Rhode Island 100 mile

Though we did the 100 Mile Diet last summer, I had forgotten how much planning goes into this.  We want to keep a good variety of foods which isn’t too difficult as so much is available right now.  What makes it challenging is that most supermarkets around us do not carry much in the way of local (the 100 miles) foods.  The markets we go to on a regular basis are on Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays which is better than last year but it still can catch us off-guard on Thursday nights!  However, tonight was not a night we were caught off-guard.  Josh cooked up some great country style ribs, eggplant, onion, and funky potatoes with light pink flesh.  I also picked over 4 pounds of blueberries today at Schartners so we snack on those before and after dinner – YUMMY!

While Ingrid was here in Rhode Island kicking off this year’s 100 mile diet, I was out in Colorado visting my friends the Everharts and checking out some breweries and beer joints. Since I was invited out there, I was able to indulge in some of the fermentative offerings that the “Napa Valley of Beer” had to offer. I lived out in Colorado in the late 90′s and boy, have things changed! Besides the urban sprawl, new neighborhoods have popped up and old ones have drastically changed- one of them being the area around Coors Field in Denver- a.k.a “LoDo” or Lower Downtown. When I left, Coors Field was only a couple of years old and they were drastically trying to gentrify this forgotten area of the City. Included in this revival of the area are a bunch of breweries and beer bars that are quite exquisite:

Originally founded up in the ski town of Breckenridge, Breckenridge Brewery has opened an outpost right across from Coors Field (similar to our Boston Beer Works across from Fenway). This place was brandy-new and squeaky clean. They brew some decent beers and had a “small batch” series going when I stopped in. I had thier IPA and ESB along with a Colorado bison burger (tried to keep some things local). The beers were OK- nothing outstanding- and the burger was good…I ordered it medium so it wouldn’t be all dry. I was going to go back to the hotel for a bit to recharge, but I ran into the Falling Rock on my way back…

…located right down the street from Breckenridge. These guys boast a whole mess of taps, but do not brew their own- except for one beer. Along with Russian River Brewing from Santa Rosa, CA and three other beer bar owners across the US, they came up with a “group fermentation” called the Publican only available here and at the other three bars in the US. It was an excellent belgian-style beer with a little brettanomyces to sour it up just a bit. Very nice indeed!

Inside of the Falling Rock…lots of bottles! This is probably only 30% of them lining the establishment!

After a short rest back at the hotel, I headed over to Great Divide Brewing Company to try some of their beers straight from the source. These guys make some of my favorite beers- the Yeti Imperial Stout being one of them. They had some Yeti to offer, but the one on tap had cocoa nibs added to the aging…this was an excellent beer, but a little to heavy for the heat. I also tried their 15th anniversary beer- an oak aged imperial IPA that was also very tasty. I think that I enjoyed these beers the best.

To round out my little beer tour, I ended up at the Wynkoop Brewery which is one of the older ones in Denver after a stop at the Tattered Cover Book Store. I had a great Colorado lamb and risotto dinner along with a barley-wine style beer…the beer was good, but the lamb was fantastic! Kim, Chris and I also went to Trinity Brewing down in Colorado Springs- nothing to write home about…some drunk guy was playing some air guitar, the food was below average and the beers were OK- although I did have a good Farmhouse Ale while we were there…

                                                       -Josh

After experiencing a wonderful dinner the night before, we thought it would be worthwhie to head back up to have a better look around (it was quite rainy during dinner). The Center itself is on the site of an old Rockerfeller family dairy farm. The barns and silos now house the restaurant, cafe, education center and store. Other buildings on the property contain the greenhouses and services necessary to operate the facility. You can tour around at your own pace with the help from a walking map that you can get at the info center. This is what we found…

This is the view that you get on the way up the driveway, before you reach the main buildings of the Center. Most of the gardens extend up the hill from the road, which provide fresh ingredients for the restaurant and also act as a living outdoor educational “classroom” for visitors. Blue Hill also gets some of their food from Blue Hill Farm in Great Barrington, MA which is a farm that the Barber family runs.

 This is the main entryway into the center- you can see the “front door garden” just to the left of the walkway which was typical of an historical farm. The garden contained everything from tomatoes to herbs to ornamentals and usually was planted close to the front door for easy access.

 Another view of the front door garden…they also hold a weekly farmer’s market in the covered space at the back of the garden.

 …here is another shot of the sign that denotes the front door of the restaurant.

 …a close up of the squash patch. It was interesting to see that they had let the native grasses grow wild in between the rows of plants.

 This is a view from the top of the hill with the vegetable gardens below. Diners can see the crops on the hill from the dining room.

 A close up of the building. The silos on the right were renovated into meeting spaces and are quite dynamic- Ingrid and I spent some time in one getting out of the sun. Just to the right of the ivy-covered section in the center is the tisane garden where they grow all their herbs and flowers for the tea service. They freshly pick all the ingredients for dessert tea and present them to you on a well-adorned cart…something that should not be missed if you happen to dine at the restaurant. To the left of the ivy wall is the outdoor terrace for the dining room- we didn’t get the chance to sit out there during dinner due to the weather.

 …upon leaving the Center, you get to see some more of the farm- these are the mobile chicken coops which can be rolled around to different fields so the chickens can graze (which was noticable in the poached egg that we had). They also raise their own pigs and lamb as well.

Returning to the Center was the perfect way to cap off a wonderful trip- we highly recommend checking out the Center- even if it doesn’t involve eating at the restaurant!

                                     -Josh and Ingrid

So it’s day two of the 100 Mile Diet but since I was at my sister’s yesterday and this morning, it wasn’t too hard so I wanted to write about our third day in NY.

This past Wednesday was our last morning in NYC because I had a hair appointment.  Since the salon I was going to was relatively close to Doughnut Plant, we decided to go back for more donuts before my appointment.  We enjoyed four more donuts – of course we had to get another creme brulee and I got another coconut.  Josh got a carrot cake and . . . I can’t remember the other one.  Really, the best donuts ever!!  This is the box that was on the TV show Ugly Betty – there was a sign above this box and I had to take a picture of it for Becky – Connecticut Becky that is.

After donuts, I got my hair cut and Josh did some shopping – for beer and a few kitchen things.  After I was done and Josh had some good beers for himself and his buddy Chris, we went to the Blind Tiger on Bleeker Street for lunch.  Great beer and REALLY good sandwiches – Josh had a lamb sausage wrap that was PACKED with lamb, veggies, and a tasty yogurt sauce and I had a grilled cheese with bacon and apples – once the 100 Mile Diet is over, I’m making this sandwich!  And since it was nice and cool in the bar, we stayed for a while and just enjoyed the food and drink.

Once we finished at the Blind Tiger, Josh and I headed back to the hotel to get the car and drive out to Tarrytown NY.  We stayed in at a hotel in Tarrytown because we had reservations at a nearby restaurant.  The hotel was good but the “downtown” of Tarrytown left a little to be desired but we didn’t have much time before our dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

This is the menu today on the website (8-2-09) – very similar “menu” to what we had.  Blue Hill lists what ingredients they have – mostly from their own farm – rather than listing actual dishes.  The wait staff asked us if we had any allergies or if there was anything on the menu that we didn’t like and since we eat anything, we said bring it all on!  And did they ever!  What an incredible dinner we had.  We started with four small appetizers – my favorite was the tomato burger.  It was one bite – the bun seemed like a brioche and the filling was chopped tomato and a small amount of cheese. The house made tomato juice was great, we loved the bluefish, the salad with the poached egg . . . we really loved it all.  Our favorite dish – we actually both liked the same dish the best – was the lamb loin and lamb neck.  I was soooooo good!  The neck had been braised so it just came apart with a fork – no knife needed.  I’d go back to Blue Hill just for the lamb!

This article from newyork.seriouseats.com tells you more about the restaurant and has great food pictures – we only took one food picture (below – the vegetable fence) the whole night.  The food made me forget about taking pictures.  They are not the same courses we had but it gives you an idea of what’s served.

Tomorrow I’ll post some pictures of the actual farm and update how we’re doing on the 100 Mile Diet, day 3, as much of the food we had in the house that we can’t buy for two months is quickly disappearing!

- Ingrid

So today marks the day that we start our second 100 Mile Diet Challenge.  In 2008, we did the Challenge in July and August.  July was not a great month as not much was ripe so this year we decided to do August and September – yes,  easier months but remember Josh without coffee and me without chocolate!  We’ll be updating the blog with the rules again over the next couple of days.

Our inspiration for the Challenge last year was the book Plenty: One Man, One Woman and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith and JB MacKinnon.  They continue to be inspirational as they did it for a year in Canada (click here for their website and lots of info on the 100 Mile Diet) but I’ve read some other books that have added to that inspiration.  Though they are not the following the 100 Mile Diet per se, these other books capture the spirit of it all for me and I’ve listed them below.  I’m working my way through some other ones and will give you those titles in another post.

Coop:  A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting by Michael Perry

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter – her blog is located here – Novella ate for a month primarily off of what she grew in her garden next door – her garden is on an abondoned lot in Oakland, CA.  The book is about more than this experience but she did do a version of the 100 Mile Diet, except it was like 10o feet!

Service Included by Phoebe Damrosch – this is not really about the 100 Mile Diet but about working at Per Se, Thomas Keller’s restaurant in NYC.  How it ties into the 100 Mile Diet Challenge is the knowledge the staff has of their vendors and how they grow/raise/produce their products.  All the vendors are not within 100 miles but the author takes a trip to Jasper Hill Farm to track down the story on the Winnemere cheese – a really great cheese – try it if you get the chance. Getting to know our vendors was a highlight of doing the Challenge last year.

What’s on tap for food today as it’s the first day of the Challenge?  Cleaning out the fridge!  So I still have a couple of slices of blueberry yogurt bread to enjoy and yogurt and cheese but those will be gone by the end of the weekend.  It’s gonna get fun!

More tomorrow on the New York trip.

-Ingrid