From the Soil to Your Plate: On the Farm with Maciek Kobielski

As we were gearing up to reopen Eleven Madison Park after the pandemic lockdown, we realized we wanted to go one step further than just cooking with plant-based ingredients: we wanted to grow them, too.

So, in late 2020, Chef Daniel Humm reached out to his friend Maciek Kobielski, who had recently moved upstate to his family’s farm in Hoosick Falls, New York, with an idea. “I had been experimenting with different crops, and Daniel called me and asked if I’d be able to grow something for the restaurant,” Maciek remembers. “At the beginning, I didn’t really know if he was serious, but I sat on it for a couple of days, and I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna do it,” he says.

And with that, the seed for Magic Farms was planted.

What began as a side project for Maciek, a photographer by trade, became a full-time job very quickly. There was so much to learn, and he had to learn it — and execute it — fast. “Farming requires an understanding of so many overlapping systems,” Maciek says. “The biology and chemistry of the soil, the science of irrigation, electricity, hydraulics, food safety,” he lists. “There’s a multitude of things that have to come together perfectly in addition to just putting plants in the ground. The idea sounds crazy when I look at it in retrospect.” 

But he was determined to make it work. To get started, he sought help from the experts at the Cornell Extension Program, who visited the farm and helped him build out essential infrastructure, along with some pioneering local organic farmers he met at the NOFA-NY Winter Conference. “I went to work with them on their farm every week, and then I would come home and work on my project with Daniel, which would become Magic Farms,” Maciek remembers. “I was learning so much and just trying to take in every possible detail.” 

In his first run, Maciek grew celtuce, tomatoes, kale, sunflowers, lettuce, beets, and herbs for our 2021 menus — and with every season, this list has continued to expand. “It was very exciting but super exhausting,” he remembers. “As a farmer, you have to understand that your needs are not important in the process. What matters are the needs and the lifecycles of your plants.” 

Since then, the farm has grown to four acres of fields and seven high tunnels that allow him to cultivate vegetables even through the coldest months in New York State. “A lot of the work is understanding what you can grow successfully in this climate in the Northeast,” says Maciek. Each week, he hand-delivers a truckload of the latest harvest to the restaurant and picks up scraps to return to the farm for compost, usually as a one-man team. 

Back in the city, collaborating with Maciek has changed the way we approach our craft in the kitchen. We now sketch out our seasonal menus months in advance around his growing schedule and provide him with a list of ingredients we hope to use. Then, depending on which varietals he thinks will thrive — and how fruitful the harvest is — we adjust our dishes accordingly. This has turned our R&D process into a true dialogue between chef, farmer, and the land, and ensures that our dishes always highlight the very best of the season in Upstate New York — rooting our menus in a sense of place and time. 

As we head into the spring and summer months, keep an eye out for Maciek’s strawberries, carrots, spinach, alliums, lettuce, herbs, and more on our upcoming menus.