The Freshest Farm-to-Table Meal in New York City: Dinner at Edgemere Farm in Far Rockaway

By Food & Wine
April 02, 2018
Zandy Mangold
Most people don't think of New York City as a hotbed of urban farming, but there are a number of hidden pockets of agriculture scattered throughout the city’s five boroughs supplying local produce to everyone from neighborhood residents to Michelin-starred restaurants. Case in point: Edgemere Farm, a half-acre of land in Far Rockaway, Queens, that grows everything from potatoes to raspberries to peppers. At first glance, Far Rockaway may seem like a strange location for a small farm—the peninsula on which it resides is known more as a summer beach getaway than a bastion of fresh produce. While Edgemere Farm is thriving several years after its 2013 opening, it took a great deal of effort to even make the land productive and arable. “Originally the space where the farm stands housed a few bungalows, but during the 1970s a lot of people left the Rockaways and the city condemned the buildings that remained,” says Edgemere Farm co-founder, Matt Sheehan. “Before we arrived, the lot had been used as a place to park cars or change tires. We had a lot of work to do to get the land in usable shape.” Four years later, though, the four-person team at Edgemere Farms grows more than 40 varieties of plants on the property, along with playing home to weekly farm stand markets. Edgemere also provides produce to more than ten area restaurants—the team makes deliveries in their cars, blasting the AC to preserve freshness. While the farm’s focus is growing great produce, Sheehan and his team also host dinners on the property, each run by a different visiting chef. Edgemere Farm continues to host dinners almost weekly throughout the summer and most recently they teamed up with Grindhaus’ Erin Norris and chef Kevin Speltz, along with noted baker, cookbook author and Matt’s wife, Jessie Sheehan, for the Hooked On Edgemere Farm dinner. Here's a look at what it's like to eat the freshest farm-to-table dinner in the city. — Max Bonem
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Zandy Mangold

“One challenge of this kind of farming,” says Matt Sheehan, “You’re growing different plants that go real quick. For instance, different types of lettuce come and are really nice for three weeks and then they’re gone. Sometimes you can sell it all and sometimes you can’t.”

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“We’re growing on about 8,000 sq. feet at the moment and this year we really bumped up our variety,” says Matt Sheehan. “We’re trying things like okra, broccoli, cabbage and a lot of different potatoes for the first time, some of which are requests from restaurants, but a lot of the suggestions come from our neighbors.”

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“Having these ingredients prepared and served right where they were grown is something that some people may overlook, but the coolness factor of that is not lost on me,” says Grindhaus chef, Kevin Speltz. “You’re a lucky chef if you get the opportunity to break bread with your farm.”

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As guests trickled in and enjoyed a beer or glass of wine amongst the crops, the sense of place was inescapable. “The bounty of what they’re able to produce with such a small space is such a testament to the passion and talent of the people here,” says Grindhaus owner Erin Norris.

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Zandy Mangold

Each dinner features a different chef and caters to about 50 guests. At the Hooked On Edgemere Farm dinner, guests shared five communal courses, including this farm salad with local leaves, corn, poblano and green beans in dill buttermilk dressing.

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Chef Speltz attributes the menu’s inspiration to the great produce from the farm, like the shishito peppers and baby turnips, which he says really influenced the roasted farm veg, and new herbs like opal basil that really amplified the flavors on the rib plate.

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Speltz also used the farm dinner as an opportunity to let out a bit of his, “rustic, carbon covered, heavy handed side,” as can be seen in the night’s meat course:  Haus-smoked baby back ribs with fish sauce, palm sugar, jasmine rice and Edgemere farm herb salad.

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One of the highlights of the evening’s dinner: Cool pasta made with squid ink shells, Haus-smoked Long Island striped bass, grain mustard and fronds and tomatoes straight from the farm.

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The perfect mash up of Edgemere Farm and Grindhaus’ flavors and one of the most popular dishes from the event: Farm vegetables with hard roasted root, topped with crème fraiche and fennel.

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Black and red raspberries are at their peak at the height of summer. For baker and pastry chef Jessie Sheehan that means using them in her mixed berry slab pie. “I think about what to bake based on what Edgemere has, as opposed to what I am craving, but often—like it has with the raspberries—those two things magically match up.”

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A former lawyer-turned baker, Sheehan has been making slab pies, like the mixed berry version she made at the farm, for years. “I love their rustic good looks and the fact there are often leftovers, not to mention that the crust to filling ratio cannot be beat.” 

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“I am a sucker for a berry pie,” she adds. “One of my most beloved food memories is eating Pepperidge Farm raspberry turnovers as a child.”

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“It’s really inspiring to be able to set up a kitchen here for a night at a place like this,” says Grindhaus’ Norris. “Almost everything we’re cooking with was grown here and to be able to build a meal around that while you’re sitting amongst the crops is so great.”

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As dusk settles in, crickets and fireflies fill the buzzing void left by the now dormant honeybees and for everyone in attendance, they forget for a moment that they’re still within the New York City limits. For anyone who visits the farm, their journey out to the Rockaways is likely to mirror Matt Sheehan’s own. “Finding this location in the Rockaways,” he says, "really was just sort of serendipitous.”

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