It tastes like New York, it tastes like the Hudson Valley, it tastes like Golden Harvest Farm. The hyper-local farm-to-smoker approach is pumping out phenomenal barbecue that doesn’t taste like anywhere else. Chase said they are intentionally not serving beef at Harvest because the meat is too strong in flavor to let the more delicate smoke that applewood imparts shine through. The process creates barbecue that’s restrained and balanced in a way that allows diners to taste the subtler notes from wood and the natural sweetness of the fruit. We are staying true to the concept and the flavor.”Ĭhase is now smoking all manner of meat over applewood while basting and dressing the meat in sauces made with apple juice, cider and vinegar made on premises. “There’s as much apple as we can get into it.

“We wanted it to taste like the farm,” Chase said of his menu. After a conversation with Doug Grout, whose family has owned the historic farm since 1975, Chase’s love of cooking over wood and the Grout’s abundance of timber made for a fortuitous match. Chase, a Culinary Institute of America grad, was coming off a successful run as the chef/owner of The Flammerie in Kinderhook and was looking for a new project after selling that restaurant.

The same industrious family that started the Harvest Spirits distillery as a solution for an excess fruit problem looked for a way to make sure all that wood didn’t go to waste. When Golden Harvest needed to remove an orchard of apple trees that had grown too old, they found themselves with a surplus of wood.

Harvest Smokehouse at Golden Harvest Farm in Valatie, New York, headed by accomplished chef Andrew Chase, is making the case that there can be original regionally specific barbecue here that's worth adding to the national story. New York is usually excluded from this conversation. Locally specific customs and traditions - types of wood smoke, types of sauces - over time create flavors and styles distinctly Texas or Carolina. The story of barbecue is one of regional identity.

Golden harvest farms valatie ny