Newport, RI

We recently took a trip to Newport, Rhode Island after attending a beautiful wedding in Connecticut for the daughter of my high school friend. We visited two great restaurants and managed to stop at Claire’s Restaurant in New Haven on the drive home.

It was a glorious bright blue sky weekend in Newport and our Bread and Breakfast, the Sarah Kendall House had a large front porch overlooking the Newport Harbor, which was filled with sail boats. By the way the Sarah Kendall House was immaculate, beautiful, and served amazing breakfasts. It is in a quiet, historic part of Newport called The Point. The owners, Bryan & Fran, were pleasant and great cooks. It’s a five star recommendation from me. Right around the corner from the Sarah Kendall House, we stopped on our walk to put in a reservation for 7:00, at Rhumbline, a unique local and largely fish and fresh organic food restaurant. It was elegant and packed. It was fairly expensive but well worth it.

The next day we took a ten mile walk through the historic part of Newport and down Bellevue Avenue, the famous street with the huge mansions. We returned on the Cliff Walk, which runs behind the mansions along the beach. We wanted to eat something casual, so upon the recommendation of the owner of our B&B we went to the Brick Alley Pub. We were surprised to see the front of the menu said, “At Brick Alley we care about the health of our customers and the environment. We use locally grown, organic, and all- natural ingredients whenever possible. We strive to be eco-friendly in all areas of our business.”

The boat show was in Newport this weekend and it was a blast, just walking around the docks with gorgeous 80 degree sunny skies. There is nothing better than walking along the ocean in the fall.

We drove right through New Haven so we stopped at Claire’s and I had a large healthy spinach salad with a pomegranate ice tea that had bits of apple in it. It was very good and it was nice to see Claire again. She exudes fulfillment and happiness watching her run her restaurant.

Stone Barns Center

The Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York is a picturesque farm, one that would make any visitor want to forget his desk job and take up farming. It is an environmentally sustainable, organic farm with historic barns on Rockefeller family land that holds tours and programs to demonstrate how food is grown and raised. Blue Hill at Stone Barns is the restaurant that is the ultimate eater’s paradise. They serve an eleven course farm meal, with vegetables and meats harvested from the farm that day. The restaurant’s chef is Dan Barber, one of New York’s top chefs. You can also grab a light lunch on the farm at the Blue Hill Café, which shares the restaurant’s kitchen. The phone number for the farm is (914) 366-6200, and the website is www.stonebarnscenter.org.

David Rockefeller and his daughter Peggy Dulany, had the vision to build Stone Barns Center in remembrance of Peggy Rockefeller, David’s his late wife, who was an avid farmer and used to raise cattle on the land that is the Stone Barns Center. In dedicating the center, David said

”The most critical factor in farmland preservation has to be the promotion, support and encouragement of local farmers. As factory-style farms grow even larger, and our food supply originates in ever more distant places, we dangerously diminish the role of local food systems. Regaining that local connection is vital to the sustainability of our communities, the preservation of our environment, and the safety of our food supply. This is her legacy and now the mandate of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.”

The farm is fairly small compared to a conventional farm. Ellen, our tour guide, showed us the main points of the farm in a 2 hour tour. Our group was so interested in all that she had to say, we might have continued wandering if it wasn’t 90 degrees with high humidity that day. I suggest wearing a hat and sneakers on your visit. Our first stop was the Blue Hill Restaurant, which was neat, watching all the chefs busily preparing lunch for the café and dinner for the restaurant. Three of the people on our tour had eaten dinner at the restaurant the night before and said it was the best dinner they have ever had. It was eleven courses with no menu, just fresh farm food that was available that day.

Stone Barns sits outside New York City on the Hudson River and its purpose its to teach children, adults and aspiring organic farmers how to farm in all four seasons in New York’s climate. The center has children’s camps to teach children the methods of organic farming and how to raise livestock. It is very different from conventional farming where only one crop is grown year after year, and subsequently needs to be sprayed with herbicides, insecticides, and conventional fertilizer. The children learn that good healthy food is all about the soil. If the soil is healthy, the food will be healthy.

I spoke to one mom whose 8 year old son was in the camp at the Center and she said, “our family now has a garden at home because of him,” which was wonderful to hear because that is the objective of Stone Barns Center. I definitely plan to return to eat at the restaurant, since I only had time to savor an excellent light lunch at the café with farm fresh panna cotta and raspberries on top for dessert.



To see pictures from my visit - click here.

Dinner with our good friends, Chefs Walt and Jean Scheib

Friday night was a lot of fun having dinner on our back porch with our great friends, the Scheibs. Walt Scheib has non stop funny stories and Jean accompanies those stories with her dry wit, which always has me laughing. They are both graduates of the Culinary Institute and both started out as chefs, but Jean just embarked on a real estate career and Walt is always on speaking tours as “the American Chef.”

Most people know that Walter Scheib was the President’s chef for 11 years, with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. In 2005, he gave up cooking for another passion, public speaking. Walt is now a world class speaker with engagements to speak to business groups on what it was like to be the White House chef all those years, while they enjoy a lunch or dinner. He does not prepare the lunches or dinners, but he does prepare the menu for the engagement. After his retirement he also published a cookbook titled White House Chef with recipes, stories, and great pictures of Presidential events. It reads like a novel and the recipes are truly worth cooking. It is also a testament to his healthful cooking that both Walt and his wife, Jean, are thin and fit and it is the big reason the Clinton’s wanted him.

Friends comment, “What do you cook for dinner? I would be nervous." But the Scheibs are totally casual. So, I planned a casual dinner. First, we started with a lime cilantro shrimp cocktail made by Jean. It was so delicious my son Steve, who joined us for a bit, commented that he would like to eat the whole platter. For dinner we had fresh mahi mahi on the grill, which Walt ended up cooking. He watched me open up a new digital thermometer, and said “you don’t need that” and proceeded to show me how to test for doneness by testing the flesh on my hand. Well, even Jean said she couldn’t check the fish that way, so Walt helped out. Back to dinner, tomatoes from our organic garden topped with blue cheese and olive oil and boiled red potatoes. For dessert, an organic lemon tart from Trader Joe’s with some raspberry and lemon sorbet.

I really wanted to get their perspective on organic foods. According to both Walt and Jean, they buy organic food if they find the taste is better. Walt said, “while non-organic food may be a health issue, it is a long term issue that doesn’t become a problem for many years. The biggest health concern of a chef is food safety and preventing food borne illnesses like salmonella and e-coli. The way meat is slaughtered, handled, and processed is the biggest problem that we have to deal with in the short term.”

Walt suggested I give his close friend, Alice Waters (the owner of Chez Panisse, who is a huge supporter of organic and local foods) a call, to tell her about my blog and get her perspective. He also suggested I call Cris Comerford, the current While House Executive Chef, for her comments.

Walt recently visited the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture for one of his clients and suggested I go visit. Their website is www.stonebarnscenter.org. They have an incredible learning site and functioning organic farm for anyone to visit just outside of New York City in Tarrytown. I plan to visit next week.

Preserving Small Local Farms

What is contributing to the loss of family farms are the ever present land development pressures. Put simply: no affordable farmland, no small farms. In many areas of the country close to urban and suburban communities, profit per acre from expanded real estate development is far higher than from small-scale local farming.

Click here to read a White Paper on the economics of keeping small farms viable.

Local and fresh?

There have been a lot of articles lately about buying local and fresh. Unless it is also organic, it is no better for you than going to the grocery store. What about the neighbors of those farmers, with all that chemical spraying? The local aspect is a huge savings on transportation costs, reducing the trucking of vegetables and fruits across country, but we need to have more farmers offering good chemical-free food as well.

We went to a local farm market in Northern Virgina last summer that had fresh vegetables, but there was not a single vendor out of 30 that grew anything organically. We were disappointed and didn't buy anything. One important point about organic farms, if the farmer says it is raised organically but is not certified because of the expense, I certainly believe them.

The good news is there is a very slow movement towards organic foods in Virginia, and in my small way I hope to speed it up.

Let's try and stop polluting our waters

This video is very interesting because we are all contributing to the quality of our water supply. The chemicals neighbors use to keep the weeds away and the lawns perfect jeopardize the health of every neighbor, their children, and certainly our pets. We have never used chemicals on our two acre lawn and it is perfectly green. Weeds are an issue, but you have to pull them out and possibly use newspaper under mulch to keep them down. We find it a bit difficult in Virgina to keep the weeds down, but using chemicals is not an option. I don't feel we should poison everyone around to have a beautiful lawn. Please consider organic options. I would rather visit someone with an imperfect lawn knowing they don't use chemicals and care about everyone's health.

Hunter’s Head Tavern, Upperville, Virginia - A great stop for a casual dinner in horse country just outside of Middleburg.

We are from the D.C. area, so driving to Middleburg is an easy 50 mile trip to the most beautiful country nearby. We strolled along Washington Street, Middleburg’s main street, and stopped at Cuppa Giddyup for an excellent cup of organic, fair trade coffee. We had come to check out the organic food store named the Home Farm Store. The store features many cuts of organic meats raised on the owners’ 800 acre farm, Ayrshire Farm in Upperville, plus organic produce, homemade sausage, (which is out of this world), cheeses, and herbs. The friendly clerk at the Home Farm Store told us that the owner Sandy Lerner had also opened a restaurant, the Hunter’s Head Tavern, in Upperville. The restaurant featured all the produce and meats from her farm, so we made a plan to have dinner there. It was early afternoon and a sparkling cool July day, so we sat at an outside pub, the Red Fox Inn, for a cold beer and to ponder our next activity in the country before leaving the beautiful town of Middleburg. We drove down the road a few miles through Upperville, past the Hunter’s Head Tavern, and spent the afternoon hiking on the horse paths in Sky Meadows State Park. Sky Meadows State Park is a 1,600 acre park with beautiful views of the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and 12 miles of hiking trails, including a link to the Appalachian Trail.

After a couple of hours of hiking, we drove back to Hunter’s Head Tavern to sit outside on the large blue slate patio outside the historic tavern. Our dinner was fabulous. We walked inside to an old wooden bar and ordered from a chalkboard that has the daily organic, sustainable choices which are fresh from Ayrshire Farm. Ours included some fabulous meats from her farm and a delicious salad of fresh greens and of course some great Virginia wine. We would highly recommend both a trip to Middleburg for a gorgeous day in the country and a picnic bought from the Home Farm Store or a delicious dinner at the Hunter’s Head Tavern for some delectable meats raised organically. There is no denying the taste of grass fed beef is the tastiest.

Ayrshire Farm is open to the public twice a year, the third weekend in May for the Loudoun Valley’s Spring Farm Tour and 1st weekend in November for the Annual Beastie Bazaar animal fundraiser.

The Home Farm Store
1E. Washington Street
Middleburg, Virginia

Hunter’s Head Tavern
9048 John Mosby Hwy
Upperville, Virginia

Ayrshire Farm
Upperville, Virginia

Claire’s Corner Copia and Basta Trattoria - Two Excellent Restaurants in New Haven, Connecticut

Claire’s Corner Copia and Basta Trattoria are two restaurants you do not want to miss if visiting Yale or just passing through New Haven. They sit side by side on the lively Chapel Street, right outside of Yale, where the sidewalk is extra wide with huge shade trees surrounded by boutique shops. If you are just passing through New Haven on I-95, just take exit 47, and you will quickly find yourself sitting just off the New Haven green, enjoying a delicious, healthy, organic, sustainable meal.

Claire and her husband, Frank Criscuolo own and operate both restaurants. The food at Claire’s is renown and and a winner of consistent awards. In 2009 it was voted the Best Vegetarian Restaurant in the State, by the readers of Connecticut Magazine, and Best Vegetarian Restaurant, and Best Desserts in a Restaurant, by the readers of the New Haven Advocate, 2009. As for Claire’s desserts, the May issue of the Connecticut Magazine wrote that "Lithuanian Coffee Cake at Claire's Corner Copia is one of the 50 foods you need to eat before you die."

While Claire’s is a casual vegan, organic, and kosher eatery that is open all day, Basta Trattoria, is a cozy dinner restaurant serving southern Italian dishes full of organic meats and organic Italian wines. Basta Trattoria was started by Frank five years ago, and it is a homey brick restaurant serving sustainable, organic vegetables, wild line-caught fish and seafood, organic and free-range chicken, prime grass-fed beef, hand made Italian cheeses, and Italian wines from small family owned vineyards throughout Italy. If you want to sit down in a relaxed setting with a glass of wine, and the most delicious food from the same fabulous owners, this is the place to eat in New Haven. Both restaurants are very reasonably priced and an unforgettable experience.

Claire’s Corner Copia has been a landmark in New Haven for 35 years and is always busy, often with a line of Yale students ordering at the counter. When you enter Claire’s, you need to stand back for awhile to gaze at the extensive chalkboard that lists coffees, teas, yogurt parfaits, breakfast omelets, sandwiches, soups, and salads, all homemade, organic and casually priced. Under your nose is an incredible array of home-baked chocolate dense cakes, coffee cakes, cupcakes that are mouth watering – all made with organic ingredients and no trans fats. It is a smart crowd who know that the food Chef Claire serves is good for you, but it is the taste that wins her all the awards and keeps the restaurant packed.

Most passersby stopped to say hello to Claire and Frank while we sat at an outside cafe table in front of the two restaurants chatting over a great glass of red wine. I was thrilled to get the chance to talk with both of them about the challenges of serving organic, sustainable food. Most of the food in both restaurants is from nearby farms and much is from their own organic garden. To me, the biggest issue is: “Why aren’t Americans eating almost totally organic, and why don’t people seem to connect illness and cancer rates with the food we are eating?”

One big reason is it is more expensive to buy organic because we don’t have enough farmers willing to farm organically. Secondly, people don’t seem to correlate pesticide use with cancer. We have a huge health crisis which is costing all of us. If we can prevent even some cancer cases by eliminating the pesticides from the food we eat, we could be preventing many of the health issues we are trying to solve.

Our children are worth the extra money organic foods cost. It is much more important than many other things we are paying for. The difference in the cost of feeding a family on organic foods over conventional foods may be less than the amount that families pay for cell phones, cable TV, video games, etc. Claire suggested a great book on this issue titled, “The History of the Secret War on Cancer” by Deborah Davis.

A great idea Claire mentioned, and one she is a big participator in, is to get your child’s elementary school to start a garden. It teaches our children at a young age how to grow their own organic garden and how to make money from it. Other great suggestions from Claire and Frank are to be careful about where your organic food comes from. Recently, some food from China was labeled and sold as organic, but was found to be tainted with pesticides. Also, if you live in New England look up the New England Organic Farmers Association (NOFA)if you want to purchase healthy, organic produce.

Below is the link to Claire’s and Basta Trattoria’s websites with menus.

Claire's Corner Copia
1000 Chapel Street
New Haven, CT
(203) 562-3888

Basta Trattoria
1006 Chapel Street
New Haven, CT
(203) 772-1715