Barns, vineyards, oyster shacks and farms of the North Fork will once again open their gates next month for the 19th annual North Fork Foodie Tour — a self-guided exploration of the heart of the region’s food, wine, seafood and agriculture.
What began as an experimental fundraiser for the North Fork Reform Synagogue in Cutchogue after Rosh Hashanah in 2006 has grown into one of the region’s most anticipated annual events, blending the Jewish concept of tikkun olam — repairing the earth — with a uniquely local celebration of the people who farm the land and the sea.
This year’s event — which runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 7 — features 20 local vendors: Lavender by the Bay Calverton, Farm Wines, The Red Barn Farm, Goodale Farms, Golden Acres Organic Farm, 1760 Homestead Farm, Pendleton’s Harvest Moon Farm, Mattituck Mushrooms, Borghese Vineyard and Winery, Disset Chocolate, 8 Hands Farm, Breeze Hill Farm & Preserve, Catapano Dairy Farm, Greenport Harbor Brewing Co., Sweet Woodland Farm, the Peconic Land Trust’s Agricultural Center at Charnews Farm, North Fork Flower Farm, KK’s The Farm, Little Ram Oyster Co. and Matchbook Distilling Co.
‘How food happens’
The idea for the tour arose almost casually, said Ellen Zimmerman, the longtime chairperson of the tour.
“Some of us were sitting around at another member’s house in the afternoon, after the Rosh Hashanah morning service [and] we started talking about what we had done for fundraising as a synagogue and what we thought would be more interesting,” she recalled.
The group had tried concerts, dinners and even an artist studio tour. But they longed for something more representative of the North Fork’s character.
“At the time, all these food things were cropping up that were interesting,” Zimmerman said. “Aldo [Maiorana, of Greenport’s Aldo’s Coffee Co.] was learning how to roast coffee. North Fork Potato Chips was just getting started. Things like that that were cropping up,” Zimmerman said.
“We thought what might be interesting for people is to find out more about how food happens — so why not give tours of the farms and the vineyards?”
That first year included a handful of stops, including Catapano Dairy Farm, Aldo’s Coffee Co., Garden of Eve Organic Farm, Sang Lee Farms, and others.
Today the tour has doubled in size — and capped out.
“We’re up to 20 [locations] — and we’ve been at 20 for a while, because we just can’t staff more than that,” she said.
A volunteer staff of 80 work at the various farms, wineries and other sites throughout the day.
‘A very boutique experience’
At Borghese Vineyard & Winery, the North Fork’s oldest vineyard, the Foodie Tour has become a standing date on the calendar.
“I really look forward to this,” said Giovanni Borghese, who will be giving 45 minutes tours every hour from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. “We meet at the tasting room, and then we do a tour in the vines, show everyone the cellar and the barrel room, and then we head back to the tasting room.”
What guests see, he said, is the painstaking work behind each bottle.
“We hand harvest, and we get to show people how much time and effort is put into the vines and how hands on we are,” Borghese said. “To be able to say that we grow our own grapes here is one thing, but for the most part it’s sold here too.
“Our wine is hand grown, handmade and even hand sold,” he said, calling it “a very boutique experience in that regard.”
At Golden Acres Organic Farm in Jamesport, local chef and food writer Gail Watson will be sharing tips on how to create easy, delicious recipes from seasonal produce — and giving cooking demonstrations and tastings at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., sponsored by the non-profit Slow Food East End.
‘Repairing the earth’
The tour is rooted in tikkun olam.
“The concept is basically ‘repairing the earth,’” Zimmerman said. “But how it is interpreted is giving back to your community in some way. It can be conservation efforts. It could be just charity. It could be all kinds of things.
“But since we’re on the North Fork and because it’s the agricultural and food producing industries that kind of give the North Fork its character … we thought it would be good for people to understand the people who do that: what they do, how they think — and how much work it is.”
The Foodie Tour is less a food festival than it is an education in local agriculture, viticulture and aquaculture — with tastes along the way.
“We sometimes get people complaining there wasn’t enough food,” Zimmerman said. “They might just get a taste of something — the vineyards tend to be pretty generous about that. But that’s not the point. Eating is not the point. The point is getting an appreciation for what goes on behind the scenes before the product comes out.”
That appreciation is often the most powerful takeaway.
“People really love it,” she said. “They come back year after year, because there’s just not enough time to see all the locations.”
The tour is deliberately self-directed.
“People decide which places they want to visit, and what order they want to visit them in,” Zimmerman said. Some visitors mix vineyards and farms. Others “may go to all the vineyards, or all the farms.”
The event has evolved each year, with new sites and occasional innovations.
Three new stops join the lineup in 2025: Little Ram Oysters, Pendleton’s Harvest Moon Farm, and Golden Acres, which took over the former Golden Earthworm Farm.
“They were recommended by people who really liked those particular places,” Zimmerman said.
Meanwhile, the popular speaker series continues this year at the Peconic Land Trust Agricultural Center barn — the tour’s unofficial headquarters. This year’s talks include topics like coffee roasting, no till farming, beekeeping and locally harvested wild seafood.
‘Aquaculture’
Zimmerman sees room for growth in at least one direction: the sea.
“We’d like to incorporate more aquaculture, because farming and fishing have supported this region forever,” she said. But aquaculture poses challenges. “It’s hard because it’s on the water, and requires a boat.”
Still, when aquaculture has been featured — like Pipes Cove Oysters— it’s been a big hit.
“People always just loved that,” Zimmerman said.
A growing component is the Foodie Tour’s online auction, which features local restaurant gift certificates, wine tastings, a “dessert of the month” by master baker Rona Smith and a weekend stay in a private Mattituck cottage.
The final list of auction items, which Zimmerman said are still coming in, should be posted by August 31 to the North Fork Foodie Tour website, which also contains a map of all the vendor locations.