Now, you've got to spend a little bit more for it, because it's not raised on these big farms. But, it's well worth it. And if you eat less of it, and it you eat less meat in general, it's worth splurging on the real stuff. I would say, 'less is more'. I like tying my chicken together, trussing it. But, you can just tie the legs together if that makes you happy, just to keep the legs close together so the breast stays nice and moist.

Just roast it off at a high temperature, basting it occasionally. I like to fill it with a handful of rosemary, maybe half a lemon, maybe half a bulb of garlic. And, then just baste it. Turn it until it's done all the way through. You want your breast to be 165 degrees. Get yourself an instant-read thermometer, and that takes the guesswork out of everything.

I also like whole smoking it on my Weber. You can smoke it on any grill, and it takes a little bit more time and gets kind of a wild taste to it. I like to serve smoked chicken with a variety of things. Sometimes I take herbs and womp them up in a food processor with some lemon and garlic, sometimes a little anchovy paste and mustard to make a piquante kind of Italian herb sauce, and that's delicious drizzled over chicken. Just do it by feel, you don't have to worry about a recipe.

When you're cooking sustainably-raised meat, you're either cooking cuts you're not used to, or you're cooking the whole animal, as in chicken. You're less likely to get breast, breast, breast and more likely to get the whole bird. And, that's where the flavor is anyway … it bastes the whole bird.

There are lots of things you can do to season a whole chicken. One of the things I like to do is make a terrific Asian glaze for it. Put some farm fresh scallions inside, a little bit of ginger, and then baste it with a little hoisin sauce and soy. a little bit of hot chili flakes or cayenne – get a little hot to the salty – and then just baste and glaze until you have a nice, beautiful Asian glaze that's just absolutely yummy.

It's your choice in terms of how you want to cook a whole chicken. Whole chicken in France is really considered 'company food.' One of the things I like to do is make a variety of kinds of chicken stew. Like chicken bouillabaise is great. First, give it a nice sear in a pan, and then put in all your garden fresh vegetables after it's been stewing for a while. And a little bit of chicken stock and tomatoes. And then at the end add whatever's in season. I like adding fennel to chicken, with a little bit of Pernod, it's delicious in the fall.

Chicken and ratatouille is fabulous. Ratatouille is really just a great combination of the best of the summer harvest: Eggplant, peppers, zucchini, onions, and you can just stew that up with your chicken and it's absolutely divine.

 A longtime advocate of seasonal cooking and local eating, Amy Cotler is the founding director of Berkshire Grown, which became an early model for local farm and food advocacy. She consults, teaches and lectures nationally on food and farm to table issues. Her new book brings together her culinary and local food advocacy experience: The Locavore Way, Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Foods is a people’s solution to The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a hands-on guide to seeking out and savoring local foods.

 It's great in traditional Indian pudding,  and obviously your classic pancakes. I like it in combination with a local cider, to make a pancake sauce, boiled down together – absolutely delicious. And, it seems to just love blueberries. The combination is divine, if you saute up come blueberries and put in a little maple syrup to sweeten them, and pour them over yogurt, or pour them over ice cream, it just can't be beat. Something about the combo is delightful.

Maple syrup can be used to sweeten that great sun tea you're going to make over the summer. When you take beautiful, fresh mint and you stick it out in a glass jar, and let it become mint tea, with your kids, and they get to see how tea is made and you sweeten it with maple syrup. It's a very distinctive flavor, and 'B' is a lot more flavorful and intense than 'A' Grade. It's also less expensive. So, why not go for 'B' and go for that distinction?

Another thing I like to do with maple syrup, and I think a lot of people enjoy this,  is any kind of hot grain cereal – whether you're taking cornmeal and you're just simmering it up with water to make a nice cornmeal mush breakfast, which is a traditional New England breakfast, to sweeten it with that and some classic spices like dried ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg, or whether you're using it in oatmeal. Or  just get a locally-raised grain. I've gotten local whole barley and local wheat that I've used with maple syrup to sweeten as a porridge. And that's a really classic porridge dating back forever. And delicious.

 A longtime advocate of seasonal cooking and local eating, Amy Cotler is the founding director of Berkshire Grown, which became an early model for local farm and food advocacy. She consults, teaches and lectures nationally on food and farm to table issues. Her new book brings together her culinary and local food advocacy experience: The Locavore Way, Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Foods is a people’s solution to The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a hands-on guide to seeking out and savoring local foods. www.amycotler.com

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