Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture

For New Yorkers, this working farm-cum-gourmet-temple make a glorious first or last stop on a Hudson Valley visit. Everyone knows about Dan Barber’s two award-winning restaurants. The original fine dining restaurants in the Pocantico hills, remains one of the U.S.’s top dining destinations (it’s the French Laundry of the East Coast).

But what even many New York City residents don’t know is that actually the best time to visit Blue Hill is during the day, when the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture is open to guests. Particularly for kids, exploring the working farm and surrounding 80 acres is a slice of heaven. You can visit the animals, from wooly sheep and clucking chicken in the meadows to spotted piglets and their hefty parents roaming around a forest patch. You can stroll through the greenhouses and the fields where the bounty for Stone Barns is grown. You can stop for a coffee and home-baked good at the informal café. Or you can sign up for tours and workshops led by Barber’s dedicated team.

Don’t miss the beautifully curated gift shop, stocked with an array of edible goods, kitchen utensils, children’s toys and local crafts.