- Today on George Hirsch Lifestyle, I visit a historic Bicentennial farm dating back to 1661 that is ripe for the picking.

Then, Alex and I are preparing salmon two ways, hot-smoked and pan-seared.

In the kitchen berry and fennel salad with old-school dressing, perfect roast chicken with cherry sauce and a classic, fresh peach pie.

(lively upbeat music) - Long Island Farm Bureau is a proud presenter of George Hirsch Lifestyle.

Long Island farmers continue their commitment to providing abundant fresh commodities, supporting farmers and the local agriculture community for over 100 years.

- How many different varieties of fruit do you have here?

- We have apples and pears and apricots, nectarines, peaches, cherries for tree fruit.

Then we have all kinds of berries; blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, - Fruit trees weren't always here.

- No.

- What did the Wiccans farm before?

- We were a traditional North Fork farm or farms back in the early 1900s, mid 1900s, we have great potatoes.

The whole idea was to gradually get into fruit that we get sell at a retail market.

So we put up a farm stand right on Route 25 here here in Catchog.

And that modest little farm stand has grown over the years.

Now it's substantially larger.

And that's been the bread and butter of our business since about the mid 50s.

- Oh my goodness.

- We're about I think the first farm out here with a regular farm stand.

- Now the fruit of your labor, so to speak, and excuse the pun, but there's many things that you're able to take advantage of at the farm stand, the byproduct of all your fruits.

- We do, we make jams and jellies, apples, we have an old cider press that squeezes the apples to make pure cold press apple cider There's nothing added, nothing taken away, is just simply apple juice.

- Is just the juice.

Where do you see the legacy of Long Island farming going?

- First of all, there's a growing recognition that healthy foods are fresh foods that you can get at a farm stand what really is good for you and what tastes good.

And gradually people are recognizing that and there is a significant movement, the locavore movement, the people who actually recognize good food and they're prepared to pay a little bit more for it.

And we have a pretty significant, pick your own business.

I'm really pleased particularly with young people to get them engaged with what farming is actually like.

People don't have, even organic, they don't have a very clear idea of what farming is like.

- How has the appeal changed over, let's say viewed in the last few years?

You pointed out before we were amongst donut peaches, which are highly popular today.

So how is that affecting what you're doing?

- Specialized products like donut peaches are a nice add on.

The basic peach is a peach, the peachy peach that you can slice and cut and do things with and that's always there, that's the base.

But you can build on that with innovations, with new things.

Nectarines are a change.

And it's not huge but you add on all these things and it's important, is significant.

You asked about the other thing, so the future of farming out here?

One thing is the fact that people do seem to be recognizing the value of it and they do patronized farm stands.

So that's really important.

And there's that steady and maybe growing.

The other thing that's really important is that we've had a farm land preservation program out here.

A voluntary program, where farmers if they wish, can sell not the land but sell the development rights to the land and get paid for it and invest that money in upgrading their game.

They can grow new trees, they can put up a trellis system, they can put up a greenhouse, they can use that money investing it in their business.

Traditionally, farmers have had trouble getting the money.

It is barely enough for their families to live on and really scarcely enough to invest, to build up the base.

That's what we've been trying to do.

- Especially in our region where it's land-rich.

- And so costly.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Well, thank you so much, sir.

This has been an honor.

Throughout my career, I've had the privilege of working with different types of farmers from many geographic regions.

One thing they all share in common is innovation and endurance in the face of changing times.

The statement, "You are what you eat," holds true and the nutrient dense food that comes from your local, sustainable farms is an important part to maintaining a happy, healthy society in the future.

(serene music) As a chef, one of the best ways of choosing the best fruit, I go directly to the orchard.

When I go there and I picked the fruit, you know how it's fresh?

'Cause the nose knows.

Smell it, it'll tell you take me home.

Then put it on your table, use it in side dishes or even in desserts.

And another great thing, it's a wonderful way to support your local farmers.

Let's get adventurous with your salad.

We're gonna start today with a red onion and fennel salad.

Now fennel of course, is available year round as is red onion.

And sometimes people will miss the red onion because they don't like the bite and the taste for it.

I'm gonna show you how to fix that.

So we're gonna start our dressing right away with some white vinegar.

We're gonna go old-school here, we're not using all those fancy things, we're just gonna use things that are in the house or around the farm.

Some pure cane sugar, a little honey, a little pinch of salt, some fresh ground black pepper, about a quarter cup of olive oil, you wanna be generous with the olive oil because this is also going to serve as a marinade.

Now topping the onion and the fennel.

So we'll let this marinate about 15, 20 minutes and then we'll come back and finish this salad.

Now that we've given the salad a couple minutes to marinate, you can see that the red onions have gotten softer.

So the flavor from the red onion, the sweetness from the honey and the sugar is just given that vibrant, that vibrant flavor.

Now we'll begin to plate and it's just about being creative.

Now it's combination of flavor, texture, eye appeal and your own personal preference.

Some of our beautiful marinated red onions, a couple vine ripened, yellow tomatoes from my sweet neat tomato plants in my backyard.

And since we are celebrating the best of the fruit from the orchard today in the farm, some nice strawberries and blueberries again giving it tartness, a little extra sugar, now the pinch of salt, some beautiful, beautiful toasted almonds.

Couple of nice mint leaves and take a mint leaf and shred it.

You wanna break up the oils, beautiful oils of the mint.

Some fresh ground black pepper, a little drizzle of olive oil on top.

And there you have a salad with all the fruits, the berries, the marinated red onion and fennel to give you a nice spin served with a side of goat cheese with a blue cheese rime.

Another adventure in your salad kitchen.

Okay, let's get started making perfect roast chicken.

And we're gonna finish it with a lovely cherry sauce from the orchard.

Okay, first thing we wanna do is kind of rinse our chicken which I had previously done and then drizzle a liberal amount of olive oil over our chicken.

Of course, you can rub it down with some soft butter but I actually prefer olive oil, it gives it more of an even color.

Next thing I wanna do is season it with a spice rub of salt, pepper, ground garlic, a little bit of time and black pepper.

It's basically a very simple seasoning.

You can change it up, you can add a little paprika in there or even lemon verbena and that will change the whole taste of the chicken.

Then I'm gonna take a put about, I'm gonna add about six to eight cloves of fresh garlic and I can always change up the fresh herbs but I like to put fresh herbs inside, time is good, rosemary and this case, I have some sage.

I have some wonderful sage.

And I'm just going to add my sage inside the cavity of the chicken.

Next what I wanna do is instead of using butchers twine, which you may or may not have at home, just gonna use a simple band of aluminum foil and make it into a ribbon that I will bring the legs and join the legs together.

Secondly, I'm gonna take a another piece of foil about the same size because I want to have it raised up out of the pan.

Let the high heat get under the chicken so it allows it to perfectly roast.

So now we'll rub our chicken really well.

We wanna have the wings folded underneath and joined underneath, we'll put the chicken on top of the crown but it's sit up nice and high out of the pan.

Wrap our legs just at the tip, wrap the second leg and this way it holds in perfectly together.

Put it in a preheated oven at 425 degrees, a high temperature for at least 20 minutes.

This is a three pound chicken so it's only gonna take about 45 minutes in total and then the balance of the time, 350 degrees for about another 20 to 25 minutes.

While your chicken's roasting in the oven is a good time to prepare a simple fruit sauce and in this case, I'm making a cherry sauce.

Just cook a simple syrup.

Quarter cup of sugar, couple tablespoons of water, boil that up into some fresh fruit.

Today we're using cherries 'cause they're fresh from the orchard.

And cook the whole mixture and the fruit for about 20 minutes on a light simmer and puree.

And then you have a beautiful sauce to serve right alongside that nice, juicy chicken.

So now we have our perfectly roasted chicken.

And the best thing to do is let the chicken rest for at least 20 to 30 minutes before any (mumbles).

That's gonna allow all the juices to go inside.

And you can see by all the seasonings, all the garlic that was put inside, that wonderful spice rub, cooking at a high temperature has given you a perfectly, perfectly roasted chicken.

Comfort in a pot?

Sure and I am sure you're gonna enjoy it.

- I have two beautiful (mumbles) of salmon.

I'm gonna take a little bit of mixed kosher salt and crack black pepper 'cause I always season my fish.

I always use a little bit of cooking spray.

This is a canola spray 'cause of the high-- - And it's very neutral in flavor flavor so it's not gonna-- - Yeah, very neutral flavor and has a high smoke point.

So this is gonna just help keep the salmon from sticking.

- And that's the music you wanna hear when that salmon hits it.

You wanna hear that sizzle, that pop that when it hits the grill it's not sticking.

- And a beautiful fish like this should really be a medium rare to a medium in my opinion, would even go to medium while if you want but you don't want it dried it out.

- In grilling the fish, the salmon itself has a lot of flavor with the natural oils from this fish.

What are you gonna do to finish it off?

- So you can see that this side now has a nice syrup.

- That's magnificent, absolutely magnificent.

- This guy is still taking a little bit longer.

- What I really love about your recipe is you are keeping the integrity of the main fish itself.

- Even when I use the barbecue sauce and this one can take it now because it's gonna soak in a little bit.

If this was even the type of grill that came with a lid, I might put the lid on for a little while just so that it calmalizes a bit.

But the reason why I don't put the barbecue sauce on before it hits the grill is all that sugar and the sauce is gonna burn and you get a very bitter piece of fish.

So that's it, while your pan is heating up, my fish finished off.

With this barbecue sauce, I just like to add a little bit of green onion, a little bit of crunch, a little bit of oniony flavor and makes it look pretty.

- While you were plating that up and getting that ready, as you can see here I have a smoking hot cast iron pan I want to be really hot, just a very light coating of oil.

And when it's smoking, you know it's ready.

(fish sizzling) - You can hear it too.

- You can hear it sizzle and I'm putting it skin side up.

And I lay it down going away from me.

So if there is any splash or any little splatter then it'll happen away from you.

- What do you have on your salmon?

- Now unlike yours, which you kinda went natural, just a little bit of salt and pepper.

Mine has a light dry rub of thyme, black pepper, paprika, a little bit of salt and a pinch of light-brown sugar.

- Oh very nice.

- So that's gonna help give it a really nice crust.

And it really is a quick, quick, quick sear.

Because I wanna also finish it off with some fresh vegetables.

Alex you know I love using vegetables and fruits in everything that I cook.

And this salmon is actually gonna still continue to keep cooking a little bit after you turn the heat off.

So once you have that nice, quick sear.

- This is like a nonstick pan with how hot you had on.

- Exactly, exactly you want it dancing, you want it dancing when it hits that, that side.

Put that in there now.

- Beautiful.

- And then what I want to do is bring up the flavor of the salmon.

And now this is gonna be served kind of at room temperature.

I really like serving salmon at room temperature, not cold, not hot.

- Not just one, it's just another layer of versatility of salmon.

- Absolutely and give a texture and this is almost gonna be like a salad when it's done.

I'll put a little baby leeks and fennel, baby carrots in there.

Now they're not gonna be like soft and mushy, they're gonna be crunchy, they're gonna have texture to it.

- Well, I know you got those carrots right from the farm and a carrot that comes out of dirt like that is so flavorful that you don't wanna overcook it.

- Don't wanna overcook it and not only that, if you notice really close on there, I didn't even peel it.

'Cause all the nutrients and the flavors are on the outside of the skin.

It's just very, very, very well scrubbed.

And now I'll add in a couple drops of a very dry white wine.

- Oh, you can just smell that.

Now you just add a char.

- You add a char and a little bit of steam.

And you notice I didn't put the butter in from the beginning I put it in towards the end 'cause if I would have put that whole butter in the beginning, what would have happened is the butter would have burned.

I used a little olive oil in there which has a much higher smoking point.

And then a couple drops of fresh lemon juice on top.

Now here's a little kick, this is optional.

Notice (mumbles).

This is really good few.

It's a few drops of pear puree, these pears were poached.

And just kinda goes in the theme when the fruit is in season whether it's peaches or whatever pears today.

It makes for a delightful, delightful dish.

And that's all you have to do, chuck the heat off, let it keep cooking.

And I think we have two beautiful dishes here.

- We have two.

- Your gorgeous, your gorgeous salmon.

I mean it's just absolutely wonderful.

- Thank you.

I can't wait to eat this 'cause I've heard this before and I know how good it is.

- And we'll just put a little bit of drippings right on top.

- Base a little over.

- Served room temperature, what's better than that?

- Okay, let's get started with making a pie but not any pie, a peach of a pie.

First, we have to begin with our 3-2-1 pie crust.

Three parts flour to two parts butter to one part liquid.

This pie crust is so spectacular because you have the flavor of the butter which is so, so palatable.

And then we have the lightness of quarter teaspoon of baking powder, a little pinch of salt and a teaspoon of sugar.

And really it's the baking powder which makes the magic in this recipe.

So you notice I'm kind of breaking up the little parts of butter into kind of walnut or peanut-sized pieces as you can see it right there.

And the importance is everything should be very cold, very well chilled.

If it's summertime, you can even chill the flour.

You put it in the fridge a little bit ahead, it will keep the butter really from melting because you want those lumps.

That's the secret in getting the flakiness in the crust.

Now I'm gonna put in some very well chilled milk.

Now it's milk, it's not water because what that is going to offer, it's going to give added flavor and a little extra sugar content which will give color to the pie crust.

So now just take and put it in the fridge for at least two hours, preferably even overnight, let it chill and then it'll be ready to roll out into your dough.

Okay, let's get started right away with our fruit filling.

And we're going to use these wonderful peaches that are in season.

Of course, it could be changed up to pears or apples.

Before this, I'm going to add in a small amount of maple syrup or you could use vanilla, which is fine.

Pinch of salt, quarter cup of light-brown sugar and two tablespoons of flour.

So to that, I'm going to add in a combination of cinnamon, total combination together about a half teaspoon of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

And I have about eight medium-sized peaches here.

That's gonna be perfect for my eight inch pie.

So next thing we're gonna do is roll out our dough for the bottom of the pie.

And this is the pie dough that's been chilled.

And I flattened it out to a round shape.

So resemble the shape of the pie.

And for that, I'm just gonna pin it out to about an eighth of an inch thick.

And when it's an eighth of an inch thick and it's about at least a half inch rim around the size of the pie plate, it'll be ready to put on there.

Now you notice I keep on lifting it up and turning it over.

Another light dusting and turning it over.

And as I mentioned before, by rolling it back and forth, you're actually mixing it.

So now we are to size.

Bring up our pie pan, I'm using an iron pie pan.

Not only is it really attractive to serve it in, it kinda gives a wow to your guests and your table than just using one of those foil pie plates, why?

But more importantly, is it'll bake better for it.

We'll put our peaches in there, we'll put a few peaches and on the bottom.

And then next I'm going to sprinkle in.

These are some crushed graham cracker crumbs.

You could use cake crumbs, cookie crumbs, that's gonna help absorb some of the extra juice that's in the pie.

But once it cools down, it will soak it in.

We'll place all our peaches in the pie, it might look like a lot of peaches right now, although I'm sure you're saying that's not too bad, but actually as it bakes, that fruit will settle down.

Sprinkle just a little bit more of those crumbs on top.

Then we'll put our pie over here because we're going to finish it today with a top crust.

So we have our top, let's fold it over, just fold it over.

And then with a knife, just make three slits.

One, two, three.

Because you have filling that contains a lot of moisture.

Brush some cool water around the edges, that's gonna kinda be your glue.

Take your pie, put it halfway on, fold it over.

Now build up the edges and then just crimp it down.

You can cut off the edge, the excess and what gives the pie a nice finish is crimping it on the sides.

If your hands or your fingers are a little moist, just dip it in flour.

So now the only thing left to do is crack an egg, a well-beaten egg, brush it very lightly.

Put it in a preheated oven at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 for about 25 to 35 additional minutes.

The high temperature will keep it from boiling over, and you'll have a perfectly baked pie.

So one of the hardest things to do with baking a peach pie is patience because when it comes out of the oven, the best thing to do is to wait a couple hours.

After it's set, cut yourself a nice piece and (mumbles), just dig right in.

So there you have it, a sweet berry and fennel salad with old-school dressing and a perfect roast chicken with cherrie sauce and salmon two ways, one seared, one grilled topped off with a sweet as a peach pie.

If I can do it, you can do it, we'll see you real soon.

For more on recipes, entertaining lifestyle tips, TV series blog and selected video clips from today's show, join me at chefgeorgehirsch.com.

- To download and own episodes of George Hirsch Lifestyle containing inspiring lifestyle segments, original recipes and complete how-to visit amazon.com or chefgeorgehirsch.com.

Long Island Farm Bureau is a proud presenter of George Hirsch Lifestyle.

Long Island farmers continue their commitment to providing abundant fresh commodities, supporting farmers and the local agriculture community for over 100 years.