Farm Stands/Picnic Rock Farms

Happy Gourmand · 08-15-2009, 09:01 AM

I know, I know, I'm probably going to catch some grief here, but I would like to know if anybody else agrees or disagrees with me.
I usually like to give as much business as possible to "locals" whether it be restaurants, hardware stores, and any other locally owned and operated endeavors. But......
We came up on Thursday for the start of another long weekend and decided to do our grocery shopping at one of the supermarkets in Gilford.....all but the fruits and vegetables which we agreed to get FRESH at Picnic Rock Farm stand in Meredith on Rte 3.
We stopped there on our way back from food shopping....looking forward especially to picking up some FRESH corn to go with our dinner. I went to the corn "bin" and was immediately disappointed that the corn generally looked terrible....and was priced at $ .65 per ear! I decided to take a look anyways, chose one and peeled the husk back th check it out only to discover a borer had chosen this ear before I did. I didn't check any others and put the borer laden ear aside so nobody else would buy it.
Now I know that corn borers like corn....it's not the first time I run into one, and this is not my main point....it is the $ .65 per ear that really got to me. Is it just me or is it reasonable to assume that I should be able to buy fresh produce or almost anything else "direct" from the grower? There is no middle man involved, and should not some part of the price reflect this?
If not price, then shouldn't quality be better from the source? We didn't find this to be true either and left disappointed, to say the least.
So there we were, trunk full of groceries sans fruit and veggies. We decided to go home and put the groceries away and go to the Hannafoed store in Meredith as it is more convenient for us than going back to Gilford.
Wow! Carolina corn for under $ .40 each...and they looked better than wha we had previously seen and they were tender and delicious.
The rest of the produce we got looked better and was priced well under what was being asked at Picnic Rock Farms.
Comments? Opinions? Was this just a bad day at the farm, or is my experience shared with others on this forum?

08-15-2009, 09:01 AM	#1
Happy Gourmand Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Ruskin FL Posts: 1,027 Thanks: 188 Thanked 322 Times in 179 Posts	Farm Stands/Picnic Rock Farms I know, I know, I'm probably going to catch some grief here, but I would like to know if anybody else agrees or disagrees with me. I usually like to give as much business as possible to "locals" whether it be restaurants, hardware stores, and any other locally owned and operated endeavors. But...... We came up on Thursday for the start of another long weekend and decided to do our grocery shopping at one of the supermarkets in Gilford.....all but the fruits and vegetables which we agreed to get FRESH at Picnic Rock Farm stand in Meredith on Rte 3. We stopped there on our way back from food shopping....looking forward especially to picking up some FRESH corn to go with our dinner. I went to the corn "bin" and was immediately disappointed that the corn generally looked terrible....and was priced at $ .65 per ear! I decided to take a look anyways, chose one and peeled the husk back th check it out only to discover a borer had chosen this ear before I did. I didn't check any others and put the borer laden ear aside so nobody else would buy it. Now I know that corn borers like corn....it's not the first time I run into one, and this is not my main point....it is the $ .65 per ear that really got to me. Is it just me or is it reasonable to assume that I should be able to buy fresh produce or almost anything else "direct" from the grower? There is no middle man involved, and should not some part of the price reflect this? If not price, then shouldn't quality be better from the source? We didn't find this to be true either and left disappointed, to say the least. So there we were, trunk full of groceries sans fruit and veggies. We decided to go home and put the groceries away and go to the Hannafoed store in Meredith as it is more convenient for us than going back to Gilford. Wow! Carolina corn for under $ .40 each...and they looked better than wha we had previously seen and they were tender and delicious. The rest of the produce we got looked better and was priced well under what was being asked at Picnic Rock Farms. Comments? Opinions? Was this just a bad day at the farm, or is my experience shared with others on this forum?