A favorite recipe from Berkshire Food Co-op General Manager, Troy Bond.
This Mom Shares Genius Snack Hacks
September Featured Artist - Nicole Webster Clark
An art instructor, aspiring poet, and mixed media artist, Nicole, creates in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. A gem + mineral enthusiast, eclectic solitary, and consciousness explorer she believes in magic and is moved by the beauty of the nocturnal sky, astronomical phenomena, metaphysics, and cosmology. Nicole attempts to unfold the delicate fabric of self-conscious epistemic moments of knowing. The workings of the universe within ourselves and around us fascinates her while contemplations of these mysteries manifest as conversions populated with textural vibrations, colorful swells and rhythmic compositions in her artwork. Nicole is a practitioner of herbal medicine, empyreal dreamer, and an alchemical philosopher who dwells in a derelict apple orchard surrounded by an extensive collection of houseplants, geological specimens and creature companions.
August Featured Artist - Ashley Yang-Thompson
The product of a Chinese immigrant and a white polygamist from Fort Scott, Kansas, Ashley Yang-Thompson (aka Miss Expanding Universe) questions stereotypes with humor and irreverence. She works in a wide range of media, from hyperrealist oil paintings to coloring book memoirs to VHS poetry. In the past year, her videos were selected for The Museum of Moving Image’s Changing the Picture series, which highlights artists of color who are bringing diverse voices to the screen. Her video art, in conjunction with her zines and letters, is also currently being exhibited in the San Francisco Asian Art Museum’s After Hope: Videos of Resistance exhibition. In January of 2020, she was part of two person show at Gund Gallery museum, where she displayed her zines and letters alongside Axis Mundo, the first historical examination of queer Chicanx artists. She has been included in shows in New York City, Taiwan, Chile, and Philadelphia. She is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Equity Fellowship and Mass MoCA’s Assets for Artists grant. She has been awarded full fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center, Ox-Bow, and The Wassaic Project.
The pictures displayed are excerpts from Miss Expanding Universe’s growing collection of Worm House zines. Her “graphic-novel-strip-tease thing” revives zine culture’s nonconformist ability to disseminate transgressive ideas and socio-political commentary. Miss Expanding Universe’s paintings, zines, and ephemera confront issues of identity, mental health, and the pain-staking creative process through the lens of her socially annihilating humor. Please take note that Worm House would not be possible without her assistant/chauffeur/platonic husband/muse, Uncle Fingers and her lesbian lover, Gum Slut.
July Featured Artist - Margaret Buchte
“Painting in oils with passion and joy for over 20 years. Always striving to capture the essence and beauty of a scene under dramatic light. Recently Margaret has enjoyed very much painting in watercolors, acrylics, and pastels.
Margaret Buchte is a local resident of Great Barrington, MA, in the Berkshires and a self-taught artist who draws her inspiration from the beauty of the Berkshires and beyond.
Streetscapes, historic buildings, places of interest along with nature also an irresistible draw as well as landscapes of mountains, rivers and seascapes. She also paints portraits of people in oils, watercolors and pastels and charcoal. Animal portraits and house portraits are also work she accepts for commissions. Mediums that she enjoys working in are oils, watercolors, acrylics,, pastels and charcoal.
Margaret has displayed her work with the Lenox Fine Art Gallery for five years until they closed. She has had solo exhibition shows at Berkshire South, Great Barrington; Lee Library; Mason Library in Great Barrington and the Douglas Library in Canaan, CT. CTSB TV showed two televised interviews on Margaret discussing her artwork on two different occasions. One was held at her solo show at Berkshire South and the other was held in the Lee Library. Margaret's work has been accepted in numerous juried shows in the Berkshire area, most recently, the Berkshire Arts Festival, at Butternut, Great Barrington, MA, and her painting titled 'Finding A Good Spot' was displayed on one of the Berkshire Arts Festival's posters. Margaret has accepted commissions to paint in oil, watercolors and pastels and charcoal portraits of people and homes with landscape and successfully completed the commissioned artwork to the satisfaction of her clients.
Her highly sought after 'Note Cards' and paper products from her collection of over 100 oils, watercolors, acrylics and pastel images are available all over Berkshire County: Most notably at Tanglewood, Shaker Village, The Mount, Norman Rockwell Museum, Red Lion Inn, Williams and Son, Bookloft, Lenox Print and Mercantile, Purple Plume, Villager Gifts, Sheffield Pottery, Bella Flora, Berkshire Coop Market, Elm Street Market and JWS Art Supplies.
During the year 2015 and currently Margaret is represented by the Berkshire Art Gallery, 80 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, MA and teaches Drawing and also Painting in Oils, Watercolors, Acrylics and Pastels to Adults/Teens/Children - all skill levels at the Renaissance Arts and Wellness Center, 420 Stockbridge Road, Great Barrington. Call Renaissance to sign up for a class (413) 528 9600.
Margaret also teaches watercolor painting at Noble Horizons in Salisbury, CT to Assisted Living Residents.
Margaret continues to paint with a 'Quirky Twist' for her subject matter with much enthusiasm and the diversity of her work comes through in a most delightful way and promises to be a valuable collector's item in years to come.”
We're taking action. Will you?
Black Lives Matter.
George Floyd's murder is not a stand-alone exhibit of police brutality in our country, it's part of a relentless pattern.
The staff at the Berkshire Food Co-op can not pretend that everything is okay. We have a voice and it is time that we use it to speak out against racial injustice, violence and discrimination. As a community supported organization that constantly works to empower our neighbors, we recognize it is our responsibility to oppose racism by taking action.
Berkshire Food Co-op stands in solidarity with Black communities across the country. It's our responsibility as humans to support our community - specifically the Black community who is hurting and needs our support right now.
We have chosen to donate to Campaign Zero, a platform to end police brutality in America, and we encourage you to do the same. We challenge you to speak up, take action, be an ally and listen.
We call upon you to support peaceful demonstrations in any way you can. Donations and protests are important to the movement, but we know these may not be an option for everyone. Here are just a few things you can do to take action in other ways:
Donate medical supplies for those working as medics at the protests
Make or buy some food to feed people who are part of the protests
Volunteer to distribute food and water
Educate those around you
Help with transportation to and from protests
Offer to watch the children of organizers or protestors
Share links to resources - bail funds, safety precautions, updates
Write articles in support of the protests
Organize within your job or community for equitable practices
And confront racism wherever you see it.
Standing up against racism may sometimes feel uncomfortable, but our current reality needs to change. Your help in dismantling systemic racism is a critical step.
As a grocery store, one way we can help is by supporting Black-owned businesses - especially now in the midst of a global health crisis that is disproportionately affecting Black communities (21% of Black-owned businesses have said they don’t think they’ll survive the pandemic, compared to 5% of white-owned businesses).
Our plan is to increase the presence of Black-owned businesses on our own shelves. This plan runs parallel to the Fifteen Percent Pledge, which calls on major retailers to designate 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses.
We pledge to bring 50 more Black-owned businesses to our shelves by July 1, 2020. We’ll be highlighting these brands on social media as they hit the shelves, and you’ll find signs next to the product in the store to let you know who’s behind the great food you’re about to buy.
An April Update from Troy Bond, General Manager
Share the HEALTH: A message from Troy
March Featured Artist - Jem Taylor
“My name is Jem Taylor and I’m a junior at the Berkshire Waldorf High School. I am a budding photographer with a passion for foreign travel and culture. Proceeds from this show will contribute to my Spanish class trip to Costa Rica this April and further my photography projects while there.”
