Asio Highsmith, co-owner of the bright red espresso truck in Great Barrington, greets patrons with the kind of warmth and energy that can change the trajectory of a day. There is laughter, conversation and a genuine sense of connection. And the coffee is amazing. It’s clear that Best Damn Espresso’s popularity has as much to do with people as it does with espresso.Despite becoming one of the Berkshires’ most recognizable small brands, its owners maintain a surprisingly low profile, focusing more...

From the fields of Silver Mountain Hay in Millerton, Scot Galliher monitors moisture levels in horse feed, oversees the restoration of historic farmhouses and discusses the architectural details of the towering red barn that has become a local landmark. Two decades ago, he was working on Wall Street after leaving a career analyzing satellite data for a NASA subcontractor. Today, Galliher owns one of the area’s most distinctive agricultural operations — a farm he purchased not simply to grow hay,...

In a barn on Maple Avenue in Great Barrington, Kathy Reisfeld merges two unlikely worlds: wealth management and yoga, teaching clients and students alike how stability — financial and emotional — comes from practice.Her life sits at an intersection many assume can’t exist: high finance and yoga. One world is often reduced to greed, the other to “woo-woo” stretching. Yet in conversation, she makes both feel grounded, less like opposites and more like two languages describing the same human need f...

When writer and therapist Marietta Whittlesey moved to Salisbury in 1979, she had already published two nonfiction books and assumed she would eventually become a fiction writer like her mother, whose screenplays and short stories were widely published in the 1940s.“But one day, after struggling to freelance magazine articles and propose new books, it occurred to me that I might not be the next Edith Wharton who could support myself as a fiction writer, and there were a lot of things I wanted to...

Walking into Taiga in Hudson for the first time did not feel like walking into a restaurant — it felt like stepping into a memory. As a Russian immigrant who grew up between cultures, I did not expect to find a place that evokes such a specific emotional response, both familiar and cinematic. Candlelight flickered against dark wood and vintage wallpaper while old Soviet-era music played softly in the background. The scent of herbs, smoke, tea and fresh blini filled the air — at once unfamiliar a...

Barrington Hall in Great Barrington has hosted generations of weddings, proms and community gatherings. When Dan Baker and Daniel Latzman took over the venue last summer, they stepped into that history with a plan not just to preserve it, but to reshape how the space serves the community today.Barrington Hall is designed for gathering, for shared experience, for the simple act of being together. At a time when connection is often filtered through screens and distraction, their vision is grounded...

When artist Aaron Meshon arrived in the Berkshires with his family, the move followed a series of upheavals — a devastating fire, mounting financial stress and the COVID-19 pandemic — that ultimately led him to a quieter, more grounded life.Meshon grew up in a small town outside Philadelphia, an only child raised around horses by parents he describes as “strict liberals.” School was a struggle, but early on Meshon was impelled to translate words into pictures. “I would hear a story and automatic...