Local New England Purveyors of Food

This is a personal list of places that I have shopped at or do shop at. There are many more N.E. purveyors of food not listed that can be found either on the Internet or in the edibleBoston magazine. This will be updated time to time as I found new purveyors or new items to add

Apple Cider
Carlson Farms, Harvard; I didn’t understand the love of New Englanders for apple cider until I drank their cider at their farm. It can be bought also at Whole Foods.

Bread
Hum! Bread seems to be a very personal thing. There are many fine local bakeries but my favorite bread comes from Clear Flour Bread in Brookline available at their store at 178 Thorndike St, Brookline or Whole Foods in Newton and Newtonville. They use unbromated and unbleached flour and specialize in the breads of France and Italy.
www.clearflourbread.com

Cheese
Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge; go there early on a Sunday morning and ask them if you can see their cheese cave for which they are most proud. This is the place that Julia Child always went for her cheeses. They sell Carlisle Farmstead Cheese featured in the first edition of edibleBoston magazine. www.formaggiokitchen.com

Chicken
Not as local as I would like but the best chicken I have eaten is from Bella Farms, Allensville NY and is sold at Lionette’s in the South End. The farm raises their animals at a normal rate instead of how “factory” chickens are raised and they arrive at the store 24 hours after being slaughtered. The flavor is wonderful. They have two types of heirloom chickens: Blanco (ideal for roasting and grilling) and Fedora (or black chicken) – its feathers are black and it’s best for braising. No other chicken from anywhere else will do. I am hooked! Let’s have an “adopt a farmer week” http://www.goeboston.com/index2.html

Chocolate
Taza Chocolate located at 561 Windsor St in Somerville produces chocolate in a very ethical manner. They are respectful to the environment and their workers who harvest and process it. It is fair trade and organic from bean to bar and it is GREAT chocolate. There chocolate can be found at some of favorite places: Berman’s Wine and Spirits, Lexington, Diesel Café, Somerville, Darwin’s, Cambridge and Lionette’s in the South End. http://www.tazachocolate.com/

Coffee
Terroir Coffee (http://www.terroircoffee.com/) located in Acton run and by the best known coffee guy in the U.S. George Howell. You probably all remember the Coffee Connection before it was bought out by Starbucks (this was George’s chain). He deals in single origin coffee and pays a premium price for it.

Beef
Willbrand Farm, Brandon, VT and North Hollow Farm – all grass fed and distributed by Hardwick Beef , Vermont.

Eggs
Very problematic if you care about the well being of chickens; after much searching my two favorites for taste are Maple Meadow in VT and Butterbrook Farm. However Maple Meadow’s idea of “cage free” is not the image the average consumer would have. 6,000 chickens nest in individual boxes in a huge high tech building. I am very anxious to taste the eggs from Herb FARMacy, Salisbury whose chickens do run around outside.

Fruit Cake
Yes, I know many people have eaten awful fruit cakes in their lives but Emily Dickenson’s brandy cake made in Concord Teacakes own bakery and sold in their store in West Concord is worth the drive. It is a rich and moist fruit cake. Bar making your own it’s the best I have found. They opened in 1984 as a small whole sale operation starting with this fruit cake and their scones and the recipe has remained consistent through all these years.

Herbs
Herb Lyceum at Gilson's, located in a renovated 19th century carriage house in Groton on the grounds of the Gilson Family Homestead. You can walk around the grounds or take a self-guided tour of the fragrant gardens and greenhouses. All the herb plants and culinary herbal products are available for purchase and they are produced from the herbs that they grow. They are open Wednesday through Sunday from 9:00 - 4:00 p.m. www.gilsonslyceum.com

Lamb
Not Your Ordinary Farm, Guilford, Vermont

Milk
Crescent Ridge Dairy, Sharon MA
I had literally stopped drinking milk until I discovered this milk sold in bottles at Whole Foods supermarket. Their milk comes from the 500 head of Holstein cows at the 5th generation Howrigan Family Farm in Fairfield VT. The milk is tasted at St. Albans Cooperative a milk processing plant in VT and then shipped directly to Crescent Ridge.
It is not ultra pasteurized hence its flavor.

Pastries and Cakes
Vicki Lee’s Belmont; the best bar none! http://www.vickilees.com/

Pig
I am very wary about buying pork. They are such intelligent animals that for me it is critical that they are slaughtered and humanely and with great care. This takes me to Bob Clark in Ferrisburg, VT. A typical Vermont farmer who has never left Vermont and never will! He primarily raises Yorkshire pigs along with a few Berkshire pigs. Again this meat can be found at Lionette’s. Do call ahead to order a particular cut as they are a very small operation.

Scones
These are plain scones with currents and are made in the baker of Concord Teacakes in West Concord. They melt in your mouth; no doubt from all the butter they use. Not for the faint hearted!

Tortillas
Maria and Ricardo's Tortilla Factory/Harbar Corp., Quincy, http://www.harbar.com/, all-natural, kosher corn and flour tortillas. These are the best. They can be bought directly from the factory in bulk (100 per bag) or they can be bought from Whole Foods. Until you have used really good tortilla’s you cannot appreciate the difference they will make in your dish.