Second Drop Farm Opens Cafe After Years of Work
The farm store has locally made products, including those from Second Drop Farm.
Second Drop Farm is a you-pick farm and also has a store where it sells local items.
"We are a farm, first and foremost. We do you-pick berries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries. We also do you-pick flowers, lavender," said owner Patrick Elliot. "We are a farm store. We sell a lot of our own products, and then we source from a ton of other local farms in the area. We also carry a ton of different local makers, soap makers, all that sort of stuff.
"And we have rentals here as well, vacation rentals, so we really consider ourselves like an agro tourism destination."
The family-owned farm was purchased in 2020, and the Elliots had planned to open a cafe soon after but pandemic made it harder to do so they decided to focus on the farm.
"We really didn't know what we should do, if we should open with the COVID regulation or the COVID policies, or if we should just use that time to kind of prepare the farm," Elliot said. "And we decided to do the latter, and that was tough financially. We used a lot of our capital that we had to start the business essentially, just to make sure we could get by."
On Oct. 1, they were finally able to welcome the public to their cafe. Elliot said this is just the first phase and they plan to grow their menu offerings.
"The cafe right now is its first iteration. We are planning to expand it. Right now, we have pastries, coffee, tea, all that stuff, but we are hoping to expand to offering more food, and hopefully at some point in the future, we'll have full breakfast and full lunch, but we aren't sure when that'll happen," he said. "We are still growing the farm out. So in the coming months and years, things will be changing here, things will be growing, but right now, having the cafe doors just open is, we're, just very grateful to be at that moment."
Elliot said it would have been harder to get this open without the strong support of their customers and community.
"There were moments where it was a little discouraged, it was a little frustrating and discouraging, but, because of the customers and because of our regulars and the people that just you know stumbled across us, their kind words and their support, it really made it easier to continue persevering," he said. "We've already had a ton of customers that have just been very excited, it's almost like it's their project as well."
The cafe serves pastries from Nostalgia Scratch, coffee from Barrington Coffee Roasters, and tea from Harney's in Connecticut.
"We have been just walking around the cafe the last two days, kind of just in shock that it has finally materialized. We're so excited. It's one of those things where we still have a lot of work to do and a lot of things that we want to accomplish in here, but for the first time in quite a while, it's we're just breathing a sigh of relief, and we're, you know, allowing ourselves just to enjoy this moment," Elliot said.
But their work isn't done. They next plan to expand more of their farm and start selling eggs from their chickens. They plan to add outside seating behind the farm store as well as host events and live music.
"We also opened up the behind the the farm store, and that's all going to be outside seating, and we're hoping to do weekend events out there next spring to summer," Elliot said. "We're also planning on doing an outdoor kitchen out behind the cafe and farm store, which will be open seasonally, and we have an earth stage, I guess you call it. So we'll have bands and stuff like that playing out there."
The cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and is located at 551 North Main St. For more information, contact 413-822-0355 or info@seconddropfarms.com.
Tags: cafe, farm stand, farming,
