I am a big fan of Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, who is a cookbook writer and Food Network cooking star. She has lived in East Hampton for many years and has showcased local farm stands and farmer’s markets on her shows that she frequents to purvey produce. I am staying in The Hamptons (a series of towns on Long Island in New York) for a couple of weeks and was determined to visit as many as I can.
Hanks Farmstand was my first stop. The hand-painted truck was the first thing I saw and I quickly pulled into the parking lot. The stand was full of just picked produce from the field directly behind the farm stand. It had piles of fresh picked sweet corn. I am sad that I don’t have a kitchen where I am staying as I would have loved to make fresh corn for dinner. It also had a chicken coup for fresh eggs and a small park with climbing structures for small shoppers.
My next stop was Green Thumb Organic Farm in Water Mill. Again, there were many varieties of fresh produce and flowers picked from the garden adjacent to the stand.
All the stands had many varieties of tomatoes. These heirlooms were beautifully showcased in wooden boxes.
I had tractor envy at the Babinski Farm Stand. I love the color green and covet this John Deere garden vehicle. The fresh cut sunflowers added to the perfect photo. The Babinski stand had a lot of squash and fresh zucchini bread which I bought and ate in the car on my way to the next stand.
Vicki of Vicki’s Veggies in Amagansett was manning the stand when I arrived. She was born and raised in Amagansett and opened this stand when she was 11 years old. This year she will celebrate her 35th Anniversary. Vicki is a passionate farmer who grew up planting, harvesting and canning. The photo below is of her herb garden where customers can come and pick herbs for free. She is a huge believer in using fresh-cut herbs for flavoring food. Vicki also has farm animals and the baby ducks were just a few days old when I visited.
Amber Waves Farm in Amagansett has beautiful organic vegetables as well as fresh eggs. What sets Amber Waves Farm apart from some of the other stands are the 40 varieties of organically-grown flowers for customers to cut from in the fields behind the stand. Amber Waves Farm also has a food education program where they are committed to teaching children about farm-to-table nutrition and the story of their food.
The flower cutting garden was beautiful and full of several species of butterflies and bees.
Bhumi Farms also in Amagansett, had beautiful displays of fresh produce including fabulous looking tomatoes. Farmer Frank has a quote on the website regarding his tomatoes. “We seed, we water, we transplant, we water, we trellis, we weed, we water, we weed some more and then finally, we harvest, and we celebrate.”
Seven Ponds Orchard in Water Mill had rows and rows of apple trees and berry bushes. Jeff and I arrived mid-morning and there were many families picking fruit and playing in the playground attached to the farm stand. As we stepped out of the car you could smell the freshly baked fruit pies.
Each row of fruit was identified with a sign that indicated whether the fruit was ready to pick. The farm stand also had quite a large variety of vegetables to round out a meal, but certainly it’s specialty was fresh picked fruit.
Balsam Farms in Amagansett not only had freshly picked vegetables and fruit, they had many varieties of homemade preserves, pickled vegetables, handmade cheese and freshly backed bread.
Balsam Farm’s fresh corn relish was delicious. I am going to make some when I get back to California.
If I lived in the Hamptons, I would shop at a farm stand all summer long!
