A Different Kind of Pizza at 9 Miles East

I feel like I see pictures of 9 Miles East everywhere. On Facebook, on Instagram, in my dreams, everywhere I look, they’re there.

But for whatever reason, I haven’t gotten myself to order it. Well, that’s not totally true.

A few times early on I did try to order, but they were sold out by the time I was hungry. That was early on in their pizza days when they were only making 12 pizzas a night, but we’ll get to that a little later.

Here’s some background on the farm itself:

“9 Miles East Farm LLC is in the town of Northumberland, NY. We’re (unsurprisingly) 9 miles east of Saratoga Springs in a quiet area of dairy and hay farms.

The farm is a gently rolling 29 acres of clay loam soil. We’ve been here since 2004, and our goal is to continue to improve the soil every year. So we keep a significant amount of our land in cover crops every season, plowing down the clover, rye, buckwheat, and other crops to build organic matter and biological activity in the soil. We also use cover crops between rows to host beneficial insects and protect the soil. All of the inputs we use are OMRI-certified organic, but we don’t use that label ourselves. We certainly respect farmers who do, but our perspective is that the O-word has lost meaning as many organic farms have become industrial in scale and distribution.

Our goal is to grow very safe, very healthy vegetables and make them available directly to customers through a very short supply chain. We encourage you to make an appointment to come visit the farm yourself if you are interested in seeing how we grow and, just as important, meeting the people who do such a high-quality job preparing your food. We’re also happy to answer any questions you might have about our approach.”

Pretty rad, right?

What’s even more rad is their pizza story. 9 Miles East isn’t your traditional pizza. In fact, they only have three pizza flavors to offer. THREE.

• The Farmhouse Pizza is made with tomato sauce and cheese. You could call this their “house” pizza!
• Barnyard adds a mix of sweet and hot Italian sausage from nearby West Wind Acres in Charlton.
• Then there’s the weekly special based on what makes sense for the season. They’re always different, and they always sound AMAZING.

So you might be wondering what else makes them different than ordering a pizza from a local pizza place. You can read the 9 reasons you might like their pizza here, but I’ll give you a short synopsis.

Their crust, for example, is made through a high-extraction local flour and a three day slow fermentation process. Side note – the natural leavening process also affects the gluten in the dough, which some people find easier to digest than traditional white pizza dough.

They use less cheese.

I know, that might sound like a crime to many of you, but it shouldn’t, because it tastes SO MUCH BETTER. They use whole milk, low-moisture mozzarella from Cappiello Dairy in Schenectady. It melts like a dream, and tastes like one too.

They also only accept orders online. There are only 20 pizzas a night being delivered, and all these reasons? They’re all worth it.

The quality, the ingredients, all of it. It’s makes SUCH a huge difference, not only will your taste buds be happy, but your stomach will be too. What more can you ask for?

I was lucky enough to try this week’s seasonal pizza, which was a unique pairing with Saratoga Olive Oil. They created a bomb tapenade, spread that on top, and then drizzled with EVOO.

Wow wow wow. I love tapenade, but did I think of ever putting it on pizza? Nope. Until now.

The saltiness those olives added was perfection.

I do have to make a note that you should expect a different taste from their crust. It’s inevitable that some of you might not like it, because how often does EVERYONE like the same thing?

It’s a little bit tougher than a traditional pizza crust, so expect to use those chompers to chew a little bit extra. But at the end of the day, you have to try it and decide for yourself whether you like it or not. I can tell you from experience that I really enjoyed the flavor of it more than anything else. In fact, I ate my crust AND all of Tim’s. YAAAS CARBS.

Pizza is life, and if you want the best, you must order from 9 Miles East. End of story.

Follow them for their weekly pizza updates on their Facebook page, here.