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Kurt Barbieri and Anne-Marie Lasher have been selling baked goods at farmers' markets under Barbieri's Odd Bird Farm for two years. Last, week they opened a bakery on Main Street.
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The former office and florist shop has been kitted out with a commercial kitchen to grow the bakery's product line.
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The baker is located at 490 Main St. in Great Barrington.

Odd Bird Farm Opens Great Barrington Bakery

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
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Fresh-baked bread at Odd Bird Farm Bakery.
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Odd Bird Farm is taking its pastries off the road and into a more permanent home on Main Street.
 
Kurt Barbieri and Anne-Marie Lasher's pastries and breads have been flying out of farmers markets these past two years. Now patrons won't have to wait for a Saturday to pick up their favorite baked goods. 
 
Barbieri has 30 years of experience as a pastry chef. He started Odd Bird Farm selling eggs on the side of the road in Housatonic about 10 years ago, and later at Taft Farms.
 
"I started keeping chickens, and I would take some in if somebody had some random birds or chickens they needed to get rid of for whatever reason. I would take them in and let them live out their lives," he said. "I worked at Daily Bread in Great Barrington before it closed. I was there for 18 years, and I was at the Marketplace for 10 years, and that is where I met Anne-Marie."
 
Lasher also has a background in the food industry, having worked as a chef and run a catering business while living in Philadelphia. She and her husband semi-retired to the Berkshires after wanting to do something different. 
 
The two met in Marketplace Kitchen Table's pastry department and talked about what they would like to bake.
 
They'd joked about being a little frustrated in their ability to innovate. Wanting to be more creative with their recipes, they decided to try out their ideas at the local farmers' markets. 
 
"It was such a large production kitchen, they had cafes in the store and catering," he said. "There wasn't a lot of creativity that you could do. And we got talking and then we decided to start doing the farmers markets last year, last spring, and we got such a great response from them that we decided to open a brick and mortar."
 
Their bakery at 490 Main St. used to be an office and a flower shop. They transformed the whole space into a commercial kitchen to be able to bake dozens more than what they could at Lasher's house.
 
"We were doing it in my house kitchen, which meant that our office was on my dining room table. My husband can't wait to be on the dining room table. Today was the first day that all of Odd Bird Farm is out of my house," she laughed last week.
 
The bakery is open for take-out only and will serve a variety of pastries, cookies, breads, breakfast sandwiches, soups, and more. The partners were excited and a little nervous about opening up.
 
"Very confident, like there's definitely that little bit of, I'm terrified because it's a new business, and you just don't know what to expect, right? But we also feel very positive. We've gotten we have a following already from the farmers markets," Lasher said. 
 
The bakery is open Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. 
 

Tags: new business,   bakery,   

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Pryor & Peacock's Whimsical Furniture Environmentally Friendly

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
 

The company uses digital printing to create the upholstery fabric, saving water and saving vintage furniture from ending up in landfills.

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A unique furniture store has popped up on Elm Street this month.

Mom-and-daughter store Pryor & Peacock is hosting the pop-up storefront from Aug. 13 to Aug. 25 at 6 Elm. The New Marlborough business is co-founded by Rosalina Wright and Luca Shapiro, who is also the creative director. 

Their online shop was created in 2024 but they wanted people to see the pieces in person, so they're renting the space for a limited time before a long-term tenant moves in.

The store sources prints to create unique fabrics and reimagines vintage and antique furniture acquired at auctions, local shops, and online.

"We source prints from all over the world that date from the late 1600s up through mid-20th century, and Luca turns those prints into fabric by manipulating them, scanning them, oftentimes has to add or subtract things, and then we manufacture the fabric using only digital printing, which is very environmentally friendly, unlike traditional textile printing," Wright said.

Upholstering the furniture can take weeks of work. Shapiro looks for the perfect design for each piece and, if need be, uses Adobe Photoshop to extend the art work to fit or enhance the print.

"One of the most difficult parts comes in marrying the fabric to a piece of furniture because we only use antique and vintage frames also to be earth friendly, and they're also more beautiful and durable than new furniture," Wright said. "So the image has to go with the furniture, so that takes a lot of work."

One of Pryor & Peacock's missions is to be environmentally friendly. Digital printing doesn't use the same amount of water as traditional textile productions do nor does it contaminate water with ink according to their website.

Not only are they saving water, but they are saving furniture from going into the landfill while also using more durable furniture that doesn't break as easily as current pieces. They started their business to create something unique and to help the environment together.

"It's creating something nobody else is doing. People can't continue to buy throwaway furniture. Six percent of American landfills is furniture, and digital printing not only opens up the possibility of being able to put unique images on a piece of furniture, but it also is, as I said, environmentally friendly. So, for us, the excitement is to take an old East Lake settee that somebody's going to store in their barn and forget about, and make it something completely new and surprising," Wright said.

They hope their furniture helps bring a pop of fun to someone's home.

"We think our furniture is very whimsical and surprising, and most furniture today is oatmeal colored couches and gray neutral chairs, and it's boring," she said.

The two named their business after their mothers' maiden names to honor them and believe the name reflects their pieces.

Shapiro works in interior design outside of the business and the two liked working together and thought it would be great to start a business together. Shapiro says they can work well together and that her and her mother, Wright, has flipped houses before and have the same eye for design.

"So it's very easy for us to work together. When we see something, generally we agree on whether it works or doesn't work on a piece. We agree on the color schemes and that sort of thing. So it's very fun and fulfilling to work together," Shapiro said. 

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