On the Road: Westchester County

Our reasons for visiting Westchester County in New York were twofold.  First and most enjoyably, we got to see Commish and Wild Turkey.  They are college friends of mine and they introduced me to my wife.  I last blogged about them here.  Secondly, we visited the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.

Earlier this summer, we binged The Bear's third season.  The first episode, entitled "Tomorrow," is a video montage of Carmy's personal history in the culinary industry.  In one of the vignettes, we see him in the garden at Noma in Copenhagen, considered one of the greatest restaurants in the world.  Noma is famous for many things including the fact that many of its ingredients are grown onsite.  Watching this scene, our child said simply, "That's it.  That's what I want to do."

Food and agriculture are not new interests.  They have worked on a farm each of the past three summers, moving into kitchen staff this year, helping prepare lunch for the 80+ farm crew workers everyday.  This pairs nicely with their Environmental Science and Policy major, focusing on plants.  Seeing all of their interests coming into synthesis on the screen was profound.

Farm-to-table is, of course, a growing trend for restaurants nationwide (also worldwide perhaps?).  The Noma arrangement of growing onsite is more unusual but not unique.  The Stone Barns Center, an agriculture research center on what was once an 80-acre Rockefeller estate, has a partnership with Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a two-Michelin-star restaurant, also on the estate.  We went for lunch and a tour.  Actually, only wife and child went on the tour, featuring the farm's potato research.  Tickets are pricey so I took the self-guided option myself.  

The grounds are predictably beautiful and the farm works impressive.  It reminded me of Shelburne Farms in Vermont, 1,400 acres of Vanderbilt land in its own right.  While much of the research is in direct service to the restaurant, Stone Barns also partners with universities.  The potato project, for instance, is in conjunction with Cornell.  

Worth noting, this isn't exactly food for the masses.  Our lovely lunch (photo above) was only $40 for each of us, not a terrible price at all for the quality.  Dinner at Blue Hill, on the other hand, is more in the $300/head range.  I expect our child's altruistic nature might ultimately lead them in another direction but they were impressed.  

Back to our friends...

The last time we saw them, their daughter was just beginning the college search.  Now, the decision is made and they're off to school soon.  Fortunately for us, her college is only 16 miles from our child's.  So, we may have opportunities to gather in western Massachusetts from time to time.