Farms & Makers Directory
Bringing you a selection of more than 9,000 foodservice items from tiny purveyors and small farms and makers is no small feat. A typical broadline food distributor might pull truckloads from a single vendor. Our trucks careen backroads from the New England countryside to the Boston docks, back-hauling pallets of apples here, fresh-caught lobster there, and plenty of artisan dairy and meat items in between. As a Vermont-based fine food distributor, it is not just our business, but our passion, to connect your restaurant or co-op market with the best of the region and beyond. Here are a handful of our partners. Check back often as we regularly update the site with more of their stories.
Jasper Hill Farm aged cheeses are part of a small-town transformation rooted in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Brothers Andy and Mateo invested their life savings on a rocky hillside farm in Greensboro near the Caspian Lake where no bovine hoofbeats had been heard for over 40 years. They fixed up the barn and built a creamery, followed by a cave aging space for cultivating natural-rind cheeses. Their first racks of cheeses hit the market in 2003, and one of the first batches took home Best of Show at the 2006 American Cheese Society Conference. They now operate two cheese houses in Vermont. Their award-winning cheeses, including the ever-popular Bayley Hazen Blue, grace menus throughout the region.
Husband-and-wife team, Giacomo & Jennifer have set out to make what they call “farm pasta,” which is handcrafted, sustainable, and made in Vermont with farm-raised Vermont ingredients including their signature blend of organic wheat. They use eggs from their very own flock of pasture raised hens that have been fed certified organic, soy-free feed, and most of the vegetables used in their kitchen are grown on their own farm. Ingredients that they can’t produce themselves are either organically grown and locally sourced or come from producers who are part of the Slow Food movement.
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.
This veteran-owned, health-focused producer is revolutionizing freeze-dried foods using locally sourced, ecologically grown ingredients. Wellness Croft uses their advanced food processing platform to not only champion regional New England economic development, but also align with their deep commitment to sustainability. They even print the source farm on each package of freeze-dried fruit snacks.
Misty Knoll Farms • New Haven, Vermont
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 and the 2024 Wholesale Vermont Turkey Order form.
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.
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.