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By TINKY WEISBLAT

January is National Soup Month. This designation makes perfect sense to me. When the weather turns cold, as it often does at this time of year, I can sip and serve soup at any hour of the day or night.Last week I prepared one of my favorite hearty...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

On New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, we celebrate both the old and the new. We are looking — like the Roman god Janus, for whom January was named — in two directions.To me, this means that the transition to a new year often involves making new-to-me...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Hanukkah begins Wednesday night, Christmas night. I love having the two holidays coincide, which they don’t always do since Hanukkah is determined by a lunar calendar. I celebrate both so it tickles me to wallow in celebration and to sing Christmas...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I recently read two books by former ministers in our area whom I am lucky enough to have known. Both books are full of life and color, and both show a sensitivity to nature. That’s about all they have in common, other than my hearty recommendation...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

“You don’t have to have a big, fancy family tree, just some really nice stories,” Becky Baxter Clark of Deerfield recently told me. “Those are the ones that the kids remember.”Becky herself has a lot of family stories. She recently shared some of them...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I recently put out a call on Facebook for local folks who have beloved holiday food traditions. I received a lot of responses, some of which will appear in this paper in the weeks and years to come.Jeanne Douillard of Greenfield remembers both...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

This paper once had a book reviewer devoted to poetry, Trish Crapo of Leyden. A poet herself, Trish was better qualified to write about poetry than I.Unfortunately, at this point I’m the only regular book reviewer the Recorder has. I don’t have a...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Sometimes the introductory essays I write for this column seem at first to have nothing to do with food. I promise that if you read patiently, you’ll get a recipe at the end of this one.A couple of months ago, as I was giving a talk to a library about...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Frankly, I hoped for a different outcome to our recent presidential election. I woke up on Nov. 6 feeling disappointed, sleepy, and grumpy.To make life more challenging, I needed to prepare a talk to give to the Ashfield Council on Aging the next day...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

A few years ago I wrote in this column about my friend Pam Gerry of Charlemont. It was January, National Soup Month, and she made her Sausage, Kale, and Cabbage Soup. I always associate Pam with soup, although she can make many other delicious...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

“The Bridge of Flowers” by Phil Billitz (CreateSpace, 91 pages, $24.95).Phil Billitz of Shelburne Falls published his picture book “The Bridge of Flowers: A Garden of Inspiration” in 2020. At that point, COVID-19 had shut down most local businesses...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I have always loved the Native American tradition of giving each month’s full moon a special name that celebrates the season of the year. November’s full moon, which falls this coming Friday night, is the beaver moon.It marks the time in autumn when...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

The town of Leverett is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. The festivities have included a cake-filled birthday party in March, a plant walk, an antique vehicle and equipment show, a quilt show, a July 4 parade and barbecue, and much...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Until recently, there were some products locavores in the Pioneer Valley just couldn’t buy. We had no trouble finding fresh local vegetables, at least during the harvest season. We could purchase some local meat and poultry. Grains were a different...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

When I was 20-ish and my grandmother suffered from Alzheimer’s, few Americans talked about this fogging of the brain. Today, thank goodness, many people share their Alzheimer’s stories ... and although there is still no cure for the disease, we can...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Apples are on my mind. They’re everywhere at this time of year. This coming weekend marks the 30th anniversary of Franklin County Cider Days.A few years ago, I was flummoxed to learn that it says nowhere in the Hebrew Bible that the forbidden fruit...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Corrie Locke-Hardy of Plainfield has a varied work history. She has been a pastry chef, a teacher, and a social-justice education consultant. Most recently, she became a cookbook author with the publication of “The Revolution Will Be Well Fed”...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

We live in an area with abundant local sources of food. Greenfield’s Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew is getting ready to celebrate this year’s harvest with a “100 Mile Dinner.”The dinner will take place next Saturday, Oct. 26, at 5:30 p.m....

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Every once in a while, readers just want to be entertained by a novel. “The Accidental Animal Copy” by Stevie Lynne offers that kind of fun. The book is full of humorous characters and events.Part of a series about the small town of Brownville,...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

A couple weeks ago, I attended a quick-pickling workshop at the Tyler Memorial Library in Charlemont. The library serves both Hawley and Charlemont. Librarian Kim Gabert arranges about one workshop a month.Somehow, I hadn’t managed to get to any of...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

The town of Leverett is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. The festivities have included a cake-filled birthday party in March, a plant walk, an antique vehicle and equipment show, a quilt show, a July 4 parade and barbecue, and much...