Off the eaten path

Here’s the New Yorker’s summer weekend dilemma: One can get out of town to commune with nature and see all the pretty scenery — or just find a new place to eat lunch. If you usually opt for lunch, we’d like to tell you to get up and get out — and dine in a whole different setting, whether it’s eating oysters plucked straight from Long Island Sound or sampling Morimoto-made sushi on a cruise around the city.

There’s plenty of communing with nature, but none of these trips have the day-tripper scrounging in the wilderness. “It’s so novel,” says West Village resident Tom Regan, who attended a farm-to-table pop-up pig roast in East Hampton in the middle of a field last week.

Here are six food excursions — perfect for hungry day trippers.

PHOTOS: NEARBY FOOD TRIPS

START WINING

Millbook Winery Day Package, Millbrook, NY, Saturdays and Sundays through October

*A trip here is worth it if only to stare at the lush, 130-acre vineyard forged out of a former dairy farm. The package starts when a driver from the vineyard picks guests up at the Poughkeepsie Metro-North station and ferries them (via small yellow school bus) to the vineyards. First there’s lunch in the back of the dairy, followed by a two-hour-plus tour of how the wines are made and a wine tasting.

“We just planted some riesling,” says David Bova, general manager of the winery. “Winter is the biggest problem.” He explains that Long Island vineyards have the advantage over Hudson Valley ones, due to the moderating effect of the ocean. Nevertheless, the wine is delicious.

On the menu: The food is modest (burgers and fancy sandwiches) but Bova, or whoever else is around, can suggest wine to pair with your grilled chicken or ahi tuna sandwich. The vineyard makes chardonnay, pinot noir, cabernet franc and tocai friulano wines — and there are plenty of bottles to buy in the winery’s shop ($14.50 each). Tour guests get free shipping for purchases of six bottles or more.

“We come several times per year,” says Charlie Wilson, a local from Clinton, who sipping a vin gris with his wife, Eileen. “We bring the whole family.”

Info: Millbrook Vineyards and Winery, 26 Wing Road, Millbrook, NY; millbrookwine.com; 845-677-8383; $75.

POP DINNY

Plate-to-Gate pop-up dinner series, next one is Thursday at the Brooklyn Grange in Long Island City

*Restaurateur Carlos Suarez and chef Patrick Connolly, the twosome behind the West Village’s Bobo, are taking the concept of the “pop-up restaurant” to new lengths. Namely, they’re taking it to the Catskills, Greenport, East Hampton, Fire Island and Long Island City. In June, Connolly and Suarez started their “Plate-to-Gate” series, in which they set up dinners at different locales using local ingredients.

“There are all these great stories that some of our farmers and oystermen had,” says Connolly, “and [the idea for the pop-up series] came out of wanting to share them with our staff and our guests.”

On the menu: The most recent dinner, held during July Fourth weekend, was at Balsam Farms in East Hampton. There, guests dined on boiled crabs, roasted snap peas, Yukon gold potatoes, roasted pig (the one thing that was not local) and much more, as they sipped on vino from local wineries: Red Newt Cellars cabernet franc and riesling. “We’re eating locally, out in a field — but we wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t white tablecloth,” says Tom Regan, while at the Balsam Farms event.

Next up: A Bastille Day rooftop dinner at Brooklyn Grange (Thursday) with French-style charcuterie and vegetables. After that, a clambake with lots of beer, as well as lobster, oysters and sausage, at the Fire Island Beer Company (July 30).

Info: Brooklyn Grange, 34-16 Northern Blvd., Long Island City; bobonyc.com; 212-488-2626; 6:30 p.m.; $50 to $100 (depending on the event).

FIELD OF GREENS

A Meal in the Field, Phillies Bridge Farm, New Paltz, July 30

*Jesica Clark, the board president of Phillies Bridge Farm, which is throwing this event, was inspired to do an elaborate dinner out in the middle of her farm when she was planning her wedding — a farm wedding. And that’s what this is: a big, casual meal out in a field. The apps are served on bamboo plates and the wine in Mason jars.

This is the first time Phillies Bridge is doing a big dinner at its farm (between 50 and 100 guests are expected), but if the dinner works out, it will become a regular event. The meal will be cooked by the chefs of five New Paltz restaurants, including Michael Bernardo of Café Mio and Agnes Devereux of The Village Tearoom, and will use almost entirely local ingredients. “We grow basically everything,” says Clark. “Mostly veggies, but a lot of fruits.”

On the menu: Herb-roasted chicken with corn, bean and cherry tomato succotash, summer squash and herb soup with olive-oil breadsticks, and, for dessert, wild blueberry chocolate ganache with a polenta crust. “The chocolate comes from somewhere else,” Clark admits. We can forgive that.

Info: Phillies Bridge Farm, 45 Bridge Road, New Paltz, NY; philliesbridge.org; 845-256-9108; 5:30 to 9 p.m.; $55 per person, $100 per couple.

RALLY IN THE VALLEY!

Friends of the Farmer Hudson Valley Food Lovers Festival, July 30, Copake Country Club, Craryville, NY

*If you like your food outings elaborate — with a crush of people, a wide variety of food and a celebrity auction — check out the inaugural Hudson Valley Food Lovers Festival. This day-long festival, which expects some 1,000 people, will feature wine and beer tastings, activities for kids (one tent will have fly-fishing instructors), live music, square dancing and a celebrity auction (tables designed by John Varvatos and Gina Gershon will be among the items on the block). Proceeds will go toward scholarships to teach farming.

And the food? “It’s sort of like South Beach Food and Wine Festival,” says Tessa Edick, founder of the festival. “You’ll have a bite of this and then a bite of that.” Visitors will buy tickets (like an old-fashioned fair!) and trade them for goodies.

On the menu: “Dishes are everything from sweet to savory, barbecue to pot pie — there’ll be a full range of food,” says Edick. At the beginning of the day, there will be stalls set up where 50 local restaurants will be matched with ingredients from 50 local farms. “There will be a farmer who, say, will donate chicken, another will donate produce — and the chefs choose from that bounty what they want to make for the dinner,” says Edick. Among the farms and producers participating are Flying Pigs Farm, so you can expect something nice and porky, as well as Ronnybrook Farm, so you can expect yogurt shakes and ice cream. It culminates at a Hudson Valley Bounty Dinner, where tastes of everything will all come together.

Info: 44 Golf Course Road, Craryville, NY; friendsofthefarmer.com; 518-325-9437; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; tickets start at $10 per person, $20 families.

FARM CHARM!

Farm to Table Dinner, July 16, Katchkie Farm, Kinderhook, NY

*If you spend an afternoon here on the Hudson River, you might learn that former president Martin Van Buren was born in Kinderhook and Aaron Burr briefly hid in the town after he killed New York Post founder Alexander Hamilton in Weehawken, NJ. You might eat some extravagant local food, too. The catering company, Great Performances, which owns the 60-acre Katchkie Farm, is hosting a farm-to-table dinner there next week. (Proceeds will benefit the Sylvia Center, which teaches children about organic farming and healthy eating.)

More than 125 people are expected at the dinner, which begins in the children’s garden, where city kids have planted lettuce and nasturtium (edible flowers). With live music in the background, diners then head to the large commmunal table in the middle of the field. That’s where an eight-course, family style dinner is served.

‘‘It’s basically one big communal experience of everyone sitting down and sharing a summer seasonable meal,’’ says Hollie Greene, education director for the Sylvia Center — and herself a chef.

On the menu: Summer squash salad with arugula and a Joe’s Dairy ricotta-stuffed zucchini blossom, Eden Brook smoked trout, heirloom tomato and summer bean salad, mini-eggplant Parmesan tarts, local sea bass, Hudson Valley skirt steak with quick-braised kale, chicken Milanese and rhubarb, apple and peach cobbler for dessert.

Info: Katchkie Farm, 745 Fischer Road, Kinderhook, NY; eventbrite.com; 212-337-4857; 5 p.m.; $125. If you can’t make it up to Kinderhook, another dinner will be thrown at City Winery on Aug. 4.

SUSHI ON THE HUDSON

Sushi & Sake Sunset Schooner Sail of NYC’s Harbor, July 18, Aug. 1 and Aug. 15

*“A boat, sushi, sake and the sunset — it’s a really nice pairing,” says Sarah Greer, general manager of Classic Harbor Lines, which offers a sushi and sake cruise. But it’s not just any sushi — Morimoto (of the eponymous sushi restaurant and ‘‘Iron Chef’’ fame) will roll the fish. Forty passengers will sail on a 80-foot-long, 1890s-style pilot schooner around Battery Park, Ellis Island and (natch) the Statue of Liberty and sample a selection of sakes (including an organic Junmai Ginjo and a sparkling sake), champagne and pieces of striped bass or salmon. (Sadly, the Iron Chef himself will not be in attendance.) Now all we need is for Bobby Flay to do a double-decker bus trip along the FDR.

On the menu: Assorted cold sakes and — depending on what’s available fresh that day — king salmon, unagi, fresh water eel, chu-toro, medium fatty tuna, hamachi, yellowtail hirame, fluke suzuki, striped bass ebi, shrimp ika, squid kisu and silver whiting spicy tuna maki. Nine pieces of sushi total will be served, along with one roll. “I’ve been out as a guest — and as a captain,” says Greer. “It’s the highest-quality sushi I’ve ever had.”

Info: Sail from Pier 62, Chelsea Piers; 22nd Street and the Hudson River; sail-nyc.com; 212-627-1825; 6:30 p.m.; $120. Classic Harbor also does several other food-focused cruises, such as local beers matched with cheeses and mimosa-spiked brunches.