Food

Connecticut Local Foods

Find Local Foods Near You in Connecticut

By Molly Watson, About.com Guide

Like many places, Connecticut has fewer farms than it used to, but it also has a growing local foods movement and burgeoning organic farming culture. Find sources for locally grown and produced foods in Connecticut below. Know of something you don't see here? Tell us about it!

Connecticut Fruits & Vegetables

Photo © Molly Watson

First things first. It's a lot easier to eat locally if you eat with the seasons, and that's a lot easier if you know what's in season when. Use this Guide to Connecticut Seasonal Fruits & Vegetables to get a sense of what to expect at the market when.

Connecticut Farmers Markets

Photo © Molly Watson

Shopping at farmers markets that carefully screen their participants to make sure the vendors are selling produce and products from their farm is a great way to get started eating local foods. This Guide to Connecticut Farmers Markets will help you find a seasonal market near you. Whether you're an old-hand at farmers markets or new to the whole thing, check out these 10 Tips for Shopping Farmers Markets to make the most of your trip.

Connecticut Dairies

Connecticut used to have scads of dairies, many of which had dairy bars serving ice cream and diner food. Prospect Dairy Bar and Marcus Dairy Bar keep that tradition alive.

Smyth's Trinity Farm in Enfield produces glass-bottled milk, cream, yogurt and butter – not to mention seasonal eggnog made with, you got it, real eggs. Fresh eggs and local honey are also for sale at the dairy.

Connecticut is also home to several excellent cheese makers, including Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm in Lyme, which also sells pastured meats and wool, and Cato Corner Farm in Colchester.

Connecticut Fish & Seafood

Photo © Molly Watson

A bit of coastline and plenty of rivers make Connecticut great for fish and seafood. Quahogs, the famously fabulous hard-shelled clams of the Northeast, are a local favorite, as are bluepoint oysters, blue fish (a species facing overfishing), and shad - a fish particularly prized for its roe.

Connecticut Maple Sugar Houses

Maple sugaring may be better known in Vermont, but it happens in Connecticut, too. Find facts about maple sugaring as well as a guide to sugar houses that use small batch, wood-fired production like River's Edge Sugar House in the Nutmeg State with this guide to sugar houses from the Connecticut Department of Agriculture.