Arts & Life
Simple and scrumptious: Welsh Rabbit is neither rabbit nor Welsh, but it’s supreme comfort food
By TINKY WEISBLAT
This week I’m doing for this column what I often do at the end of a long day, cooking something quick and easy and pleasing.
A star is born: Greenfield teen lands starring role first time acting in independent feature film
By CHRIS LARABEE
A Greenfield teen is making his silver screen debut in a new feature-length independent film.
Pride Day on the River returns: Annual event welcomes LGBTQ nature lovers and allies to kayak, raft and celebrate, June 21
BY MADISON SCHOFIELD
Pride Month is here, and to celebrate, LGBTQ+ nature and adventure enthusiasts are invited to gather for a day of paddling on the Deerfield River.
‘The perfect local event’: Coop Concert Series kicks off season of weekly concerts in Energy Park
By LUKE MACANNUCO
Rays of sunshine finally peeked through the clouds onto Energy Park on May 29 as members of the Franklin County Musician’s Cooperative, a non-profit collective of local musicians founded in 2004, worked together to set up the first Coop Concert of the summer.
Go fish: Greenfield Public Library teams up with MassWildlife to offer free fishing equipment rentals
By EVELINE MACDOUGALL
Fun, educational, and surprising things are happening this summer at – and through – the Greenfield Public Library. Although this column focuses on a fishy new pilot project, readers are encouraged to check out GPL offerings to learn about the astounding array of new and ongoing opportunities, including summer reading programs, the Common Seed Project, a community baby shower, free passes to regional museums, and Worldwide Knit in Public Day, coming up on June 14.
Faith Matters: We need to talk about mental health: The call to serve the poor also means serving people who feel lost
By THE REV. JASON A. BURNS
I have met people from all walks of life: wealthy, homeless, famous, not-so-famous, and most everything in between. I have had people tell me their life story while sitting at my son’s Tae Kwon Do practice and I still feel the pain of losing someone who didn’t share the more difficult parts of their life with me. The common denominator in my experiencing of people is that we all long for connection. The people who have shared their stories with me did so not because I could do anything about anything, but because they sensed that I was willing to listen, and the truth is that I was and am willing to listen.
Dine downtown: Amherst Restaurant Week is June 8-12
By SCOTT MERZBACH
A tradition for 28 years, the Taste of Amherst for most of its run brought restaurants to the Town Common in mid-June, with select menu items offered from various tents that attendees could enjoy while listening to live music.
Sounds Local: 1794 Meetinghouse abuzz with excitement: Christine Ohlman, the ‘Beehive Queen,’ returns this Saturday, June 7
By SHERYL HUNTER
In 2012, the Beehive Queen herself, Christine Ohlman, first performed at the 1794 Meetinghouse on South Main Street in New Salem. She kicked off that season, and since then, she has celebrated more summers at this historic venue than she can remember.
Speaking of Nature: Ghosts in the treetops: Getting to know the great crested flycatcher
By BILL DANIELSON
Anyone who has spent any time birding will understand that there are certain birds that are more difficult to find than others. Anyone who has spent a lifetime birding will understand that there are certain species that are diabolically difficult to find. Anyone who has spent any time trying to photograph birds will understand that there are some species that are diabolically difficult to find, but even more difficult to spot in the viewfinder of a camera. Today I introduce you to just such a bird, the great crested flycatcher (Myiarchuscrinitus).
Meet the Messy Rhubarb Fool: Part Mess, part Fool, it’s basically a rhubarb sundae with a base of meringue
By TINKY WEISBLAT
Some food names are impossible not to love. I have never made a Brown Betty, but I relish the idea of a crumbly dark dessert with a female name. I am still trying to figure out the difference between a Slump and a Grunt. Both appeal to me as descriptors.
Fabric of history: PVMA painting included in the Met’s ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’ exhibition
By CHRIS LARABEE
As the national art and celebrity worlds coalesced at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Met Gala in early May, the exhibition coinciding with the event at the nation’s most-visited museum also featured several local ties.
Profiling ‘The Raider’: New book by UMass history professor Stephen Platt explores the life of a celebrated but unconventional Marine
By STEVE PFARRER
Stephen Platt, who teaches 19th and 20th century Chinese history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, made a significant name for himself with his two last books.
Valley Bounty: A growing Good Bunch: Shelburne Falls farm remains optimistic for the future
By JACOB NELSON
‘It’s usually around April 20 when I plant things in the field that can handle light frost,” says farmer Dan Greene of Good Bunch Farm. “Then there’s about a longer wait until the next big planting date in late May. By then the threat of frost is gone and you can finally plant all the warm-loving crops. After that, you really don’t have any time except for weeding and harvesting.”
Skills to last a lifetime: Growing A Bunch Farm in Ashfield offers two fiber arts and textile summer camps
By EVELINE MACDOUGALL
Local youngsters wishing to develop fiber arts, textile, and other creative skills have a chance at being mentored by an Ashfield woman who – for about a decade – made a living in New York City by running an unusual business. “I made chain mail, professionally,” said Lisa Fortin. Readers may be wondering how Fortin made a go of it; after all, how many knights in shining armor populate the Big Apple?
Faith Matters: There’s nothing artificial about God’s love: What is the role of the church in the age of AI?
By PASTOR BENJIMAN DURFEE
The other day, as the submission date for this column loomed, I opened up the Artificial Intelligence app ChatGPT and asked: “What would readers of a newspaper in Franklin County, Massachusetts want to read in a Faith column written by a Christian clergyperson?”
Orange Historical Society celebrates 130th anniversary: Its 13-decade rise to great age has not been entirely easy
By ANN REED
The familiar 41 North Main St. edifice overlooking the town center has good reason to “stand tall” in 2025. The Orange Historical Society, established in 1895 by eight determined townsfolk, will celebrate its 130th anniversary this year.
Sounds Local: Summer of music starts now: Free annual Montague World Music Mini-Festival is this Sunday
By SHERYL HUNTER
Pack your lawn chairs, polish your dancing shoes, and get those concert tickets for these upcoming must-see shows as June is set to be an exciting month in our local music scene. The Watermelon Wednesday and Coop Concert series are already in full swing, and mark your calendars for the Franklin County Pride celebration in Greenfield on Saturday, June 7. That same date, the 1794 Meetinghouse in New Salem will kick off its summer concert season for 2025.
Speaking of Nature: A great time to be a red eft: Part two in the three-part life cycle of the Eastern spotted newt
By BILL DANIELSON
It has been a long, wet, raw month of May and my outdoor time has been curtailed by rotten weather on the weekends. So, it was with the utmost enthusiasm that I capitalized on a rare rain-free Saturday morning to get down to the Thinking Chair and commune with Nature just a bit. The chickadees (at least one of them) were ready to resume the practice of landing on my hat for some treats and I was very happy about that. I was also keen to see what was going on deeper in the forest, so after an hour of quiet observation time I got up out of my chair and headed into the woods.
‘To Stir, with Love’: Cooking asparagus risotto is a combination of chemistry and magic
By TINKY WEISBLAT
Next week, I plan to feature rhubarb, one of my favorite spring foods. Today, however, I’m returning to that other beloved seasonal product in our area, asparagus, or spearage as a culinary historian friend calls it. A few days ago, I had a hankering to stir it into some risotto.
‘Irving Berlin’s View of the East River’ films in western Mass: Behind the scenes of an indie film set in the Valley
By EMILEE KLEIN
“Reset!”
Your Daily Puzzles
An approachable redesign to a classic. Explore our "hints."
A quick daily flip. Finally, someone cracked the code on digital jigsaw puzzles.
Chess but with chaos: Every day is a unique, wacky board.
Word search but as a strategy game. Clearing the board feels really good.
Align the letters in just the right way to spell a word. And then more words.
