Valentines Day is on a Wednesday, and we’ll be open for dinner. Reservations are live and we’re offering a few cheeky things to share on Monday as well, in case Wednesday fills up before you get to book.
We’re hosting winter weddings in the barn upstairs, if you spy a bride, say cheers!
Nathan is making and barrel-aging our own vermouth. Drink it on a rock, or in a Negroni or Manhattan.
If you’ve had chicories (pictured), salad greens or baby bok choy from our menu, you know precisely why we source these beautiful vegetables from Plane Meadow Farm, a two acre farm on the Tivoli, NY property owned by artists and hoteliers Helen and her late husband Brice Marden. Brent Shaeffer took the reins at Plane Meadow three years ago, and since then she has evolved their offering of cut greens and head lettuce to include more of the “specialty and fussy” produce she loves to grow. She appreciates the off-season for “the time it allows for dreaming and scheming,” and we can’t wait to showcase the vegetables
of her dreams this spring.
Brent grew up in Hastings, NY with a family that loves food. She spent a lot of time in her mother’s garden and she also attended the youth Farm Camp at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Working with livestock at Blue Hill was, she said, when farming became her passion–but her mother’s garden clearly made a lasting impression. After studying creative writing in college, Brent started farming vegetables and hasn’t looked back.
Along with her longtime friend and farming partner Kimberley, Brent has spent the past three seasons simultaneously narrowing and expanding what Plane Meadow Farm grows, adapting their methods of growing and harvesting, and building the right infrastructure to support them. As someone who loves food and runs a primarily wholesale farm, Brent is excited by working with local, creative chefs who value niche and interesting seasonal produce. As our own Chef Roel says, “her season is my season.” This gives Brent and her team the opportunity to experiment and play with specialty produce like artichokes and Borlotti beans and specialty herbs like hyssop and sorrel. She deftly navigates that tricky balance of being excited about what they’re growing and making sure it’s the right business decision for the farm. Locals, you’re in luck; you can purchase select produce in several local specialty markets.
Here, we chat with Brent about the off season, where she gets her inspiration, and lessons in patience and learning to adapt (which are applicable to all of us).
How do you approach the off season from a personal standpoint? Are there any rituals you follow?
For me, the off-season is a time of year that I really treasure because there’s more time for personal endeavors, for being creative and exploring new ideas through reading, and for being with friends and family enjoying simple things like movies and games. In terms of creativity, that mostly involves quilting, but it also involves exploring ideas for the farm, and gives me space to think about how to do things differently, and hopefully even better.
If you could be anywhere, other than the farm, in the off season, where would you be/what would you be doing?
I’d choose to be by a large body of water. The ocean especially has always been something soothing to me. Whenever I plan a trip, being by water is a priority.
How do your team’s artistic backgrounds influence the way you farm?
Maybe this isn’t so much an influence as a parallel, or a similarity, but something Kimberley and I have talked a lot about, is that as an artist and as a farmer you have to be comfortable with the fact that not everything you do will be a success, or will resonate. Just because a vegetable is unique or exciting for us to grow doesn’t guarantee that it will appeal to the chefs we work with.
More specifically, for Kimberley, my farm partner and co-worker for many years now, her training as a visual artist has honed her ability to really see what’s in front of her on both the micro and macro level. To be able to really look closely at the details, the minutiae of a specific plant or crop, and trace how it connects to the larger picture, the farm as a whole. It’s an incredible skill.
Another way in which they are both connected, is the ability, really the necessity, to problem solve. To investigate ‘why’ it is that something isn’t working, whether it’s a piece of art, a poem, or a new crop, in order to make adjustments or switch gears in the future. Is it the composition as a whole, was the scale or timing of crop plan off? Or some step in the process that causes problems down the road, did that crop need more amendments, less water? Or maybe it’s something larger at play, like the weather or climate that is an underlying issue.
What can the off-season teach you about farming and/or life?
So much of the off-season is planning, but it’s also a time for dreaming about ideas for the farm in the long-term, not just the next season. It’s also a time to think about ways to do things differently, like adding new crops to add into the mix, but none of that starts to take a physical form for months, which is really a lesson in patience.
The off-season gives me time to research ideas for problem-solving, too. To think about things that could have been better or done differently last season, and strategize a different way to go forward. It’s also very much a reminder of the potential for the coming season. We are currently building two new high tunnels at the farm, one will be our new propagation house and the other will be used for growing that starts in early spring and goes until late fall/winter. Physically constructing the tunnels is a wonderful reminder that even in the off-season, the farm is evolving and growing.
What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned in farming?
There are so many hard lessons to be learned from farming, but one that I navigate and struggle with nearly everyday is that ultimately I, we, have no control and that there’s no real way to know how something will turn out. It’s so challenging to have a plan for the season, or the week, or the day, that you’re excited about, whatever the tasks are, and then to have to set it aside and pivot to problem-solving mode because something in the weather forecast derails the plan, but other times it’s a piece of equipment breaking, or the cooler malfunctions that shifts our focus. No matter how good a plan is, at some point the trajectory shifts, and you really just have to be glad that the plan held for however long it did. I am someone who loves to have a solid plan. I will get really excited about piecing the week together, and I think the real lesson is how to flex that plan or let go of it without letting it get to you and zap your energy or inspiration.
What’s an unusual source of inspiration?
One of my favorite interviews (I listen to it at least once a year) is Marie Howe on the podcast On Being. Marie Howe is one of my favorite poets, and it’s an incredible interview. I love the way she describes her approach to teaching and her passion for everyday observations is something that was very formative for me when I was studying creative writing as an undergrad, and has always stuck with me since. At its core, farming is very much a series of daily observations, seeing the field and plants around you and taking note of what they need, and then figuring out how to make that happen.
Do you have a go-to recipe?
I’m a big cook book person – I love to skim through the indexes to figure out how I want to prepare a specific vegetable or figure out how to cook with a new ingredient. Years ago, I borrowed a copy of Colu Henry’s Back Pocket Pasta from my parents. I had read Colu’s introduction while visiting, and was quickly intrigued. I’m always on the hunt for cook books with straightforward ingredient lists, ones that can be adjusted based on what you have on hand, and allow for easy weeknight meals when we don’t have time to go to the store, which is exactly what Back Pocket Pasta is all about. Over the years, I have cooked from so many of those recipes; some of them have become major staples in our weekly rotation.
Your favorite vegetable to eat?
It’s very simple, but one of my favorite things is an open-faced tomato and mayonnaise sandwich, with salt and pepper sprinkled on top. Good bread is ideal, but even toasted sandwich bread does the trick! On a hot day, it’s the best afternoon or midday snack. If I’m feeling decadent, which I usually am, I will also drizzle a little olive oil on top.