During my visit to New York I travelled up by train from Penn
station to the Hudson Valley. The train runs along by the river bank
with a back drop of the sheer wooded cliffs of the Palisades on the
other side. I've done this trip once before on my way to Rhinecliff but
today it's even more beautiful, the trees are just bursting into leaf,
white blossoms of the wild pear and an occasional purple pink crab
apple, tangles of old man's beard...
We've
passed through Yonkers, Croton Harmon, Poughkeepsie, Rhinecliff and next
its Hudson. The train is really comfy and clean with lots of leg room
and the bonus of a gracious attendant who tells you where to get off,
helps you with your bag... and even puts a little footstool down to help
you get out.
I was heading to Hudson to meet
Mona Talbott who worked alongside Alice Waters at Chez Panisse for many
years. She was the founding Executive Chef of the Rome Sustainable Food
Project at the American Academy in Rome, revolutionising the food in the
American Academy including establishing a vegetable garden.
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| Image: talbottandaring.com |
Talbott moved back to the US and has recently established a new shop and take-out Talbott and Arding with her partner Kate Arding, a world authority on cheese, who honed her skills at the Neal's Yard Dairy.
Warren St is lined with antique shops
and small boutiques selling beautiful things, Talbott and Arding in
their midst is a little gem, with an array of local farmstead cheeses in
perfect condition and a selection of good things to take out, a few
tempting sandwiches on really good bread, seasonal tarts with ramps and
cheese, a couple of gorgeous cakes and just a few irresistible cookies
and scones. Perfect for a picnic! How lucky are the people of Hudson to
have this in the area - with everything of such superb quality.
Don't miss Alan Gray's Seville orange scotch marmalade, one of the best things I've tasted for years.
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| Image: Annie Schlechter |
And a picnic it was. They brought beautiful beef and horseradish
sandwiches, egg sandwiches with pea shoots and radishes on a lovely
salty foccaia. It was totally delicious. Gingernut biscuits that I'd
kill for the recipe - must ask Mona - they're the best I've ever tasted. We headed for Ironwood Farm where Lauren, Jenny and Aliyah have an organic farm growing fresh sprouts and pea shoots.
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| Image: ironwoodfarmny - Instagram |
These three young women are part of a really interesting growing
grassroots movement in the US - small but significant - of young,
well-educated, Green Horn, agrarians moving back to the land and
starting to grow or farm.
Sadly I wasn't able to spend as long there as I'd have liked to on the farm, I had to rush back to Kennedy airport to catch the plane back to Ireland, but not before I bought the most delicious selection of treats for my picnic on the way home - smoked salmon rillettes with horseradish in a little glass jars, paprika cheese, hard boiled egg with chilli and fennel sea salt, wrapped in a twist of tissue, coconut cookies, a slice of lemon and olive oil cake - can imagine, when I spread all this out on my airline tray I was the envy of all around me.
