NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Hoosac Harvest will host the third Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food event at the All Saints Church, located on Summer Street, on March 7 from 5 to 7 p.m. Farmers and small food producers of the northern Berkshires will be on hand for this free event.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The ninth annual Food of Love (A Celebration of Shakespeare, Love, and Chocolate) will take place at the Williams Inn on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 10. Doors will open at 3:30 p.m.

Food of Love is a benefit for the Fall Festival of Shakespeare at Mount Greylock Regional High School, which will be celebrating its 30th anniversary next November. At this event, the audience will enjoy a chocolate buffet, provided by the Williams Inn, while high school actors present some of Shakespeare's scenes — comic, tragic and always romantic.   
 
This year's theme is "Love Interrupted," with scenes where love might be ill suited, just declared, or not quite resolved. In addition to Shakespeare's work, some scenes from David Ives plays will also be included for a contemporary take on the theme.
 
Seating is limited. Tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for students, available at Where'd You Get That?!, Wild Oats Market and at the door.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A beloved South County specialty food shop and will open soon on Pittsfield's main thoroughfare.

The new location of Maria's European Delight will offer many of the same kinds of meats, fish, cheeses, pickled vegetables and other edibles as its southern incarnation, along with new additions such as fresh made sandwiches, owners Kryzysztof and Maria Sekowski told iBerkshires. The deli had previously been at its Route 7 location in Great Barrington for five years.

The delights offered by Maria's cover a wide range of northern European fare, particularly staples of Hungarian, Polish, German, Russian and Jewish cuisine.  Much of the deli's inventory is sourced from New York City and includes many items which cannot otherwise be found for sale in this region. The Sekowski's say five years at their previous location have refined their ideas of what is most in demand locally.

"When you start the second time, you know a lot more," Kryzsztof Sekowski said.

The couple cited the appeal of increased walking traffic, downtown lunch business, and less expensive rent as major factors in the decision to relocate from the smaller, tourist-rich community to the slightly more urban environment.

The Sekowski's expect to open their doors for business next week, but an exact date was still uncertain as the deli is in the final stages of inspections and awaiting proper permits.  

"Once we do, I'm heading straight to New York," said Kryzsztof, where he will acquire the rest of the fresh foods to fill the rest of the shop.

The new location at 146-A North Street, between Abbey Cutters and the Palace parking lot, has seen several changeovers in the past half decade. Music shop and indie band venue Rebel Sound Records occupied the spot for most of 2009 through 2010, then Great Gifts & More opened there for about a year, followed by two other businesses which operated there more briefly in 2012.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Renee Tassone's business Eat To Total Health is moving from her home to 14 Ashland St. on Dec. 26.

The landmark Joe's Diner offers old-fashioned diner food and great coconut cream pie — just like Grandma use to make.

LEE, Mass. — It's not exactly good. Not exactly charming either, not really anything but what it is.

If you go to Joe’s for breakfast, lunch or dinner it won't take you long to figure it out.

Joe's is a diner, that is to say, Joe's is a throwback to the old days, the very old days, before many of us were even born, before microwaves or even TV dinners when single working folks, men especially, would routinely take their meals at little roadside spots every day. Eventually many of these men settled down, raised a family and ate their meals at home but until they did, they went to places like Joe's to get their daily nourishment.

Norman Rockwell knew this when he painted "The Runaway" using Joe's as a model. Naturally, the little boy, thinking he's big enough to go his own way, went where the grown-up working men went, to a diner.

Joe's is still that kind of restaurant. It hasn't changed a bit. Seriously — except that now, you can buy a T-shirt or a cream soda with Joe's name on it.

At Joe's, you can still have liver and onions for supper, you can get your roast beef with green beans or boiled carrots and a boiled potato on Fridays. Your milkshake comes in a glass with the metal container on the side. Portions are reasonable, satisfying, not mammoth. You can have breakfast whenever you want (or need) to but what you get is going to be plain, mom-style food.

We went on Thursday, which is corned beef night. For $7.95 you can have the traditional New England boiled dinner; corned beef, cabbage, carrots and a boiled potato, served with hot mustard and/or vinegar. Just like your grandfather would have eaten after his shift on the railroad or at the mill. You can choose to have a sandwich instead but the boiled dinner is the real deal — plain as gingham and just as all-American.

Young working men, newly living on their own, love dessert of course. After all, back in the day they weren't much more than boys. And this is where Joe's really shines.

You'd swear your grandmother made their pies. The night we went, we had two classic diner choices, actually, we planned to share one but it was so good there wasn't enough to go around. The coconut cream pie is among the best I've ever had. Great crust, perfect custard filling, just a plate full of yum. If you prefer chocolate cream, that's even better. The tapioca pudding (yes, someone still serves tapioca pudding) is light and creamy and redolent of sweet vanilla, topped with cinnamon and a dollop of whipped cream, I could eat it all day.

But the real reason to go to Joe's isn't the food, it's the people. Maybe they're remembering their early days alone, I didn't ask, but the night we went the place was full of local guys chatting and joking with the waitresses, telling all the local gossip and laughing out loud.

Within minutes we felt like part of the gang, talking about the "adult entertainment" shop down the road, the wedding announcements in the local paper, who was going where and buying what — all of it. We learned a lot about Lee in a dinner hour and I'm pretty sure you would, too.

Breakfast at Joe’s is pretty famous, it routinely gets great reviews online and Jan and Michael Stern's road food website says it's worth a detour. Late-night host Jimmy Fallon made sure to stop in a couple years ago. I didn't find it to be much different from any other diner breakfast, but I would definitely pull over for a slice of that pie and a hot cup of Joe.

Postscript: Rumor has it Joe's will be closing their doors for good in January 2013 so if you want to get your own piece of Americana for the memory book, best do it now. First opened in 1939, the Lee landmark was operated for more than 45 years by the now legendary Joe Sorrentino, until being sold in 2000.