{city love} a day trip to stone barns

Earlier this fall, I met my friend Lauren at Grand Central Station early one Saturday morning. (Fine, early for me. It was actually 10am.) We jumped on a Metro North train, and a little over an hour later, we found ourselves at the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in Tarrytown, New York. Stone Barns is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting healthy, sustainable food, innovations in farming, and food education for children. In addition to an 80-acre farm, Stone Barns also features classes, a farmer's market, a stellar gift shop, and some truly fabulous dining in the form of the Blue Hill Cafe and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. 

Our first order of business was breakfast at the Blue Hill Cafe (I will be returning someday to try the more formal Blue Hill at Stone Barns, mark my words). I started my morning with coffee, a cheddar buttermilk scone, and a concord grape granola sticky bun. Yes, you read that correctly. Concord grape granola sticky bun. Delicious. After we were fed, we set off to explore the farm. We saw pigs (including an adorable piglet sitting inside of a bowl), sheep (and accompanying sheep dogs), turkeys readying for Thanksgiving (eep!), chickens, cows, bees, and a giant boar. 

We also visited kale and herbs in the greenhouse, rainbow chard and flowers in the garden, and wild mushrooms out in the woods. After trekking around the farm for a few hours, we hit the farmer's market and gift shop, and then headed back to the Blue Hill Cafe for round two (seriously). This time, I had squash soup, focaccia with caramelized onions and goat cheese, and a plum-filled pastry. I also picked up some honey and plum jam to bring back to Manhattan. 

Stone Barns is a magical place, and a visit makes for a wonderful afternoon activity (especially if you're a nature-starved New Yorker like I am.) I highly recommend making it out there if you get the chance. I loved walking around in the fresh air, seeing the farm animals, and of course, eating all of the fresh, delicious food. We didn't get the chance to take any of Stone Barnes' formal classes or tours, but we did follow their great self-guided tour (and only got a little bit lost. Okay, pretty darn lost. Hey, it is 80-acres after all.)

If You Go: We took Metro North from Grand Central to Tarrytown. There were taxis waiting at the Tarrytown Station, and one drove us to Stone Barns for about $10. We called the taxi company when we were ready to head home, and had them drop us off on Main Street so that we could explore Tarrytown before returning to the city.