Am I a Pioneer?

35 years of farms, foraging and food in the Hudson Valley

I’ve been told that I am a one of the pioneers of the Hudson Valley Farm to Table Movement. At least that’s what the local press has called me. How did that happen so fast? One minute I’m working til 4 am in the East Village, and the next I’m a Hudson Valley Locovore pioneer!

My wife Liz and I first started exploring the Hudson Valley in 1985 while we were still living in Boston and her eldest sister Marie worked for NY State government in Albany and lived in the rural hills of West Coxsackie. We would get horrifyingly lost on the back roads of Greene, Columbia and Schoharie counties navigating pre-GPS to her country cottage. I really thought we would fall off the edge of the earth sometimes. It was pretty amazing!

In 1986, Marie and her husband Mike Lenane, along with his sister Susan and her Husband Bill Benson opened the Palmer House, one of the early upstate farm to table restaurants, in the tiny hamlet of Rensselaerville. I was the only person in their circle who had any restaurant experience, so I sort of, in a loose way, gave my feedback (is that what is now called consulting?) I visited often as the place was being built and knew I too would end up in this enchanted, foggy, rambling, hilly country!

In 1988 we were living in Queens and I working in the East Village. I was managing restaurants in the East Village and Liz was working at Beth Israel Hospital. She worked days and I worked late into the night and weekends, schlepping home on the 7 train in the wee hours. It was a grind, that young couple trying to make it in NYC grind. It was then that Liz and I, with our two awesome babies Margot and Willis, (Terry came a few years later) pondered the escape! We were startled awake on a fine August Sunday morning to a drone of the DEA copters doing a drug raid happening directly across the street from our apartment. We quickly loaded the kids and the diapers and babas and blankees in the car and headed upstate. Marie gave us a summer Sunday tour of Albany and we were charmed. We signed a lease that very day. We moved to Albany in 1989 and worked our way down the river each time our lease was up. Albany 1989, Glenmont, 1990, Coxsackie 1991 and finally Woodstock in 1993 where we have been since. I know every farm, antique store and quick stop on that 50 mile span of 9W and 32 like the back of my hand.

In august 1989, now in a new city, I tried to find a restaurant manager job in Albany. With with punky hair, earrings and tattoos, Albany was not ready for me to be the face of any restaurant. Looking for any job at this point, I answered and ad for bartender at Yate's Street, a beautiful fine dining restaurant in Albany. The owner Ken Linden worked for Larry Forgione in Brooklyn before coming upstate himself. He was a gnarly Jazz cat who smoked non filters and after a few bourbons would tinkle Monk riffs on the piano in the bar after closing. He was a cool guy. We are still friends. He was not put off my my East Village image. As my luck would have it, Ken’s chef has recently been in a motorcycle accident and, after viewing my resume (I had some pedigree from working as a day chef at the legendary Harvest in Cambridge in its heyday- more on that in a later post), he offered me the chef job. I had never been the “chef” but I cooked with some of the best in he business. I went for it. Within a short time, we began buying locally grown products. It was through Ken and Bill Benson that I met Richard Belinski of Northwinds Farm, with whom I bought family farmed meats from for over 25 years.

Yates Street served fine but somewhat conservative New American cuisine based upon a wood grill, but I wasn’t my menu. I had my own ideas of what the Albany market was ready for and Ken and I, with our strong personalities, were not seeing eye to eye. Within a few months of cooking Yates Street food, I wanted to do my own thing. I was young, brash and wanted to do my own “New World” menu of spicy, assertive Global cuisine. From my time in bohemian Cambridge and the East Village, I really wanted to bring that funky, punky style of food and vibe to this small city.

In JAnuary of 1990, I moved on to a divey Jazz club named Justin's on Lark street, Albany’s ”Village in he City”. It had just enough of that 3^rd Av vibe. I felt at home. I was allowed to design my own menu of Global spicy specialties like Jerk chicken, Thai curry, gumbo and Ropa Vieja, but I had to promise to keep roasting beef and turkeys for the lunch menu. No problem. I was all in. This is where I really began to build my own farmer-chef relationships. I was in charge of all buying. I bought Fromage Blanc and eclectic greens like Claytonia, Borage and Burnet from Laurie Goodheart, then owner and cheesemaker at Nettle Meadows ("I grow these greens because Mesclun has become so-o-o boring" she told me back in 1990)

.

I bought my tomatoes, corn and other seasonal produce at Story's Farm in Catskill and Black Horse Farms in Athens. A bohemian chef schlepping the hills of eastern New York in my oft-overheating 1973 Aqua-Marine Volvo Wagon, listening to the Pixies, Rollins and Husker Du, I was one of the early East Village Punk Hippies to market the local stuff by listing Hudson Valley local products on my menus.

Add to all of this my passion for Foraging! Being a Sicilian, it is in my blood. As spring comes so do Morels, Ramps, Fiddleheads, Nettles etc. Into Summer it is Chanterelles, Porcini, Bluefoots and into fall look for Hen of the Woods and more cepes in my kitchen. It is the best way to walk the dog in my book!

So now after 35 years and counting living in the Hudson Valley (man, that happens fast!) our kids -Sidney, Willis and Terry- all grew up as a part of the Hudson Valley farm to table movement. They were raised in the biz from our perspective and now are living it their own way. Liz and I helped to create created a great generation of locovores.

In over 30 years of running kitchens, I have had hundreds of employees, and for many of whom, my New World Meets Farm To Table approach to food has had a lasting impact on their lives. So I’m a pioneer I am after all!

That, my friends, is my greatest achievement.

More to come.

Visit me at https://ricorlando.com to see my product line, my recipes snd videos and to find out about seeing the original farm to table life on my Sicily Exerience tours