Slow Food, Travel, Craft Beer

After many miles on the bike and a few minutes on a ferry Kate and I found ourselves on Shelter Island at Sylvester Manor. A 358 year old property with a 257 year old manor house, 243 acres of historic property, 3 of which are farmed for vegetables and flowers.

Started in 1652, the Manor has been a native hunting grounds, a slaveholding plantation, a vegetable farm providing food for New York, Hartford and Providence, and home to the father of modern food chemistry, Eben Norton Horsford.

Managed by Bennett Konensi the farm provides vegetables for the farm stand and its CSA of island locals. Ask Bennett what the trick to managing a vegetable farm is and he will tell you, “planning, planning, planning, and more planning.” Between organic standards, crop rotation,