Visiting Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture
If you're ever in the New York City area, please plan a visit to Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, about 45-minutes outside Manhattan - it is one of my favorite places.
Stone Barns Center is a four-season farm and educational facility whose mission is to celebrate year-round farm-to-table agriculture and to promote the connection between farming and eating. Stone Barns is open to the public all year long, so visitors can learn about the innovative gardening and farming techniques they practice. Recently, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, attended a wonderful lecture and seminar hosted by the organic farming expert, Eliot Coleman. It was part of the Center’s Young Farmers Conference that's held every year to provide guidance and support to those who want to engage with industry masters committed to a more just and sustainable food system. It was a great opportunity to learn from such inspiring leaders and to tour the Center's beautiful grounds.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture is a laboratory dedicated to improving and spreading resilient and sustainable farming practices.
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- The Center was originally created on 80-acres of property, but also incorporates more than 300 additional acres for livestock grazing, thanks to a bequest from the late David Rockefeller to expand the Rockefeller State Park Preserve.
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- The Center was established as a non-profit organization in 2004. David Rockefeller and his daughter, Peggy Dulany, donated the land for the farm and a complex of historic dairy barns built in the early 1930s by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
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- The main entrance leads to a common courtyard square and group of beautifully converted barns and outbuildings.
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- The 35,000 square-foot group of buildings includes offices, a market, restaurant, a farm store, as well as ample spaces for informal lectures and other group activities.
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- Eliot Coleman and Fred Kirschenmann spoke to a full room during their session at the 11th annual Young Farmers Conference. The two are leading experts in organic agriculture and discussed the role healthy soil should play in organic standards and labels. It was just one of the many seminars offered during the three-day conference. I wish I was able to attend – it was a very informative discussion. For more information, go to www.realorganicproject.org
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- The farm at Stone Barns Center is a four-season operation with approximately six-acres used for vegetable production. It features a half-acre four-season greenhouse as well as a terraced winter garden with unheated movable greenhouses.
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- The greenhouse is soil-based, meaning plants can access the natural soil of the farm. New seedlings are covered by Reemay cloth to protect them from birds that sometimes find their way inside.
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- The minimally heated greenhouse is also home to many unique or experimental varieties of vegetables such as purple Tsai-Tsai, WaWa GaiChoi, and Indira yellow turmeric.
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- The Asian green, purple Tsai-Tsai, on the right, has been cultivated at Stone Barns for several seasons. Its unique coloring makes it a delicious and unique variety that is always popular.
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- Here is a closer look at the leaves of purple Tsai-Tsai. It has dark green leaves with purple veins and a flavor very similar to broccoli rabe, but not as strong.
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- And here is the WaWa GaiChoi. GaiChoi, also known as Chinese mustard greens, has large dark yellowish-green leaves that are often ruffled. It has a wonderful taste with a bit of a mustardy, spicy “bite” to it.
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- ‘Bright Lights’ Swiss chard is a hardy green that can be grown almost year-round. I love Swiss chard and grow a lot of it at my farm. It grows well in both the outdoor and indoor gardens.
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- By offering maximum protection from snow, wind, and frost, the Stone Barns greenhouse serves to extend the growing season of many varieties even though the air temperature in the house remains in the low to mid-30s during winter months. Indira yellow turmeric is usually grown in more tropical climates but is able to thrive at the Center.
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- Not only are a wide number of different vegetables grown at Stone Barns, but many different varieties of each vegetable are grown. Varieties are evaluated based on many factors such as taste, texture, color, yield, pest resistance, and many more.
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- Here is another view of the expansive greenhouse – it is so well maintained.
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- Here is a look at the many varieties of lettuces currently being grown.
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- These crops are also grown in succession, so there is always something to harvest in the greenhouse. We practice succession planting at my farm as well – I am so happy to share all my fresh vegetables with my family all year long.
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- Tools for small- to medium-sized farms are often difficult to find. Most research and development for farm tools are focused on industrial-scale equipment. Stone Barns is at the forefront of the Slow Tools movement, which aims to connect farmers with engineers and manufacturers to create new tools for small farmers. Stone Barns will be hosting a Slow Tools conference in 2019 to bring this network of design thinkers together to advance the movement. This is a BCS walk-behind tractor, which is designed for small spaces.
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- The greenhouses are equipped with state-of-the-art mechanical systems. The roof opens and closes as needed to regulate temperature and overhead sprinkler systems can be programmed to water the crops.
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- The propagation room is adjacent to the large greenhouse. It is where many of the crops are started from seed.
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- In the winter, the seedlings are kept warm by a tabletop heating system powered by hot water.
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- The Center also has a section dedicated to honeybees.
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- The farm grows 200-varieties of produce year-round, both indoors and in the outdoor fields and gardens. Much of the outdoor growing space is covered for the winter to restore nutrients back into the soil and prevent erosion. However, certain varieties of spinach, kale, parsnips and more can be grown outdoors during the cold months. In fact, the cold actually causes the plants to convert starches to sugars to help them fend off the freezing temperatures, so crops grown in the winter can be sweeter than their fair-weather counterparts.
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- The gardens and fields stretch far and wide. The cattle, ducks, sheep, goats, and turkeys are raised on pastures kept healthy and productive through carefully managed rotational grazing. Strategies for maintaining the pastures include intensive paddock management so the grazed area has ample time to recover and provide a natural refuge for birds and other wildlife.
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- Back in the Center’s main courtyard, a farm store is open for visitors.
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- It offers books on organic cooking and a variety of kitchen and gardening supplies.
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- It also offers fresh produce grown right here at the farm.
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- The Center is also home to Dan Barber’s world-renowned restaurant, Blue Hill at Stone Barns – a restaurant that serves contemporary cuisine using local ingredients, with an emphasis on produce from the Center’s farm. Farmers and chefs work together to demonstrate innovative farm-driven cuisine and show how a dialogue between producers and eaters can help advance the goal to change the way America eats and farms.
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- During the closing ceremony for the Young Farmers Conference, attendees from across the US gathered in the courtyard to sing work songs while threshing dried Panther edamame. The seeds extracted are saved and planted for next year’s crop. What a fun and informative gathering for our country’s young farmers. For more information on this amazing facility, please go to the Stone Barns web site. https://www.stonebarnscenter.org/
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