Last week, I had the unbelievable pleasure of joining Tanya Steel up at Stone Barns for an ABC News shoot with Dan Barber. If you aren’t familiar with Dan or Stone Barns, Dan is the Alice Waters of the East Coast aka the ringleader for local, seasonal eating here in the Big Apple. He has one restaurant in downtown Manhattan – quaint, absolutely delicious, and a fave date spot for the Obamas when they come into town – and a fancypants restaurant with near-Chez Panisse cred where you have to book a rezzie months in advance called Blue Hill at Stone Barns, which sits on a working farm and agricultural center (called Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture) just north of Manhattan.
I took the Hudson line metro line about 35 minutes north to Tarrytown, an adorable town in its own right, and then headed out to Stone Barns a few mile cab ride from the train. This place gets a lot of hype from Manhattanites yet before actually seeing the place for myself I remained a cynic (I mean, seeing chickens roam freely and some corn on a field was not going to be enough to wow me, that is the definition of any farm!!)
But what I experienced once I got there was truly magical. Stone Barns Agricultural Center is not just any old working farm. It’s a place to take kids to learn about where our food comes from. It’s a gorgeous little café where you can enjoy a local apricot and freshly made scone as you overlook fields upon fields of tomatoes. It is a great day trip with endless walking paths, informational signs with intriguing facts, and a great sanity check for the multitude of skyscrapers that surround people on a daily basis during the work week.
They have an amazing kid’s camp program during summer…I peeked in upon a room full of little ones with backpacks on huddled in a corner learning about root systems. Upon seeing several young people working out in the fields, I was told that they have an apprentice program for teens and college students who can actually get hands-on learning on a farm before turning it into a career. And in the heart of it all, lays Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant. An impeccably decorated restaurant that transforms each day’s bounty into a decadent treat.
Because I was there for work, I got to meet chef Dan Barber and watch him whip up a grilled watermelon salad with tomatoes, bacon, and feta cheese (it was to-die-for but is it fair when you add bacon?) as well as pickle some melon to preserve the taste of late summer. It was an honor to be inside his kitchen, all of the colors shooting throughout the kitchen were breathtaking….one quick glance captured someone slicing bright pink watermelon, someone salting perfectly red beef, and someone rolling out fresh dough for dinner rolls. After watching one sous-chef pick through pounds upon pounds of grapes preciously de-stemming them for the night’s dessert I knew I would never complain about the price of a simple fruit dessert again! We also had the privilege of taking a tour of the grounds with Farmer Jack, who showed us his grapes and lettuce fields as well as a few seed projects he is working on with Cornell in order to harvest new varieties of tomatoes.
The day was amazing, and I highly recommend taking the trip out there! You can pack a picnic or grab some yummy snacks from the cafe. Better yet suck it up and make a reservation at the restaurant for a special occasion. If one bite of watermelon salad was ANY indication of what you’d have in store, you’re in for a serious treat!
**I didn’t have a chance to snap a picture, but the above is from Martha Stewart’s blog when she was visiting their recent Harvest Festival!
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