If you're lucky, you'll also receive a tiny black pencil so you can take notes about your meal in the space at the back of the journal. The book, though made of simple, recycled paper, seems like a small treasure in the hands of diners as they chronicle all that they learn and feel while nibbling on fresh baby veggies, tangy beet yogurt and spinach marmalade. The last page of the journal shows a rough, hand-drawn sketch of the Blue Hill dairy barn in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Drawn by farm manager Sean Stanton, the diagram even shows the names of the cows that the cheeses served at Blue Hill come from. "Reba, Faith, Dame, Rosa, Maybell, Georgia, Tulip, Sunshine, Bee..." it lists.

Blue Hill at Stone Barns is located in Pocantico Hills, New York, about 30 miles away from New York City. It may seem like a trek but there’s no shortage of eager folks willing to travel the distance – if you’re hoping to get a reservation on a weekend, be sure to call months in advance because tables fill up fast.

This wasn’t our first trip to Stone Barns - c’mon, you know we’re farm junkies – but the ambiance inside Blue Hill is worlds away from anything we’ve felt on the farm that surrounds it. Fortressed away inside actual stone walls (you’ll notice your phone reception will drop), the interior of the restaurant is an elegant interpretation of a rustic farmhouse dining room. We took a seat in a muted grey velvet banquette overlooking a window dripping with purple lilacs and the occasional honeybee. In the center of the room, a hanging forest of miniature trees dangles peacefully over a massive wooden table. Although we were a group of four, no less than three, and at times many more, staff persons were at our side making sure our dining experience was a pleasant one. Of the twelve courses we tried, most were served in a synchronized manner with one waiter per person setting down each dish in unison with the others.