Type: Farmers
Little Leaf Farms
The mission: great-tasting lettuce that’s available year-round. Local lettuce means making salads with a significantly smaller footprint than California mixes. These hearty little greens are free of GMOs, pesticides, and other chemicals. Because these lettuces are seeded, grown, cut, and packaged without ever being in contact with human hands, the need for triple-washing with chlorine-based chemicals is eliminated. The climate-controlled greenhouses make it possible to grow these baby greens 365 days out of the year, even in the coldest New England months.
Springworks Farm
The largest Aquaponic Greenhouse in New England, Springworks Farm grows organic greens year-round using 95% less water than a conventional farm. The sustainable aquaponic process works like this: tanks of fish are fed nutritious feed which turns into organic waste. The waste is filtered and refined into fertilizer and pumped into the greenhouse. The plants filter the water to the point that it is so clean that it can be pumped back into the fish tanks, and the cycle repeats. No chemicals. No soil contaminants. No pesticides. The result is fresh, clean lettuce with no waste; each crispy leaf in the pack is as delicious as the next.
Sunrise Orchards
Running on 100% solar power, this 200-acre apple orchard is on a mission to grow amazing apples that delight all five senses. They produce several apple varieties, including Cortland, Empire, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Macoun, McIntosh, Paula Red, and Red Delicious. They’ve been completely solar powered since 2016, and that includes growing, packing, and refrigeration. Their solar fields also create a nice habitat for many important pollinators, which helps keep the ecosystem running smoothly. Located in Cornwall, Vermont, Sunrise Orchards is IPM certified, and family owned.
Stonewood Farm
Grandma Stone sums it up best: “Just plenty of Vermont air, cold nights, good feed and tender loving care on our family farm.” Over the past 30 years, Stonewood Farms may have grown their flock to 34,000 turkeys per year, but they have never relented on their sustainable farming practices, humane treatment of their birds including turkey friendly, open-sided barns to provide plenty of fresh and sunlight. All of that and no hormones or antibiotics make for birds that are happier and ultimately tastier.
Hemmingway Farms
Just across the river in Charlestown, New Hampshire stands Hemingway Farms with 90 sprawling acres of space to grow fresh fruits and veggies, herbs, shrubs, houseplants, and flowers. This local treasure also includes a seasonal farmstand where they display their own bounty as well as items from other local producers. Fortunately, there’s plenty to go around, so a portion of their plentiful harvest is also filling up the Black River Produce warehouse right before making its way to your kitchens, shelves, and dinner plates.
Harlow Farm
Happily located in the fertile Connecticut River Valley, Harlow Farm has been producing crops since the mid-1700s. Paul G. Harlow purchased the farm in 1917, and it has now been in his family for three generations. One of the largest and earliest organic-certified farms in New England, Harlow’s produces 150 acres-worth of veggies including beets, cabbage, carrots, kale, lettuce, sweet corn, and squashes. Some of that is sold through their seasonal farmstand, and some makes its way to you through their partnership with Black River Produce.
Sam Mazza Farm
Sam Mazza Farm is a 350-acre farm full of festival fun, fresh produce, and adventure featuring a pair of corn mazes totaling 3 miles long. Just don’t get lost! You wouldn’t want to be late for their Blueberry Breakfast! Mazza’s corn and blueberries, along with a host of other produce items, can be found occupying the warehouse shelves at Black River as well as bursting forth from their on-site farm market. Their special events are held in a recently built 40×60-foot covered pavilion to the left of the farm market, and adjacent to their children’s playground. You can find a whole host of Sam Mazza produce products at Black River Produce as well as gorgeous poinsettias in December.
Butterworks Farm
In 1976, Jack and Anne Lazor started Butterworks Farm on land that they purchased in the mountainous Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. What started as a dream of self-sufficiency and land stewardship has become a farm and business that now supports 12-15 people, and 76 Jersey cows, along with a host of smaller flora and fauna on approximately 400 acres of pastures and hayfields. The Instagram-famous cows are known for being cuddly and fun, as well as for their strength, vigor, and calm nature due to selective breeding since the 1970s. The herd enjoys a healthful, grass-based diet known as their “cow salad bar” in the summer sweet summer hay in their winter solar barn during the snowy months.
Misty Knoll Farms
Family farmed, free range Vermont poultry that is hormone free, antibiotic free and vegetarian fed. At Misty Knoll Farms, turkeys and chickens are free to roam throughout spacious, specially designed turkey houses, with access to abundant feed, water and fresh air. Allowed to grow naturally to size, Misty Knoll birds are robust and meatier. As a result of this clean, stress-free environment, and a healthy diet that nature intended, Misty Knoll birds are healthier and better tasting. View Misty Knoll Farms items carried by Black River Produce.