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By TINKY WEISBLAT

I know I have written a lot of late about comfort food … but we’re smack dab in comfort food time of year. So today, I’m tackling one of my favorite spur-of-the moment comfort foods.The late food editor and writer Judith Jones identified certain foods...

By CRIS CARL

When I was growing up in southern Pennsylvania, I used to see plenty of grape arbors in my neighborhood. Some grew grapes for the landscaping affect, others I’m sure ate and made their grapes into wine.Joyce and Phillip Wiley purchased their property...

By DIANE BRONCACCIO

In February 2020, documentary photographer and photo preservationist Terri Sevene Cappucci of Turners Falls was winnowing down decades of photographic materials in her scrupulously clean studio when she was offered about 4,000 glass-plate negatives...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Wells Corner Store on Main Street in Charlemont was dark for as long as I can remember. Perhaps it was dark when John A. Wells started selling dry goods in the building in 1877. Today the new Wells Provisions is full of light, thanks to the hard work...

By BILL DANIELSON

Happy Memorial Day everyone!  If I could have one wish for you on this day, it would be that you are able to spend some quiet time sitting outside on a beautiful morning in a place filled with birds. Perhaps that means you are sitting in the backyard...

By DIANE BRONCACCIO

SHELBURNE FALLS — A year before shocking charges of child molestation were levied against Richard Lavigne in 1991, I had two chances to meet with the then-admired priest of St. Joseph’s Parish.First, a parish member recommended I see him for...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I planned to write today about a local restaurant — and I will visit that spot in another column — but I was distracted and entranced last week when I passed a farm stand that featured fresh local asparagus. I couldn’t wait to buy and cook some green...

By BILL DANIELSON

Last week, I started a two-part segment on woodpeckers. I took a look at the northern flicker, which is a bird that is somewhat uncommon in our area during the winter months. This is because flickers like to eat ants and they like to look for them on...

By BILL DANIELSON

Most of my wildlife adventures occur outside. The fields, forests, rivers, ponds and meadows of the area have provided me with an endless supply of ideas and topics for discussion and I have relied on that sort of diversity for the entirety of my...

By BILL DANIELSON

I’ve started my morning commute to work again, and for the past week, I’ve been listening to the daily weather summary on NPR. Covering a wide area of southern New England, this rundown of atmospheric conditions and regional statistics is always very...

By PAT LEUCHTMAN

The importance of pollinators in our own gardens and in public gardens like those at the Energy Park and the John Zon Community Center cannot be over estimated. Pollinators are vital to a healthy environment.That being said, there are other insects...

By BILL DANIELSON

In 1985, the piping plover (Charadrius melodus) was granted protected status under the Endangered Species Act. To make a very long story short, a species that had thrived along the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada for hundreds of...

By BILL DANIELSON

A lifetime of learning about birds has given me a fairly respectable database of knowledge between my ears. Time is the real key to this sort of learning, but opportunity can be just as important. I live in the Temperate Zone well inland from the...

By CHIP AINSWORTH

Marty Tirrell was in Greenfield District Court earlier this month, aptly on Friday the 13th. He appeared before Judge William Mazanec III and pleaded not guilty to swindling a Red Sox fan out of $4,750 worth of tickets.A disgruntled Iowa acquaintance...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

One of the reasons that I love writing about food is that ideas can come from just about anyone or anything I encounter.Childhood memories have spurred me to make my mother’s favorite casserole and my grandfather’s favorite fudge. Neighbors, friends...

By CHIP AINSWORTH

Fifty-four years ago this month, on a cool, cloudy October afternoon in South Deerfield, Police Chief Jim Rosenthal got a phone call from Charlie Sadoski, the caretaker of the 100-year-old Mt. Sugarloaf Summit House. What he heard shocked him: A young...

By Jonathan Adolph

Even if you were never an avid summer camper, it’s easy to see the appeal of ESCAPE Camp, the weeklong overnight program for adults held at Amherst College in early June. Just the idea of living like a kid in your own college dorm room, eating what...

By PAT LEUCHTMAN

Ashfield resident Beverly Duncan has been overwhelmed with new ideas since her retirement from Mohawk Trail Regional School, something that is evidenced by the decorated walls of her studio.One wall is covered with framed botanical paintings. Other...

By PAT LEUCHTMAN

My new low-maintenance pollinator garden is full of fragrant flowers that bloom over the course of the season. Though I didn’t choose these flowers on purpose, I was pleased to find that so many fragrant plants have additional benefits — especially...

By BILL DANIELSON

I realize now that I got so swept up by the fact that I had set a new personal birding record for the month of November that I completely forgot I was in the middle of a series on sparrow identification. I was all set to culminate the series with the...