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When I first heard about Stone Barns a few years ago, I thought it sounded pretty idyllic, but to be honest, it also sounded kind of fancy. “Good food,” as we like to call it, has a reputation for being expensive in general (though that rep is a little unfair–farmers market veggies are often cheaper their conventional counterparts at the grocery store, and that most of us should be eating less of the other stuff–meat and dairy and especially processed foods) and a good farm-to-table restaurant can get pretty pricy indeed.

When I realized that the Stone Barns property used to be owned by the Rockefellers, my fancy-meter went off again. And true, it’s home to the famous Blue Hill restaurant, where lunch starts at $58, but it’s also home to the Stone Barns Farm market and the Blue Hill Cafe. It is also home to a farm camp, and throughout the year, Stone Barns hosts tours, tastings, workshops and artist events.

On top of that, it’s an ever-evolving sustainable agriculture laboratory. Consider my fancy-meter satisfied, and my inner farmer overjoyed.

The day we visited, we were treated to a personal tour by Public Programs Director Nena Johnson, who let us check out everything from the greenhouse to the patch of pasture this sow was tilling for them and just about everything in between, including their bee hives and forced-air compost.

One place we didn’t tour was the new on-site slaughterhouse, a development that might not excite the average farm visitor and might even put them off, but we think is pretty cool. Most small farmers have to drive their animals long distances to industrial slaughterhouses, a practice that is not only growing more costly every day, but takes a toll in the quality of the meat, as well. This recent NY Times article quoted Chef Dan Barber:

“You could have the best-bred animals, the best grass, the most humane care - and mess all that up with a bad slaughter in 20 minutes,” said Mr. Barber. Currently, the Stone Barns center gives tours of the grounds, and it has been decided that the slaughterhouse should be no exception. “To a diner, people have told me that knowing that the chickens were slaughtered here enhances their dining experience,” Mr. Barber said. “It gives you a connection to what you’re eating.”

And the slaughterhouse is not the only new addition at Stone Barns. This year, the livestock team decided to experiment with a flock of geese, some of which will go to slaughter later this summer, and a few of which will be allowed to gorge themselves on late summer grasses and fatten their livers (the way wild geese will before migrating), giving the chefs a chance to try their hands at a humane foie gras.

And there are higher-tech developments, like the hot-air composting bins, which force warm air through the waste being processed, which includes leftovers from slaughter. Again, the average visitor might be a little weirded out by this one, but consider how else they might dispose of such material — the way that factory farms do, by dumping it into already toxic manure lagoons, or (ew) feeding it to other livestock. This method of composting (vegetable waste is composted in the hills, where the pigs help turn it over) is thoughtful, ecological, and transparent. And it didn’t even stink from where we were standing (not far), which, if you’ve ever driven past a factory farm, seems like a small miracle.

Pretty much everything that goes on at Stone Barns is a lesson in sustainable farming for the team there and the folks who visit. We didn’t eat at Blue Hill that day, although I bet it would have been amazing. We grabbed some soup and sandwiches from the cafe, which were delicious, but mostly, we just ate that farm tour up. Thanks, Nena!

To see more photos from Stone Barns and other farms, gardens and random meals, check out our photostream on Flickr.