THE RIGHT STUFF: Creature Comforts

 

NATURE MADE
Though winter waits just over the horizon, creatures are still lurking at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Mass.—including charming, decorative critters made of twigs, tree bark, and other textural underbrush. Owls, squirrels, and hedgehogs eagerly await new homes; adopt a few during limited hours between the property’s remaining events of the year—the Harvest Festival on October 2 and 3 and the Holiday Marketplace on December 3-5.

About $7 to $17 at the Berkshire Botanical Garden Shop, /Routes 102 & 183, Stockbridge, Mass., ,

 

THIS BLOWS!
Fitted with a rechargeable battery pack and padded hand grips, the Black & Decker 18-Volt Cordless Sweeper clears dirt, dust, and detritus in a snap—at 120 miles per hour yet without much noise. “Customers love not having to drag around an extension cord or mix gas and oil together to try and find the proper ratio,” says Carr Hardware’s Bart Raser. “The machine is surprisingly light [fewer than five pounds], well-balanced, and easy to use.” All you need to get the job done.

 

 

About $85 at Carr Hardware, 2, Great
Barrington, Mass., ; 57 Park St., Lee, Mass., ; 547 North St., Pittsfield, Mass.,

 

DRINK TO YOUR HEALTH
Though seemingly the withered bounty of a freewheeling wildflower scavenge, Berkshire Meadows Herbal Health Tea is a thoughtful blend of fifteen plants harvested from area pastures by certified herbalist Jean Pollock of New Marlborough, Mass. Hoping to ward off colds and flu among her ten children, Pollock sought species known for their calming properties and concentration of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants—alfalfa, meadowsweet, dandelion leaves, calendula, and nettles among them. The time-tested recipe is mildly grassy and subtly sweet, thanks to chamomile, mint, and raspberry leaves. Brew for ten minutes, with hot water only, she says, “because boiling water [is] likely to kill some of the good stuff.”

Two ounces, loose or in bags, about $9 at Berkshire Co-op Market, 42 ., Great
Barrington, Mass., ; Guido’s Fresh Marketplace, 760 South Main St, Great Barrington, Mass., and 1020 South St, Pittsfield, Mass., ; Rubiner’s Cheesemongers and Grocers, 26, Great Barrington, Mass., ; Red Lion Inn Gift Shop, Main Street, Stockbridge, Mass., ; Mystical Rose Herbals, 15 New Marlborough-Sandisfield Rd., New Marlborough, Mass.,

 

 

QUILTY PLEASURE
Working in a small room above porch number 204 on Pleasant Street in Housatonic, Mass., Mimi Hassett turns old, forgotten clothing into keepsake collages. “My background is in nursing, so hearing people’s stories is great fun to me,” says Hassett, who has been stitching vibrant Memory Quilts for the past few years, customers finding her entirely by word-of-mouth. Chalk one up for another trash-to-treasure success: “It gets people excited,” Hassett says, “and gives them a chance to get their T-shirts out of their drawers.”

Prices vary depending on size, order from Mimi Hassett at Porch 204, 204 Pleasant St., Housatonic, Mass.,

 

 

HOORAY FOR CLAY
About three decades ago, following debilitating back surgery, ceramist Gail Sellers could no longer throw on the wheel, so she started hand-rolling coils and latticing the pieces over a form. Thus was born the River Hill Pottery Kitchen Collection, marrying rustic basketry with fine stoneware craftsmanship. Sellers, who shares a live-work loft in the Eclipse Mill building in North Adams, Mass., with her husband, Phil, uses an extruder with custom-made dies to create vessels that are functional as well as decorative. “Unlike a wicker basket, if you have a rotten tomato, you don’t have to worry about the basket absorbing the liquid,” Gail says. “You can heat them because they’re made of clay—even bake right in the piece.” The containers transition effortlessly to the table, too. See how they’re made during the North Adams Open Studios on October 16-17.

About $40-$60 at River Hill Pottery, ., Loft 104, North Adams, Mass.,
 

 

HEAD TURNERS
Rita Blieberg began knitting seven years ago as a form of meditation and hasn’t set down the needles since. In fact, the seventy-two-year-old Richmond, Mass., resident turned her hobby into Lula, a line of exquisite merino wool, alpaca, silk, and cashmere caps, named after her grandmother, “the first person I ever saw knitting.” Blieberg fashions her colorful, one-of-a-kind creations on a whim. “I don’t do a pattern,” she says. “I just kind of create as I go along. I use very simple stitches … but with a great deal of love.”

About $70 to $90 at Weaver’s Fancy, 65 Church St., Lenox, Mass., ; Lula by Rita Blieberg,