Western MA and Berkshire Region

The Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook

ABOUT THE BOOK

by Elisa Spungen Bildner and Robert Bildner

with Chef Brian Alberg 

Release date: May 19, 2020

You can buy the book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, or through Indie Bound. 

In The Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook: 125 Homegrown Recipes from the New England Hills (The Countryman Press, a division of W. W. Norton & Company; paperback, May 19, 2020), authors Elisa Spungen Bildner and Rob Bildner pay tribute to the dedicated family farmers and farm-to-table chefs in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts and neighboring New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. 

You’ll meet just some of the farmers, chefs, purveyors, and restaurant owners that play a vital role in preserving the agricultural community and the environment through personal profiles and homegrown recipes—125 in all.

Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook Cover

Here’s just a sampling of the delicious (and kitchen-tested) recipes:

  • Breakfast (Farm Hash with Poached Eggs; Haven’s Morning Glory Muffins)
  • Salads (Watermelon and Feta Salad; Kale and Peanut Salad)
  • Soups (Chilled Sweet Corn Soup; Miso Soup with Daikon Radish)
  • Vegetables (Brussels Sprouts with Smoked-Almond Butter; Kimchi Summer Rolls)
  • Sandwiches, Pizza, and Savory Pies (Leek Tarts with Chèvre; Roasted Asparagus and Lemon Ricotta Tartines)
  • Pasta, Grains, and Beans (Carrot Gnocchi; Pinto Bean, Butternut Squash, and Corn Curry)
  • Poultry and Fish (Crispy-Skin Salmon; Chicken Cacciatore with Polenta)
  • Meat (Maple-Cured Pork Tenderloin; Grilled Grass-Fed Top Round London Broil)
  • Desserts and Breads (Dutch-Style Strawberry Rhubarb Pie; Pumpkin Bread)

With its rich farm-to-table heritage, the Berkshires provides a lush backdrop for the photographs of the farms and farmers that appear throughout the book; many of the recipes are also accompanied by an inspiring photo.

What people are saying

Rob and Elisa Bildner’s The Berkshire Farm Table Cookbook is an uplifting celebration of the passionate people who keep agriculture alive in the Berkshires. With 125 straightforward and adaptable recipes inspired by local farmers, you’ll be well-stocked with ideas for making the most of your farmers market haul—all year long.

Danny Meyer

Founder and CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group; Author, Setting the Table

A feast for the eyes and the culinary imagination, each recipe radiates the distinct agricultural landscape, ecology, and communities of the Berkshires. Amidst a tide of global homogenization in food, the book stands as an alluring and uncompromising defense of the local.

Mark Bomford

Director, Yale Sustainable Food Program

Through stories, wonderful photographs and recipes, you’ll get to know the inspiring farmers and farm-to-table chefs of the Berkshires and learn why we in the Berkshires are passionate supporters of small family farms.

Barbara Zheutlin

Former Executive Director, Berkshire Grown, and an advocate for local farmers

The Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook positions the area as not only one of America’s premier cultural destinations, but as a hub for tasty, locally grown foods offered by a community of dedicated farmers and creative chefs.

Emanuel (Manny) Ax

Classical pianist, Tanglewood

Berkshires and Beyond