Issues → July/August 2009 → Food →
Lenox, MA: Tanglewood Picnic
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* If you're going to lug a coffee table and chairs, try to find pieces on wheels or ones that strap to your back or fold. Consider items that serve a double purpose: a hard-topped cooler, for example, as a prep table.
* Bring a big quilt, pillows, and real linens. They look and feel nicer, and they're "greener." Just make sure you get them into the wash right away when you're back home.
* Pickled, cured, and salted foods are great options: roasted peppers, cornichons, mustards, pates, and sausages. And the more no-utensils-necessary foods the better, such as sandwiches, or cold soups that can be served in small handled cups.
* If guests ask whether they can bring anything, suggest a cooler of ice. There's never enough.
* If you use bug spray, try grass-friendly tea-tree oil. Most commercial sprays will ruin grass.
* Don't forget about cleanup. Bring garbage bags for trash, plus plastic containers and bags for leftovers.
Cheese Plates
What's the best way to put a platter of cheeses together? You might take any of several directions, Matthew Rubiner assures us. "I like to go by geography," he notes. "Today we went with New England cheeses, but you could opt for French, Italian, or Californian--whatever you like. Or opt for all goat, all sheep, or all cow's-milk cheeses. You could arrange things from mild to super stinky--say, fresh goat cheese such as Rawson Brook Farm chevre from Monterey, Massachusetts, to Jasper Hill Farm's Winnemere from Greensboro, Vermont. Think about the time of year, who'll be eating the cheeses, and what else you're serving."
A Good Read
Tanglewood: A Group Memoir (Amadeus Press, 2008; $29.95), by Peggy Daniel, tells the story of the BSO's magical summer home.
For an excerpt: Tanglewood: A Group Memoir
Special offer: Order Tanglewood: A Group Memoir from Music Dispatch and get 25% off, plus free shipping. Enter promo code NY9 at checkout. Free shipping is by least expensive ship method. Free shipping applies to U.S. orders only. Offer expires September 30, 2009.
When You Go
Rubiner's Cheesemongers & Grocers
264 Main St.
Great Barrington, MA
413-528-0488
Tanglewood (June 26-Sept. 6)
297 West St.
Lenox, MA
617-266-1492, 413-637-1600 (summer season)
bso.org
tanglewood.org
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