EATING local was never so appealing.
At a harvest dinner at the Queens County Farm Museum last month, several topics dominated the evening’s conversation: the quaintness of the candlelit barn, the deliciousness of the fresh-from-the-henhouse eggs and — perhaps most discussed — the hotness of the farmer responsible for all the bounty.
Meet Michael Grady Robertson — New York City farmer and the best thing to happen to the local organic movement since Whole Foods opened a beer room on Houston Street.
“He looks like Brad Pitt,” coos one young woman who’s married to a chef at a popular downtown restaurant.
Since joining the Queens County Farm Museum last year, Robertson, 35, has been garnering lots of attention — and not just for his looks.
“Yes, he’s young and goodlooking and happens to be a pleasant guy that’s fun to hang out with. But he’s also interested in the history of farming [and] farming as an artisan craft,” says chef Daniel Holzman, who, along with former “Top Chef” contestant Camille Becerra, helped prepare last month’s feast showcasing citygrown grub.
Long a destination for gradeschool field-trippers from Queens and Long Island, the Queens County Farm Museum has been attracting a whole new demographic under Robertson’s watch thanks to sold-out harvest dinners, weekend cookouts and a Friday farm stand at the Union Square Greenmarket. (There’s also an on-premises farm stand selling eggs, produce and pork, open Wednesday to Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. through Oct. 31.)
“It’s really exciting to tell people about what we do out here,” says Robertson, who has been instrumental in transforming what was once a slightly hokey museum into a bona fide working farm with major plans for expansion. “There’s still a pretty big part of the population in the city that doesn’t know what we do — that we have livestock, an organic vegetable garden and that we’re a part of the community.”
Seriously, who’d have guessed there was such a lovely green oasis tucked among the condo developments of Floral Park?
“He seems to be putting them on the map for a lot of people [but] it also could just be the zeitgeist. Local food and urban farming is all the rage . . . He probably comes at a very good moment,” says Ben Hudson, marketing manager of Brooklyn Brewery, which has partnered with the farm for events like a Labor Day weekend campout complete with kegs and chicken barbecue. (The brewery alsosupplies the farm’s heritage pigs with spent brew grains to eat.)
In other words, if it seems like a stretch to have a farmer in NewYork, it’s not.
Urban farms are flourishing on rooftops and in abandoned lots. At Greenpoint’s Rooftop Farms, you’ll find 6,000 square feet of organic vegetables on top of an industrial warehouse. At Added Value’s farms in Red Hook and on Governors Island, city teens are being taught how to till the earth. And up in The Bronx, Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project is planning to develop a 16,000-square-foot plot.
Urban farmers have become so prevalent, they’re even planning to sow their oats at a Brooklyn Farmers Ball taking place at the Brooklyn Lyceum on Tuesday. (For more details, go to justfood.org — where you’ll also find information on the City Chicken Project, which works with local community gardens.)
After all, Robertson isn’t even the only hot farmer in the city. Last week the Huffington Post kicked off a “Hot Organic Farmers” contest, and Annie Novak of Greenpoint’s Rooftop Farms is currently in first place. (“I’m kind of pissed off,” deadpans Robertson, who at press time was in fourth place. “I think she’s voting for herself repeatedly.”)
But hot or not, none can match the Queens County Farm Museum’s size and breadth. Located on 47 acres of land in Floral Park, it’s situated on the city’s largest remaining tract of farmland and is the only farm in the city to raise livestock like pigs, goats and sheep. There’s even a vineyard overseen by Robertson’s colleague, Gary Mitchell, producing bottles of chardonnay, merlot and a Bordeaux-style blend to be sold on-site once permits are in place.
“I think this could be the centerpiece of eastern Queens, in terms of a resource for the community and a meeting place for people,” says Robertson. “We’re in a very healthy space for people to come together.”
There are plans to expand the farm’s size, start a goat dairy and sell wool products from its growing flock of sheep.
And after a busy fall season of corn mazes and pumpkin picking, Robertson hopes to host more dinners in the farm’s 1772 farmhouse featuring original plank flooring, plaster ceilings and a toasty fireplace.
“We’ve been looking for more chefs to come out here. It would be great to get folks from Queens [or] really anybody who wants to take a break from the kitchen of a restaurant,” he says, noting the farm grows food year-round.
A philosophy major at Boston University, Robertson didn’t become interested in farming until he spent a year in Guatemala in his late 20s. He later worked on farms in Austin, Texas and the Hudson Valley before landing in Queens.
“I like living in New York City because there are so many other things going on and I’m not solely interested in farming,” says Robertson, who lives in Greenpoint. “If I had to talk about farming or food all the time . . .” he says, trailing off.
But New Yorkers don’t always know what to make of him — like when they spot him, say, toting a pig’s head down 69th Street while making a delivery to the restaurant Telepan.
Indeed, being a farmer in New York City isn’t always a roll in the hay — especially when he tells people what he does for a living. For one, Robertson says it doesn’t make a good pickup line. (“It hasn’t gotten me anywhere at all,” he jokes.)
And then there are those funny looks. “There used to be a lot of blank stares,” he says. “That still happens occasionally — where you haven’t really hit any commonground by saying you’re a farmer. Unless it’s the food or farm circle, it can still be a little bit like, ‘Oh, you must not make a lot of money, then.’ ”
carla.spartos@nypost.com