Blue Hill Stone Barns, in Pocantico Hills, may no longer be taking reservations (and those were hard to come by anyway), but they are serving up bespoke boxes of things you absolutely do need in your life. The farm was always known for serving hyper-local cuisine, much of it sourced right on the sprawling Westchester property. These days, with the restaurant on pause, Dan Barber has cooked up a new way to bring Blue Hill’s locally sourced food to Empire State plates, through his ResourcED boxes.
Know this: ResourcED is not just another box of food that you can prepare at home. The dairy box, for instance, features everything from rotating seasonal cheeses to duck eggs to ice cream to buttermilk. Boxes come with recipes, too, so that you can cook the way Barber would at Blue Hill (or give it the old college try, anyway).
It does not begin or end with dairy, of course. A beef box contains mixed cuts, a spice rub, cooking tips, and recipes, while a bread box contains an oversized loaf with all the condiments you could dream of. Are you a vegetarian? Opt for the vegetable box: local vegetables, along with a jar of mixed grains for at-home sprouting. The fisheries box comes from Montauk day-boats and includes prepared food, like New England clam chowder, pickled oysters, and other ready-to-eat seafood. The chef in the house will appreciate the garde manger box, which will equip your home with butters, crackers, purees, fresh pastas, and the pantry items you regularly drool over.
But wait! There’s more! A pork box, of course, for those who prefer porcine to bovine, and also a flower box, with wild and cultivated flowers from Stone Barns Center’s fields and greenhouse. The pastry box will appeal to anyone looking to finish dinner with something sweet. Seasonal fruits are converted into granola, rice pudding, brioche, streusel, brown butter crepes, galettes, pies, and more. But perhaps the most decadent box of all is simply the cake box: malted chocolate and fruit and honey cakes, which Barber defines as “recreated classics.”
Prices range from $60 (the cake box) to $170 (the beef box). Box pickups are now available at Blue Hill at Stone Barns; in New York City; in Greenpoint and Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn; in East Hampton and Sag Harbor; and in Tuxedo Park. Check the website for details regarding pickup days and times.
