On Friday, March 17, twelve Social Enterprise Club members left the city to spend the day in the country. We visited the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, a non-profit sustainable farm and education center just 30 miles north of New York City in Pocantico Hills, New York. The farm, originally part of an estate owned by David Rockefeller, aims to promote sustainable, community-based food production and is open to visitors year-round.
Peggy Rockefeller, the late wife of David Rockefeller and a founding member of American Farmland Trust, ran a prize-winning cattle breeding operation on the property, and when she died in 1996, Mr. Rockefeller wanted to continue her legacy of farming in the area. Ford discussed the many possible uses he explored for the property before ultimately deciding that a farm and educational center would best reflect the late Mrs. Rockefeller's spirit.
Stone Barns Center opened just a few years ago but has already firmly established its reputation as a wonderful destination in the area for learning and eating. The beautiful Norman-style hay barn and buildings have now been transformed into soaring common spaces for meetings and educational events to promote sustainable agriculture.
The CBS group also had the privilege of a personal meeting with Mr. Rockefeller, who showed his vigor and passion for life at the age of 91, accompanied by a reporter for Le Figaro from Paris who had come to New York to interview him on the occasion of his biography being published in French.
Longtime Rockefeller advisor James Ford, now Executive Director of Stone Barns, graciously hosted our CBS group for a personal tour of the farm. The group got up close with pigs, cows, chickens, and a flock of sheep with their personal sheepherding dog.
We learned that the beehives on the property would soon be producing seasonal honey that would be sold at Stone Barns's weekly Farmer's Market, and learned how mushrooms can be cultivated in damp logs even in the cold of winter. We toured the greenhouse where produce is grown year-round using the heat created by the sun.
The greenhouse was developed in concert with Eliot Coleman, creator of Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine and author of Four Season Harvest and other best-selling books on organic farming. Coleman taught Stone Barns how to take advantage of the New York sun in minimally-heated greenhouses to continue to provide bounty throughout the winter.
The group also met with Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill, a well-known restaurant in New York's West Village that has partnered with Stone Barns in the creation of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, an acclaimed restaurant on the property. Blue Hill tries to "reconnect the farm and table" and create an awareness of the ingredients in its food, much of which comes directly from Stone Barns's crops and animals.
Barber spoke of the "graduate school education" he received in working with Ford and Rockefeller to develop Stone Barns and the restaurant, thoroughly considering all aspects of the new center. At the end of the tour and meeting, the group savored a wonderful lunch from the Blue Hill Cafe and tasted proof that locally-grown food really does taste better.
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