The Farm Shoppe is Hudson's Most Adorable Farm to Table Shopping Experience
Chefs Emma Hearst and John Barker and artist James Barker are behind the project
If you’re a New Yorker living in the city and seeking out a bit of charm and color in your life, the answer is a two-hour train ride away.
Hudson, New York is a charming yet sophisticated getaway that’s close enough for daytrippers to enjoy an afternoon strolling Warren Street’s boutiques and galleries before heading to one of the city’s breweries for a cold one. And, while you can get downright lost in the maze that is the Antique Warehouse, if you want some down-home charm and gourmet groceries, a trip to the Farm Shoppe is in the cards.
The Farm Shoppe recently opened as a collaboration between James Beard Award-nominated chef Emma Hearst (formerly the chef-owner of Sorella), chef and farmer John Barker, and artist James (Jamie) Barker as a way to get produce from their Forts Ferry Farm, the 100-acre produce farm in Upstate, New York, to consumers in as charming a way as possible.
The trio opened Forts Ferry Farm in 2015 after Emma and her husband John decided they wanted to shift focus from restaurant life to growing the items. Before that, Emma and John owned and operated Sorella, a Lower East Side Italian restaurant. For her work there, Emma was recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 and nominated as a James Beard Award Semifinalist. The couple partnered up with John’s brother Jamie, a multi-media artist , to open the farm.
Over the better part of a decade, the farm has grown from producing some vegetables to yielding hundreds of different vegetables, fruits, and flowers.
The Farm Shoppe was opened as a way to offer the farm’s bounty, along with baked goods, soups and frozen entrees, and curated pantry items. It’s also the home to a collection of antique table accessories, curated by Emma.
The shop, itself, feels like a cross between Alice in Wonderland and farmstead chic with walls of varying hues of green, colorful silver platters, and handmade wood trelliage serving as the backdrop for the colorful vegetables and flowers on display.
The shop offers the produce and flowers grown on the Forts Ferry farm — an ever-changing selection of 15 varieties of tomatoes, 20 varieties of hot peppers, 20 varieties of greens, and 20 varieties of herbs including specialty herbs like huacatay, epazote, and Mexican marigold. There’s also salad mixes, sprouts and shoots, microgreens, and more to choose from.
The Farm Shoppe also offers a rotating selection of cookies such as white chocolate black sesame and giant salted chocolate cookies; snacking cakes, focaccia, along with soups, sauces, and frozen entrees to take home (bring a cooler bag for your trip back to the city).
You can also stock up on hot sauces and chili powders made from the farm’s peppers, local honey, granola, farm-made salad dressings, fresh eggs, and more.
And, because every home deserves it, bring home a bouquet of fresh flowers or a piece of antique tableware to dress up your kitchen.
The Farm Shoppe. 554 Warren Street, Hudson, New York; fortsferryfarmshoppe.com. Open Thursday to Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.