Intrepidly Raw: Blooming Hill Farm

This weekend I went with three wonderful friends on a day-trip to Blooming Hill Farm, an hour drive north of NYC. Blooming Hill supplies amazing organic produce to some of the top restaurants in the city and they have a CSA available for residents in their area. What's better, for city dwellers like me, is that they have a market and cafe that's open on Saturdays and Sundays year-round (I can't wait to make a trip in the dead of winter). It really makes for an ideal quick getaway.

The market is stocked with an abundance of organic produce grown right on the farm. They also sell farm fresh eggs, goat's milk yogurt, Balthazar's bread, and a limited selection of organic produce that doesn't grow in the Northeast (bananas, lemons, avocados, etc.). The quality and prices are unbeatable.

Besides being able to buy amazing organic produce at Blooming Hill, owner/farmer Guy Jones runs a cafe that serves brunch/lunch on the weekends and specializes in farm-to-table cooking. Guy's motto is "don't buy food from strangers", and he sources all ingredients used in his cafe right from his own farm or from other farmer friends of his. Each day he creates a menu of four or five options utilizing whatever is fresh. One option is always a homemade pizza that is made in an outdoor wood-fired oven behind the barn. I had a (not raw, but very healthful) tostada that had a toasted flatbread base topped with black beans, scrambled eggs, shredded raw cabbage, cilantro-pesto drizzled on top, and a sprinkling of sunflower seeds. It was heavenly! Sipping lemonade and herbal sun tea from mason jars outside on a picnic table while enjoying the bucolic vista, it was impossible not to relax and feel somewhat rejuvenated after a busy week in the city.

I was so enchanted by the multi-sensory experience of being on the farm, I didn't want to pull myself out of it to take pictures. Luckily, my friend Mike Di Tota did the honors and he did a brilliant job.