I drive to Windfall Farm in Kinderhook every Tuesday morning at 5h00. The farm is run by Sarah and Marcus Chen, who left finance jobs in the city 8 years ago to grow vegetables. They work 22 acres without pesticides, rotating crops every season to keep the soil healthy.

Sarah meets me in the greenhouse with coffee and a wooden crate. We walk the rows together — she tells me what is ready, what needs another week, what the weather has done to the turnips. I take what looks best. Some mornings the crate is full. Some mornings I drive back to the city with three bunches of carrots.

The vegetables arrive at the restaurant by 9h00. By 10h00, I know what will be on tonight's menu. The best ingredients make the decisions for you.

Highland Meadow Farm in Hillsdale raises Katahdin sheep on 40 acres of rotational pasture. Tom Sullivan has been farming this land since 1987. His lambs graze on grass and clover, never grain, which gives the meat a clean flavor that needs little from the kitchen.

Tom calls when an animal is ready — usually 3 weeks in advance. I drive up to see the lamb, to walk the pastures, to understand how the animal lived. This is not sentiment. It is professional responsibility. I need to know what I am cooking before I decide how to cook it.

The lamb comes to us whole. We break it down in-house, use every part. The leg becomes the center of a course, the shoulder goes into rillettes, the bones make stock. Nothing is wasted because nothing should be.

Stone Ridge Orchard grows 12 varieties of pears on 35 acres in the Hudson Valley. The trees are old — some planted in the 1940s — and the fruit reflects this patience. David and Elena Martineau took over from Elena's father 15 years ago and have slowly converted the orchard to organic methods.

I visit the orchard in September when the Bosc pears are ready. Elena and I walk the rows, tasting fruit directly from the tree. The pears that will come to Maison Verre are picked by hand, packed in wooden crates, delivered within 24 hours. They arrive firm enough to poach, sweet enough to eat raw.

We serve the pears simply — poached in white wine with buckwheat honey, sometimes raw with aged cheese. The fruit is good enough that any elaboration would diminish it.