If you’ve been meaning to get a bowl of Vietnamese pho at Harvest Smokehouse at Golden Harvest Farm in Valatie, now is the time. The winter noodle shop that has quietly become a cult favorite at Golden Harvest Farms will wrap up at the end of March, giving way to a short spring reset before the smokehouse returns to its applewood-fired barbecue by May.
For pitmaster Max Murphy, the seasonal pivot has become a way to keep customers interested and well fed: pho through the cold months, barbecue once the orchard wakes back up. “Just three more weeks now—we’re going till the end of March with the noodles,” Murphy says. “Then we take some time off in April to get everything back in shape.”
Vietnamese Noodles on a New York Apple Farm
Harvest Smokehouse lives in the oversized vestibule at Golden Harvest Farms, the multi-generational Columbia County orchard that has evolved into a small campus of food projects, including a farm stand, harvest season destination, distillery, and barbecue counter. The smokehouse itself opened in 2021 as a way to transform orchard byproducts—especially applewood from tree pruning—into a distinctive style of barbecue indigenous to the Hudson Valley landscape.
In the colder months, though, the smokers go quiet and the kitchen pivots to Smokehouse Noods, a curated menu centered around pho and other Vietnamese-inspired dishes, like banh mi sandwiches, served from Thursday through Sunday…