MILLERTON — McEnroe Market and Eatery announced Thursday, Feb. 8, that it would be closing its doors at 5400 Route 22.
For 10 years, the little market has stood among the rolling green hills and the long, low, red-shingled building.
At first, it seemed only to be closed for a winter break. Then came the final word: “After a decade of serving the community with farm-fresh produce and delectable organic cuisine, McEnroe Farm Market and Eatery announces its closure.”
McEnroe Organic Farm, which has been around since 1952, will continue farming organic food but will now only be distributing it wholesale, for local restaurants and food markets.
McEnroe Organic Compost and Soils at 194 Coleman Station Road will remain open, and will continue to serve the public for bulk and bagged soil purchase.
McEnroe Market and Eatery was known to locals for baked goods, sandwiches, fresh salads, frozen yogurt, prepared foods, cherry and oatmeal cookies, fries and array of ciders.
The produce was always fresh, and given that there is no retail food market in Millerton, farm stands are important to the locals, and McEnroe’s was a favorite. It was also relied on as a place to get plants in the spring, sunflowers in August, and pumpkins in the fall.
When asked why the business was closing, Olivia Skeen, manager of development, said that COVID-19 had an impact, as did climate change and other factors that caused financial constraints.
Skeen said, “We are currently determining how we will use our market location going forward.”
She also wanted the community to know that the compost facility will remain open and that CSA options will be available. Despite the farm’s turn towards wholesale, she said, any excess produce will be offered to the public via social media.
The farm will still give public tours, and all of its educational programs, which started in 2007, including apprenticeships, will be in place. Its commitment to the community remains intact, said Skeen.
On behalf of the McEnroe and Durst families, Skeen said:
“We deeply appreciate the community support we have received throughout the years. The feedback we have received of our market and eatery closing is a testament of our integral part of the community over the years.”
Judith O'Hara Balfe
McEnroe Farm Market and Eatery
The Stone Round Barn at Hancock Shaker Village.
My husband Tom, our friend Jim Jasper and I spent the day at Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A cold, blustery wind shook the limbs of an ancient apple tree still clinging to golden fruit. Spitting sleet drove us inside for warmth, and the lusty smells of manure from the goats, sheep, pigs and chickens in the Stone Round Barn filled our senses. We traveled back in time down sparse hallways lined with endless peg racks. The winter light was slightly crooked through the panes of old glass. The quiet life of the Shakers is preserved simply.
Shakers referred to their farm as the City of Peace.Jennifer Almquist
Originally founded in England, the Shakers brought their communal religious society to the New World 250 years ago. They sought the perfection of heaven on earth through their values of equality and pacifism. They followed strict protocols of behavior and belief. They were celibate and never married, yet they loved singing and ecstatic dancing, or “shaking,” and often adopted orphans. To achieve their millennialist goal of transcendental rapture, we learned, even their bedclothes had to conform: One must sleep in a bed painted deep green with blue and white coverings.
Shakers believed in gender and racial equality and anointed their visionary founding leader, Mother Ann Lee, an illiterate yet wise woman, as the Second Coming. They embraced sustainability and created practical designs of great utility and beauty, such as the mail-order seed packet, the wood stove, the circular saw, the metal pen, the flat broom and wooden clothespins.
Jennifer Almquist
Blacksmith Peter Kergaravat at work.
Burning coal smelled acrid as the blacksmith fired up his stove to heat the metal rod he was transforming into a hook. Hammer on anvil is an ancient sound. My husband has blacksmithing skills and once made the strap hinges and thumb latches for a friend’s home.
Shaker chairs and rockers are still made today in the woodworker’s shop. They are well made and functional, with woven cloth or rush seats. In the communal living space, or Brick Dwelling, chairs hang from the Shaker pegs that run the length of the hallways, which once housed more than 100 Shakers.
A Shaker chair.Jennifer Almquist
In 1826, the 95-foot Round Stone Barn was built of limestone quarried from the land of the 3,000-acre Hancock Shaker Village. Its unique design allowed a continuous workflow. Fifty cows could stand in a circle facing one another and be fed more easily. Manure could be shoveled into a pit below and removed by wagon and there was more light and better ventilation.
Shakers called us the “people of the world” and referred to their farm as the City of Peace. We take lessons away with us, yearning somehow for their simplicity and close relationship to nature. One Shaker said, “There’s as much reverence in pulling an onion as there is in singing hallelujah.”
A sense of calm came over me as I looked across the fields to the hills in the distance. A woman like me once stood between these long rows of herbs — summer savory, sage, sweet marjoram and thyme — leaned on her shovel brushing her hair back from her eyes, watching gray snow clouds roll down the Berkshires.
More information at hancockshakervillage.org
The Shakers embraced practical designs of great utility and beauty.Jennifer Almquist
