WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williamstown Farmers Market returns to the Spring Street parking lot on Saturday, May 28. The new hours of the market are Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

There will be a wide variety of locally grown produce and cheeses, organic meats, homemade baked goods, and original handcrafted items.

Some of the vendors include:

Cricket Creek Farm – Artisan Cheeses and Baked Goods
Raw milk cheeses, Tobasi and Maggie’s Round as well as newly added fresh, pasteurized cheese in a number of flavors. Also bread, cookies, muffins, scones and granola made in the in-farm bakery. 
Contact: Lesley Graham, 413-458-5888 or  www.cricketcreekfarm.com.

BabyCakes
Williamstown’s favorite little cakes in chocolate, chocolate raspberry, lemon, almond. Grandma-style crumbcake, too.  Six-inch diameter cake serves six to eight. Baked in a certified kitchen in Williamstown using King Arthur flour, butter, local eggs and fruit in season. They often sell out early so an email or phone call to reserve your favorite flavor is encouraged.
Contact: Judy Turbin, 413-458-9930, Helene Armet, 413-458-8778, or BabyCakes2468@gmail.com.

Peace Valley Farm
Small family farm in South Williamstown supplying fresh produce to local restaurants, Williams College, and the Farmers’ Market. They will join the market starting around the third week in June when they have available a variety of greens and sugar snap peas. As the season progresses, more and more vegetables become available. Note that they do not sell directly from the farm.
Contact: Bill and Susie Stinson, 413-458-4866 or peacevalleyfarm@gmail.com.

Memphremagog Studios
Born on the Vermont lake that bears her studio’s name, award-winning artist Emily Beth Errion creates a distinctive line of original, handcrafted jewelry, embossed glass, and specialty gift designs in the Green Mountain State.

Crow Hill Farm
The Pownal, Vt., farmstand offers art kits for kids, watercolor note cards, fingerless texting gloves, tiny baby organic wool dolls and hand carved birds. 
Contact: Merry Anderson and Craig Lawrence, 802-823-7807

Sweet Brook Farm
This South Williamstown farm offers maple syrup, maple candy and cream, maple-roasted nuts, alpaca roving and yarns, and fresh seasonal vegetables. Farm store is also open to the public from Memorial Day through Labor Day, seven days a week, 10 to 6.
Contact: Pete and Beth Phelps, 413-884-4246, 877-45-SYRUP, www.sweetbrookfarm.mybigcommerce.com.

Peterman Boards and Bowls
The handcrafted  wooden bowls and boards by Spencer Peterman of Turners Falls that made Oprah's "O" list in January come in cherry, black walnut and spalted maple. These museum store and gallery seconds are half off his regular retail prices.
Contact: Andree Clearwater, 413-834-0833.

jennydewjewels
Original designs in silver, gold, as well as original takes and twists on beading. The artist creates pieces during the market as well and custom designs on the spot as well.
Contact: Jenny Dewar, jennydewjewels@aol.com. www.jennydew.com.

Quimby’s Farm
The Hancock farm offers brown eggs, maple syrup, bedding plants and fresh-picked vegetables. Contact: 413-458-5402

Black Queen Angus Farm
100 percent grass-fed, antibiotic-free, hormone free, Animal Welfare Approved beef, pastured pork and meadow veal. Pre-orders are suggested with delivery at the Farmers’ Market. Contact: Morgan Hartman, 413-358-8435. www.blackqueenangus.com.

Apple Tree Hill Organic Farm
This Hancock farmstand and antique/collectible shop brings potted organic herbs, jams and jellies, maple cream, organic vegetables and fruits, honey and artwork by Kelly. Newly added baked goods, such as whoopie pies and breads. Farmstand and shop also open on weekends 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Contact: Roger and Nancy Johnson, 413-458-3933 or appletreehill@mindspring.com

Berkshire Mountain Pottery
From her studio in South Williamstown, local potter Anne Hogeland offers hand-thrown stoneware including coffee mugs, latte bowls, plates, dishes, pitchers, platters, canisters and fruit bowls. All pieces are lead-free and oven-, microwave-, and dishwasher-safe.  Contact: 413-441-4811.

We've found a college course for locavores and local farmers that can be done right from home.

Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vt., has added a distance-learning master's degree in sustainable food systems to its offerings. Environmental studies dominate at this tiny liberal arts college in this very rural state so farming and sustainability seem a no-brainer.

According to a press release from the college, "over 30 undergraduate students already focus their academic work on food systems at the college. Four grants over the past three years totaling over $250,000 have enhanced facilities and supported faculty research capacity at the college's Cerridwen Farm and the adjoining Solar Harvest Center."

This will be the third online master's programs at the college, which added environmental studies and an MBA in sustainable business in 2006. The goal of the program is to investigate agriculture, environmental studies, businesses models and social forces and how they work together.

For more information, go to http://msfs.greenmtn.edu/.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The long-rumored closure of Jae's Spice has occurred, but over a lease, not sales, according to the parties involved.

Jae Chung's North Street restaurant and Shabu 297, opened in the former Pressbox around the corner, were shuttered Tuesday night.  

The Berkshire Eagle reports that business partners Lawrence M. Rosenthal and Joyce S. Bernstein, the restaurants' owners and founders of the original Spice restaurant there, have declined to renew their lease with Chung.

Bernstein told The Eagle they would reopen the North Street restaurant next week as Spice Dragon with Huy Huynh and Phang Huynh, who own 20 Railroad Street in Great Barrington and the Dragon Steakhouse on West Housatonic Street.

BTW, the Huynhs are the brothers of "Top Chef" Hung Huynh, who won the Bravo reality show in 2007. The Dragon Steakhouse was operated by the Huynhs' parents for years as Kim's Dragon. It had been open off and on since an oil tanker accident closed it in 2005 and reopened last year as a steakhouse. The Huynh brothers bought the former pub at 20 Railroad St. in 2008.

Chung had a three-year lease to run the restaurant under Jae's Inc. The original Spice was closed March 2008 after it incurred losses of more than $1.2 million. He told The Berkshire Eagle that he'd tried to extend the lease but the parting was amicable.

The former North Adams resident has operated a number of restaurants in the Boston area but ran into difficulties in North County with both Jae's Inn and Miss Adams Diner, among other ventures. He still owes thousands in state and federal tax according to MassLandRecords but has paid off a large sum.

Chung said he plans to reopen in another location.