Adventures at The Garden of Eve, Sunday

I need to back up a little....

When I decided I wanted to spend a week at an organic farm, I knew that there were some organic farms out on the East end of Long Island having spent a lot of time out there with my ex, Alan.  His mom lived in Baiting Hollow which ironically, is very near the Garden of Eve, so we spent a lot of time on the North Fork and had been to many of the vineyards out there.   So, I googled organic farms first and then came up with a site that allowed you to search by state and region. There were quite a few farms listed but the Garden of Eve sounded like the best fit for me. I could get there by train and I was familiar with the area, so I called the farm.  Eve herself answered and I told her that I was interested in volunteering at the farm for a week. I was quite surprised that she didn't ask me any questions other than when I planned to arrive and leave. No liability waivers to sign - really, I was a bit shocked.

Back to the story....

Sunday dawned clear and sunny and needless to say, the first thing I did was to look at what was on the roof.  I had thought perhaps a roosting turkey or chicken was up there.  Haha, it was a tree branch that was scraping the roof in the wind. My overactive imagination strikes again!

I found out what the reality of "no hot water" meant: filling the tea kettle and taking a bird bath in Sherita's shower, i.e., filling a dishtub with boiling water and cool water and getting as clean as possible.  Hmmm, did I really sign up for this?!

Sherita's boyfriend, John, showed up and we headed east, looking for Catapano farm.  We didn't see it (we actually passed it, but the sign just said Cheese, or something vague, NOT the farm's name) so we drove on to the little beach that was near the house where John's father lived when he was a kid. It was hot and sunny and the view of the Peconic bay was stunning. We were directly across from Shelter Island. We walked around the beach and the private boat slips nearby and John told us stories from his childhood.

We left and looked up the goat farm on one of our phones and finally found it.  There were two goat pens and one small, dollhouse looking space where they sold the farm's products: chevre of every flavor, regular cheese and goat milk based skincare products. The woman at the cash register told us that she made the skincare products and her husband made all the cheeses (or is it vice versa?). I bought a goat cheese Gouda and a lavender-honey chevre. Yummmmm! 
 

The owners

We drove around a bit more - through the idyllic town of Greenport - and then decided to try one of the vineyards.  I suggested Pellegrini in Mattituck and we turned around and went there.  The tasting room is beautiful and they also have outdoor seating that is quite pleasant.  It was a beautiful day, so we decided to take our flights outside to enjoy the fresh air.  We all agreed that the un-oaked Chardonnay was the best, so I bought some of that to take back to the farmhouse as Jon was making turkey for Sunday dinner.

Mark, the guy that runs the stand at the Brooklyn greenmarket, had traded someone for a turkey and Jon was going to cook it for Sunday dinner.  Jon is quiet and unassuming, but he worked at Chez Panisse (of Alice Waters fame) for a year and a half.  I am SOO envious!!  I made the potato-leek gratin that I made at Thanksgiving last year and it was a huge hit, once again. I wasn't sure how it would turn out as the oven in the farmhouse is tricky, but it turned out just fine, thank goodness.

After dinner, we all sat around talking and Sherita relayed an invite from Eve and Chris, the farm's owners, to come over for dinner on Tuesday night. I hadn't even seen them at this point, because they were celebrating Yom Kippur and wouldn't be available until Monday.  The apprentices all told stories about Eve's cooking and advised that we should eat something before we went over to the house for dinner.

Hmmm, how bad can it be? I thought to myself. Well! More on that later.