I confess, I had some reservations about having lunch on a farm. When people talk about farm-to-table eating they generally envision the table being a little further upwind from the chicken coops.
But as it turned out there was nothing to worry about. This is a trophy farm. You know, kind of a Martha Stewart kind of place? Although we did wear WON of our favorite “farm” frocks and had our share of photo-ops with free range chickens.
Having fun with chickens – free range, of course
and real farm fields:
Walking tour with chef, Danno, and Secret Service guy, disguised as Pedro
...as well as adorable little children:
Eeewww! What is that smell? Chickens?
But everything worked out great, the Blue Hill restaurant at Stone Barns Farm is way upwind. We had to catch a ride to get there:
Trolley ride to the Blue Hill Restaurant at Stone Barns Farm
If you think “Blue Hill” sounds familiar, it’s because the Blue Hill Restaurant – not at the farm - is the New York restaurant that Lady M and Big Guy went to for their first post-ordination inauguration date night. So you know it’s special.
Stone Barns Farm is where they actually raise some of the organic stuff they serve at Blue Hill that makes it so special: veggies, chickens and god-only-knows what else – I think maybe snails.
MO was delighted to greet some of her old friends from last year’s UN General Assembly spouses luncheon.
Lady M with Chantal Biya, FL of Cameroon (FLOC), at Stone Barns Farm
In case you’re concerned that Chantal is having a bad hair day due to the humidity at the farm, don’t worry. She always wears it that way: and it’s not a wighat! Honest.
The First Ladies of the world (FLOW) all pretended to have a good time ogling tomatoes and chickens. Of course half of the First Ladies of the world are all too familiar with raising chickens – in fact, many of them could’ve shown MO how to slaughter one if she really wanted to get up close and personal with the food she was eating.
Elizabeth Preval, FL of Haiti. I can neither confirm nor deny whether Granny R knows her.
And I’m pretty sure that at least one of them could have done it halal style.
The food was obviously fabulous, because Lady M brought 3 of her own personal chefs to see to it. Here’s our menu, complete with wine selections:
Starter:
Summer Fruit And Vegetables
White House sun golds, homemade yogurt, purslane
Wine Pairing:
Lieb Cellars Pinot Blanc (Long Island, NY) 2008
Appetizer:
This Morning's Farm Egg
5 late summer beans from the White House & Our House
Wine Pairing:
Red Hook Winery Chardonnay 'Jamesport Vineyard,' North Fork Long Island, 2008
Main
Stone Barns Pastured Chicken
White House herbs, eggplant, ratatouille
Wine Pairing
Copain Pinot Noit 'Wentzel Vineyard' Anderson Valley, California 2007
Dessert
Sacher Cake
Red Jacket apricots, White House sorbet
Not really much to eat there, which explains all the wine. And the large snack bag that MO packed for the trip.
Oddly, for our farm-to-table-meal, which is all about eating local, we brought a lot of stuff with us all the way from the Big White organic garden. Which, by my calculation, is about 275 miles away from the Stone Barns. Butt, since we had to fly our chefs up anyway, it’s not like there was any impact on our carbon footprint. I think there’s a locavore loophole for that. Besides, the meal wouldn’t have been anywhere near as special without those 5 beans.
Lady M’s Placesetting photo: Obama Foodorama
By the way, you’ll be pleased to know that Stone Barns grows spinach at the farm year round, and it sells for only $10/lb! Well, no one said it would be cheap to get rid of our fat behinds. Of course, if you’re not fortunate enough to live near the farm, or their fabulous New York Blue Hill restaurant, you can still get conventional spinach in the grocery store too, usually for around $3 for a big bag.
Someone (it might have been that other Michelle) once asked, what is it with Democrats and leafy greens? Remember Big Guy’s stump speech to the farmers in Iowa:
“Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula? I mean, they’re charging a lot of money for this stuff.”
Of course, the Fox trolls immediately had to point out that there isn’t a Whole Foods Market anywhere in the entire state of Iowa. As if that somehow negated BO’s point.
But sure enough, that’s all it took for other critics of Big Guy to start referring to this as “typical liberal arugulance.” How juvenile.
Poster Art by Tennyson H/T Michelle Malkin
As is the protocol for these events, Lady M gave a little welcome speech before lunch was served. She explained all about our “No kids’ fat behind” program, her organic garden and why it’s so important to all the little children in America. Then, since MO likes to personalize these little talks, she shared a personal story about how wee-won Sasha had been a tomatophobe until she was won over by an heirloom tomato, pesto, basil, mozzarella sandwich. Seriously, what is it about leafy green herbs?
But the highlight of her remarks was this little insight into who really runs the Big White:
"The most important people in the President and my family’s life, are the people who feed us.”
Who would’ve guessed? Axe-man, Rhambo, Summers, Rohmer, Orszag: nobody will miss them. But our chefs? They can name their own price.
You’re probably wondering what we put in this year’s goodie basket that Lady M presented to the FLOWs. In keeping with our theme this year, it was chock full of good-for-you vegetables: All from Lady M’s toxic organic garden.
The goodies included jars of pickled stuff: sun gold tomatoes, cucumbers, chocolate bell peppers (not really chocolate at all, just brown), carrots, and – here’s a stroke of genius – okra! And all the jars have Lady M’s personal signature. There is absolutely no truth to the silly right wing rumor that the ladies had to pick their own vegetables.
That’s what we have illegal immigrants and comedians for.
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