PANETTONE

For the holiday season, Richard bakes and giftwraps the traditional Italian holiday bread Panettone.

He begins by creating his own mix of raisins, candied orange and lemon peels, vanilla and honey.

Making Panettone is labor-intensive because the Italian levain (starter) is cultivated every 4 hours over several days prior to the final dough mix. This slow-staged fermentation creates a delicate flavor with an airy, light bread interior. Richard's attention to detail creates an exceptional Panettone.

His staff weighs out measured portions of the dough and places them in large paper rounds for baking. A stick pierces each of the rounds so the Panettone can be hung upside down after baking.

Once the bread has risen, it's coated with a cocoa and almond topping.

Powdered sugar is shaken over each Panettone prior to baking.

As soon as it's removed from the oven, the Panettone is hung upside down to keep it from collapsing on itself. Richard has developed a unique process for hanging the bread, and the image below shows staff hanging the Panettone upside down to cool.

Below is a photo of the Panettone hanging upside-down, shot looking up at the bread.

Once cool, the Panettone is wrapped and sent to market. For a list of markets see the Berkshire Mountain Bakery Web site to order online or by phone from the bakery. (Notice in the sliced Panettone below that the cocoa moved to the bottom when it was poured over the bread early on in the process.)

STOLLEN

Richard also bakes Stollen in November and December - a Dutch holiday bread with a candied fruit mix of raisins, apricots, chrystallized ginger, candied orange peel, orange and lemon zest, spices and rum. His Stollen also has almond paste inside it, and the photo below shows Richard preparing the almond paste for dividing and inserting in the dough.

The fruit mix is folded by hand into the Stollen dough until it's evenly distributed. After a rest, the dough is divided into portions, rounded into a boule shape and left to rise. Almost fully risen, a crease is pressed into the dough ball and a portion of almond paste is folded into the loaf.

Once baked inside the Stollen, the almond paste is rich, so it's often spread across a slice of the bread.

Starting in 1994, Lynn Mordas, owner of Dashing Star Farm, began developing a unique cross breed of sheep (mainly using the English Romney and Border Leicester breeds), creating an absolutely gorgeous palette of natural colors for wool.

Lynn regularly attends the Amenia Farmers Market and the Millerton Farmers Market in Duchess County NY, as well as sheep and wool festivals in the region – including the big one in Rhinebeck (see location specifics below).

The Romney x Border Leicester or Coopworth fleece sometimes has a crimp to it, and Lynn sells one-ply, two-ply and three-ply yarns. She sells the yarn in skeins by the ounce and   is emphatic that the yarn has no knots. The sheep are sheared at the farm by Mike Gates, and then she does the skirting and pre-processing, to clean vegetative matter and larger bits of dirt from the wool. Scouring, picking, carding and spinning of the wool are all done in Michigan.  

Lynn also sells roving wool for hand spinning or felting, and she makes pillows stuffed with wool. The wool is naturally processed, just like the yarn, and the roving and wool batting for felting, quilts and pillows are sold by the pound. Color variations for the wool range from brown to natural, through a full grey scale.

Dashing Star Farms’ sheepskins are also very beautiful, with extraordinary natural shades of white/cream and brown.

Dashing Star has recently introduced a line or pure-bred Coopworth sheep, developed originally in New Zealand, and Finnsheep, known for the tenderest meat (Dashing Star Farm also sells lamb.) The livestock is raised organically, free-ranged on rotated pastures, with a diet supplemented with locally grown whole grains.  New Zealand   New

In addition to her work as a fiber farmer, Lynn is also heavily involved in historic preservation in the region and serves as Executive Director of the Friends of Coleman Station. Dashing Star Farm is located in the Coleman Station Historic District in the town of North East, which is an agriculturally-based historic district. The barn is on the historic register – built in 1840, it had restoration work done in 1925, then again in 1994.

Lynn also participated in the Cornell University LEAD NY program – a 2 year certificate program for agricultural professsionals. Her daughter, Laura Mordas-Schenkein, is a working partner of the farm. Laura also works for Clean Plates, (www.cleanplates.com) which reviews restaurants and food retail establishments based on nutritional standards and local and organic products.

To read more about Dashing Star Farm’s edible products in Real Eats Magazine, link to http://nomadeditions.com/real-eats/2011-09-16/index.html

Dashing Star Farm contact information:

www.dashingstarfarm.com/

dashingstarfarmer@gmail.com

Where you can find Dashing Star Farm products:

New York State Sheep and Wool Festival (www.sheepandwool.com) – Rhinebeck (Oct. 15 & 16)

Chancellor’s Sheep and Wool Showcase – Germantown, NY

Amenia Farmers Market

Millerton Farmers Market

Silamar Farm, Millerton, NY

DeCicco’s Family Markets, Brewster and Ardsley, NY

Various events in the Hudson Valley and NYC metro area throughout the year. 

Wool resources in the region:

Dutchess County Sheep and Wool Growers Association – www.sheepandwool.com

The INTERVIEW posted above contains the following segments:

Segment 1: Local Food Movement (5:26-4:44)

Segment 2: Food Is All About Relationships (4:41-3:11)

Segment 3: Challenges Facing Small Farmers (3:14-1:20)

Segment 4: Shopping & Cooking Locally (1:18-:34)

Segment 5: Meals That Have Life in Them (:33-end)

For more information on Amy, see http://www.AmyCotler.com

Maureen Sullivan and Mitch Feldmesser own Left Field Farm, located in Middlefield, MA.

Located in Great Barrington, MA, Cafe Adam is owned and operated by Adam Zieminski … www.cafeadam.org

A project of Berkshire Grown to support Farm-to-Pantry partnerships. Funding for this production is made possible by Berkshire Bank. (www.berkshiregrown.org)

The Old Inn on the Green in New Marlborough, MA, is owned and operated by Peter Platt and Meredith Kennard. (www.oldinn.com)