running simple errands, it sometimes can’t be helped, they just pop in there. Well, […]

Chamber Music Festival Shifts Into a Higher Register

By James Nelson With the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival now underway, there’s been a surge of activity on the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate. The students are here and making great use of Infinity Bistro, the Country Store, the Pub and the Hub. Audiences are coming for our series of concerts, lectures and master classes, and […]