MONTEREY

The turkeys — all 170 pounds of them — go into the ovens today in the main house kitchen at Gould Farm. The pies and the tarts will get baked in the Harvest Barn’s professional kitchen where the team will be up late into the night finishing the dinner rolls for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving.

“We’ll do a wheat and a white; we’ll do one with cranberries and one with honey and sunflower seeds,” said C.J. Walton, manager of the Harvest Barn bakery team. Even the guests join in the baking. “In fact, they do most of the work, under supervision,” he said.

Gould Farm provides emotional and social rehabilitation for adults (guests) with mental health conditions such as depression, bipolar and schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia in the non-institutional setting of a working farm.

Started by visionary and social reformer William J. Gould and his wife, Agnes Goodyear Gould, in 1913, it was the first residential therapeutic community of its kind.

Will Gould, known as “Brother Will,” believed that within a supportive community based on the principles of respectful discipline, wholesome work and unstinting kindness, people with mental health issues could move toward recovery and independence.

The farm has a staff of about 50, including families, and between 30 and 40 guests in residence at a time. They work as part of teams — on the farm, in forestry and grounds, in the garden, the kitchen and in the community.

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At Thanksgiving, the Gould Farm family can swell to 150, 160 or more.

“It’s basically our homecoming because the founding was just before Thanksgiving,” said Donna Burkhart, client services director and administrative director. “They [the Goulds and their staff] came and they were settled in by Thanksgiving.”

Noel Wicke, clinical and client services administrative assistant, filled the picture in.

“It [the Thanksgiving celebration] has grown over the years,” she said. “We have our current guests and staff. Some stay, some go home. The ones who stay will bring their families here and the staff will bring their families. Alums will come. Friends of the administration, board members, former community members, former staff.

“We are a place which — literally — stresses connections. Not a week goes by,” she said, “that someone doesn’t come in and say, ‘I used to work here;’ ‘I was a guest here.’ Connection is really a part of people’s recovery.”

“Often we’ll have people from years past call and say they’d like to come for Thanksgiving,” Wicke said.

Burkhart and her husband, Wayne, who is the farm director, have been part of Gould Farm’s staff for 25 years. This year they will be the hosts, the ones to welcome everyone to the dinner.

“The kitchen has been preparing for days and weeks,” she said. “It’s a tremendous amount of preparation because it’s not just a token meal everything is superbly done.”

Kitchen team manager, Flavio Lichtenthal, said that while the meal is based on turkey, “we get creative with the ingredients that we raise here. We raise our own beef and pork and milk and eggs and cheddar and greens, kale, chard, Brussels sprouts, spinach and broccoli, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and leeks.”

Originally a professional musician, Lichtenthal learned his craft at large and small restaurants around New York City before he came to the Berkshires with the intent of opening his own restaurant — until friends brought him to Gould Farm.

“I fell in love with the place,” he said. “All my chef friends in Connecticut are envious. I call the garden and, an hour later, a case of leeks arrives.”

“On my kitchen team I have three work leaders, my paid staff,” said Lichtenthal. “Then, two to four volunteers, young people from all over the country who come for a year for a small stipend and for the experience of our program. And I have eight to 10 guests who are part of my staff in different levels of knowledge of ability.

“Therapy through work is an effective concept and all around rewarding,” he said.

The cranberry sauce has already been made — from cranberries the Gould Farmers picked in Berkshire County last week. The scallion and sage farm bread stuffing is done. The potatoes are boiled, ready to be mashed with roasted garlic and farm cream tomorrow.

Butternut squash was baked and pureed at the Harvest Barn. It’s in the kitchen, ready to be combined with fresh rosemary and farm maple syrup. The fresh, fresh Brussels sprouts have been plucked from their stalks and prepped for roasting then drizzling with balsamic vinegar and sprinkling with fresh thyme The herbs are washed, dried and waiting.

Turkeys are roasting and gallons of turkey gravy and mushroom gravy are being stirred and reduced and readied for tomorrow’s dinner. The farm greens salad and homemade dressings, the homemade applesauce and vegetarian white bean stew with farm herbs and quinoa with walnuts and raisins are being attended to.

Early tomorrow, six volunteers will carve the turkeys, while guests and their families help both in the kitchen and arranging and decorating the dining room.

Donna Burkhart said, “It carries out the model [intended by Gould Farm] that we all help prepare those things that we most enjoy.”

At 12:30 p.m. tomorrow, after the Burkharts welcome everyone, the traditional reading of Will Gould’s short first-person remembrance of the first Thanksgiving on the farm will be read. He described his search for the place in which to bring his intentional healing community to life. He wrote of shoddy buildings, poor land, lies, South County scenic beauty, persistence and hope.

Then everyone — from infants to grandparents — will be introduced, a simple blessing sung and the dinner brought from the kitchen and laid on all the tables, fitted, creatively, into the dining rooms.

“The holiday meal is served family-style.” Wicke said. “We pass around a lot of serving platters, but it is much more personal that way.”

After the main course has been eaten, notes of thankfulness are read from the Blessing Box which has been sitting out near the coffee and tea urns all month.

“I’m thankful for my family.”

“I’m grateful for my life at Gould Farm.”

“I’m thankful for pancakes in the morning,”

“I’m grateful for blue cheese and artichoke hearts on the salad bar.”

“I’m grateful for my lovely new wife; by the way, Nancy, it’s you.” [Charles, you italic]

“It’s very personal and touching,” Wicke said. “Some of them make you laugh and are amusing; some of them make you cry.”

At some point during the dinner, a photo is taken of the youngest and the eldest Gould Farm Community members together — another tradition.

After the blessings are read, the pies come out and after dessert and coffee, the Harvest Reports are given by each of the 10 farm teams: kitchen, clinical, forestry and grounds, maintenance, Harvest Barn, children, garden, administration, residential and farm.

These reports range from the literal: “We use 60,00 eggs” to last year’s Harvest Barn’s seat-of-the-pants gingerbread man puppet show of The Odyssey. This year the clinical team is doing a musical presentation about the past year at Gould Farm.

Wicke said the reports are very entertaining and, “a bit of an extravaganza!”

“And, last but not least: Yes! The whole community helps do the dishes!!” she added.

“The piggies get the leftovers and love it, and all the animals get an extra degree of love on Thanksgiving,” Donna Burkhart said.

Last week, Walton said he and his team at the Harvest Barn would be doing a variety of pies for the Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe apple, blueberry, cherry, pecan, pumpkin-butternut squash, banana cream, chocolate cream or lemon cream. They will all be ready by the end of the day.

“People come here and are surprised at the work we do,” he said. “They come knowing nothing about what Gould Farm is and are surprised that our guests are the ones who have made their pastries.”

“The American Psychiatric Association,” he went on, “cites that one in five people in this country will have a struggle with mental illness at some time in their lives. We’re always looking to tell the story of what we do here and to destigmatize mental illness.”

“I’ve been here since 2000. It’s a very friendly place. This will be my 11th Thanksgiving at Gould Farm,” he said. “On Thanksgiving Day, all I have to do is get the pies up to the kitchen.”