Pizza On — And Of — The Farm Pops Up At Katchkie In Kinderhook
Hilltown Hot Pies uses whatever's growing at Katchkie Farm, and pizzas are available for pickup Thursdays through Sundays.
Longtime readers of Rural Intelligence know of our connection with Katchkie Farm and The Sylvia Center in Kinderhook, New York. From the start, we’ve championed The Sylvia Center’s role in educating young people on the connection between food and health, bringing underserved populations of schoolkids to the farm to learn about where their food comes from, and ways to prepare it. We cover their annual “Farm to Table” dinner, and they have supplied Rural Intelligence with an archive’s worth of recipes that show us how to use farm produce through every season.
So forgive me if I wax poetic about that place again, because: pizza on the farm! Pizza with ingredients from the farm! Pizza you can eat (if you choose) at the farm! It’s such a welcome idea that it might even make you forget that we’re slogging through some very dark days.
In fact, joy is one of the reasons the pizzaiolo and proprietor of Hilltown Hot Pies, Rafi Bildner, has made pizza his life’s work, at least for now.
“Being a pizza maker is being in the happy business,” he says. “I haven’t seen a time when you bring someone a pizza and they’re not happy. It’s food that elicits a communal feeling and nurtures community.”
Bildner, New York-born but Berkshires inspired, comes from many generations of foodies and he’s even Le Cordon Bleu trained. But his dream in life has been to create a pizza farm, which, apparently, is a thing (though not so prevalent in New England — yet). Pizza making and being on a farm go hand in hand, he says. The ingredients are right there in front of you, and they couldn’t be fresher.
The Garlic Goat
His pies are of the Neapolitan type — soft, chewy crust enhance by a thin layer of crispness, and he uses whole grains from New York in his sour dough fermentation. He heard that there was a wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizza oven at Katchkie sitting dormant this summer. Liz Neumark, owner, and Jon Ronsani (“Farmer Jon”) were eager to have people visit the farm in some way this summer. It was a match made in pizza farm heaven.
Bilder will be taking whatever’s growing in the certified organic fields during the week to top his pizzas. Expect to see variations like the Hudson Valley Summer. sweet corn, cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella; The Beetza. basil pesto, roasted beets, sweet caramelized onions, fresh mozzarella, chevre; Field & Forest, plum tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, roasted mushrooms, pickled onion and soppressata; and Garlic Goat, green garlic sauce, zucchini, chevre, fresh mozzarella, toasted pine nuts, chili flakes. There will also be vegan pies each week, changing along with the Katchkie harvest. Priced from $14 to $17, any pie can be customized without meat or cheese; pepperoni, prosciutto and soppressata can be added for $1 each.
For safe pickup purposes, the 12-inch pies must be ordered and paid for in advance (we’re all getting used to that drill, right?). If you’d like to spend some time with your pizza on the farm, there will be limited physically distanced picnic spots with a view toward Katchkie’s fields, the pond and woodlands. (If you can, stay to watch the sun set over the landscape.) Mineral waters, flavored ice teas and sparkling lemonade will be available for purchase online.
The pizza farm popup officially begins this week, Thursday through Sunday from 4 to 8 p.m. Pickup is at the pavilion, just a short walk from the parking area All ordering must be done in advance before 4 o’clock, and you’ll choose or be given a specific pickup time. A portion of the sale of each pie will be donated to The Sylvia Center,
You can also order a “farm box,” which includes an assortment of Katchkie organic produce, highlighting the week’s harvest.
“Pizza is the perfect blank canvas that allows you to paint a picture of what’s around you,” Bildner says. Hilltown Hot Pies at Katchkie Farm reminds us there’s plenty of beauty — and fine flavor — in the Rural Intelligence region.
