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Rachel Donohue of Natural Wallflower, left, truffle-maker Tarah Warner and her employee Jen McCarthy at the opening of Truffles by Tarah.
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Warner cuts the ribbon on her chocolate shop at 48 North St. on Friday.
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Mayor Peter Marchetti among the first customers for the candy.
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Natural Wildflower bath and body products will be back in December as one of the rotating pop-ups at 48 North.

Truffles By Tarah Pop-Up Opens in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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Boxed up truffles for holiday gifting.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Tarah Warner hand rolls and dips as many as 1,000 truffles per week. 

Throughout November and December, her treats will be available at a pop-up store in the downtown.

On Friday, the ribbon was cut for Truffles by Tarah at 48 North St. Offerings range from classic favorites such as dark chocolate to lavender lemonade.

"I'm just really excited to highlight locally sourced ingredients and to do the fun, interesting flavors that I've always been told nobody wants to try," Warner said.

"Things like the lavender lemonade, where people are like, 'No one's going to eat that, that's weird,' and then magic, people really like it, and now it's the holiday season so all those really fun winter flavors, the peppermint, the eggnog. It's really nice to be able to play with seasonal flavors and seasonal ingredients."

Born in raised in Berkshire County, Warner is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., with a degree in baking and pastry. She has worked at a chocolatier for 14 years, for some time at Mielke Confections in South County before it closed.

Her business is about two years old and before the pop-up, sold her treats at farmers and makers markets.

While chocolate can't be sourced from this region, Warner uses local ingredients when possible to flavor the truffles. Her first curated collection was a "Berkshire Box" that includes five truffles with locally sourced ingredients.


These include coffee from No. Six Depot and Baldwin Extracts in West Stockbridge.

Because this is a holiday pop-up, the treats are in seasonal packaging. Warner's advent calendars, available in 12-day and 25-day options, have received a lot of attention.

She is a member of 1Berkshire, which provided the ribbon cutting, Downtown Pittsfield Inc., and a graduate of the Entrepreneurship for All program. Representatives from each organization, Mayor Peter Marchetti, and the city Office of Cultural Development were present at the event.

Warner said DPI Managing Director Rebecca Brien was instrumental in securing this storefront.

"All of DPI was a huge help with getting this to where it is," she said.

Because the storefront that formerly housed The Spot has ample space, a rotating schedule of other local businesses will appear at the pop-up. This past weekend and for one day in December, Natural Wallflower bath and body products will be at the shop.

Owner Rachel Donohue explained that her products are eco-friendly with no plastic packaging and made with plant-based and essential oils. Her most popular products are shower steamers, which come in eucalyptus, lavender, orange, and fir needle for the holidays.


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Dalton Water Chief Says Lead in Lines Unlikely

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
DALTON, Mass. — Some residents received an "alarming" notice from the Water Department about the possibility of lead pipes or solder in some homes, but officials assured them not to worry.
 
The notice is a result of a new rule from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at the federal level to ensure that there is no lead in anybody's drinking water, Town Manager Thomas Hutcheson said during a Select Board meeting last week. 
 
"Going forward, there's additional regulations regarding that, and the water district has sent out letters … that says you may have lead pipes. They will be conducting surveys to find out what the extent of the issue is," he said. 
 
Later that week, during a Board of Health meeting, Water Department Superintendent Bob Benlien emphasized that the notice was not an indication of a lead issue in the water system. 
 
The notice was required by the state to help the town gather more data to determine the materials used in the service lines, he said.
 
"It's not saying that we have lead in the water. It's not saying that we have lead in the pipe. It just says that we don't have all of our water lines documented," Benlien said. 
 
Part of the water treatment process is doing corrosion control and pH adjustments to the water to minimize the risk of lead and copper leaching into the water.
 
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