The first organic dairy in the state of Maine.
Gregg and Gloria Varney bought the farm from Gregg’s parents in 1987. It is now also a food shop, a fromagerie, a charcuterie, a bakery and café, an apothecary, and a fiber studio — all fed by the same fields.
James Beard Foundation · America’s Classics · 2023
Where the animals feed the people.
The farm’s own words, from its sign
Nothing leaves this farm in the state it arrived in.
One thread runs through the whole place: what the fields and the herd produce goes into a room on the same property and comes out as something else. The fiber studio is only the most literal case.
Milkbecomes
Fromagerie
Cheese made on the farm, without synthetic hormones, antibiotics or GMOs.
Meatbecomes
Charcuterie
Cured in the same building the animals were raised beside.
Grainbecomes
Bakery
Bread, pastries, doughnuts, bagels, scones, croissants — baked daily.
Herbsbecomes
Apothecary
Teas, tinctures, oils and salves.
Fleecebecomes
Fiber studio
A yarn shop on a working dairy farm.
The fieldsbecomes
The share
A CSA of beef, pork, chicken, dairy, eggs, fruit and vegetables.
Bread out of the rack before eight in the morning.
The store opens at seven and the café at eight. The shelves carry what the farm made and what its neighbours made; the rest of the day it is a kitchen.
Bought from Gregg’s mother and father.
In 1987 Gregg and Gloria Varney purchased Nezinscot Farm from Gregg’s parents, Warren and Marguerite Varney. It began as the first organic dairy in the state of Maine, and the family has run it since — the whole family, by their own account.
What came after grew from two things they say plainly: the desire to diversify, and the passion for good food and sustainability. Visitors are meant to leave knowing something they did not know about how food is made.
A restaurant award, given to a dairy farm.
Timeless appeal, and the character of its community.
284 Turner Center Road.
Address
Nezinscot Farm
284 Turner Center Road
Turner, Maine 04282
Hours
Wednesday – Sunday
Store 7 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Café 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Telephone