One of the best wedding presents we received was a gift certificate to Blue Hill, the restaurants in Greenwich Village, NYC, and at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills on the edge of the Hudson Valley. We planned carefully, and made a reservation at Blue Hill at Stone Barns for the beginning of the Fall, so that we would be ensured the season’s bounty.
Stone Barns Center for Agriculture is a working farm and educational center on an 80 acre estate near Tarrytown. The dining room for Blue Hill is in the old dairy barn.
The menu is simply a listing of the ingredients in season, organized by the distance they had to travel to get to the table.
The only choice to make is if you want the five course tasting menu, or the seven course ‘Farmer’s Feast’. Then, they ask you if you have any particular likes/dislikes, and how adventurous of an eater you are. We decided to treat ourselves with the Farmer’s Feast. From there, we expressed a love of lamb, and an adventurous spirit, but not so adventurous as to want kidney or thymus (sweet breads) meat.
They took care of us. Each course showcased a different ingredient in such clever, simple and elegant ways.
We would have loved to have photographed each course so we could share it with you, but we didn’t want to be those people (even though, clearly, we’re those people at heart). A notepad sufficed though. Here’s what we ate:
- baby carrots, jade cucumber, and cauliflower, lightly pickled and salted, served on spikes, with Blue Hill ‘V8′
- tomato sliders with potato chips woven with sage
- forona beets with farm honey and yogurt foam
- marinated local blue fish with jerusalem artichoke, fleur de sel and a drizzle of herb oil
- poached local hake on a corn/lobster chowder
- today’s egg, poached, on a shelling bean stew
- hudson valley duck & liver with banana squash and matsutake mushrooms
- braised lamb neck with cracked wheat and quinoa pilaf and a kohlrabi puree
- concord grape soup with elderflower and fennel seed
- chocolate bread pudding with caramelized strawberries
- roasted figs with walnut ice cream
Wow. Talk about delicious. Everything. Its hard to single out any courses but standouts were the blue fish, the lamb, the egg (mmm, poached like smooth heaven), the tomato sliders, and the walnut ice cream. As an added bonus, we were lucky to catch Chef Barber making an appearance in the dining room. He was super friendly, and when we complimented the lamb neck, he commented that we must have been tagged ‘adventurous’ by the waiter.
The following day we returned to get a glimpse of where the food came from, a rare opportunity in today’s world where we are so far removed from the source of our food. Stone Barns practices sustainable agriculture: they have minimal input of fertilizer or feed from outside. This is in contrast with factory farms, which rely heavily on feed and chemical fertilizers, which are ultimately derived from petroleum (more dependence on OIL!). In Sustainable agriculture, the idea is to create a healthy ecosystem, in this case based on grass, and allow the right players (animals) to do their part. The farmer’s role then becomes just making sure the right animal is at the right plot of grass at the right time. Michael Pollan writes about a farm in Virgina called Polyface Farms. The farmer at Polyface, Joel Salatin calls himself a grass farmer (He was a consultant for Stone Barns). Its very interesting stuff, I encourage everyone to visit Stone Barns and see if for yourself. For those not ready to spring for Blue Hill ($$$$), there is a cafe for lunch at the farm that features sandwiches and salads made from local ingredients.
Oh, and kids would LOVE Stone Barns. We stumbled upon a wonderful kids play about Clucky the factory chicken who escapes to pursue her dream of one day laying an egg. (the role of Clucky was played brilliantly by our friend Gregg Mozgala — total coincidence!).
Again, Stone Barns is a wonderful place that embodies so much of what we value in regards to food, it would be a great day trip for any New Yorker. Thanks Ginny, Tim, Ayla and David, great gift!
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