Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Stone Barns, or the Child of a Revolution
A confession: I spite of my insistance that I am a city girl through and through, I like sunshine and fresh air. I like the opportunity to frolic on grassy hillsides and sink my fingers into cool damp earth. To feel connected to the cycle of life, to nourish plants that will nourish me. The chance to be a steward to the earth, as annoying as that sounds. This sense of connectivity is the essence of Blue Hill at Stone Barns.
Photographs courtesy of Meg @ "Luke & Meg"
Blue Hill itself is a restaurant founded on the concept of slow food, a movement to resume caring about food, whre it comes from and how it is made. It is also in Manhattan, the center of one of the largest metropolitan areas on Earth. Not to be daunted by this challenge, chef/restauranteur Dan Barber decided to open a second location, a short drive from Manhattan, in Westchester county, which would enable him to better embody his food ideology. The result was Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, a farm covering a number of acres, that produces every bite of food served at the on-site restaurant and its adjacent cafe.
Not content with being just another pretty face with great food, the Stone Barns Center has a greater goal; to pass on its love of local sustainable food. And if eating their sublime food isn't enough, perhaps frolicking through their pastures and meeting the plants and animals will be. The farm is open to the public every day that the restaurant is open, and guests are encouraged to walk around and get to know it. On my recent trip out, we wanderedall over, meeting chefs and farmers alike, out in the field taking care of the plants and selecting what would be served for dinner. Volunteers were out and about collecting eggs and hosing off pigs. Classes about the local ingredients and how to use them at home were going on every where. It was enough to make this city girl's inner hippie jump for sustainable joy.
Blue Hills at Stone Barns
630 Bedford Rd.
Pocantico Hills, NY 10591
Grounds are open Wednesday through Sunday
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