Wed 19 Nov 2008
Peanut Butter Pillows and Wilderness Fantasy Cookies
Posted by lgeorge under Local Places, Williamstown
Posted at 1:41 pmCourtesy of Laura ‘92 (her flickr stream is here). Made by the Clarksburg Bakery baker. Are they still available?
UPDATE: The cookies, Chunky Cheese Bread, and other baked goods once sold at the late, lamented Clarksburg Bakery on Spring Street are made by former Clarksburg baker Jamie Ott at Cricket Creek Farm, a dairy farm with a farm store off Sloan Road in Williamstown, about a mile from the Store at Five Corners. The farm also produces artisanal cheeses (available for online purchase), pasture-raised beef, eggs, and milk, and has a barn space available as a small rental party place.
If you go to the farm’s website, you’ll see a list of stores (including Wild Oats, the co-op on Rt. 2) and restaurants that carry or use some of their items, as well as a weekly bread baking schedule.
Thanks to Tom Bernard ‘92 for the heads up.
November 19th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Mmmm…
Those look like my peanut butter cookies. It just might be time for a batch of those…
November 19th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Let’s see if this works now:
November 19th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
bah, no! never mind.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I think I fixed it, Laura. It looks like I tried to upload it in a tiff format. I’ve changed it to JPEG. I can see it now. Hope others can, too. Apologies for the mistake. I have a lot to learn still.
November 20th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Jamie Ott at Cricket Creek Farm in Williamstown used to work at (own?) the Clarksburg. She still bakes many of their standard items in the bakery at Cricket Creek, including Wilderness Fantasies and Peanut Butter Pillows, although I seem to recall from the last time I was there that they have more prosaic names (”chocolate chip oatmeal raisin” “peanut butter”) but I may be wrong about that.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Tom -
Thank you. I am really pleased to have this information.
It looks like Jamie Ott bakes Chunky Cheese Bread only on Fridays and that special requests are possible, so I could try to call ahead to Cricket Creek and have some bread saved for me if I were going to Williamstown for the weekend. Plus, there’s a lot of other food that sounds promising, and I noticed that they are launching an online operation, too.
Wild Oats has always been sold out of the cheese bread when I’ve been in town, so this is quite a find.
November 20th, 2008 at 9:52 am
You’re welcome Mr. George. Always happy to do my part for a fellow cheese bread fan.
I’ll note that back in the day the Clarksburg only made/sold the cheese bread on Fridays, so it appears that Jamie Ott’s baking schedule is sticking with this tradition.
I can also report that Cricket Creek Farm has been known to have a loaf or two of day old (and therefore discounted) cheese bread on hand on Saturday mornings, so it should be possible to get a cheese bread fix as part of a weekend visit to Williamstown.
November 20th, 2008 at 11:27 am
TB– Thank you so much for the link to Cricket Creek Farm. For years I’ve wondered what happened to the baker at Clarksburg.
Plus, now I have cheeses to try & bring home.
You, or anyone else, wouldn’t happen to know of any farm stands near Williamstown?
Again, greatly appreciate the Cricket Farms link.
November 20th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Farm stands in Berkshire Co.
http://www.farmfresh.org/food/farmstands.php?zip=01201
Green River Farms
http://www.farmfresh.org/food/farm.php?farm=1301
There is a farm stand associated with the farm that is right by the Store at Five Corners. I don’t know the farm’s name but it has a lot of apple trees and we have gone there to pick fruit.
During warmer months, there is a Saturday farmers market on Spring Street.
I once stumbled upon a farm stand somewhere in the Taconic Golf Course neighborhood.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
P ‘12:
It’s not technically a farm stand, but you can get decent produce and other locally grown and sourced products at Wild Oats on Main Street in Williamstown. But you probably already knew that.
Similarly, I expect The Apple Barn in Bennigton, Vermont, is pretty well known to the Williams crowd. If not, I have three words for you: warm cider donuts. Their U-pick strawberries and blueberries were really good this season as well.
Green River Farms in Williamstown is also a pretty good farm store, and they have a great meat counter to boot.
My wife did quite well this season getting corn and peaches and a few other things from Darling’s farm in Pownal, VT, which is a pretty traditional farm stand.
Farther afield, I would recommend Whitney’s in Cheshire, MA.
Lakeview Orchard in Cheshire is a favorite of my family.
Finally, during the season there are decent farmers’ markets in Bennington, and at the Berkshire Mall in Lanesboro.
Hope this helps.
November 20th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
TB & LG– You can’t imagine how much I appreciate these suggestions. After I write this I’ll cut & paste the information into a permanent file.
To put this in context, as I drive north from about Quechee Lake, NY, I start looking for farm stands that I could stop at on my way back to NYC. The only place I’ve spotted is called the Berry Patch.
Not only am I grateful to have some farm stands to check, but I’m also happy to have more places to explore while I’m in Williamstown. If I’m still commenting on EB when the farms are harvesting, I’ll try to remember to bring this topic up again.
Thanks, again-
November 20th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
One more food question:
Does anyone remember a Mexican or Central-South American place on Spring St. It was there at least 5 years ago. It seemed to do mostly take-out because it was very small.
The menu was interesting, extraordinary for being in Williamstown.
Any ideas what it was called or what happened to it?
November 20th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I remember the place you’re talking about, but not the name. I don’t know what happened to the business, but if my mental map of Spring Street is accurate, I believe the physical space was absorbed by Sushi Thai Garden when they expanded 2-3 years back.
November 20th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Parent ‘12 -
We had fun (last year, I believe it was, when she was “Frosh Mom”) telling Soph Mom about interesting places we remembered in Williamstown. I think much of that material is tagged “Local Places.” Other places to look on EphBlog might include the tag “Williamstown.” If you think you might be up there in the summertime, search for PTC’s posts on area swimming holes. He’d probably write one on bars if we asked.
Or give a shout out and we’ll try to help.
I hope people will post about their discoveries, so that we can keep expanding the file cabinet’s content. (If anyone is making a thread, please use the tag “Local Places” to make it easier to search for the information.)
November 20th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
LG, You read my mind. I started to comment, and instead went to get the link for P’12, got it, and returned to see your comment. LOL…
P’12:
Since you visit W so often, take a gander here… starting at about comment #7, the “Treasure Hunt” begins. I even put together a whole map, and visited almost every place mentioned.
I had a ball!!
November 20th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
P’12:
It is a long thread, and undoubtedly many of the places you are already familiar with, but there were some rooms and cupolas that aren’t common knowledge to the average visitor.
I documented my visit at the end of the thread, and comment #52 was the highlight of the visit for me. “Hello there”…in particular. LG will remember the significance, and you’ll see what I mean when you read it.
November 21st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
The new EB Look has inspired me to check old recent topics. Thank you all for the suggestions.
SophM is right that I know many of the non-campus places. On campus I have had the pleasure of exploring the upper level of Hopkins. It was a gorgeous day & standing on the balconies reminded me of California.
I look forward to enjoying more of the hidden pleasures of the College. With this in mind will the room in Stetson be open now that construction of the new library is postponed?
November 21st, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Excellent question. I’ve wondered that, too. I suspect not.
This summer they sent the faculty to the New Academic Buildings, the Founding Documents to the Art Museum, and the books to the storage facility building and a few other venues, emptying the building, I would think. I had surmised that they locked the doors….
Anyone know?
(If there are bits left from the Preston Room or other woodwork, I hope the College will save them and either sell them to alumni or other interested purchasers or use them to make awards, gifts, or other memorabilia.)