Food Trip
A Berkshire Feast of Locally Grown Organic Food
Food poured in from nine farms. Tables were laid with sunflowers and a zucchini the size of a trombone. The rain, a constant all summer, graciously held off.
Welcome to the 6th Annual North Plain Farm Pig Roast just outside of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. More than 300 people were treated to a harvest meal that sets a new standard for celebration and diversity.
Two pigs and two veal calves were roasted, plus a mountain of chicken, corn and vegetables on a bed of coals that could have melted iron.
The heritage-breed organic pigs, 103 pounds apiece and four months old, were raised by Sean Stanton at Blue Hill Farm. To get them to the table required five hours on the spit. That’s mighty hot work that generates a thirst for cold hard cider.
Organic vegetables came from Farm Girl Farm, Richs Farm, Indian Line Farm, Equinox Farm, North Plain Farm (tomatoes) and Blue Moon (mushrooms). (Resources and links available at end of post).
The cheese course stood out too, with samples from Rawson Brook Farm, Berkshire Blue, and Gould Farm.
It was a mighty fine chow-down and a fine opportunity, too, to learn about sustainability in all its guises.
People like Nick Stanton talked about Great Barrington’s efforts to become a “transition town”—part of an international grassroots movement formed in response to the challenges of oil dependency, climate change and the economic crisis.
Nick Stanton
Others talked about how joining a CSA (consumers prepay shares in a farm’s output) reduced their cost for vegetables to 1/3 of supermarket prices. Professional chefs like Bob Volat took turns roasting corn and chicken. Daire Rooney, the chef from Brix wielded a massive cleaver like a surgeon. The pork and veal were tended by Sean and Jeremy Stanton.
And the lemonade stand was staffed by a team of pixies.
I’m already anticipating the Pig Roast 2010.
Hats off to the man who coordinated and cooked all the delicious food raised by talented farmers- chef, and brother to a farmer- Jeremy Stanton… nobody else could have pulled that off
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