Behind The Scenes: Stone Barns Center For Food And Agriculture

Popcorn sprouts pop up inside the greenhouse. Seeds are often pre-planted in a propagation bay before being transferred into the ground. 

Dinosaur Kale is one of many kale varieties grown in the 22,000-square-foot greenhouse. (left); Stone Barns is a four-season operation. Krisan Chistiansen poses with fresh-picked winter spinach. 

Livestock Operations Manager Chris O’Blenness with French geese brought to Stone Barns as part of an experiment to see whether geese will feed naturally on the fatty foods required to make foie gras (as opposed to being force fed). The project was unsuccessful, but the geese are great to have around. 

Farm Director Jack Algiere uses a battery-powered rechargeable tilther, developed by Stone Barns’ Slow Tools Project, which is engineering open-source farm equipment to fill the market gap in powered farm tools for small-scale producers. 

Beekeeper and Livestock Experimentation Manager Dan Carr builds a scale that will attach to the underside of a beehive. Carr tracks the hive’s weight and sends the data back to NASA, which is conducting a national study on the effects of climate change on nectar flows. 

Students prepare a meal using ingredients they harvested. Since 2004, more than 75,000 children have participated in Stone Barns’ educational programs; 30 percent receive need-based scholarships.

There are about 800 chickens in the chicken coop.

Compost Manager Sarah Groat turns a windrow of compost using a tow-behind Sandberger turner, adding oxygen to the pile so that it can continue to decompose.