The Green Fork is the official blog of the Eat Well Guide. Click here to Find Good Food.

A few months ago, the Eat Well Team and I journeyed up to the gorgeous Hudson River Valley. There are so many amazing farms and restaurants in that area (some of which we’ve written about, like Stone Barns and Sisters Hill Farm) that as we planned our trip, it was hard to nail down an itinerary. Then Joan Gussow said we could come over, and our visit (coordinated by our good friend, Kerry Trueman) quickly became the centerpiece of our trip.

Those of you who’ve read Gussow’s memoir, This Organic Life, can imagine how we excited we were to step out her back door and feast our eyes on her garden, set against the blue waters of the Hudson River, whose humble beginnings and subsequent flourishing were chronicled in the book. This little garden keeps Joan in fresh fruits and veggies throughout the harvest season, and dry storage and other preservation tides her over through the rest of the year — she supplements her diet with store-bought non-veggie staples and generally eats out once or twice a week, but otherwise, this is it.

Even though our guest list had expanded rather late to include ten or so of us, including Annie Meyers of Thoughts on the Table and Robert LaValva of New Amsterdam Market, Joan took good care of us, whipping up some red-wine spritzers to pair with the bacon sandwiches and duck confit Kerry had brought to share. After we ate, Joan treated us to a tour of the garden, the walkway of which is covered in the softest clover a bare foot ever stepped on.

Highlights included the tri-foiliage tree Barbara Kingsolver gave to Joan, Kerry crawling under a bush to rip out a major strand of poison oak (don’t worry — she’s immune) and a long, relaxing chat on the boardwalk, where we discussed, among other things, the sustainable food movement, Joan’s upcoming projects (still under wraps, but rest assured, you haven’t heard the last from Joan Gussow) and the inevitability of not being able to travel so much as fossil fuels dwindle. It was easy to imagine being completely satisfied spending a “staycation” at Joan’s, and equally easy to imagine the trips that Joan and her late husband, Alan, must have forgone in favor of tending to their suburban homestead. Could it be that investing time in our homes and reconnecting to our food, could ultimately be as or even more fulfilling than taking lots of trips? From where I sat, on the sun-warmed slats of the boardwalk, between Joan’s garden and the river, it seemed that the answer could definitely be yes.

Thanks again for the visit, Joan!

(Eat Well’s Destin Joy Layne and Joan Gussow linger on the boardwalk, and who can blame them?)