…”THE HOLY GRAIN” HAS BEEN BESTOWED UPON US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
…but first, let’s begin the story at the beginning. Grains have been the thorns in our sides during the 100 mile challenge. Due to New England’s climate and limited market for them, grain for human consumption isn’t readily found within our 100 mile radius…until now! Ingrid and I had been planning to head out to Williamstown, MA to see the Prendergast in Italy exhibition at the Williams College Museum of Art. We managed to squeeze in a trip yesterday and our itinerary was to head to the exhibit, camp out at Mohawk State Forest on route 2 and then make our way to the Greenfield Farmer’s Market this morning. Since I knew that we were going to be out there, I started searching for farms that may possibly produce grains and most of them were up in VT or ME- out of our 100 mile range…except for a small producer at Upinngil Farm in Gill, MA. I had emailed them earlier in the week and they confirmed that they produced wheat that was sold as flour from their store…a quick glance at our handy 100 mile map confirmed that they were in our radius and we instantly added them to our itinerary…
Friday morning, we packed everything that we thought we would need for a day away from home. We packed all the food, except that we didn’t plan for one thing- rain! We were going to cook dinner that night on a small camp stove but it turned out that the weather would not be cooperating with us. While we were in the Prendergast exhibit, the sky opened up and a deluge ensued, leaving our camping plans in limbo. We got back to the car soaking wet and decided that we would take the short drive over to Mass MoCA over in North Adams to see the Sol LeWitt exhibit (and wait to see if the rain subsides). After dodging some more raindrops to get into the building, we were welcomed by three floors of enormous wall drawings designed by the late LeWitt. The 27,000 square foot building that houses the exhibit was designed exclusively for the installment which is running for the next 25 years! If you’re ever out there it is quite the sight to see! We spent a good two hours wandering around the exhibit while the rain thundered on the tin roof of the building. We realized that camping would probably be out of the picture, so we came up with an alternate plan of driving to Greenfield to see if we could get a room…and to find dinner because we wouldn’t be able to use the camp stove in the hotel room.
Dining out on the 100 mile diet is next to impossible, so we had to loosen the rules a bit and “take one for the team”- a hungry team at that! We ended up going to the People’s Pint in downtown Greenfield which makes their own beer and soda and also serves some locally raised products. The place was a little busy, but after a 10 minute wait we were seated and placed our order. We both shared a “ploughman’s plate” that consisted of a brie-like blue cheese, bread, cherry tomatoes and succotash. This didn’t last too long- everything was excellent and Ingrid was revelling in the moment because it involved bread. Next up was a burger and short ribs- both meats came from a farm in nearby Shelburne and most of the veggies were local as well. While the burger was good, it was the short ribs that blew us away. They were braised in molasses and then finished on the grill which created a caramelized shell on the succulent, soft inner meat. The ribs were served on a bed of baked beans with braised chard and an ear of corn. I can’t profess how good this dish was! Dessert caused a small conundrum as there were so many choices! Ingrid settled on the double chocolate cream cake and some local ice cream and I had the raspberry buttermilk layer cake. The pieces were rather huge, but we managed to finish everything- Ingrid being the confectionery expert thought hers was the better of the two. Not feeling too guilty that we cheated on the diet, we headed back to the hotel to watch the Red Sox get drubbed and fell asleep satiated. Oh- if you ever go to the People’s Pint it is cash and personal check only…no credit cards are accepted.
We woke up todayand headed over to the Saturday Farmer’s market in Greenfield- right in front of the town hall. One of the reasons why we wanted to hit this market was that there was a producer which makes cheese from milk that they produce right on their own farm. Chase Hill Farm from Warwick, MA (coincidence?) had a bunch of cheeses available, so we ended up getting some feta, cheddar, a parmesean-like hard cheese and a farmstead cheese. They also had veal that they raise for sale as well, so we stocked up with some ground veal and veal cutlets. The market was pretty standard- tomatoes, carrots, etc. but we found some leeks and pears that we haven’t seen here in RI. After we poked around, we headed up to Gill to hopefully get some grains.
We made it up to Upinngill (clever!) farm in about 15 minutes and we were totally excited that our wish had come true in the form of whole wheat flour and wheat berries. They started growing wheat on the request of a local baker and eventually starting making it available to the public as well. We ended up getting about 8 pounds of wheat flour and 5 pounds of wheat berries. The berries can be used in various ways and even ground into flour as well. The farm also sells milk products and a whole host of vegetables and fruit- we ended up walking away with a watermelon along with our coveted flour…well worth the side trip! The farm also does mail order, so we’ll have a supply for any future 100 mile endeavors!
-Josh
