A Visit to Upstate New York and Vermont
I was going to spend some time in upstate New York with friends from Canada. The plan was that I would take the Amtrak train from nearby Croton-Harmon station up to Saratoga Springs where we would be staying. Or so I thought. Things didn’t turn out quite as I expected, but more on that later. We would explore Saratoga Springs; visit the Saratoga Revolutionary War Battle Site; Take a look at one of my “bucket list” destinations: Fort Ticonderoga; and while in Ticonderoga take the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour.
My friends had kindly offered to drive me back home, so after all of the above we headed back to Westchester County where they would stay for a couple of days and take a look around Briarcliff Manor and other parts of the lower Hudson Valley.
The Journey begins at Croton-Harmon Station. I got there a bit early, and the train arrived late, so while waiting I took some pictures around the station.
Arriving at Saratoga Springs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a train station without a platform i.e. you had to climb down from the train. My friends met me at the station, and I discovered that we would not be staying in Saratoga Springs as I had thought. They had made the arrangements, and I hadn’t realized that they would be bringing their dog. Consequently, they had looked for the most dog friendly place for us to stay. More on that later.
However, since it was getting late, we decided to eat in Saratoga Springs before returning to our Inn in Vermont. Since we had the dog, we sat outside, and as we were eating, I noticed the light falling on a building across the street and thought it might make a nice picture.
We would return to Saratoga Springs several times, to eat and to look around – always returning to Vermont to sleep.
The Paw House. This was where we actually stayed and, boy was it pet friendly. We stayed in the Inn, and there were another couple of cottages. There was also a building where you could leave your dog if you couldn’t take him/her with you. A large, enclosed area offered ample space where you could play with your dog (and other dogs for that matter.
According to the Inn’s website:
“The Paw House” was built in 1786 by Elijah Smith, the Grandson of Captain John Smith. Through the years the owners of this magnificent farmhouse have maintained much of the original treasures while adding beautiful and special touches of their own.
Among the original, features of the home are its high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, wide planked hardwood floors, and classic crown molding. The interior walls of the living room are the original, exterior barn boards of the multi-generational Smith farm which had stood against the Vermont elements until the early 1960s.
Views from the living room, sitting room and second floor hallway expand into all directions and present breathtaking views of mountains, valleys, and New England countryside.During the time of Elijah Smith, builders utilized marble (which was plentiful in the area) for the foundations of their homes. The Paw House Inn currently rests on the original marble slab that was excavated back in 1700’s.
The entryway of the home features a grand old oak staircase that leads to the Good Dog! and Bad Dog! rooms, and Shakespeare’s Retreat. Adorning the walls of the entryway is an Americana motif that Jen has grown to love. (She wasn’t too crazy about it at first.)
Since 1786, many dogs have lived on the property. Many people claim that the ghosts of bygone spirits roam freely throughout the inn. We’ve seen them too! Don’t be too concerned! As dog lovers themselves, the spirits look out for us and add a beautiful dimension to the property.Classic fixtures, lamps, and accoutrements are presented throughout the home. Given the nature of our clientele (i.e. the four legged kinds that like to wag tails and lift legs), we’ve avoided the temptation to add too many plants and knick-knacks.
Our yard offers many treasures as well. Two-hundred year old lilac bushes surround an outdoor sitting area that overlooks the best darn sledding hill in all of New England. In the spring and summer, our backyard explodes with the color of wild flowers. The tree-line, which represents the boundary of our property, explodes with color in September and October. A running river some 100 yards away can be heard on quiet nights. And, for the dogs Paw House Park is a fenced in agility course that is enjoyed in every season.Enjoy the photos on this page where we’ve tried to represent some of the beauty and rich history of this home. But, as we hope you will see personally, pictures really cannot do justice to the real thing!We look forward to your visit! Please visit us soon!
The current owners (Mitch and Jen) explain how they came to The Paw House:
It all started back in 2001 when the frustration we encountered in our own travels inspired us to create a dog friendly vacation destination that is designed entirely for dog lovers. So we left our jobs in New York City, packed up our two goofy labs, disregarded everyone’s warnings, and created a dream come true – a “dog centric” Vermont getaway with all of the comforts of home, including your dog.
Since 2001 we have had the privilege of sharing the joy that your dogs have brought into our lives. Many of the photos that you will see on our website preserve many happy memories we have collected throughout the years.
Dogs are members of the family and hold a special place in our lives. We invite you to become part of our family by visiting us soon.
And so, after all of the dog memorabilia, we come to a real dog: My friends’ dog, Juno. He’s the reason we were staying at The Paw House in the first place. He’s a lovely dog, I believe an Australian Shepherd. He’s intelligent, active, loyal and playful.
And he loves to chase balls. He’s very good at it. My last couple of dogs also liked to chase balls, but unlike Juno they didn’t realize that, after they caught them, they were supposed to bring them back. Juno understands this very well and always brings back the ball and gives it to you.
Saratogs National Historical Park.
The home page of the Park’s website contains the following:
A Crucial American Victory. Here in the autumn of 1777 American forces met, defeated and forced a major British army to surrender. This crucial American victory renewed patriots’ hopes for independence, secured essential foreign recognition and support, and forever changed the face of the world.
I very much agree. After the British defeat at Saratoga the war was no longer about the British vs. the American Patriots. With the entry of the French on the American side it was now the British vs. the Americans, the French, The Spanish, and the Dutch. And it was no longer limited to the East Coast of the US. The British were now fighting a global war.
I’d been to the battlefield before. Unfortunately, I chose a very gloomy, rainy day for my visit. The weather was so bad that I just shot around the battlefield and headed off home as quickly as possible. Since that day I’ve always thought that I must have missed a lot. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that there isn’t actually much to see. The visitor’s center is somewhat interesting, but other than that there’s just acres and acres of fields (luckily, they were full of flowers, which made them look quite pretty.); a few cannons; a few monuments (not many); and an old farmhouse. It would be a great place to walk your dog.
A Couple of Hudson River Views
Cannons. Lots of them were scattered around the landscape.
Kosciuszko monument. Tadeusz Kościuszko (born February 4, 1746, Mereczowszczyzna, Poland [now in Belarus]—died October 15, 1817, Solothurn, Switzerland) was a Polish army officer and statesman who gained fame both for his role in the American Revolution and for his leadership of a national insurrection in his homeland. For more information on Kosciuszko see here.
The inscription on the plaque on the monument below reads:
THE UNKNOWN AMERICAN SOLDIERS
WHO PERISHED IN THE BATTLES OF
SARATOGA
SEPTEMBER 19 AND OCTOBER 7 1777
AND WHO WERE HERE BURIED IN UNMARKED
GRAVES
HELPED TO ASSURE THE TRIUMPH OF THE
WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
TO CREATE THE REPUBLIC OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
AND TO ESTABLISH LIBERTY THROUGHOUT
THE WORLD
IN HONOR OF THESE PATRIOTS
AND IN RECOGNITION OF THE
BICENTENNIAL OF THE BIRTH OF
GEORGE WASHINGTON
THIS MEMORIAL IS ERECTED
BY THE
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
OF NEW YORK STATE
1951
The monument below commemorates the actions of a man who was instrumental in the American victory here, but later became a traitor to the United States: the infamous Benedict Arnold. This monument is perhaps the most popular, unique, and controversial monument of the many placed here.
After he was wounded, General Arnold underwent surgery and after months of recuperation was assigned to command the repatriated capital city, Philadelphia, in June 1778. There, Arnold’s resentment of perceived mistreatment boiled over into rage against the United States. He secretly sought British support and shared military intelligence. Exposed as a traitor at West Point in 1780, he escaped.
No one in American history is as vilified for treason as Benedict Arnold. The “Boot Monument” is dedicated to this man who led Americans to victory in the Battles of Saratoga. The monument does not mention Arnold by name, but there are a few intricate details which often go unnoticed by passersby:
A boot and a two-star epaulet are draped over a howitzer barrel to symbolize an individual with the rank of Major General who suffered a wound during a battle in this location.
A Laurel leaf wreath sits atop the howitzer, an emblem which often resonates victory, power, and glory.
The reverse of the monument is inscribed with the following quote: “In memory of the most brilliant soldier of the Continental Army who was desperately wounded on this spot, the sally port of Burgoyne’s great [western] redoubt 7th October 1777 winning for his countrymen the decisive battle of the American Revolution and for himself the rank of Major General.”
Arnold has always been a personal favorite of mine for two reasons: First, if he had died at Saratoga (as he almost did) he would have gone down in history as one of the US’s greatest heroes instead of as probably the country’s greatest villain. Second, I was always fascinated that he was a general on both sides in the same war.
The final pictures below show the Nielson House. The Saratoga National Historical Site describes it as follows:
Before and after the Battles of Saratoga John Neilson farmed these heights, located at Stop #2 along the park’s auto tour road. Today his restored home looks much as it did when Generals Arnold and Poor used it for quarters in 1777. This single-room house may be small, but the panoramic view from the porch is larger than life!
The Family. John Neilson (1753-1833) hailed from New Brunswick, New Jersey. Well-practiced at tree cutting and rail splitting, the teenager left his home behind in 1772 and, working his way up the Hudson River, eventually came to Stillwater, New York. There, he went to work for a local farmer, Abner Quitterfield (1732-1784). Two years later, in June 1774, he leased about 150 acres of land out of Great Lot 12 of the Saratoga Patent, from Albany merchant John Bleecker (that same day, Neilson sub-leased 52 acres of it to one Isaac German). Later, he leased about 100 acres in Great Lot 14 from Killian De Ridder, which included the ridge upon which the present house stands.
For more information on the house see here.
And yes, it really does have a terrific view (which I completely failed to capture).
We’d spent most of the day at the Saratoga National Historical Park and we didn’t get back to Saratoga Springs until late afternoon. We were hungry and there were lots of restaurants to choose from. Unfortunately, it was quite difficult to find parking. Thankfully, my friends remembered a restaurant that someone had recommended. It was a little outside the main shopping/eating area so there was a chance that we could find parking. The restaurant is called Eddie F’s New England Seafood Restaurant, and we found parking immediately. There are two locations: Clifton Park and Saratoga Springs. As I’m writing this the website is featuring the Clifton Park location, which is not the one we went to.
One review described the Saratoga Springs location as follows:
Eddie F’s New England Seafood Restaurant serves outstanding seafood dishes, including their signature lobster roll, which is praised for its freshness and flavor. Other favorites include the New England Clam chowder, fish sandwich, lobster Mac and cheese, and shrimp basket. The restaurant offers a fun and welcoming atmosphere, with both indoor and outdoor seating options. The staff is friendly and attentive, and the food is consistently fresh and delicious. This local gem is a must-visit for seafood lovers.
Below: My friends and their dog, Juno.
I enjoyed the food, but by that time I was so hungry I would probably enjoyed have anything.
According to Wikipedia:
The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American Thoroughbred racehorses, jockeys, and trainers. In 1955, the museum moved to its current location on Union Avenue near Saratoga Race Course, at which time inductions into the hall of fame began. Each spring, following the tabulation of the final votes, the announcement of new inductees is made, usually during Kentucky Derby Week in early May. The actual inductions are held in mid-August during the Saratoga race meeting.
The Hall of Fame’s nominating committee selects eight to ten candidates from among the four Contemporary categories (colts and horses, fillies and mares, jockey and trainer) to be presented to the voters. Changes in voting procedures that commenced with the 2010 candidates allow the voters to choose multiple candidates from a single Contemporary category, instead of a single candidate from each of the four Contemporary categories. For example, in 2016, two mares (Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta) were inducted at the same time.
The museum also houses a large collection of art, artifacts, and memorabilia that document the history of horse racing from the eighteenth century to the present.
History
The National Museum of Racing was founded in 1950, led by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney and a group of people interested in thoroughbred racing. The museum first opened its doors in 1951, at which time it occupied a single room in Saratoga’s Canfield Casino. The establishment was supported by the city of Saratoga Springs, which donated $2,500, the Saratoga Racing Association, which donated $5,000, and various patrons of the sport, who also donated various pieces of art and memorabilia. The first item in the museum’s collection was a horseshoe worn by the great Lexington.
In 1955, the museum relocated to its current location on Union Avenue, across the street from the main entrance of the historic Saratoga Racecourse. The museum was relocated to a newly reconstructed building and a thoroughbred racing Hall of Fame was included. Since then, the museum has expanded several times to allow for the display of its extensive art collection and more multimedia displays on the history of the sport.
Below: The Pimlico Racecourse Gate.
A nearby plaque reads:
Pimlico Racecourse Gate
Wrought iron, ca. 1870
9 feet, 5 inches high by 13 feet wide
Gift: Mr. and Mrs. E. Stack Gately
This gate once stood at Pimlico Race
Course near the clubhouse of the
Maryland Jockey Club, which operataed
Pimlico beginning in 1870. Chanins and
pulleys were used to raise and lower
the gate. Removed in 1966 when fire
destroyed the clubhouse, the gate is an
excellent example of mid-nineteenth
century wrought iron craftsmanship
Below: The Saratoga Springs History Museum.
According to the Museum’s website:
The Saratoga Springs History Museum was founded in 1883 as the Saratoga Historical Society. Being one of the earliest organizations of its type, our early collections and displays were quite eclectic. Our founders included Ellen Hardin Walworth (one of the four original founders of the Daughters of the American Revolution) and many influential residents of Saratoga County. The museum acquired artifacts from the Trustees’ personal collections and from all around northern New York.
Since then, our mission has become focused on the City of Saratoga Springs.
Today our museum presents changing exhibitions and public programs, and serves numerous researchers annually on three floors of a historic 1870s gambling casino, the Canfield Casino, designated a National Historic Landmark. We care for 16,000 artifacts and a photographic archive of some 325,000 images of Saratoga Springs.
Our mission is to foster public education and chronicle Saratoga Springs history by operating the History Museum, conducting programs, and collecting, preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting materials that document the city’s social, political, economic, geological, and cultural history.
We invite you to be one of the tens of thousands of people who visit the Museum each year to experience the history of the Spa City!
Below, Congress Park: 17-acre (6.9 ha) site in Saratoga Springs, New York, United States. It was formerly the site of the Congress Hotel (also called Congress Hall), a large resort hotel, and the Congress Spring Bottling Plant, as well as Canfield Casino, which together brought Saratoga Springs international fame as a health spa and gambling site. At the peak of its popularity, it was a place where the wealthy, major gamblers and stars of the entertainment world mingled. The park’s artwork includes a statue by Daniel Chester French and landscape design by Frederick Law Olmsted, among others. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as the Casino-Congress Park-Circular Street Historic District in 1972 and was then declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. The later listing excluded some of the property outside the park and halved the overall size of the district.
Congress Park is a City of Saratoga Springs Park, bounded by Broadway, Spring Street, and Circular Street. The Canfield Casino buildings, built in 1870, 1871 and 1902–03, house the Saratoga Springs History Museum, an art gallery and spaces which host public and private events. Gambling was ended by reformers in 1907.
It had been a long day, and I was feeling tired, so we didn’t spend much time in Congress Park. The limited time we had I spent mostly taking pictures of ducks.
For more information on Congress Park see here.
Next stop Fort Ticonderoga. On the way we drove up the Vermont side of Lake Champlain. Of course, this meant that we had to cross Lake Champlain to get to the fort, which is on the New York Side. To do so we took the Ticonderoga Ferry, which describes itself as follows:
The ride was quite pretty, but short and a little slow (important to me because I needed to relieve myself). Although I wasn’t focusing too well, I recall that it was also rather expensive. On the way back from the fort we decided to take a different route that didn’t involve taking ferries.
Approaching Fort Ticonderoga.
Growing up in a not terribly well-off family in a village in the North of England, I used to read a lot. I would come across places with exotic sounding names like Kathmandu, Samarkand, Heliopolis, Philippines etc. Little did I know then that I would eventually visit many of these places and that I would be married for 43 years to a Filipina. For some reason I’d also heard about a place called Ticonderoga. Consequently, when I went to work for the United Nations in New York I wanted to visit the fort. Somehow 50 years passed and even though Fort Ticonderoga is not that far (about a four-hour drive) from where I live, I still hadn’t visited. I don’t have “bucket list”, but if I did Fort Ticonderoga would certainly be on it. However, I was beginning to think that I’d never get there.
Now I can cross it off the non-existent “bucket list”.
According to Wikipedia:
Fort Ticonderoga, formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain in northern New York. It was constructed between October 1755 and 1757 by French-Canadian military engineer Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, Marquis de Lotbinière during the action in the “North American theater” of the Seven Years’ War, known as the French and Indian War in America. The fort was of strategic importance during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, and again played an important role during the American Revolutionary War.
The site controlled a river portage alongside the mouth of the rapids-infested La Chute River, in the 3.5 miles (5.6 km) between Lake Champlain and Lake George. It was strategically placed for the trade routes between the British-controlled Hudson River Valley and the French-controlled Saint Lawrence River Valley.
The terrain amplified the importance of the site. Both lakes were long and narrow and oriented north–south, as were the many ridge lines of the Appalachian Mountains which extend as far south as Georgia. The mountains created nearly impassable terrains to the east and west of the Great Appalachian Valley that the site commanded.
The name “Ticonderoga” comes from the Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning “it is at the junction of two waterways”.
During the 1758 Battle of Carillon, 4,000 French defenders were able to repel an attack by 16,000 British troops near the fort. In 1759, the British returned and drove a token French garrison from the fort. The British controlled the fort at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, but the Green Mountain Boys and other state militia under the command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured it on May 10, 1775. Henry Knox led a party to transport many of the fort’s cannon to Boston to assist in the siege against the British, who evacuated the city in March 1776. The Americans held the fort until June 1777, when British forces under General John Burgoyne occupied high ground above it; the threat resulted in the Continental Army troops withdrawing from the fort and its surrounding defenses. The only direct attack on the fort during the Revolution took place in September 1777, when John Brown led 500 Americans in an unsuccessful attempt to capture it from about 100 British defenders.
The British abandoned the fort after the failure of the Saratoga campaign, and it ceased to be of military value after 1781. The United States allowed the fort to fall into ruin, and local residents stripped it of much of its usable materials. It was purchased by a private family in 1820 and became a stop on tourist routes of the area. Early in the 20th century, its private owners restored the fort. The Fort Ticonderoga Association now operates it as a tourist attraction, museum, and research center.
The pictures below show the approach to the fort featuring exterior shots.
The Fort was bristling with cannons. I’ve never seen so many cannons in one place. There are French cannons, English cannons, US cannons, Spanish cannons, Dutch cannons, Swedish cannons and cannons from other countries.
According to the fort’s website:
Fort Ticonderoga has over 100 cannons on site, representing the largest collection of 18th-century artillery in private hands in the Western Hemisphere. These guns were collected in the 20th century to be showcased in our museums and represent an unparalleled example of the gun founders’ art
The Fort offered some terrific views of Lake Champlain- featuring the inevitable cannons. In the first picture just below the small cloud, if you look closely, you’ll be able to make out a small flag. There’ll be more on that later.
The fort buildings have largely been turned in sites for museum exhibits. According to the Fort’s website:
Founded in 1909, Fort Ticonderoga has for over a century been a leader in preserving objects related to military culture from North America in the “long 18th century” (1609-1815). Fort Ticonderoga’s collections are a singular resource in the study of the evolving role of subject, citizen, and soldier in the 18th century—a debate that links past to present and can inform the future. Fort Ticonderoga explores these relationships through the physical remains of the events that occurred on the site and the expansive collections that document the broader military experience and heritage of our founding era. The collections are distinct in that they comprehensively speak to the changing role of subject, citizen and soldier in society. Fort Ticonderoga’s collections encompass British, European, Native Nations, and African stories that show the complexities of a shared Atlantic history.
For some reason my feet were hurting. Also, the exertions of the previous day had left me feeling a little tired. So, I sat out visiting the museums.
But there’s more to Fort Ticonderoga than the Fort itself and its collections. There’s an impressive collection of books in the shop; a restaurant offering locally produced farm to table meals; a boat ride on Lake Champlain (which looked interesting, but unfortunately, we didn’t have time for); an extensive corn maze where my friend’s husband took their dog for a walk. And then there’s the King’s Garden (below) where my friend and I went while her husband and the dog explored the corn maze.
Earlier I urged readers to look for a flag on a nearby hill. That hill is actually Mount Defiance. This was our next stop.
“Mount Defiance is an 840 ft (260 m) high hill on the New York side of Lake Champlain, in the northeastern United States. It is notable in that the hill militarily dominates both Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, but it was deemed inaccessible so never fortified. Mount Defiance was previously known as Sugar Loaf.” (Wikipedia).
In the 1777 Siege of Fort Ticonderoga, the British army succeeded in positioning artillery on Mount Defiance, causing the Continental Army to withdraw from both forts without a fight.
And with this final wonderful view (below) of Lake Champlain from Mount Defiance we ended our visit to Fort Ticonderoga and headed off to our next destination, also in Ticonderoga, NY.
When I mentioned to a colleague that we would be visiting Ticonderoga, NY she suggested that we might want to check out the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour. I’ve been watching Star Trek since I was kid, and my friend’s husband was an even more devoted fan than I am (he seems to be able to remember every episode in great detail, which is something that I’m a long way away from being able to do). So he got tickets for us.
The tour’s website provides the following description:
Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour is Located in Historic downtown Ticonderoga, New York.
When the STAR TREK television series was canceled in 1969, the original sets were dismantled and largely destroyed, only a few small items of the actual sets remain today, and those that have survived are in private collections. Trek superfan James Cawley began the process of rebuilding the sets just as they would have been seen 50 years ago when the series was being filmed, a 14 year journey has culminated in the most accurate rebuild of the original sets, and is now open and welcoming STAR TREK fans from all over the world!
Our sets are complete recreations built using the original blueprints, hundreds of hours of serious research and thousands of photographs – both period images and images culled from extensive review and capture from the original episodes. The sets will NOT and were NOT designed to move from one city to another and are fully licensed by CBS. The Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour Invites you to come see the Desilu Studio as it looked during the years between 1966-1969 while Star Trek was in production.
This “Batmobile” stood outside the entrance to the tour. We later discovered that it had been built by the person who also owned to tour.
The three pictures below were taken in the lobby while we were waiting for the tour to begin.
In the transporter room, featuring my friend’s husband and (in the second picture the two consoles used in the original series)
In the next two pictures we’re in sick bay.
The famous curved corridor.
The conference room featuring a Vulcan lute (sometimes referred to as a Vulcan harp, Vulcan lyre, or Vulcan lyrette) was a twelve-stringed musical instrument played on the planet Vulcan that was tuned on a diatonic scale and noted to be very soothing.
Captain Kirk’s Room
The Engine Room (I’m not sure about the first picture below, but I think it was the engine room. The second one certainly is.
On the bridge
All in all, it was much better than I thought it would be and I really enjoyed it. The highlight of the tour was being able to sit in the captain’s chair on the bridge of the starship “Enterprise”!
After a fairly long drive back from Ticonderoga we decided to eat in Rutland, Vermont at a restaurant called Roots. We had a great meal in a pleasant and interesting location. This was marred by only one thing. When I came to pay for the meal their machines would not accept any of my credit cards. So, my friends had to pay. When I was able to contact my bank, they told me that there was no problem with the cards, and that if they had been declined, they would have received a message – which they didn’t. The only thing they could offer was that the machine being used by the restaurant must have been faulty.
The morning after our dinner at Roots we had breakfast, let Juno run around for a while and then, since my friends had offered to drive me back home, we headed off back towards the lower Hudson valley where I live.
On the way we stopped at Chuang Yen monastery (below), near Putnam Valley where I used to have a house.
Finally, we reached Westchester County where I now live. After a quick drive around (where, among other places we took a quick look at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture), we went to dinner at one of my favorite riverside restaurants: The Boathouse in Ossining, NY.
I mentioned earlier that we took a look at the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture.
According to Wikipedia:
Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture is a non-profit farm, education and research center located in Pocantico Hills, New York. The center was created on 80 acres (320,000 m2) formerly belonging to the Rockefeller estate. Stone Barns promotes sustainable agriculture, local food, and community-supported agriculture. Stone Barns is a four-season operation.
Stone Barns Center is also home to the Barber family’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a restaurant that serves contemporary cuisine using local ingredients, with an emphasis on produce from the center’s farm. Blue Hill staff also participate in the center’s education programs.
Stone Barns’ property was once part of Pocantico, the Rockefeller estate. The Norman-style stone barns were commissioned by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to be a dairy farm in the 1930s. The complex fell into disuse during the 1950s and was mainly used for storage. In the 1970s, agricultural activity resumed when David Rockefeller’s wife Margaret “Peggy” McGrath began a successful cattle breeding operation.
Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture was created by David Rockefeller, his daughter Peggy Dulany, and their associate James Ford as a memorial for Margaret Rockefeller, who died in 1996. Stone Barns opened to the public in May 2004.
In 2008, Stone Barns opened its slaughterhouse to slaughter its livestock for plating at Blue Hill. Using their own slaughterhouse also eliminated the long and expensive drives to the closest one.
In 2017, Stone Barns published Letters to a Young Farmer, a compilation of essays and letters about the highs and lows of farming life, including Barbara Kingsolver, Bill McKibben, Michael Pollan, Temple Grandin, Wendell Berry, Rick Bayless, and Marion Nestle.
The farm at Stone Barns is a four-season operation with approximately 6 acres (24,000 m2) used for vegetable production. It uses a seven-year rotation schedule in the field and greenhouse beds. The farm grows 300 varieties of produce year-round, both in the outdoor fields and gardens and in the 22,000-square-foot (2,000 m2) minimally heated greenhouse that capitalizes on each season’s available sunlight. Among the crops suitable for the local soil and climate are rare varieties such as celtuce, Kai-lan, hakurei turnips, New England Eight-Row Flint seed corn, and finale fennel. The farm uses no pesticides, herbicides or chemical additives, although compost is added to the soil for enrichment. The farm has a six-month composting cycle using manure, hay, and food waste scraps.
I’ve been to Stone Barns many times. It’s adjacent to the Rockefeller State Park Preserve, a fantastic place for walking.
Stone Barns also has its own restaurant: Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Blue Hill has two Michelin Stars, and the guide describes it as follows:
The passion of Chef Dan Barber is at the core of everything here, where a meal is a true experience that uniquely knits together his vision of improving our foodways, the grit of utilizing the land to provide sustenance, and luxurious touches like crisped linens and fine crystal.
A procession of dramatically presented, farm-fresh seasonal produce kicks off the meal and may include freshly plucked radishes with browned butter, Hakurei turnips dressed with poppy seeds, and morsels of dried honeypatch squash. While the focus is plant-based, heartier compositions may reveal roasted, retired dairy cow plated with root-to-leaf celeriac. The meal may end celebrating how this operation began; as a dairy, with a tower of milk crumbs, milk jam, panna cotta and ice cream to dress poached quince.
The restaurant also has a green star for gastronomy & sustainability. According to Chef, Bastien Guillochon:
“We work with 64 local farms; 30% of our winter menu purchased in October and November to store, preserve or ferment; day boat fisherman off Long Island represent 80% of our seafood purchases; we work closely with vegetable and grain breeders to develop and champion varieties that have lower inputs and require less energy to produce.”
For more on Blue Hill see here.
I once ate at Blue Hill. But that was many years ago, not long after it opened. It was much less expensive then.
The restaurant’s FAQs contain the following statements:
The menu price is $398 – $448 per guest, exclusive of tax and 22% administrative fee. Most reservations include a walking tour of the property prior to your meal. Bookings with this tour support Stone Barns Center programming and are $448 per guest; bookings without are $398.
Menu price is prepaid during booking, and beverages are charged separately at the time of your reservation.
And
Guests are welcome to bring special bottles of wine that are not represented on our wine list. The policy is limited to one 750ml bottle per two guests for a fee of $150 per bottle.
The door to the restaurant was open so I peeped inside. However, I didn’t think it was appropriate to go around taking pictures. From what I saw it looked like a very nice place, as one might expect.
Since it would cost us in excess of $2,000 for dinner for the four of us, we decided we would skip that.
But Blue Hill has another trick up its sleeve: Breakfast:
Blue Hill Cafeteria, our casual, communal space, opened in October of 2021. The Cafeteria is anchored around a large table that opens to the Dooryard Garden, where we offer seasonal outdoor seating amongst the flower beds and their pollinators.
The Cafeteria is open Wednesday through Sunday to guests visiting the Stone Barns Center, highlighting our work with whole grains, preservation and butchery through breakfast, lunch and Community Table by Blue Hill—a family style dinner.
Reservations for both Lunch Tray at Blue Hill Cafeteria and Community Table by Blue Hill can be made online via Tock. All sales are final, and reservations cannot be canceled. If your preferred booking is not available, we encourage you to add your information to the waitlist. New reservations are released one month at a time on the 15th of the month prior.
I don’t recall that we made reservations. But we did get there very early, quite a while before it opened so we were among the first people through the door. We went inside, picked up what we wanted and then went out into the garden to eat. I must say that their offerings were very good, and not ridiculously priced. It was fun sitting in the garden.
After we finished my friends dropped me home, and then set off on their long drive back to Ottawa. It was very nice to see them again.