I first fell in love with Trombetta’s Farm at the Brookline Farmers’ Market on Thursdays (1:30pm – dusk, June 18th to October 29th). My friend Ziggy, of Fox Point Pickles, was selling at the market this year, so every other Thursday I would head down and visit. (Seriously, if you haven’t had the pickles yet, you HAVE to try them!!) Ok, back to ice cream. Nothing better on a hot summer day.

I go with the red raspberry chip with rainbow sprinkles. The ice cream is super creamy and delicious – no wonder the line is always long! In addition to ice cream, they made a killer raspberry lime rickey! While I enjoy them at the farmers’ market, they have a brick and mortar location in Marlboro and you can play some indoor mini gold while you’re there too!

Trombetta’s Farm

655 Farm Road, Marlborough, MA

http://www.trombettasfarm.com

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Ana Maria grew up in a suburban town west of Boston and Jorge in Brasil. It all began when the two  met while working at a bagel shop. You can read more about their story in an article in Edible Boston.

Everyone talks about the perfect New York bagel and how you can’t find one in Boston. I’m convinced it’s something in the New York water, but that is for another day. OMG! is the closest thing to a New York bagel that I have found in Boston, crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside.

The bagels come in delicious flavors like French Toast, honey oat, jalapeño cheddar, and a seasonal pumpkin raisin as well as traditional flavors like onion, poppy, garlic and cinnamon raisin. The bagels are made with premium ingredients and their veggie bagel is made with only fresh veggies, not canned or frozen! (Can’t wait to try the veggie bagel with my favorite begin cream cheese from Cape Cod Bagel!) So after reading the Edible Boston article, I HAD to try the cinnamon raisin, which is Jorge’s go-to. It certainly did not disappoint! The test of a truly good bagel is, ‘does it taste good on its own?’  Any bagel can taste good if you schmear enough cream cheese on it or load it up with enough meat and cheese. These bagels were so fresh – light and chewy. My favorite was the cinnamon and raisin, the flavors were really distinct.

OMG! opened a wholesale bakery about 2 years ago and now have over 21 varieties of bagels. They are in 14 Whole Foods and 4 Roche Bros. around Massachusetts. To find out where you can try these delicious bagels for yourself, check out the “where to find us” page on their website. You can also find them at local Farmers’ Markets: Tuesdays in Newton, Wednesdays in Wayland, Thursdays in Framingham and Saturdays in Ashland and West Newton.

In the meantime, visit their website, like them on Facebook and drool on your phone while checking out their Instagram page.

Disclaimer: I was provided bagels to sample for this post. (And bread, but you’ll have to ask my dad about that!) All opinions are my own.

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The Kitchen is a great space (3,200 sq. ft) located next to the market. They will offer things like lectures and films, cooking demos, hands on learning, health and wellness classes, excursions and group events. The Kitchen will open on August 19th with some great programs, here are a few examples:

Wednesdays 6pm- 8pm America’s Test Kitchen: New Boston Cooking School’s You Can Cook – classes that teach beginner students how to think and act like a home cook.

Wednesdays 12pm-2pm Boston Pubic Market Vendor Highlight – A Q&A with one of the vendors with sampling and demos.

Thursdays 7am-8am REI Hosts Morning Yoga

Thursdays 8am REI Hosts Thursday Morning Run Club – start your morning with a 3 mile run – club is open to all participants and will maintain a 10-11 minute per mile pace.

For more information go to: thetrustees.org/kitchen

Wolf Meadow Farm is located in Amesbury, MA. We were able to try the fresh ricotta with the pepper jelly – it was out of this world! Wolf Meadow Farm sells traditional southern Italian cheeses made by hand daily.

Corner Stalk Farm, located in East Boston, sells standard and specialty leafy greens and herbs grown in recycled shipping containers.

Stillman’s, located in Braintree, sells fresh produce.

The most interesting to me was the Boston Honey Company located in Holliston. They have a live hive that is home to about 12,000 bees. They fly in and out of the hive and find their way back by the colored discs on the glass roof of the building. The bees return to the hive and do a dance – that looks like rapid shaking – that lets the other bees know where the “good stuff” is. You can see the bees depositing the pollen into the cells and you can see where the drones will hatch. Pretty cool stuff! They have 4 types of honey on tap every day for you to sample.

Hopsters Alley has a huge selection of craft beers and locally produced spirits. They are located in Newton where you can go and brew your own beer. They have 4 beers on tap for sampling.

Red Apple Farm is located right by the front door and you are lured in by the smell of warm donuts, cinnamon and sugar. Who doesn’t love cider donuts? And you can watch them being made (see top right photo). They sell cider (and hot cider will be available in the colder months) along with fresh produce (you can visit their farm in Phllipston to pick your own raspberries), fudge and apple crisp (the owner’s grandmother’s recipe).

How delicious does that crisp look?

I love Crescent Ridge. They are located in Sharon and they sell award winning ice cream and fresh glass bottled milk. The scoops are enormous and the ice cream is so creamy!

Mamdou’s Artisan Bakery is located in Winchester and they offer French style breads and pastries.

Silverbrook Farm in Dartmouth has a wide range of farm fresh products including vegetables, fruit, honey, herbs and flowers.

Mange is located in Somerville and they make exotic and aromatic fresh fruit vinegars. I have the green apple vinegar at home and can’t wait to try it out.

Jasper Hill Farm, located in Vermont, has a lovely selection of cheeses and jams.

American Stonecraft is located in Lowell. Every year farms till the soil and come up with large stones (why do you think there are so many stone walls in Massachusetts?), American Stonecraft takes these stones and polishes them into these beautiful serving trays and trivets.

Q’s Nuts, based in Somerville, offers  sweet, savory and spicy roasts in over 6 varieties of nuts. They are vegan, gluten, soy and dairy free.

Stow Greenhouses offers over 50 varieties of flowers – they are just beautiful. Check out their mason jar bouquets and their potted succulents.

Peterman’s Boards and Bowls, based out of Gill, MA makes bowls, serving trays and more from fallen trees from New England towns.

(Top left) Silverbrook Farm based in Dartmouth sells a wide range of farm fresh products including fruits, vegetables, eggs, jams and mustards. (Top right) Union Square Donuts, based in Somerville, sells gourmet, made from scratch donuts. (Bottom) Mother Juice started as a food truck and then opened their first storefront in Cambridge. They offer cold press juices, smoothies and plant based foods.

Some non food highlights are the toddler nook (top left) where you can bring your child on a trip to the market. The area is filled with agriculture themed toys and books. The Lobstah Rockah has cool rocking chairs located around the market for you to test out! Every piece is custom made. The cookbook exchange (bottom) is a place to share your favorite cookbooks and recipes with the community. Take a bookplate and write your favorite recipe from the book, leave the book for someone to enjoy and pick up a new book to take home and test out new recipes!

Appleton Farms (top left and right), based in Ipswich, sells delicious cheese; Nella Pasta (middle left and right), based in Quincy, sells fresh pasta and take and go lunch and dinner options; and Lilac Hedge Farm (bottom left and right), located in Berlin, sells fresh and frozen cuts of beef, pork, lamb and poultry as well as cured meats, prepared meals and rotisserie chicken.

Taza Chocolate, based in Somerville, sells stone ground organic chocolate. They have tons of samples and have motions demonstrations. Motions are stone mills used in the third stage of chocolate making, where the cacao nibs are ground into liquor. People can watch the cacao being ground in the hand carved granite millstones that were chiseled by Taza’s co-founder.

There are these great vendors and many more. Too many to mention. Check out the website for a full list of vendors.

What is your favorite vendor in the Boston Public Market?

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The Humble Pie Company in Providence is run by Daniel Sheehan, and has been open since 2013. We sampled the mini apple pies, which were delicious – the crust was flaky and light, the filling was top notch, and I loved the oat crunch on top.

We also tried the linzer torte – a really nice blend of spices and I loved the jam!

North Bakery just won top honors for their chocolate chip cookies ($1.75) which have a nice sprinkling of sea salt over top.

My friend Ziggy is the man behind Fox Point Pickles. He makes them in two flavors, garlic dill and spicy dill. The spicy dill pickles pack a punch, but it’s a delayed on, you don’t get it right when you bite into the pickle. The spicy dill would be great in a bloody mary!

The Rocket food truck was outside serving up gourmet street food.

I was really digging the mom’s baked mac and cheese ($4) made with Vermont sharp cheddar cheese, butter and Rhody fresh whole milk. The perfect amount of cheese sauce with a smooth, buttery flavor.

Pat’s Pastured has a food truck where we had Pat’s Burger ($13) a 100% grass fed beef burger served with cheddar cheese, carmelized onions, Arcadian Fields greens, and garlic aioli (add the egg for $1 – trust us!). Just as we got up to the front of the line, they ran out of buns, so we grabbed our burger on two hotdog rolls. Still super delicious!

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Check out this website for a list of Farmers Markets near you!

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