A Local Farm Opens Its Doors
-
- April
- 9
I recently attended an open house hosted by Rainbeau Ridge Farm in Bedford. I’ve mentioned the goat cheese from Rainbeau Ridge before, but this is the first post dedicated to the farm entirely.
Lisa Schwartz, who owns the farm with her husband, Mark, has been making cheese for about five years  and if you’ve ever tasted it (in season, you can get it at Mount Kisco Seafood and the cafe at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, among other places), you know she’s very good at it. We got to taste the first batch of the season:
Not only does Lisa raise goats and grow vegetables (enough to feed 50-plus families), she also has programs open to the public. This kitchen, for example, has been host to cooking classes by local and nationally known chefs, from Jon Pratt of Peter Pratt’s Inn in Yorktown and Phil McGrath of Iron Horse Grill in Pleasantville to Michael Anthony (now of Gramercy Tavern) and Waldy Malouf of Beacon in Manhattan.
Lisa served amazing blintzes made with her goat cheese.
After a little breakfast, Lisa sat everyone down to talk about her mission:
Plenty of people talk about how important it is to know where your food comes from. But Lisa shows how important it is. She raises chickens for eggs; bees for honey and taps her maple trees for syrup.
And she does it in the suburbs, which is even more admirable. I mean, sure, she does have 35-acres  and that’s quite a luxury. But the workshops and classes she leads at Rainbeau Ridge teach people that even on a small plot of land, you can grow a few lettuce plants. With even more space, you could raise a few chickens.
She doesn’t expect that everyone is going to go out and raise goats (hi buddy!) â€â€
 but she hopes that because she does it, people will better understand that there is a season for goat cheese. That cheese can taste different depending on where the goats are raised.
We visited just 24 hours after this little tyke was born:
Isn’t he amazing? (That’s Ron, one of the staff members.)
Here’s a closer look at the farm:
Lisa isn’t so crazy into “the movement” that she expects everyone to drop out of society and live like we’re in the 1800s (in fact, she admitted to having quite a few naughty snacks in her fridge). But she hopes that people will take a little more time to understand what it means to grow things, to cultivate not only land, but a community.
One of my favorite lines in Lisa’s speech: It’s not that we expect people to give up their SUVs. It’s just that we hope to teach them not to idle them.
This entry was posted
on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 9:36 am by Liz Johnson.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print This Post
| 
Email
(4.62 out of 5)
(4.21 out of 5)
We plan to get goat cheese from Rainbeau Ridge. This is what food is all about.
You’re right. I can’t wait to have Lisa’s cheese in my fridge all summer.
We can encourage readers to use the farms that are available to us in the lower hudson valley by picking their own. Or consider joining a CSA – Community Supported Agriculture…Liz why can’t you do a article on CSA’s?....I use them and find them amazing in quality and value….
http://www.valleytable.com/csa_main.php
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) projects support local agriculture while bringing fresh (and often organic) produce directly to consumers. In a CSA, shareholders pay a farmer in advance for a portion of the farm’s seasonal production (some offer options such as half shares, senior shares or a working share). The share price covers the farmer’s costs-
for seed, equipment, planting, harvesting and wagesand in return shareholders get a weekly portion of the farm’s produce and sometimes other products such as fruit, cheese, eggs, flowers or bread. Most CSAs also offer recipes, storage tips and suggestions on how to use foods with which shareholders may be unfamiliar. Shares in a CSA are limited and it’s often a good idea to sign on early in the season-some fill up as early as March! Becoming a member of a CSA is a great way to help preserve agriculture in the valley while guaranteeing you’ll get the freshest possible produce.Philip,
You’ll be happy to know an article on CSA is in the works. We are planning to publish something in May.
Do you  or any other readers  have suggestions of CSAs we might include?
(Also, why the strikethough?)
The strike through seems to occur when I cut and pasted the data from the word document. I would suggest you visit the Hudson Valley Table website for suggestions on CSA’s.
Also if you visit Chowhound.com there is extensive information on how to choose a CSA…not all are the same…and buyers beware….I think that they are great…