Produce From Blue Hill Farm

[cabrales]

Dan & Mike -- Blue Hill's website suggests that some of the produce utilized by your restaurant may be sourced from Blue Hill Farm. I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts on the quality of such produce relative to that you could purchase, and learning who tends to the crops at the farm. Are heirloom, "forgotten" or other unusual varieties of vegetables or fruit nurtured there?

[bluehill]

The garden at Blue Hill, MA, was planted by the cooks two years ago and is maintained by several people, though less by me than by others. I'd like to say our vegetables are better, but they're not, really, as there are a lot of good farmers out there and we just are not at that level. The reason for the gardening, and for the cooks involvement, goes way beyond fresh vegetables. It's about making the connection and creating an understanding of the toil that's involved. It's also fun, and relaxing.

Heirloom vegetables are open pollinated, meaning no human interference in the process of forming the seed. Bees, birds, or wind--no splicing of seeds to create super sizes. The flavor is more real, and the vegetable tends to degrade much faster.

Dan Barber

[cabrales]

Dan -- On heirloom vegetables (whether purchased or grown at the farm), what vegetables or fruits, except for tomatoes, do you use heirloom varieties of with reasonable frequency at Blue Hill? Do you experiment with less known herbs at the farm?