● We make sure the seeds are thoroughly dry, and then we pack them in small brown bags or white seed envelopes. Double-bagging avoids any seed loss through holes or cracks. Next, we close the bags using rubber bands. The seeds are now contained but not packed too tightly.

● Our seed storage room is dark and maintains a temperature all year round of approximately 43°F and a relative humidity of 45 percent. In short, cold, dark, and dry!

● We do not store our seeds in plastic bags, freezer bags, plastic containers, or in open jars in a room with fluctuating
temperatures and alternating darkness and light. What we are trying to do is to hold the seed in what we call “slumber,” waiting to wake up when planted in soil at the right temperature with the necessary amount of water and light in which to germinate and grow.

Now to answer the question: You will need to adapt our method to your situation. Do you have a basement that is dry and stays cool all year round? If you do, make sure that your stored seeds are protected from insects and animals. If you do not have a cool dry place in the house, then probably the refrigerator will have to do. Check the temperature to see if it is around 43°F. We recommend that you keep the seeds in their original packets (if you have to use new bags or packets make sure they are labeled correctly), store them in a dry glass jar with a tight-fitting lid and a bit of desiccant such as silica packets.

Wherever you store your seeds, check them occasionally to make sure that they have not become moldy, or damaged by insects or rodents; this will avoid disappointment when sowing time comes around. The storage life of seeds varies tremendously; for example, tomato and pepper seed will be viable longer than lettuce seed. So try not to store seeds and forget about them, rather use them up from year to year.


We trust that with these simple guidelines you will find your own solutions to successfully store seeds in your home. May we emphasize that correct storage procedures apply to seeds wherever, whenever. For example, if you like to get your seed order in early winter, please make sure that your seeds are properly cared for until sowing time!


~ Ian Robb, Turtle Tree Biodynamic Seed Initiative. To find more articles about seed saving and gardening or learn more about Turtle Tree Biodynamic Seed Initiative, you may visit us on the web at www.turtletreeseed.org or
tour the seed shop at our home, Camphill Village, in Copake, NY, just over the western border of Massachusetts!

CREAMY, DELICIOUS, VEGAN, GLUTEN-FREE, DAIRY-FREE, AND SUGAR FREE

Ice cream is the perfect dessert. But what if we want to keep our diet dairy and sugar free, and as unprocessed as possible? It can be a challenge, especially during the holidays. No need to feel deprived – this banana “ice cream” seriously rivals the rich, creamy goodness of real ice cream. And it’s fun to make. Ingredient list? Just bananas! 

Instructions for 4 servings

● Start with six ripe, soft, sweet (not brown) organic bananas. Peel the bananas and chop them into very small, even pieces. 

● Place the banana pieces in an airtight container (it’s healthier not to use plastic) and freeze overnight, or at least two hours until frozen solid.

● Transfer the frozen banana pieces into a small food processor or powerful blender (like a Vitamix or Blendtec) and pulse until crumbly. Keep pulsing until the bananas just start to look gooey.

● Switch to blend mode, occasionally scraping down the sides of the container. Blend until completely creamy, but do not over blend.

● If desired, add one or more of the optional additions below to suit your taste (experiment!). Blend for a few more seconds. 

You can eat the ice cream immediately (it will be quite soft). Or you can transfer the mixture to an airtight container and freeze until almost solid, like traditional ice cream. Serve and enjoy!

Optional additions: Half to one teaspoon extract such as vanilla or almond, or spice or herb such as cinnamon, cardamom, or mint. One or two tablespoons of carob or chocolate chips, cocoa powder, nuts, peanut or almond butter, green tea powder, or coconut cream. One cup of frozen fruit such as strawberries or mangoes (frozen fruit must be added to the food processor with the bananas right at the beginning). A dash of Himalayan salt to enhance the flavors. 
​

When I worked at a residential school in the Berkshires, we had many students who were from the urban areas of Maryland and New York. When respites and holidays came, a lot of them went back to their home states for vacation. Some went by bus and some flew accompanied by staff. I always volunteered to fly the Baltimore area students from Bradley Airport to Baltimore/Washington International Airport. It’s a short flight, less than an hour, and I enjoyed flying. Once the students made it safely to their destination and were reunited with parents or social workers, we had a few hours in between flights to have a nice meal in an airport restaurant. The school gave us travel money for meals – we just had to bring a receipt back to the systems manager. The seafood in these Baltimore area restaurants was superb and fresh because the airport was close to the ocean, so it became a pleasant ritual.​

On one particular trip that I remember well, I decided to try  something different. But it’s safe to say that things did not turn out as planned. The world-famous Lexington Market on the bay in Baltimore is a huge brick building that houses vendors of all sorts – many are fishmongers. One of the biggest ones there is Faidley Market which has a huge selection of fish and seafood. It was a short taxi ride from the airport, and the plan was to spend the travel money I had on a bunch of blue crabs that were in season and bring them back home for a seafood feast.

I found out that I had enough money for about 65 very frisky crabs, so I placed my order. The crabs were put in a big Styrofoam travel cooler along with seaweed to keep them fresh for the short flight home. The cooler was then packed with a packing list and a “fragile, handle with care” stamp, and sealed with packing tape all the way around, ready for travel. Nice and secure. I paid the man and got my receipt to turn in, and carried the crabs to an awaiting taxi and rode back to the airport. I had about an hour before boarding, and since I already had my ticket, I went to get my boarding pass and check the cooler into cargo. I placed the cooler on the luggage step and a lady employee grabbed it to tag it and put it on the conveyor belt. That’s when it happened.

As the airport luggage lady picked up the cooler and lifted it to her chest, the clatter of 65 sets of crab claws startled her – she yelped and dropped the cooler. It landed on the outside of the check-in desk and promptly broke open. There was a moment of silence, but then the crabs smelled freedom and all hell broke loose as they took off in every direction with me in hot pursuit.

The onslaught of crabs did not go well in the terminal – people began yelling and screaming as they encountered the blue crustaceans. I looked up at one point to see an attractive lady jump up on her seat screaming like she saw a mouse, and a man trying to step on one of the crabs like it was a bug. Several children were whisked up by concerned parents trying to avoid angry claws. Airport employees joined in the hunt and bedlam continued to grow as the crabs dispersed everywhere. I shamefully admit I was reduced to helpless laughter at the chaotic scene.
                
In the end only about a dozen crabs were retrieved and I had to fill out a loss form with a copy of my receipt. The airport kept the remaining crabs as they were in rough shape and we had nothing to put them in for transport. I had a hamburger for dinner instead of a seafood feast.

On the bright side, in a few weeks I received a full refund check and a letter of apology. We cashed the check and my wife, Susan, and I had dinner at a local seafood restaurant in Great Barrington (Captain Toss at the time). I still sometimes wonder if any of those little blue crabs found their way back to the water.

~ Michael Romano, a Great Barrington, MA, resident for almost 40 years, is an avid fisherman who in his own words “kind of treats fishing as a contact sport and has had more than a few misadventures in the process.” Michael is a retired chef who loves to grow hot peppers and vegetables in his wheelchair-accessible garden. He and his wife, Susan, worked for many years at the now-closed Kolburne School.

Read this article in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine. 

When I would go to bed at night as a young boy, I would sometimes imagine that my mattress was a houseboat or a raft drifting down a river taking me on a grand adventure as I drifted off to sleep. I have always been partial to the water. Fishing, boating, and swimming are a part of who I am. I have owned canoes, kayaks, and rowboats, but there is something about the size and comfort of those motorized docks called pontoon boats that I love. Perhaps my current affection for them has something to do with the houseboat and raft fantasies left over from my youth. Or maybe it’s the fact that they are covered with a Bimini-style canvas canopy and have comfortable sofa-like chairs. It could be because there is room to walk around and visit with friends and family on them while listening to music on an awesome sound system. In reality it’s probably all of the above – pontoon boats are a terrific way to enjoy the water and the great outdoors.
​

I’ve lived in the Berkshires for many years now, but I was born and raised in Litchfield County, CT, and fished the surrounding area as a young man. As soon as I got my drivers permit I was off looking for new places to fish. My wandering took me to the northwestern part of the state and to my very first pontoon boat rental from O’Hara’s Landing on Twin Lakes . . . and it was a beauty. O’Hara’s is a family-owned and run business for more than 50 years and they know what they’re doing. They have a nice, well-kept fleet of boats and offer boat rentals and sales (new and used), service with a mechanic onsite, dock space, supplies, and more. You can also eat breakfast or lunch on their lakefront restaurant patio. I’ve found their staff to be friendly, helpful, and professional.

I went with three friends to O’Hara’s that day – Steve, Dave, and Dan – and we split the boat rental fee. They are all pretty big guys, and I was no lightweight myself, so we chose a pontoon that could hold eight people. We also needed the extra room to store the vast collection of fishing gear and ample teen-size sandwiches and snacks that we brought along. We received a tour and lesson about the boat and how to be safe, and after putting on the life vests the staff provided we started out on my very first pontoon adventure.

We were unsure of ourselves so we started off slowly and had only traveled about a hundred feet from shore when a gold trout jumped out the water in front of us. The state of Connecticut had been stocking some hybrid golden and tiger trout back then but none of us had ever seen one. We shut the boat off and made ready our fishing poles. That’s when we noticed a large number of fish swimming past us and we quickly threw our lines in the water and almost immediately hooked up with trout. We each landed one and put them in a cooler filled with water and ice and then immediately rebaited our hooks and cast out again with the same result. What luck! We were ecstatic as we baited up for the third time.

It was then we heard a loud whistle. My friends and I turned to see who it was and to our surprise saw the Connecticut Department of Fish and Wildlife stocking truck parked on shore in the process of putting fish in the water. The two forest ranger types were watching us with their hands on their hips and disapproving looks on their faces. It seemed that although we didn’t break any laws we were guilty of being unintentionally bad sports for catching fish fresh from the truck. We sheepishly threw back some of the trout that were still healthy and took the boat out to deeper water out of sight of the rangers. We went on to fish for the next few hours but did not catch much. When our rental time was up we returned to the dock and got our deposit back. No mention was made by anybody about our fishing in a barrel trick – we had a great time on the pontoon and did manage to take three trout home for dinner.

I have also rented pontoon boats from Onota Boat Livery in Pittsfield, MA, on more than a few occasions. One of the first times I remember was when I worked at the Kolburne School in New Marlborough to take a group of special needs kids on an outing. We packed a lunch and beverages, enlisted a life guard and staff, and spent the day fishing on Onota Lake. Everybody got a life vest, a fishing pole, and a sandwich and we were off on our journey. One of the students lost his fishing pole overboard in the first few minutes. The water was too cold to go in after it, but somehow we managed to hook it with another pole as we drove over it. The student got to fish again and actually caught the biggest fish that day – a two-pound pickerel. A good time was had by all and all fish were released.
I rented a pontoon boat once again for my birthday with six other guys. There was plenty of room for all of us to fish with a minimum of tangles. We saw a lot of wildlife on the banks including a great blue heron, an otter, ducks, and swans. We caught a few large bass, plenty of perch and sunfish and we released them all with our good wishes. Another time we went out and got caught in a rainstorm. The canopy protected us though and because of the rain the fish were biting like crazy. We caught and released over a dozen assorted fish that day,  were able to stay warm and dry, and enjoyed a nice lunch on the water finishing our rental time in style. Pontoon boats are built for comfort not for speed – it’s enjoyable to just cruise at a slow pace and appreciate the day. It’s an almost zen-like feeling floating in the middle of a beautiful lake with the sun on your face and nature’s beauty all around you.

There are two places in the Berkshires that I am aware of that rent pontoon boats, both in Pittsfield, MA. Berkshire U-Drive Boat Rentals, located on North Street, offers rentals for Pontoosuc Lake (www.berkshireudriveboatrentals.com). Onota Boat Livery, located on Pecks Road, offers rentals for – you guessed it – Onota Lake (www.onotaboat.com). Owners Caryn and Rick Wendling bought the business this past January. I was lucky enough to catch Caryn when she wasn’t too busy so we could talk for a bit. In addition to pontoon and various boat rentals they sell boats and motors, fishing supplies and bait, offer rental space in the marina for people to dock their boats, and have a full-service marine repair shop on site. Their pontoon boat rentals are all new, and they provide a half hour with staff so you can learn how to use and enjoy them safely. The older boats get sold by the livery at a good price, so I am saving my pennies.
                                                                                    
If you would like to own a pontoon boat and would like to shop around, be sure to check out Tony’s Berkshire Boats on West Housatonic Street in Pittsfield, MA. They have been there for more than 50 years and are one of the oldest and biggest boat dealers in the area. They have up to 30 pontoons in stock and you can buy or even lease one for the summer. I spoke to Warren, their head salesman, and he was very informative about the size and types of pontoons they carry. They can even be customized!

In general a new pontoon can cost anywhere from $20,000 to more than $100,000 depending on size and custom features. They can come with many options including handicapped accessibility, refrigerators, elaborate sound systems, and even a flat screen TV for those that want it. As for me . . . I just want to fish from one.

~ Michael Romano, a Great Barrington, MA, resident for almost 40 years, is an avid fisherman who in his own words “kind of treats fishing as a contact sport and has had more than a few misadventures in the process.” Michael is a retired chef – he and his wife, Susan, worked for many years at the now-closed Kolburne School.

Read this article in the Celebrate Summer 2019 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine. 

The smoking of food is one of the oldest methods of preserving  known to man. It was probably discovered by accident when one of our ancestors left their fish too close to the fire and found out it stayed edible for a long time. The drying action of the smoke naturally preserves the meat and in older times it was one of the only ways to preserve food besides drying or salting it.

Over the years modern food smoking has evolved into its own sophisticated art form, and what a beautiful evolution it’s been. The activity has a large and growing culinary following as people are rediscovering this method as a way of flavoring food. It has even inspired television shows; just ask any fan of Steven Raiclen, the PBS host of Primal Smoke. Steven smokes everything from meats, fowl, and fish to veggies, cheeses, fruits, and even hard-boiled eggs! Smoking is done less for preservation these days and more for taste and texture.         
              
We have a lot of different types of deciduous trees that grow in the Berkshires whose hardwood can be used for smoking food. Smoking can take hours or even days – this process is not to be confused with wood grilling which uses a hot, fast fire to sear the meat and impart a rich flavor. Those who remember the Dakota Restaurant in Pittsfield will also remember the smell of food being cooked on mesquite, which is a fast-burning, very powerful-tasting wood. Great for grilling, but not so great for smoking. The harder deciduous woods such as fruit, nut, maple, and others burn evenly and slowly and impart flavors that are perfect for smoking a variety of foods. This does not include any of the softer coniferous woods (pine, spruce, and so forth), which burn fast and leave a bitter, pitch flavor not suitable for smoking or grilling.

Almost as important as the wood, the smokers themselves can range from inexpensive backyard homemade versions to professional multi-floor smokehouses. Foods can be cold smoked or hot smoked and the more indirect the heat source the slower the smoke process. An indirect cold smoke can be as low as 100 to 120 degrees and is usually reserved to flavor cheeses, fish, veggies, fruit, and such. Some foods that are cold smoked can be cooked thoroughly later, like bacon. Hot smoke typically runs between 165 and 185 degrees and is used on foods that can be eaten without cooking, like hams, kielbasa, and some hard sausages. One of the most imaginative smokers I ever saw was an old refrigerator, motor removed, with holes cut in the top and bottom. A remote firebox and adjustable stovepipes made it usable as a cold or a hot smoker, and all you had to do was open the fridge door to obtain the finished product. It actually worked great!

I interviewed several local pit master chefs while writing this piece and each had their own favorite wood and method for smoking their products. Most them prefer to use lighter-tasting woods, many of which come from the area. The knowledge they have acquired allows them to pair certain types of wood with the meat or fish being smoked, much in the same way different wines can be paired with food to complement a dish. The flavors of wood are varied to accompany the heaviness or lightness of the product. The pairing of wood to foods can be different for each chef and recipe. Sometimes a mix of different woods is used for a specific flavor. The milder-flavored woods like apple, alder, and maple (bark peeled) are good with most fish, poultry, cheese, and produce. The medium-flavored woods such as peach, pear, plum, cherry, apple, and oak pair well with poultry, pork, oily fish, and duck. Strong-flavored woods such as hickory, walnut, and other nut woods do well with beef and most pork, but it is a matter of taste. It should be noted that the pit masters stay away from orchard wood as the trees  may have been sprayed with pesticides that would transfer to food. You can buy smoking wood in stores, but it is usually chipped for grills and won’t do well in a big smoke project. Most smoke chefs or pit masters prefer wild woods and some cut it themselves for the size they need.            

The owner of Bash Bish Brew & ‘Que in Sheffield, MA, and an old friend I know from Cape Cod both use a secret dry rub before anything goes into the smoker. Bash Bish has two smokers in back of his Sheffield restaurant and he uses apple and pearwood to smoke pork shoulder, beef brisket, chicken, and fish. The pearwood in fact once lined the streets of Great Barrington before the trees were cut down and replaced. Jim Hallock from the Morgan House will only use a local red oak for all his smoking and he peels the bark off each piece of wood because the bark can give an oily taste to the food. He also factors in atmospheric pressure and temperature when doing a batch and he says he would rather smoke in below-zero weather as it’s easier to control the fire. David Pullaro of Fiddleheads has the biggest smoker I have ever seen, capable of holding tons of chicken, whole pigs, and a side of beef.
       
I have maple, black walnut, oak, and crab apple growing in my yard and an old smoker coming up from the cellar. I’m inspired! It’s trout season and we love smoked trout so if I happen to catch a few “we’ll be smoking.” Just follow your nose! 

~ Michael Romano has lived with his wife, Susan, in Great Barrington, MA, for almost 40 years. He is a retired chef, an avid fisherman, and writer.

Read this article in the Spring/Summer 2019 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine. ​

It was two decades or so ago when I found myself working at a small residential treatment center and school for behaviorally challenged kids. The coed center was operated every day, 24/7 including holidays, and the students’ ages ranged from six to twenty years. It was a diverse group, and every major religion was represented in the population. Most of the kids came from an inner city somewhere but they had different backgrounds and presented different problems.

A lot of the students went home for the holidays but some of them had no place to go so they spent the respite at the school. At times it was pretty rough on them, but every attempt was made to make sure the kids were well taken care of and as happy as possible. Program money was set aside for the staff to purchase gifts, and activities were planned, on and off campus, for all age groups.

Each year the staff discussed ways to improve the holiday feeling, and we came up with something that was missing from the program – the spirit of giving! So many of the kids had no idea how important and wonderful the act of giving was. So, we decided we would create a program within a program to try and teach our students how to give to others by baking and raising money with bake sales to help local kids who had even less than they did.

Back then there was a Kmart in town, and right after Thanksgiving a big artificial tree called the Giving Tree was put up in the entrance of the store. On it among the decorations were tags with the first names of needy local children along with their gender, age, and wish list. The tags were attached to the branches of tree with scotch tape and there were a lot of them to pick from. We grabbed six of those tags, one for each team of the campus group homes. We focused on buying for younger kids because they were easier and less expensive to buy for.

Since I had a background in cooking I wrote a program proposal for baking ingredients, and we got permission from the school to use the kitchen and ovens after dinner was cooked and served. After cleanup, staff and students set up shop and started making assorted cookies, brownies, coffee cakes, fruit cakes, cupcakes, tarts, and the anchor for the whole program . . . stuffed breads!

The stuffed breads were a calzone-like item except we used bread dough rather than pizza dough. We made three different kinds: pepperoni bread with mozzarella and Romano cheese; spinach bread with spinach, cheddar, and feta; and four cheese bread with cheddar, feta, mozzarella, and Romano. We started with fifty pounds of bread dough and we taught the kids how to cut, stretch, fill, and roll the dough. We then let the dough rise for an hour before putting it into the big ovens.

The kids and staff were covered in flour, but you could still see the big smiles when the first batch of browned bread was pulled fresh from the ovens. The smell was incredible and delicious! But that also created a problem . . . the staff on duty started buying the hot breads the second they came out of the oven and soon they had decimated our stock that we needed for the bake sale, so we were forced to bake more. But it was a labor of love. We made 100 of them!

The time came for the bake sale. Kmart heard what we were doing for the local children and allowed us to set up shop in the foyer of their store. We arrived with tables and boxes of baked goods and brought some of the older students who had good people skills. Sales were brisk with the stuffed breads selling very quickly, but the cookies, cakes, and brownies did well also. The students did a great job of engaging the public and even got some donations. When it was time to go we had sold most of everything, and the leftover products were sold to staff and students back on campus. We made $475.

We divided the money among the teams, and with tags in hand each team went shopping at Kmart for their chosen child. They were excited to do something nice. All gifts were left anonymously, unwrapped with the tag attached. On the delivery van ride there and back you could tell by the smiles and chatter that the students felt proud – they had earned the right to feel good about themselves and staff was proud of them too. We had all done something good and the recipients would never know who their benefactor was. There was enough money left to add to our own school kids’ present fund and a surprise pizza party was held for everyone. The program within a program was a success. The students learned a lesson about giving and making a difference to others through a bunch of stuffed breads and a giving tree. Happiness spreads easily if you let it.  ~ Michael Romano, Great Barrington, MA

Read this article in the Holiday 2018 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine. ​

My grandmother’s bread recipe was epic, easy to make, and filled her house with a wonderful aroma. She would make bread almost every day, and did so until just before she passed at 93 years old. Friends and relatives stopped by at all times of day to have her famous bread, toasted and served with her fresh coffee along with charming conversation. Grandma was a great cook and a beautiful person – a nice combination. She would have been tickled that we still use her recipe. She made large batches of her bread because of the high demand, but following is a smaller, foolproof version that can be made as is or stuffed with the fillings of your choice.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon sugar
3 ounces warm water (100°-110°F)
2 packets active dry yeast (¼ ounce each)
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon butter or shortening, softened
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
Choice of stuffing, such as cheese, spinach,
pepperoni, or anything else that suits your fancy!

Instructions for Plain Bread

Add the sugar to the warm water in a small bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the water and let stand 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine half of the flour and the remaining dry ingredients; mix well. Then add the yeast mixture and stir in the rest of the flour, butter, and water. Mix until a soft dough is formed.

Scrape the dough from the bowl onto a floured surface and knead until sticky and pliable. Lightly oil the bowl and replace dough into it, turning it once to cover the entire surface with oil. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let it sit undisturbed for an hour (until the dough rises to approximately twice its size).

Punch the dough down (my favorite part) and turn onto a floured cutting board. Divide dough in half, shape each into a loaf, and place into two greased 9x5-inch loaf pans. Cover loaf pans and let rise again for 40 minutes, then place in a preheated 375°F oven and bake for 25 minutes until brown. At this point, before pulling the bread from oven, my grandmother would use a brush to paint each loaf with olive oil and sprinkle it with salt and pepper for a great taste. Cool for 15 minutes before cutting. (If you don’t have time to bake from scratch, you can a few pounds of frozen bread dough, thaw, and let rise. A pound of plain bread dough will make about three loaves of bread).

Instructions for Stuffing the Bread

You can use just about anything for stuffing your bread – whatever tickles your fancy – as long as it fits into the rolled dough and is not too moist. We created three simple savoury stuffing mixtures for the bake sale (rough proportions below) but feel free to get more creative if you wish, possibly even using fruit, nuts, or other sweet fillings to create a dessert bread.

After your dough has risen for the first time, been punched down, and divided into loaf portions, place it on a floured surface and stretch each loaf into a roundish shape about 12 inches in diameter. Then choose your stuffing.

● For spinach stuffing you can use a thawed 10-ounce package of cut spinach, well squeezed and drained. Mix with enough shredded mozzarella, Parmesan, and feta until stiff enough to be scooped as stuffing. Make sure mix is squeezed dry so it doesn’t ruin the dough with too much moisture. Place two scoops of mix on the flattened dough and sprinkle with a dash of salt and pepper.

● The pepperoni and cheese stuffed breads are easily made using the same roll-up procedure, except we found that fresh pepperoni leaks grease when baked, so you should prebake the slices in paper towels for 15 minutes. Coat the flattened dough with ¼ cup of pepperoni and liberally cover it with shredded mozzarella and Parmesan.

● The four cheese mixture is the easiest. Using shredded cheddar, mozzarella, Parmesan, and drained crumbled feta, simply mix the cheeses well and place two good-size scoops onto the dough.

After you have placed your choice of stuffing mix from end to end in the middle of each loaf of dough, roll up and seal the dough ends together with a few drops of water. Place the loaves on a lightly greased and floured sheet pan about 5 inches apart. Cover loaves with a moist towel and let rise for 40 minutes (until about double in size). Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until browned, and brush a thin layer of butter or olive oil onto the hot loaf and sprinkle with a dash of salt. If you can wait a half hour before eating, you have more will power than I do!

The only problem I have found is that when the loaves are served there are seldom any leftovers. But, that may be a good thing. Have fun with it! ~ Michael Romano, Great Barrington, MA

Read this article in the Holiday 2018 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine. ​

Recently as I was sitting on my deck, listening to the crickets and other creatures sing their night songs, I was reminded of the nights that I spent in my childhood home in  Connecticut. At the time we didn’t know we were the baby boomers but we did know there were tons of kids of all ages around the neighborhood and we all sort of knew each other. There was a little league field and a playground across the street from my house and we would play ball and hang around like kids do. We would stay out until our parents yelled for us or the streetlights came on, and then we would go home and watch one of the three channels we got on our black-and-white TV. It was a simple, carefree time.

When we were about 12 years old, a group of us wanted to expand our nighttime fun, so we asked our parents if we could sleep outside under the stars. The sleepout was to be held in one of the neighbors’ backyards, so there was some semblance of adult supervision. There were no tents involved and most of us didn’t even have sleeping bags, just blankets and pillows. We brought flashlights, comic books, and snacks, and stayed up telling spooky stories and reading our comics by flashlight and were usually asleep before eleven.

The group of sleepers shrank down as time progressed but a few of us continued the practice and had semiweekly sleepouts until school started. We still brought flashlights, but like cavemen we had discovered fire. A small campfire took center stage and because of it the sleepout menu changed to hotdogs and marshmallows.

The following summer we started our sleepouts again but something had changed: we were teenagers! Instead of spending the night at the campsite we wandered around the neighborhood, almost getting in trouble. We weren’t quite juvenile delinquents, but we did manage to be obnoxious and loud and even threw rocks at a deserted factory, breaking a window or two. Our main crime was becoming garden raiders. The sleepout menu changed again. We had a mission.

My best friend Dave and I were always coming up with ideas, most of which weren’t too good or smart but at the time we thought we had a winner and we borrowed a big pot from Dave’s mom and a kitchen knife from my mom and brought them to the sleepsite. Almost every house in the neighborhood had a vegetable garden, some were quite large and had a variety of items, and Dave and I would scope out the good stuff while doing our paper routes and make plans. When sleepout time came we would wait until the dead of night when the lights went out and then grab a bunch of veggies from the gardens (tomatoes, squash, peppers, carrots, and corn, to name a few) and quickly put them in the big pot and run back to our camp. We were hunters, raiders, and gatherers and were proud of it. When we returned to the fire we would cut everything up, add some water, and make a rustic vegetable stew that we would have never eaten at home if our moms had made it. We enjoyed it because the ingredients were ill-gotten, freshly picked, and we made it ourselves. Thankfully, we never did get caught.

As our teenage years went on, our sleepouts gradually faded from our lives. Spooky stories became discussions about cute girls. Pizza and burgers replaced stolen veggies and the comics changed to “other” magazines, stolen from our dads’ drawer. Other things seemed more important now as we had gotten jobs, cars, and girlfriends. Our sleepouts completely stopped when Dave’s dad got a job in another state and his family moved from town. Without my partner in crime, garden raiding wasn’t fun anymore. We were entering the adult world whether we wanted to or not. It’s strange how things change as you get older.

I now have a garden of my own and realize how wrong it was to violate  those  neighborhood patches. Karma has visited my garden in the shape of squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits. They seem to take joy in only taking one bite of each tomato, squash, or cuke, leaving the rest to spoil. The baby boom is over and there aren’t many kids around the neighborhood these days to carry out our sleepout and garden raiding tradition. A good thing perhaps, but in some ways, also something to be missed. I thankfully still have my fond memories of reading comics by flashlight, eating snacks while sleeping under the stars, listening to the crickets and critters sing their nighttime songs for us, and waiting for the neighbors’ lights to go out so we could make our garden raids.

~ Michael Romano, a Great Barrington, MA, resident for almost 40 years, is an avid fisherman  who in his own words “kind of treats fishing as a contact sport and has had more than a few misadventures in the process.” He has fished many local waters and also enjoyed quite a few saltwater trips. Michael is a retired chef – he and his wife, Susan, worked for years at the now-closed Kolburne School in New Marlborough, MA.

Read this article in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine. ​

Most of us are familiar with Charlie Brown’s iconic Kite-Eating Tree. It’s a normal tree until poor Charlie Brown breaks out his springtime kite and manages to launch it into the air, only to have it nabbed by the branches of this evil tree. A cartoon you say . . . a fanciful creature of the imagination? I think not! Not only are these trees real, but there appears to be a variety of the same species currently in existence. Almost all fishermen have encountered the infamous Tackle-Eating Tree at some point and experienced the heartbreak of lost fishing tackle that it has devoured.               
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Tackle-Eating Trees grow close to shoreline angling spots favored by landbound fishermen. Their branches are usually thin and wispy but if you look closely enough you will see an array of fishing equipment dangling from their limbs. Lures of all kinds, bobbers and hooks, and lines and sinkers adorn these creatures’ arms, and many have the added hazard of unseen underwater roots and fallen branches that will snag an unsuspecting fisherman’s line as they attempt to catch dinner. By the end of the summer these innocent-looking saplings resemble a Christmas tree of sorts with many colorful ornaments blowing in the breeze – expensive ill-gotten gains.
              
One such tree is located right here in Great Barrington, MA, at the boat launch of beautiful Lake Mansfield. If one parks at the launch and looks to the right, there it is in all its glory, the Tackle-Eating Tree. Hanging from all parts of this tree are multicolored bobbers, silver and gold lures, carved minnows, numerous shiny swivels with leaders, and sinkers and hooks still attached. The tree is too small to be climbed but large enough to hold its prey tight, so none of the equipment can be recovered. The gear hangs there as a reminder to fishermen to be aware of the tree’s tackle-grabbing potential. I myself have lost items to this shoreside entity, but the last time I got snagged, a trout (believe it or not) helped me get my lure back!

I had parked at the launch one day in the early spring and was delighted to see fish breaking the surface. I knew it was probably freshly stocked trout but I got excited just the same. I took my camp chair out of my trunk and grabbed one of the three ultra-light poles I had rigged in the car. The rod I choose had a very small Rapala lure on it. Most Rapala lures are made from carved balsa wood in the shape of a floating minnow with several sets of treble hooks on them, and can be quite pricey. I took my first cast of the year and it landed kind of where I wanted it to, but as luck would have it a breeze caught the slack line and carried it directly into the Tackle-Eating tree’s clutches.

Now, I have a technique for trying to get my stuff back from Tackle-Eating Trees that involves finesse and patience (both are qualities I sometimes lack), but I decided to give it a try in this case. You have to slowly and carefully reel the line up the tree until the lure is within a few inches of the offending branch, then you give the fishing rod a sharp wrist snap that with luck carries the lure back to you, hopefully missing your face or other vulnerable body parts. I reeled the lure slowly and it left the water, dangling just inches above the surface. Then, all of a sudden, there was a startling splash as a leaping trout latched onto the lure. He hung there suspended in midair, as confused as I was by the sudden turn of events. Then, as he started struggling he managed to pull the line off the branch and both he and the line landed back in the water. The light line went slack and he was able to slip the hook and get away.
        
I smiled as I finished reeling my freed lure back in to shore. Karma? The Tackle-Eating Tree had had me and I had the trout, but we both got away. Thank you hero trout!, I still have my lure and an amusing tale to share!

~ Michael Romano, a Great Barrington, MA, resident for almost 40 years, is an avid fisherman who in his own words “kind of treats fishing as a contact sport and has had more than a few misadventures in the process.” He has fished many local waters and also enjoyed quite a few saltwater trips. Michael is a retired chef – he and his wife, Susan, worked for years at the now-closed Kolburne School, where he enjoyed taking many of the students fishing.

Read this article in the Summer 2018 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine. ​

​So, we made the five-hour trip from Great Barrington to Provincetown, trading one tourist trap for another, and arrived at the small coastal town just around dinnertime. John met us at the Beachcombers right off of MacMillan Wharf and we had drinks and dinner while we made our morning plans. John introduced us to Captain Mike, a lobster fisherman, who like most lobstermen reequipped his boat every fall to go after giant bluefin tuna as they migrated past Cape Cod eating their way through tons of baitfish. The fattened fresh tuna is prized by many including the Japanese who can often be found on the dock ready with cash to purchase tuna directly from the fishermen for sushi and steaks. Bruce and I were to be unpaid crew on Captain Mike’s boat and it was understood that Mike would keep any fish caught, but we were just happy for a chance to fish and the adventure. The tuna’s average weight was about 500 pounds and at fifty dollars a pound at the time, a few nice fish would insure Mike’s fishing enterprise through the long winter.     

Bruce and I got up early the next morning and left the motel to get coffee and rolls at a local Portuguese bakery and meet Mike and John at the boat. The old lobster boat was definitely a working fishing boat, not pretty but efficient. It had been refitted with large reels filled with 1000-pound shock line, some large broomstick-like thick fishing poles, and several wicked-looking harpoons. There were spotter planes flying overhead who were employed by commercial and charter boats, but all the fishermen listened to the radio chatter as the planes kept track of the schools of fish and reported their whereabouts. It wasn’t uncommon to have several schools at a time in the deep bay off of Provincetown. We boarded the boat to start our adventure.

The waters off of the Provincetown bay are deep and usually calm. It was a beautiful morning and we drank coffee as we steamed out of port and left the town behind us. There were many boats out and the captains all seemed to know each other. We went past some brightly colored buoys and Mike told us that they marked his lobster traps. I noticed several guns aboard and he explained that they were for protecting his traps from lobster thieves and pirates. He had shot at some the week before but didn’t say if he hit anyone. Mike said most of the boats were armed because there were few law enforcement boats on the water and it was necessary. I believed him.

Our job consisted of watching the water for bait runs and manning the poles. Mike used a lure on the shock line that looked like a school of rubber squid with a single giant hook that cost 120 dollars. If we caught anything the lure would be destroyed but the loss was worth it. After a while, Mike handed me a harpoon and stationed me in the bow of the boat. Fish were underneath us and I was told if I saw one close to the surface to throw the harpoon as hard as I could. I stood poised and ready but before I could do anything I was interrupted as a large trawler floated in front of us. Mike said it was Russian and probably illegally in our waters. The other boats blew their air horns in displeasure but the Russian rig lowered two speed boats into the water, both carrying net rigging. The boats headed in opposite directions encircling a large school of fish with a purse seine net. The boats met so the men on board could tie off the net, then a crane on board reeled the net in. The fish went crazy at being netted and tried to jump out, but the net was very effective and soon a million pounds of tuna were on the trawler and being processed.

This incident marked the end of our fishing trip as the remaining fish took off. Mike said the catch was far over the commercial limit but in general even if a boat is caught exceeding the limit, the fine would be minimal . . . the price of doing business. We turned around and headed back, stopping at the captain’s lobster traps along the way. I watched in fascination as he harvested some nice lobsters, throwing the little ones back. We had an enjoyable dinner that evening but were rather disappointed about our catch that day. Mike and John said we could go out for another try the next day. So the four of us met at the Portuguese bakery that morning for breakfast, enjoying hot rolls with bacon and cheese and strong coffee – the coffee had to be strong as we had spent a good part of the night before barhopping on Commercial Street. In addition to being a haven for artists and a cosmopolitan mix of people, restaurants, and stores, Provincetown is also a brilliant party town and a lot of fun if you keep an open mind. For instance, Bruce and I rented rooms at a small motel on the Provincetown/North Truro line, not knowing the owner was a dedicated nudist. Imagine our surprise when we went out for an early morning swim in the pool only to find a naked guy serving coffee and donuts poolside (no lie). It set the tone for the day!
     
After breakfast at the Portuguese bakery, we grabbed our coffees and made our way to the boat where it was docked at MacMillan Wharf. It was a sunny morning and the spotter plane radio chatter said the tuna schools were plentiful, so after loading equipment and bait aboard we were off for part two of our adventure. As we made our way out of the harbor on the converted lobster boat, we noticed the water boiling with tons of baitfish being chased by bluefish and striped bass, as sea birds hovered over the carnage to get an easy meal. Since we weren’t in tuna water yet, I baited up a surf casting pole to try my luck with some blues or stripers. I hooked one right away and brought a 26-inch blue on board. Bluefish are the bullyboys of fishing, strong, mean, and always hungry. So imagine my surprise when we noticed a big school of them jumping out of the water with fear in their eyes. Captain Mike said the tuna were chasing them and invited us to watch on the boat’s fish finder. The big fish were everywhere so Big John told me to pull my light fishing pole up because if I hooked a tuna it would break my pole, and at 400 dollars a pole I took his advice.
     
Big John and Captain Mike got the large umbrella rig prepared to go overboard and Bruce and I took our places on the bow of the boat with harpoons on either side. Big John yelled out that the fish finder said we were right over a school of tuna and to get ready, so we took our stance. But as we did, we heard something that sounded like a person loudly exhaling and we looked up just in time to see an orca (also known as a killer whale) breaching not far from the boat. It was quite the experience! I have had encounters with some marine mammals before – I’ve seen dolphins quite a few times while fishing, watched manatees in Florida, encountered seals on the Wareham beach, and even whales on a watch boat – but I had never seen orcas except on TV. They were beautiful, powerful creatures and we watched as a pod of them breached, blowing water from their blowholes loudly before diving back in the water again. The next sound we heard was Captain Mike swearing as we realized that these beautiful creatures wanted tuna for a meal. Our tuna!
       
Killer whales are very intelligent and social mammals who share their catch with each other. They hunt together in packs surrounding their prey, driving hapless fish into their waiting jaws for the kill. Mike sat down in disgust as we watched the orcas take their fill of the tuna while seabirds went crazy for the leftovers. I couldn’t help but reflect on the morning’s events. We had seen bluefish chasing bait fish, tuna chasing bluefish, and orca chasing tuna – it made me reconsider our place in the food chain and more than a little fearful of what we would see next (Godzilla came to mind)! Captain Mike was not happy with the turn of events and decided to head back to shore after checking his lobster pots again . . . he did catch a half dozen big lobsters so the day was not a total loss.

Once we got back to the wharf we cleaned up the boat, filleted the blue, and headed back to the motel where the naked guy checked us out of our rooms. Then Bruce and I headed back to Great Barrington to our jobs and girlfriends. We were tired, sunburned, and smelling a little fishy, so were quiet for the drive home. The next day Big John called to tell us he and Mike had caught a 470-pound tuna that morning. We were sorry to have missed that experience, but it was good news for our new friend and his boat and as consolation for us, the bluefish chowder I made with my catch for dinner that night kicked ass!

~ Michael Romano, a Great Barrington, MA, resident for almost 40 years, is an avid fisherman who in his own words “kind of treats fishing as a contact sport and has had more than a few misadventures in the process.” He has fished many local waters and also enjoyed quite a few saltwater trips. Michael is a retired chef – he and his wife Susan, worked for years at the now-closed Kolburne School in New Marlborough, MA, where he enjoyed taking many of the students fishing.

Read this article in the Early Summer 2018 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine.

Burro’s Tail
Burro’s tail has a look of woven leaves and is a grey to green, or even a bluish green color. It may have a slightly chalky look; however, this is of no concern as that is natural in this plant. It produces very long stems that hang down, similar to the way some bonsai trees do but it has a very different look with its long fleshy leaves. Care Instructions: To care for this plant, you should place it in a shaded area that still gets some bright light or partial sun. If you fail to provide these conditions then your plant will actually burn under the hot sun. As for watering, be careful not to overwater as the leaves store water and will rot if you provide too much. Watering every 10 to 15 days should be great for this plant; just give it a thorough drink when doing so. When the days are warmer, water it every 9 to 12 days to ensure it doesn’t dry out.
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Pincushion Cactus
Pincushion cactus is a somewhat upside-down pineapple shape that varies from a brownish color to a bright green or deep forest green. Certain strains of this plant grow bright pink/purple flowers on top and are very spiny. Care Instructions: Being a very simple plant, it doesn’t take much care and is one of the better plants for beginners. Plant it in very gritty soil that has been well drained and allowed to completely dry out between waterings. Water moderately and as extra care, feed it every two to three weeks with a liquid fertilizer. In the winter it is best to keep the pincushion cactus almost completely dry.
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In Conclusion
Indoor succulents can make an amazing feature to your home. They are very attractive and require minimal effort to care for. Almost anyone can successfully keep them and have them thrive within their home. Special Note: Succulents tend to be bothered less frequently by insect pests than other houseplants, but should you have a problem try a natural remedy such as garlic bug spray. See my website for a baking soda mixture that can be used for fungus.

~ Barbara Herring, a resident of Kentucky, found Our BerkshireTimes magazine online and requested to share some of her informative articles with our readers. Barbara describes herself as a self-sufficient gardener (as much as one can be!) and is currently working on a food production system on her four-acre property near Kentucky Lake. In 2009 after a job loss and the subsequent economic crisis, she set about documenting and relaying her 33 years of knowledge in the realms of gardening, hunting, fishing, and other food-gathering activities. www.the10thcircle.com.

Bruce and I took a car trip to Florida in late April 1984. We loaded Bruce’s 12-year-old Buick with all of our luggage and fishing equipment, and took turns driving the 1,200 miles to the small duplex we had rented right on Daytona Beach. The owner of the duplex was an old friend and he arranged for us to stay in the empty, unrented half of the building . . . and when he said empty he meant it. There was nothing but four walls. Luckily there were beautiful, modern hotels on either side of us and they never missed the big comfortable lounge chairs that we used for beds. Sometimes we even slept right on the beach, listening to the ocean crashing onto the shore. We didn’t have a lot of money, just enough for the necessities (beer, gas, and bait), so we kept some of the fish we caught for dinner and some of them we traded for blankets and pillows from a local race car driver. All in all we were comfortable, tanned, and self-sufficient during our three-week stay.
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The place where we were staying was just a few miles from Cape Canaveral and we heard about a great fishing place by the name of Turtle Mound. The mound was created from millions of oyster shells piled up over the centuries by hungry ancient native Americans (the Timucuan Indians). This huge 35-foot-high, 2-acre-wide hill of oyster shells (more than 1.5 million bushels)attracts not only humans but also all manner of fish and other marine life, so of course, we had to fish there.

We found it without too much difficulty and proceeded to bait up and try our luck. Almost immediately we hooked up with a school of bluefish in the 3-pound range, and proceeded to throw fish after fish into a large plastic bucket we had brought just for that purpose, exchanging recipes for the night’s dinner as we did so. Suddenly Bruce’s line went taut, like he had hooked the bottom a few feet from shore. I waded out to release his line from the shallow water and found myself thrown flat on my face in the mud! Bruce had hooked a large manta ray and I had just stepped on it. The angry manta quickly broke Bruce’s line and flapped off into deeper water, but it took me a little longer to right myself and get out of the water. Once on shore I had barely gotten settled when I discovered an intruder in our fish bucket. A small raccoon was handing our fish to some of his relatives and half of the fish were gone. We decided to cut our losses and grabbed our fishing poles and fish and locked them in the trunk of Bruce’s car.

When we got back to the duplex our neighbor from the other side came to tell us that we had to hurry to the local pub for happy hour. They said we could expect a large, free buffet, and dollar beers, so hurry we did, barely taking time to wash the salt and fish smell from our bodies. We got there in record time and of course, knowing us, one thing led to another and happy “hour” turned into three, and the next thing we both knew we were waking up in our beach chairs at noon the next day.

As we got ready to go fishing again Bruce realized three things: one, we had left a bunch of fish in the trunk; two, Bruce could not find his keys; and three, it was ninety degrees out! It took us three days to find those keys, and by then the smell was so overpowering the car was hard to get near. No matter how much we aired the trunk out or sprayed disinfectant, the smell would not go away; it was our constant companion all 1,200 miles of the return trip back home. Not the best of souvenirs, but it was certainly a trip we will never forget!

~ Michael Romano, a Great Barrington, MA, resident for almost 40 years, is an avid fisherman who in his own words “kind of treats fishing as a contact sport and has had more than a few misadventures in the process.” He has fished many local waters and also enjoyed quite a few saltwater trips. Michael is a retired chef – he and his wife, Susan, worked at the now-closed Kolburne School in New Marlborough, MA, for many years where he enjoyed taking many of the students fishing.

Read this article in the Sept-Oct 2017 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine. 

A few years ago I sustained a back injury that left me in a wheelchair almost full time, and while it has hampered me somewhat, it has also given me an opportunity to try new things. One of these new things is gardening, but not in the traditional sense. I adapted my own method by growing very hot peppers (and other things like cukes and peas, but mostly hot peppers) in containers on an old-fashioned picnic table so I can reach them from my wheelchair. I also grow tomato plants along my wheelchair ramp. I do well with them.
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In late summer, I harvest a slew of peppers, tomatoes, and cukes – way too much for our personal use and immediate consumption. I mean, there is only so much salsa you can eat, and a pot of hot chili once a week can get boring, so what do I do with all those beautiful peppers? I give some away, but people only take so many. So, I learned to can them! I make homemade salsa, fire pickles, and hell pickled peppers. It’s pretty easy and a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I start with half-pint Mason jars, as these are a nice size to gift someone; then as the season progresses I switch to pint jars and even quart jars towards the end of harvest. Last year I ended up with 36 assorted jars of canned produce.

Following is a summary of the water bath canning instructions found at www.freshpreserving.com. My own method varies a little, but you should check out their website for the details.

1) Read recipe and assemble equipment and ingredients. I usually chop up a mixture of my peppers, red onions, garlic, cukes for fire pickles, and everything but cukes for the hell peppers. For my pickling brine I use vinegar, water, and pickling or kosher salt (table salt yellows brine). I also put a clove of garlic and a quarter teaspoon of pickling spice in the bottom of each jar.

2) Check jars, lids, and bands for proper functioning to prevent sealing issues or jar breakage. Wash all in hot, soapy water, rinse well, and dry bands.

3) Heat home canning jars in hot (not boiling) water until ready for use to prevent them from breaking when hot food is added. Leave lids and bands at room temperature.

4) Prepare boiling water bath by filling large pot or canner half full with water and simmer while covered with lid until jars are filled and placed in canner.

5) Prepare tested preserving recipe using fresh produce and other quality ingredients.

6) Remove a jar from the hot water (with jar lifter or tongs), and empty water from jar. Fill hot jars one at a time with prepared ingredients leaving recommended headspace. Remove air bubbles.

7) Clean Mason jar rim and threads, center lid on jar, apply band, and fingertip tighten. Place filled jars in canner making sure water covers jars by 1 to 2 inches. Cover, and bring to a rolling boil.

8) Process jars in the boiling water for the required time, adjusting for altitude. Then turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, and allow jars to stand in canner for 5 minutes.

9) Remove jars from canner and set upright on a towel undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours. Bands should not be retightened as this may interfere with the sealing process.

10) Check jar lids for seals. Lids should not flex up and down when center is pressed. Remove bands. Try to lift lids off with your fingertips. If the lid cannot be lifted off, the lid has a good seal. If a lid does not seal within 24 hours, the product can be immediately reprocessed or refrigerated and consumed promptly. Label and store in a cool, dry, dark place up to one year.

I find that the pickled stuff is ready to eat in three weeks but tastes better if it cures longer. This pickling/canning method can be used on many different veggies like green beans, asparagus,  summer squash, and even watermelon rinds, and they can be made spicy by just adding hot pepper to the mix.
     
Hot peppers may also be saved by drying them. Simply use a needle and thread to string them up, and hang till dry. When dry they can be used as a holiday decoration and later in cooking. Hot peppers have many health benefits, but if you ever find yourself in need of an antidote, slowly drink a glass of milk which will help break the bonds capsaicin forms on your nerve receptors. For those of you that like it HOT, you’ll find an amazing variety of hot peppers to read up about at www.tinyurl.com/y94y7d3a. Enjoy!

~ Michael Romano, a Great Barrington, MA, resident for almost 40 years, is a retired chef and also enjoys writing. He and his wife, Susan, worked at the now-closed Kolburne School in New Marlborough, MA, for many years. Look for his fishing articles in this and previous issues of Our BerkshireTimes magazine.

Read this article in the Sept-Oct 2017 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine. ​

I bought the little grey canoe for fifty dollars. It had a dull, lifeless finish, and it was bent and dented in many places with a half dozen bullet holes that had been repaired with some kind of fiberglass. The seats had been removed and replaced with strips of sheet metal, pop-riveted to the frame. All in all it was a rather ugly and uncomfortable way to travel, but it obviously had history. A history the strange little man I bought it from did not want to share, but I bought it anyway when he gave me a broken paddle to sweeten the deal.
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Now, I’m kind of a big guy, and the canoe never let me forget this. One wrong move and water would spill inside and threaten to swamp me, so I had to make sure I was centered in the boat and everything I needed was well within reach. Still, it gave me the opportunity to paddle around the local lakes and ponds and fish in places I could never reach before. I started to get pretty good at canoeing with a little practice, and it wasn’t long before I talked my friend Bruce into going out with me. Bruce and I had lots of fishing adventures together so of course he was dubious about accompanying me out on the open waters, especially in a canoe that could barely hold me, but he did anyway. We were wildly successful with a little careful determination, catching and releasing dozens of species of fish. In fact, the fish began to fear us!

At one point however, while fishing with poppers (a floating lure that resembles a swimming frog or small animal that makes a pop or splash when moved, hence the term “popper”) we suddenly found ourselves in a double hook up. Against all odds, two very large bass had simultaneously taken each of our bait on opposite sides of the canoe. We fought them up to the boat and guessed their weight at more than 7 pounds, and the plan was to net them and release them back into the water. That’s when disaster struck! I grabbed my net at the same time that Bruce grabbed his, and the fish in the meantime had crossed over to the same side of the canoe. As we dipped our nets toward the fish a startling revelation came over us. We were sunk, literally. Water poured into the boat and the canoe went over, dumping me, Bruce, and all our equipment into the lake!

The canoe sank like the Titanic and it took us several times to get it to the surface. Bruce and I floated it to shallow water, emptied it out, and returned back to the scene of the mishap to dive for our equipment. We dove several times and retrieved some of our tackle and coolers, but we never saw the bass or the fishing poles again. Several years later someone actually stole that old canoe from Bruce’s house. Why they stole it, I'll never know; Bruce probably would have paid them to take it. Still, I loved that old canoe, it was a lot like me – grey, dented, and bent with a lot of history, but still willing to fish.

~ Michael Romano, a Great Barrington, MA, resident for almost 40 years, is an avid fisherman who in his own words “kind
of treats fishing as a contact sport and has had more than a few misadventures in the process.” He has fished many local waters and also enjoyed quite a few saltwater trips. Michael is a retired chef – he and his wife, Susan, worked at the now-closed Kolburne School in New Marlborough, MA, for many years where he enjoyed taking many of the students fishing.

Read this article in the July-Aug 2017 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine. ​

Many of us have heard about a gentleman called The Dog Whisperer. You may also have heard of The Horse Whisperer. But I bet I’m the only guy who knows The Fish Whisperer!
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The practice started quite by accident when my friend Mark and I went fishing at a local pond. We had a beat-up old canoe bungee corded to the top of my car that we were planning to launch from the bank. We undid the cords and carried the canoe to the water so we could load up our tackle and launch it for an afternoon of fishing. Mark was not watching where he was going and tripped on an exposed root from a nearby tree, falling face first into the shallow water. He yelled an expletive while his face was still in the water, much to my hysterical delight! This caused a fairly large fish who happened to be near him to jump and swim away to deeper waters. When Mark pulled his face from the water, I told him he would have to talk nicer to the fish if we were going to catch any. He responded by sticking his face back in the water and whispering here fishy, fishy, fishy, and we dissolved into fits of laughter . . . but it worked! We ended up catching and releasing loads of fish that day. So began the tradition of The Fish Whisperer!

We went fishing a lot that summer. Not wanting to jinx our new-found good luck, Mark started off each trip by sticking his face in the water and whispering here fishy, fishy, fishy, and each time we were not disappointed. We caught and released bass, trout, pickerel, and other assorted species, all larger than the ones we usually caught. I told fishing friends about this trick and they would tag along just to watch Mark perform his magic ritual. We became kind of famous with the locals but also earned some strange looks from other fishermen. I didn’t care because it was Mark getting his face wet (not me!) and most importantly we were catching fish!
They say all good things must come to an end, however, and our good fortune ended the day we went fishing for pike in the Housatonic River. Those familiar with the river know it was infamous for being very polluted. It’s somewhat better now but still kind of scary. We arrived at a part of the river called Oxbow in Sheffield, carried our tackle down the steep bank, and prepared to go after giant pike. I looked at the slow-moving muddy water and then at Mark, he looked at the water and then at me and said no way! I couldn’t blame him, the water even smelled bad. We didn’t catch any fish that day and that broke our string of good luck. A few weeks later Mark moved north with his family and we had to stop fishing together – the end of a sacred tradition.

I  sometimes drive by the boat launch where our tradition began . . . hapless Mark with his face in the water whispering here fishy, fishy, fishy, and to this day I still break out laughing. The Fish Whisper will always live on in my memory and probably in a few of the fish’s memories as well!

~ Michael Romano, a Great Barrington, MA, resident for almost 40 years, is an avid fisherman who in his own words “kind of treats fishing as a contact sport and has had more than a few misadventures in the process.” He has fished many local waters and also enjoyed quite a few saltwater trips. Michael is a retired chef – he and his wife Susan worked at the now closed Kolburne School in New Marlborough, MA, for many years where he enjoyed taking many of the students fishing.

Read this article in the May-June 2017 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine. 

I met Bruce when I moved to the little town of Amenia, New York, to take a job as a chef at a local restaurant. He was a bartender, and over a couple of shared cocktails I learned that he liked to fish as much as I did. We became fast friends and enjoyed each other’s sick sense of humor. We also liked the fact that all the pubs stayed open until 4:00 in the morning, but it made it hard to get up early to fish so as a result we became experts at afternoon fishing. We figured that there had to be fish on the same schedule as us, and those were the fish we would concentrate on.
​

Bruce’s father belonged to a very exclusive fish and game club in Millbrook, New York, and we knew he wouldn’t mind if we sort of made believe that we belonged too. So on the chosen day we got up at the crack of noon and drove to the outskirts of the property, put a note on the car explaining we had broken down, and hiked up into the woods. The trail followed a beautiful stream with high and rocky banks. The forest was made up of very old large trees, and some of the views were breathtaking.

Bruce explained that very few people came to these woods, and the trout, though large, were easily spooked. Whenever I tried to talk to him, he would admonish me with “Shhh, you’ll scare the fish,” and that would end the conversation. We fished in every pool we came to, leapfrogging each other so we wouldn’t scare the fish by overcrowding a small area. The trout were indeed large, and we caught and released several beautiful browns.

As we moved on, the hike started to get steep and a little rocky, and the stream bank grew higher and higher. We came around a corner in the trail and saw what was probably the prettiest area yet – the bank grew to almost a cliff with fallen trees and a lot of big rocks, and at the bottom was a small waterfall that emptied into a rather large pool. In the pool many shelves of granite were visible even though the blue-green water was deep. It had to be the home of the KING of trout, but the only way to get to it was to climb down the embankment, so that’s what I intended to do. I was quite a few years younger back then, more than a few pounds lighter, and a whole bunch dumber, so over the side I went. It was so steep that I needed to secure my light fishing pole, grit my teeth, and grab the root of a fallen tree as I started to negotiate my way down the bank. As luck would have it, the tree had other plans. It popped loose as I used it for balance and took off down the steep hill with me in tow; several rocks joined in the fun as well, and in a few seconds I had my own private avalanche.

The tree, the boulders, and I landed hard in a shallow part of the stream. Dirt, rocks, and small pebbles continued to rain down on me for several more seconds as I tried to pull myself free of the root’s embrace. I could see Bruce hurrying along the path in my direction – good old Bruce, so concerned for me and coming to help. But after the dust settled and he stood at the spot where I began my luckless journey peering down at me, the only thing I heard was . . .

“Shhh, you’ll scare the fish!”

~ Michael Romano, a Great Barrington, MA, resident for almost 40 years, is an avid fisherman who in his own words “kind
of treats fishing as a contact sport and has had more than a few misadventures in the process.” He has fished many local waters and also enjoyed quite a few saltwater trips. Michael is a retired chef – he and his wife Susan worked at the now closed Kolburne School in New Marlborough, MA, for many years where he enjoyed taking many of the students fishing.

Read this article in the March-April 2017 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine. 
​

Once, while on vacation, I tried to explain the sport of ice fishing to a native Floridian who had never even seen a single snowflake. I could tell by his blank, uncomprehending look as I spoke that he thought that the Pina Colada I was drinking was going to my head in the 90◦F south Florida heat. I couldn’t really blame him; the more I tried to explain it, the stranger it sounded even to me!

​Think about it . . . we Northerners wait until it gets cold enough for large bodies of water to freeze over with hopefully at least 6 inches of ice. Then we brave an unimpeded Arctic wind to walk out on the frigid lake and drill little holes in the ice. That being done, we set up tip-ups (fishing devices with red alert flags on them) or jig through the freshly drilled hole (jerking a lure up and down with a tiny fishing pole). Usually a large fire is built on the ice (no, it doesn’t melt through and fall in – see Earth Science) and everybody sits around on small chairs or milk crates in below-zero weather (sometimes for hours on end), waiting for a red flag to pop up signaling a little fishing action. People in the tropics think we are crazy, dumb, or both – who can blame them?

I even know a few people who have these outhouse-type buildings on skis, which are pulled out to their favorite fishing hole. Some of these ice shacks have wood stoves, TVs, beds and other creature comforts in them. I guess you really have to like ice fishing to put all that time and money into one of these portable shelters. They work pretty well; I used to know a man who slept overnight in his just to get away from his family. Most of us don’t have an ice condo to sleep in however. Rather, we brave the elements, just for the chance to slip and fall on the ice – or just plain fall through the ice! – get frostbite (or heatstroke from too many layers of clothing!), and a number of other things we Northerners call fun!

ln one crazy/dumb/fun instance, I took a large group of special needs students ice fishing; one of these students was a 300-pound, accident-prone teenager named Dan. He was so accident prone that even a passive activity would become a minor crisis. If something could go wrong it happened to Dan! So to be on the safe side I told Dan to sit on a milk crate next to the fire and toast hotdogs for everybody. He complied happily, and the rest of us set about drilling holes and setting up tip-ups.

One of the first holes we had baited had its flag pop up while the rest of us were still busy setting up the other ten holes we had drilled. Dan saw the flag and jumped up off his crate and attempted to run over to the spot. Running on ice is not easily done by anyone, and especially not by Dan. So just to complicate things, he promptly stepped into a freshly drilled hole – not only did his foot go through but so did the rest of his leg, all the way up to his thigh! Dan was stuck like a cork in a bottle. It took three of us on either side to unwedge him from his trap. When he did come loose, his leg made an audible POP as he was freed! Dan’s very wet limb came out of the hole minus his boot and sock. They were lost forever in the depths of the frozen lake. Although we quickly wrapped his foot in a towel, Dan was shivering by the time we made the long, very uncomfortable walk back to the van. I drove him back to the school in silence. Needless to say, Dan never went ice fishing again.

So as I mentioned at the beginning, trying to explain this kind of fun to my Floridian host was kind of a challenge. They have no reference point nor do I think they really want one! It’s strictly a Northern thing.   

~ Michael Romano, a Great Barrington, MA, resident for almost 40 years, was an avid fisherman who in his own words “kind of treats fishing as a contact sport and has had more than a few misadventures in the process.” He fished many local waters and also enjoyed quite a few saltwater trips. Michael was a retired chef – he and his wife Susan worked at the now closed Kolburne School in New Marlborough, MA, for many years where he enjoyed taking many of the students fishing. He will be missed. 

Read this article in the Dec 2016 - Feb 2017 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine.

When I lived in rural New York several decades ago I stumbled upon a pond right across the street from my rented house. It had been created by a series of beaver dams; they had stopped the waters of a small creek that in turn had flooded the shower basin. It was surrounded by brush and trees but the beavers had cleared some of the bigger trees, leaving open spaces. A deer trail wound its way around the perimeter. The first time I saw it I wondered if this little body of water held any fish. I thought that maybe some bass or sunfish lived under its shallow, weedy surface.

​I sat and watched the pond one sunny day and thought I noticed some kind of surface action, like a fish or frog jumping. I walked back to my house and got my fishing pole and a select bag of bass lures, and hurried back over to my secret little pond. The first fishable clearing was about halfway across the pond so I set out in that direction. I quickly found out that a deer trail is not a man trail. 

The path started out marshy and quickly turned muddy – I mean the kind of deep mud that sucks your shoes right off your feet. I did almost lose my shoes so I took them off, left them on the path, and continued barefoot. Then came the thorns; they were everywhere along the path and by the time I got through them I was bleeding from a dozen different places, but still undaunted I pushed forward.

The next thing I encountered were bees – thousands of them – a nest hung from the biggest oak tree in the area. Luckily the bees were all very busy with the swamp blossoms, but I crept warily by the nest just the same. My exertions did not go unnoticed however, as I was soon covered by a swarm of mosquitoes. One can only slap so many so I gave up trying and let them feast.

I finally made it to my selected area a little muddy, bloody, and bruised but still intact. I tied on my favorite bass lure, a 
​5-inch Rapala (a Swedish hand-carved balsa wood fish with many hooks). These lures are kind of expensive so you can understand how frustrated I was after trudging all that way, only to have my first cast land on the beaver dam ten feet in front of me. I gently tried to ease it off the dam but of course one of the many hooks snagged a stick just above the waterline. I made many new curse words as I tried yanking the lure off the stick, but it wouldn’t budge. I then waded in a few feet with a long stick and tried to knock it free, again with no luck. I was going to be damned if I was going to lose my favorite and most expensive lure, so I did the only thing I could think of and threw a log at it . . . it worked!

The lure now floated freely alongside the beaver dam and as I reeled it in something grabbed it with a giant splash about five feet from shore. There was a brief, fierce battle but I landed it – a beautiful five-pound brook trout! The biggest brook trout I had ever seen, and this after screaming curses, beating the water with a stick, and throwing logs at the beaver dam. So much for spooking the fish! At that point there was very little I even noticed as I rushed home with my catch – not the mosquitoes, not the bees, not the thorns, or even the mud, although I probably should have grabbed my shoes.

~ Michael Romano, a Great Barrington, MA, resident for almost 40 years, is an avid fisherman who in his own words “kind of treats fishing as a contact sport and has had more than a few misadventures in the process.” He has fished many local waters and also enjoyed quite a few saltwater trips. Michael is a retired chef – he and his wife Susan worked at the now closed Kolburne School in New Marlborough, MA, for many years where he enjoyed taking many of the students fishing.

Read this article in the Oct-Nov 2016 issue of Our BerkshireTimes Magazine.

​Houseguests last summer arrived laden with gifts: home-made jams (they're jam junkies), books, fresh-picked fruit from a farm close to their Vermont home, and huge tins of homemade . . . um . . . crackers.

I have to admit, the last part left me a little less excited. Never really been a particularly keen cracker-eater. Always preferred my carbs in bread or cookie form, it must be said. Good scones, too.

But then we politely tasted the crackers. And of course, we should have known, because isn't homemade just always going to be better? Isn't that just the rule? These crackers were so delicious, and so packed with good-for-you stuff, it really was a revelation. And of course, I wanted to make them myself. And I wanted mine to be better than theirs. Of course.

Just before summer hit, I had collected a copy of a new cookbook, hoping to have some time to play with it before I got too busy, which of course I didn’t. But I remembered seeing pictures of crackers in this book. And I remembered how uninterested in them I had been compared with all of the other delicious things.  And I realized that this book was probably going to be the perfect place to start my mission to out-cracker my friend. And it was. 

Flavor Flours is by Alice Medrich, an acclaimed and experienced baker and cookbook author. She’s absolutely fabulous. And she’s written the book that we’ve been waiting for: a gluten-free baking book that focuses on FLAVOR! Alice Medrich is a skilled technician, and all of the recipes in this book work beautifully, but they’re also delicious in a way that gluten-free goods made with blends of rice flours and starches aren’t: the flours impart distinctive and yummy flavors that take everything to the next level.

Now, on to the crackers. Alice Medrich has a few recipes for crackers in the book, since each chapter focuses on a different flour, and I started with her “Seed Crackers” since they were the most similar to the crackers that my friend had made. The list of ingredients may be a little bit daunting, so I apologize for that.  If you’re into gluten-free baking, then you may already have a few of them around. All of these ingredients are now readily-available, if that’s some comfort. 

Also, if you would allow me to take this moment to recount the benefits of baking with a gram scale (trust me, it makes baking quicker, cleaner, more accurate, and more fun! for $25!), this will make it less annoying to handle all of these ingredients. I just bring the gram scale and the KitchenAid bowl right over to the counter in front of where I store all of the stuff and start throwing things into it. Doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes, I swear!

And did I mention that this copious list of ingredients happens to be comprised of tons of nutritious things? And that they’re dairy free? And that they’re absolutely addictive? And finally, it really makes a lot, so at least you’ll be rewarded for your efforts for a longer-than-usual time after baking something delicious. 

Give them a try and let me know if they turn you into a cracker-convert, too.

Garlic & Paprika Seed Crackers
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Measure into a mixing bowl:

ingredients
½ cup  (80 g) brown rice flour
½ cup (80 g) white rice flour
⅓ cup (40 g) oat flour
⅔ cup (80 g) cornmeal
½ cup (65 g) sunflower seeds
¼ cup (35 g) sesame seeds
⅓ cup (40 g) flaxseed meal
2 T (25 g) brown sugar
1½ tsp (8g) salt
¾ cup water
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp (5g) baking powder
¼ cup plain oil
4 cloves crushed garlic
2 tsp sweet paprika

instructions
Mix all ingredients together for about three minutes with a flat beater or spatula until thoroughly combined. The dough is soft, but not particularly sticky. You can always dust it with a bit of rice flour to help. To shape the crackers you have two choices: 

1) Cut two pieces of baking parchment the size of your baking sheet. Place tablespoon-size blobs of dough onto one piece of parchment about four inches apart (I use an ice cream scoop for convenience). Cover the scoops with the second piece of parchment. Then, first using the palm of your hand and then a rolling pin, roll your blobs out into long, oblong-shaped crackers about 1/16" thick. You will need to loosen the paper from time to time to allow the dough to spread evenly.  

2) Or, you can place half of the dough on a sheet of parchment paper, cover with the second sheet, and roll it out between the paper into a large rectangle about 1/16" thick. Again, you will need to peel the papers at different moments as the dough stretches out between them. Freeze this sheet of dough for about a half hour until cold enough to cut with a sharp knife or with a pastry or pizza wheel into the desired shape and size for the crackers.  

For either method of shaping, proceed as follows. Peel off the top sheet of parchment paper. Flip the paper with the crackers on it onto the baking sheet so that the dough is touching the sheet directly. Place in the oven and bake for about four to five minutes. At this point you can remove the paper, flip the crackers, and bake for another four to five minutes until toasted golden and smelling delicious. Let cool completely and enjoy! ~ Rachel Portnoy and Franck Tessier own Chez Nous Bistro in Lee, MA. www.cheznousbistro.com

Trying to trim down for summer? Detoxifying environmental toxins is key to loosing weight.

• How Toxins Make You Fat: 4 Steps to Get Rid of Toxic Weight
  
• Is Your Shampoo Making You Fat?
• It's Not Just Baby Fat!

Avoid all fluoride in toothpaste, oral rinses / products, and water. Fluoride is a poison and a significant contributor to lowered IQ and a wide range of chronic inflammatory diseases, stomach problems, metabolic disorders, neurological diseases, thyroid problems, and cancer. Did you know that a single tube of bubble-gum flavored Colgate-for-Kids toothpaste contains enough fluoride to kill a small child? It simply does not make sense to try to strengthen (or so they claim) one part of the body by poisoning the rest of the body especially when there are safe methods that work more effectively. Is just "a little poison" OK for you and your family?

Last month, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai published a report identifying one dozen common chemicals (listed below) known to disrupt brain development and cause brain damage, neurological abnormalities, reduced IQ, and aggressiveness in children. The authors call for the implementation of urgent preventive strategies to quell the trend of brain damage.

Dirty Dozen

1. Lead - (processed chocolate, gasoline, paint, toys, batteries, pipes, pottery, roofing materials, and cosmetics)
2. Methylmercury - (organic mercury found in silver dental fillings, fish, vaccines, and air pollution)
3. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - (fish, especially farmed fish) 
4. Arsenic - (a common contaminant in fluoride added to water supplies. Also found in wood preservatives and pesticides)
5. Toluene - (paint thinner, fingernail polish, and leather tanning)
6. Manganese - (drinking water and soy infant formula)
7. Fluoride - (fluoridated tap water, dental products, some antibiotics and medicines, tea, processed foods, and drinks)
8. Chlorpyrifos - (an organophosphate insecticide used in pest bait containers)
9. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) - (a pesticide banned in 1972 that still persists in the environment, including in the food chain)
10. Tetrachloroethylene (PERC) - (dry-cleaning fabrics and metal degreasing operations)
11. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) - (flame-retardant chemicals found in upholstery, mattresses, clothing, television, and computer housings)
12. Ethanol
    

Read more at www.fluoridealert.org

Poisonous Chemtrails Still Go Unnoticed By State Senator Warren

Weather forecasters call for a sunny day today in the Berkshires with scattered Chemtrails dulling down the sun’s rays! This should be the reported weather forecast today but no one seems to care or even take notice of this ever growing trend. A trend that is harmful to all life on this planet.

On a clear sunny morning in early February, I became alarmed over the extent of the Chemtrails being sprayed across our skies. After watching this for years, I decided to direct my concern to State Senator Elizabeth Warrens office. One aid passed me to the next aid, both never heard of such complaints but were eager to learn more. I explained that you usually see two or more aircrafts working in unison to create grid type patterns. Unlike normal aircraft contrails, this grid creates a silvery haze in the sky that spreads over time. Though the spraying typically occurs in the morning eastern sky and the western sky in afternoon, I have viewed the spraying throughout the day. I recognize the difference between a contrail (condensation trail from jet exhaust) and a chemtrail. I demanded to know who is spraying, why and what they are spraying.  

I also invited Ms. Warren to view my photos of the spraying and to address my concerns. The aid proceeded to record my complaint, she indicated that this will be passed to Washington and that I should hear back within a few weeks. Well, it's been well over a couple of weeks now and I've heard nothing from Ms. Warrens office.

Disappointed over the lack of response from Ms. Warrens office, I set out to do my own due diligence. I found information from credible sources that should concern everyone, including Ms. Warren. In am not interested in political agendas or discussing climate change, I want to create awareness around the harmful list of chemicals being sprayed not only in the Berkshires but around the globe. These Chemtrails contain substances such as barium, nano aluminum coated fiberglass (known as CHAFF), radioactive thorium, cadmium, chromium, aluminum oxides, strontium, and nickel.  I question what is the intended use of such substances and what is the ultimate consequences to life on earth? At a time when autoimmune diseases, such as ALS, and development issues such as Autism are on the rise, one has to question if there is a direct correlation. Afterall, one of the differential diagnosis to ALS is heavy metals and it has long been suspected by some that Autism and other developmental issues can be correlated to toxic metals. In the meantime, what we do know about toxic metals is that they inhibit and suppress the immune system. So, I ask you Senator Warren, where is your concern?  

Dear Senator Warren, I had high hopes that changing the political traditions of having a man in office with the nurture of a woman that the issues of the better good, such as health, would take priority. After all Senator Warren, you, your family and friends breathe the air, drink the water and eat the same food grown as the rest of us do. Please do something about these poisons! Make it your agendas to not only protect the people of Massachusetts but our environment as well. One courageous stance against this establishment will create others states to follow. I encourage everyone to look up into our skies to see for yourself what’s going on. 

Sincerely
Milan Markovic
Lanesborough, MA 01237

               ______________________________________________________________________

Contact Senator Warren with your concerns today. 


Editor's Note:
For more information about, and a better understanding of, geoengineering (chemtrails) visit the following links. 

• Dr. Ilya Sandra Perlingieri Lecture at Massachusetts School of Law - www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gyQTkgnd28
• What in the World are They Spraying - www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf0khstYDLA&feature=youtu.be
• Why in the World are They Spraying - www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEfJO0-cTis
• Who in the World is Spraying - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux8v5ZM6is4
• Thrive.com - www.thrivemovement.com/human-geo-engineering-chemtrails-and-haarp
• Meteorologist Decodes Chemtrails, HAARP and Weather Manipulation - www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX_XVp7kvec
• Rosalind Peterson, California President and Co-Founder of the Agriculture Defense Coalition (ADC) - www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yg8FBnGXIk

                                                 _________________________________

Force Disclosure of Chemtrails by signing this petition.
                             

Help Repeal the Law That Allows Chemical & Biological Testing on U.S. Citizens - CLICK HERE
PUBLIC LAW 105—85—NOV. 18, 1997: USE OF HUMAN SUBJECTS FOR TESTING OF CHEMICAL OR BIOLOGICAL AGENTS

SEC. 1078. RESTRICTIONS ON THE USE OF HUMAN SUBJECTS FOR TESTING OF CHEMICAL OR BIOLOGICAL AGENTS.

(a) PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES.—The Secretary of Defense may not conduct (directly or by contract)
(1) any test or experiment involving the use of a chemical agent or biological agent on a civilian population; or
(2) any other testing of a chemical agent or biological agent on human subjects.

(b) EXCEPTIONS.—Subject to subsections (c), (d), and (e), the prohibition in subsection (a) does not apply to a test or experiment carried out for any of the following purposes:
(1) Any peaceful purpose that is related to a medical, therapeutic, pharmaceutical, agricultural, industrial, or research activity.
(2) Any purpose that is directly related to protection against toxic chemicals or biological weapons and agents.
(3) Any law enforcement purpose, including any purpose related to riot control.

(e) BIOLOGICAL AGENT DEFINED.—In this section, the term
‘‘biological agent’’ means any micro-organism (including bacteria,
viruses, fungi, rickettsiac, or protozoa), pathogen, or infectious substance,
and any naturally occurring, bioengineered, or synthesized
component of any such micro-organism, pathogen, or infectious substance,
whatever its origin or method of production, that is capable
of causing--
(1) death, disease, or other biological malfunction in a
human, an animal, a plant, or another living organism;
(2) deterioration of food, water, equipment, supplies, or
materials of any kind; or
(3) deleterious alteration of the environment.

In Other Words:
The U.S. government can test chemicals and biological agents on humans for nearly any purpose they desire. The U.S. government can test chemicals and biological agents on humans that cause death, biological malfunction, and deleterious alteration of the environment.

Guardian Life and the Pittsfield Suns team up to help celebrate the City of Pittsfield's love of baseball at the June 20th 3rd.Thursday. From 5pm-8pm, upstreet Pittsfield is busting with baseball, and the friends, music, food and games you enjoy most at your favorite ballpark. The Green Mile Road Race also heads down North Street for the fourth consecutive year, organized by local running gurus at the Berkshire Running Center, this time with special help from youth musicians from Berkshire Rocks. Expect to see over 200 runners flying by at 6pm in a race that benefits upstreet Pittsfield's new farmers market.

The Green Mile is a USA Track & Field certified, one-mile road race, beginning at Park Square, running one-half mile north to the intersection of Maplewood Ave. and Linden St., looping back around to Park Square. This year, all proceeds from race registration go directly to the brand-new Downtown Pittsfield Farmers Market, held each Saturday through October 26, 2013, from 9am-1pm across from the Common on First St. The first 150 racers to register receive a free technical race shirt! Click here to register.

3rd.Thursdays features four outdoor stages featuring terrific local bands, from bluegrass to blues to Brazilian rhythms. The Corey Zink Band and Berkshier Bateria perform at the Palace Park Stage on North Street near Fenn, young alternative bands Resident Frequency and Modest Me play in front of the Crowne Plaza, and T-Bone Daddy and Barely Blue rock the Spice Dragon stage.

Berkshire Rocks, an organization dedicated to supporting, educating and empowering young musicians, takes over the City Stage this month, located at the corner of Eagle and North Streets. Its musical lineup includes local talents the Constant Change, Highland and the Max Weiner Jazz Group.

Also on the City Stage, get in a baseball mood with the singing of the National Anthem by Kaylene Lemme, classic ballpark organ tunes and the throwing of a ceremonial First Pitch by our own Mayor Daniel Bianchi at 5:45pm. Join in as a Wave flows from Park Square all the way upstreet to encourage Green Mile runners beginning at 6pm.

Free fun baseball-themed games are featured on the Baseball Field of Fun, located on Upper North St. in front of St. Joseph's Church, where you will test your strength by throwing at a radar gun; practice your hitting by swinging through water balloons; try your hand at a bean bag toss; round the bases while hoola hooping with Hoop, Hit & Run and have an opportunity to win plenty of prizes and giveaways, including Pittsfield Suns souvenirs and game tickets! Suns players will be leading the entertainment and activity in uniform, so you will have a chance to meet each one of them. Keep your eyes peeled for the Sister City Jazz Ambassadors roaming the field, playing your favorite ballpark tunes.

There is plenty of  great food at 3rd.Thursdays  this month, with barbeque sliders and other comfort food by MadJacks BBQ, Mary's Carrot Cake Cafe for locally baked treats, the Lantern Bar & Grill for the county's best burgers, Spice Dragon for sushi and Vietnamese food, or Mission Bar + Tapas for Spanish wine and tapas and craft beer. Enjoy outdoor seating at Patrick's Pub or try North Street's newest culinary hotspot J. Allen's Clubhouse Grille.

All funds raised during the June 20th 3rd.Thursday buy the popular Civitan food booth on Persip Park will go towards the fund to restore the Civil War Memorial on Park Square. Other food vendors at 3rd.Thursdays include For the Love of Pie, Lucia's Latin Kitchen, Zucchini's Restaurant and food trucks How We Roll and Amanda's Kitchen. And be sure and visit the historic Popcorn Wagon,  now on North Street at Depot.

More fun can be found indoors with a screening of the 90's romantic baseball comedy Bull Durham, starring Kevin Costner and Susan Surandon, at the Beacon Cinema as part of its monthly Throwback Thursdays series for $5. At 8pm head over to Patrick's Pub for Rakish Paddy's monthly set of Irish music or check out the Picky Bastards at Mission Bar & Tapas, a collective of rotating local folk, rock and Americana musicians hosted by Dave Brown and Chris Merenda. The Arthur Holmes Blues Band will be in the house at MadJack's BBQ from 7pm to 10pm. All are no cover.

Enjoy live theatre at this week's 3rd.Thursdays. The Town Players of Pittsfield offer three performances of the short one act, Barrington Stage presents two performance this 3rd.Thursdays. On the Main Stage, they're featuring their new acclaimed new musical On The Town, for which they are offering 25% off a pair of tickets to any active or retired military personnel for the June 20th performance at 8pm. Just ask for the HERO promotion. And at the St. Germaine Stage on Linden Street, enjoy the world premiere of Muckrakers.

3rd.Thursdays season sponsors include Berkshire Gas, Guardian Life, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Sabic, Berkshire Health Systems and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Upcoming 3rd.Thursdays dates and themes are July 18 Under the Sea, August 15th: Weird Science; September 19th: Festa Italiano; and October 17: Monster Mash. 3rd.Thursdays is organized by the City of Pittsfield Office of Cultural Development. For more infomation on 3rd.Thursdays please visit discoverpittsfield.com/3rdthursdays, email thirdthursdayspittsfield@gmail.com or call 413-499-9348. 3rd. Thursdays are held rain or shine and there is plenty of free parking throughout downtown's Upstreet Cultural District.

Megan Whilden, Director of Cultural Development for the City of Pittsfield; 413-281-7289; mwhilden@pittsfieldch.com

Anvil is a commonly used pesticide. This chemical is being fog-sprayed weekly and biweekly [by truck] in at least seven towns in Berkshire County in the summer months under the Mosquito Control Project. Towns involved include Clarksburg, Hinsdale, Otis, Richmond, Sheffield, Stockbridge, and Tyringham. Spraying is either requested by homeowners or initiated as a result of surveillance that identifies areas of high mosquito density.¹ The practice is allowed because the available science is interpreted to mean Anvil is safe when used to spray in these ways. Those entities that actually conduct the spraying are simply relying on what is accepted as “expert opinion.”
       This practice poses potential hazards to residents. The use of Anvil is based on fundamentally flawed thinking on what is safe and what is dangerous. I will confine my remarks in this brief article to comments on Anvil. My principal points also apply to most herbicide and pesticide use, including the chemicals used on lawns by thousands of homeowners countywide. 

Point #1 

I maintain there are reasonable grounds for concern² that repeated toxic exposure over years in vulnerable individuals may be a contributing cause to chronic illness and premature death.

Point #2

Current health care practices in the United States are based on a quasi-scientific dogma that insists harm must be proven before a substance can be considered dangerous. The precautionary principle proposes we should have to prove no harm before a potentially harmful substance or practice is allowed.

Many of you, having read thus far, may decide that these two points are good common sense and sufficient reason to stop the spraying. I agree.      
       Unfortunately, precaution and common sense remain pieces of grit in the oil of conventional governance and the quasi-scientific dogma it assembles to support its policies. The financial ties between corporate interests and the scientific community further drive arguments fashioned to support these hazardous practices.

Adverse Long-term Effects in Humans

Many scientists are rightfully concerned about the risk of harm to individuals who may have repeated exposures to chemical toxins over time. Cumulative exposure over a lifetime to chemical toxins, starting in the womb, and the risk of synergistic adverse effects on human health, certainly constitute reasonable grounds for concern about the unregulated use of these chemicals.
       Mainstream medicine is reluctant to face the fact that disease may result from repeated gene-environment interactions over many years. Predicting adverse reactions across a wide population is costly and time consuming. Individuals within the population may be vulnerable because of a combination of genetic predisposition and prior toxic exposures. Identifying vulnerable individuals is difficult, if not impossible.  

Safety Unproven

The major active component of Anvil is sumithrin, a so-called pyrethroid, which may be associated with liver damage, breast cell proliferation, lowered sperm counts, cognitive problems and hormone disruption (“endocrine disruption”).³ It may also harm or kill other wildlife, including bees, butterflies, and grasshoppers. Health problems in humans can take years to surface so it can be very difficult to establish a connection, especially when Anvil exposure may be only one of many insults to the body over time. Chemical companies, like cigarette makers, are aware of this lag time and complexity, and naturally exploit it to avoid liability.
     Mainstream medicine has trouble getting its arms around the issue of repeated toxin exposures in vulnerable individuals over time. The maladaptive acute care model that still drives chronic disease care is preoccupied with finding single causes, then treating them with drugs and surgery. The very methodologies employed to support this approach are ill-suited to the multi-factorial, long latency realities of chronic disease that may result from repeated toxin exposures over many years. As a result, hard questions about the safety of potentially hazardous substances don’t get asked, because they are difficult to answer without great cost and delay.  

Fundamental Flaws in the Prevailing Science

As matters stands at present, when scientists look at a pesticide like Anvil, they attempt to disprove the null hypothesis. This stacks the deck in favor of avoiding false positive results. In common parlance, scientists are afraid of incorrectly showing harm when there is none. They are less concerned about incorrectly showing no harm. This bias favors the ill-advised and premature use of potentially harmful chemicals while favoring the bottom lines of chemical manufacturers eager to put product out into the market.    
     The available scientific evidence consists of animal studies that examine the effects of solitary exposure to pyrethrins and human studies are limited to a small number of chemical workers. These do not come close to approximating the realities of cumulative toxic load from multiple toxic agents acting synergistically over time in the bodies of potentially vulnerable individuals.

Everything Connects

Compartmentalized, reductionist science with its linear, mechanistic propositions is an inadequate base for making wise policy decisions on the potential impact of complex processes. It needs to be enhanced with the dynamic, emergent properties of systems science. This is not yet being done. In the meantime, caution and informed decision making should prevail.    

Let’s Stop Rolling the Dice

There are many unanswered questions about the use of Anvil in our communities. What are the true benefits of Anvil? How many mosquitoes does it really kill? Have meaningful measurable outcomes been recorded, such as how many people are spared from disease, what disease, and how severe?  How many lives does it save, if any? Who are the vulnerable individuals who might be harmed years later? Do we really have adequate proof of no harm? Who benefits the most from spraying? corporations? town governments? Are we gambling with the future of our children?

1. Based on phone conversation with Berkshire Mosquito Control
2. European Commission on the Precautionary Principle, Copenhagen, 2002
3. www.pesticidefreezone.org
4. www.pesticideinfo.org


To stop spraying directly in front of your property:

1. Send a registered letter to your town clerk by March 1 of each year.

To get spraying stopped in your town:

1. For a basic overview of town meeting procedures in Massachusetts (condensed below), check out Massachusetts’s Citizen Information Service website provided by our state government at www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cistwn/twnidx.htm. You must contact your Town Clerk or Town Meeting Moderator to find out specific information and procedures for annual and special meetings in your town.

2. Get to know your town selectman.  Request that they place the topic on an upcoming meeting warrant.* Get ten registered voters to sign a written request (physical addresses recommended) to insert an article in a warrant, and deliver to your selectmen before the warrant is closed. Check out a past annual report (which will contain warrants) as a sample, or ask your town clerk for assistance in drafting the article.

3. If necessary, citizens may demand that an article be inserted in a warrant by the Selectman for a special Town Meeting, if you obtain the signatures of 100 registered voters or 10 percent of the total number of voters (whichever is lesser).

4. If necessary, voters may call a special town meeting by creating a signed written request including the signatures and addresses of 200 registered voters, or 20 percent of the total number of registered voters in your town (whichever number is less).  Deliver this request to your Selectman and a special meeting must be called within 45 days.

5. Note that any member of the public may attend a Town Meeting and the town’s registered voters may vote at any open town meeting.  Check out your town’s website for more information, if they have one.

*A warrant lists the meeting’s time, place, and agenda - a town’s meeting’s action is not valid unless the subject was listed on the warrant. Note that warrants must be made available to the public for viewing at least 7 days before an annual meeting and 14 days before a special meeting.

Hotchkiss Portals Chamber Music
10 Years of Concerts With a View
2013 Opening Concert: 
Melvin Chen and 2013 Portals Resident Quartet
Monday, June 24, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
FREE ADMISSION

2013 marks the 10th year anniversary of the Hotchkiss Portals Chamber Music Series, Concerts With a View, June 24-July 20. This incredible concert series features internationally acclaimed musicians who perform in the magnificent Katherine M. Elfers Hall, Esther Eastman Music Center on the bucolic grounds of The Hotchkiss School campus. The concerts are free and open to the public; the hall is air-conditioned and handicapped accessible. Throughout the series, student musicians will also offer public performances. Please visit www.hotchkissportals.org for a complete schedule, or phone the concert hotline, (860) 435-3775.

The opening concert on June 24 at 7:30 p.m. will feature Melvin Chen, Artistic Director of the Portals Chamber Music Program, with the 2013 Resident Quartet: Péter Bársony, viola; HyeJin Kim, violin; Clancy Newman, cello; and TienHsin Cindy Wu, violin. The program includes works by Johannes Brahms, Eflat Viola Sonata, Leoš Janáček, Sonata for Violin and Piano, Antonín Dvořák, Piano Quartet in Eflat. This group of professional and internationally acclaimed musicians form the core faculty of the chamber music program and will perform throughout the season with other visiting quartets such as the Miró, Shanghai, and Brentano Quartets.

Melvin Chen, piano, violin
A native of Tennessee, pianist Melvin Chen is recognized as an important artist, having received acclaim for performances throughout the United States and abroad. As a soloist and chamber musician Mr. Chen has performed at major venues in the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall, the Frick Collection, Kennedy Center, and Boston’s Jordan Hall, in addition to other appearances throughout the United States, Canada, and Asia. In recent seasons Mr. Chen’s concerts have included solo recitals at Weill Recital Hall, concerto performances with the American Symphony Orchestra, Marin Symphony, Springfield Symphony, and the Paducah Symphony, along with numerous solo and chamber music appearances internationally and in the United States. He was the pianist in Ricky Ian Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice, which was presented by Lincoln Center and which received a special citation from the Obie awards.

Mr. Chen’s performances have been featured on radio and television stations around the globe,
including KBS television and radio in Korea, NHK television in Japan, and NPR in the United
States.Solo recordings include Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations on the Bridge label, praised as “a
classic” by the American Record Guide, and a recording of Joan Tower’s piano music on the
Naxos label. Recent recordings of the Shostakovich piano sonatas and Gordon’s Orpheus and
Euridice were released to critical acclaim.

An enthusiastic chamber musician, Mr. Chen has collaborated with such artists as Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom, David Shifrin, Pamela Frank, and Peter Wiley; with the Shanghai, Tokyo, Miami, Penderecki, and Miro quartets; and in contemporary music collaborations with the Da Capo Chamber Players and The St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble. Mr. Chen is an alumnus of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Chamber Music Society Two, where he appeared with members of the Chamber Music Society in performance and educational programs for two seasons. A performer in numerous music festivals, he has performed at the Bravo! Vail Valley
Music Festival, Music Mountain, Chautauqua, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Bard Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire, among others.

Mr. Chen completed a doctorate in chemistry from Harvard University, and also holds a double master’s degree from The Juilliard School in piano and violin, where he studied with Seymour Lipkin and Glenn Dicterow, respectively. At Juilliard, he was the recipient of the U.S. Department of Education Jacob Javits Fellowship, as well as the William Petschek Piano Scholarship and the Ruth D. Rosenman Memorial Scholarship. Previously, he attended Yale University, receiving a bachelor of science degree in chemistry and physics. Upon graduation he was awarded the New Prize by the fellows of Jonathan Edwards College. During his tenure at Yale he studied with Boris Berman, Paul Kantor, and Ida Kavafian.

Mr. Chen was recently appointed as associate professor of piano and deputy dean at the Yale School of Music. Previously, Mr. Chen was on the piano faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, where he was also associate director. He is artistic director of the chamber music program at Hotchkiss Summer Portals.

Péter Bársony, viola
Born in Budapest, violist Péter Bársony graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in 2000. He is a founding member of the Akadémia and Somogyi String quartets, was member of the Keller String Quartet. In addition, he has been the solo violist of Concerto Budapest since 2000. An international performer, Bársony’s chamber partners represent the best young European pianists and string players. A frequent participant in international festivals, Bársony has performed at Santander, Ravinia Festival, Amadeo, Mostly Mozart, and Schubertiada, Brionnais. He has been a guest principal violist with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the
Osaka Century Orchestra among others. A 2004 recipient of an Annie Fischer Grant, he is a passionate advocate for contemporary music, dedicating several concerts annually to new music. He is also a member of the Chamber Ensemble for Contemporary Music. A faculty member at his alma mater Franz Liszt Academy of Music since 2004, Bársony also teaches master classes around the world. His latest compact disc, released in 2010, includes the complete works for viola by Hungarian violinist and composer Jenő Hubay, including the
Concerto for viola and orchestra. In 2013 he will make his Carnegie Hall debut with the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein.

Hye-Jin Kim, violin
Born in Seoul, Korea, Hye-Jin Kim began studying violin at age eight. At 14 she entered Philadelphia’s famed Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Jaime Laredo and Ida Kavafian. She earned her Master’s at the New England Conservatory (NEC) as a recipient of prestigious Emma V. Lambrose Presidential Scholarship.

Dedicated to engaging local communities with classical music, Kim frequently performs in classrooms, senior citizen or community centers. She has also served as a cultural representative from Korea to Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. A multiple prize winner, Kim won the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition at 19. Five years later she was the winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition where she was lauded for her supremely musical playing. In the 2010-11 season, Kim made her debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as part of the CAG winners series. As a soloist, she has performed
with orchestras in Philadelphia, New Jersey, London, and Seoul. A passionate chamber musician, Ms. Kim's collaborative appearances include Music at Menlo, Madison Chamber Music Festival (GA), Chamber Music at Gretna, Kansas City's Sunflower Festival, and a spring 2011 tour with Musicians from Marlboro.

Clancy Newman, cello
Cellist Clancy Newman has a dual career as both performer and composer. As a cellist, he has performed as soloist in most of America’s major cities, and has been a member of Chamber Music Society Two of Lincoln Center and Musicians from Marlboro. He is currently a member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians and the WeissKaplanNewman Trio. As a composer, he has been featured on the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s “Double Exposure” series and the Chicago Chamber Musicians’ “Freshly Scored” series, and has received numerous distinguished commissions.

Competitions Mr. Newman has won include Gold Medal for Strings at the Dandenong Youth Festival in Australia, the Juilliard School Cello Competition, the National Federation of Music Clubs competition, and the Astral Artists National Auditions. Under Astral’s auspices, his String Quartet (2002), Sonata for Cello and Piano (2004), and “Four Seasons” for cello and chamber orchestra (2005) received their world premieres. He premiered his Four Pieces for Solo Cello (2003) at the Violoncello Society in New York City. He has received commissions from Astral Artists, the Barnett Foundation, the Carpe Diem String Quartet, and the UBS Chamber Music Festival of Lexington.

Upon receiving a Master of Music Degree from The Juilliard School, he became one of the first students to complete the five-year exchange program between Juilliard and Columbia University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.

Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violin
Violinist Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu enjoys a versatile career as a soloist and a chamber musician. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she received the Milka Violin Artist Fellowship, and a 2010 graduate of Thornton School of Music at the University of California, Wu has performed extensively in Taiwan, Europe and North America, at such prominent venues as Carnegie Hall and Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center. In the spring of 2009, she appeared as guest violist with the Orion String Quartet during their tour of Asia. Her summer festival appearances include Marlboro Music Festival, Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival, and La Jolla
Music Society Summerfest. She has also served as a chamber music coach at the ENCORE School for Strings. Wu is currently an adjunct professor of violin and chamber music at the Thornton School of Music.

The Hotchkiss School is located at 11 Interlaken Road in Lakeville, Connecticut. Visit www.hotchkissportals.org for more details or call (860)435-3775 for concert information.