Can words make you hungry? Pick up a menu and the average diner begins to salivate. You imagine that salty bacalao with a side of something crunchy. Or a risotto served with pungent mushrooms. The words create a picture and an almost immediate sensation.

But what happens when you pick up a menu and all the words are new—utterly exotic—to you? That’s the experience at Blue Hill at Stone Barns and it’s wonderful.

Think of venturing into a new world without a map. Terrifying for some, perhaps, but a thrill for others, especially when your guide is chef Dan Barber.

Here is a sample—of ingredients, and of the ways that Barber has chosen to group them.

greenhouse:  focea lettuce, ching chang bok choy, ruby chard, wild arugula, red deer tongue, green swiss chard, watercress, mokum carrots, bay leaves, rosemary, oscarde, golden frills, blackhawk, kohrabi, red Russian kale, dwarf pak choy, sulu,  Annapolis lettuce, firecracker, Italian parsley, Bordeaux spinach, Tuscan black kale, Tokyo bekana, mizuna, tango, truckee, troutback, purple garnet, bok choi, claytonia, mache, galisse, starbor kale, ruby streaks, purple komatsuma, sage, bright lights chard, minutina, garnet giant, magenta lettuce

pasture:  finn Dorset lamb, African goose, honey, Berkshire pork, eggs from our hens

field:  green garlic, golden beets, stinging nettles, merlin beets, mokum carrots, rutabaga, purple kale, day lily shoots, eight row flint corn, Bloomsdale spinach, parsnips, Forono beets, Tuscan kale, Orion kale, Tropea onion, Samantha cabbage, celery root, rose geranium

ocean:  Maine oysters, Long Island porgy, Bouchot mussels, wild Alaskan king salmon, bluefish, squid ink, black drum,  Woodbury clams, dulse seaweed, Quahog clams, razor clams, hake

river/lake:  sturgeon caviar

preserved:  panther soybeans, arcuri garlic, fennel, shelling beans, crosnes, kobacha squash, raspberries,
green tomatoes

Hudson valley:  white button mushrooms, ramps, wild onions, green onions, dandelion, upland cress, watercress, nasturtiums, pastured beef, La Belle Rouge chicken, rainbow chard, chiogga beets, tat soi, salsify, savoy cabbage, sunchokes, spring onions, horse radish, titan parsley, bartlett pears, granny smith apples, purple Peruvian potatoes, seckel pears, broccoli, maple syrup, nelson carrots, mutsu apples, Frederick wheat, emmer wheat

beyond:  porcini mushrooms, black trumpet mushrooms, hazelnuts, Meyer lemons, blood oranges, figs, pineapples, pink grapefruit, Mandarin oranges, pomelo

More Reading

Learning to Love Stinging Nettles

Nothing Quite as Beautiful as the Wild Ramp

Dandelion Wine: “Summer Caught and Stoppered”