Chip - in Farm, Bedford, Massachusetts

Those of you who shop at Whole Foods in Bedford, MA may be familiar with the eggs from the Chip-in Farm. When I shop there I look for items bearing the signage "I'm a Local" and I try to buy as many of those items as possible When it comes time to get the eggs, I always choose these. I can't quite remember, but I think the eggs are $3.50-ish a dozen. This weekend when I was going to Whole Foods to get meat, fruit, and vegetables I decided to make the very slight detour (201 Hartwell Road, Bedford, MA) and see what the farm had to offer first.

Wow. Just wow.

Yes, they had eggs, and of course they were fresher and cheaper, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. They had local beef and pork and their own free range frozen chicken. They also had other local products and baked goods, milk and ice cream from Shaw Farm (and others), and organic plants outside. We left having purchased four six-packs of plants, a frozen whole chicken, two pounds of ground beef, two dozen eggs, and two pounds of london broil for approximately $60.

Inside the little barn they had 4H projects from, I assume, the kids who lived on the farm. The animals were friendly and you could get vegetables from the store to feed them.

I would definitely go here again.

Carter & Stevens, Barre, Massachusetts

This weekend while we were camping in West Central Massachusetts I thought that we would have no problem finding a local farm/farm store for me to review. I was wrong. We found Carter & Stevens Farm Store by (happy) happenstance. It  is located on Route 122 in Barre, MA, a small picturesque town that isn't really easy to get to.

C&S is family owned and run by the Stevens/Dubois family. Little did I know the woman I was chatting with at the store about their inability to take cards was Farmer Mo. Next time I plan on chatting with her, oh forever. The Farm Store opened as a way for the farm to directly service the public. Their farm is over 1,000 acres of undeveloped land. It was wonderful to see.

We spent a few hours here, but honestly we could have stayed all day. I also could have easily spent hundreds of dollars at their store. As it was I spent less than $20 on local bread, cheese, eggs, milk, and a freshly baked cookie. Stay tuned for reviews of those products - I can tell you the eggs were delicious. They also had local beer and wine, grass fed beef, lots of cheese, local sodas, chips, seriously everything you could want. There are also animals to see and touch.

Their cows are grass fed, are not treated with any hormones or antibiotics, and spend all day out in the pasture. The eggs I got came directly from the chicken nests. I plucked them out while a gigantic rooster was crowing at me. Their ice cream is freshly made using their milk and the sample I had was possibly one of the best I've ever had.

I can not wait to go back here later on in the summer. During the summer they also have organic vegetables for sale. This weekend they only had rhubarb and fiddleheads, neither of which I bought.