This year, Maine’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry began Maine Open Farm Day. It’s like Maine Maple Weekend, but for farms. In all honesty, we missed the early announcement, so this event kind of snuck up on us this year. As a result, we only made it to one local farm. However, if our trip to Frinklepod Farm was typical of the other farms, we will be visiting many, many more next year.
The setting is gorgeous. There is a farm shop as well as an ice cream stand. They are separated by a path through a sumptuous flower garden. When we were there, the pollinators also seemed to be having a fantastic day. Slowing down to watch them flutter from one flower to the next was wonderfully relaxing.
If you love pastoral settings like this, you can also stay on the farm at their Airbnb apartment. A recent search revealed that it sleeps four and rents for under $300 per night, a pretty good in-season deal for this great setting just minutes from the Kennebunk beaches.
Food tasting galore
Frinklepod’s food focus is on vegan/vegetarian foods. To be clear, while Leah is pescatarian, I remain an omnivore, although my fish intake has surpassed my meat intake. We both enjoy dairy, so we are nowhere close to vegan in our daily lives. That said, we loved the tastings at Frinklepods for Maine Open Farm Day. I was pleasantly surprised by the choices, especially the salami and cheeses made by Midcoast Vegan and the Veggielife burgers. Tootsie’s Tempeh was also delicious.
We also purchased vanilla soft serve from Frinklepod’s. I’ve sampled a lot of local ice cream, and this oat-milk based offering was genuinely some of the best soft-serve vanilla that I’ve ever tasted. It was richer than most and surprisingly creamy given the fact that it has no actual cream. At $4.25 for a regular sized cone, it was typically priced for the region. Leah’s mini cone was $3.50.
The Frinklepods Farm store carries fresh produce from the farm. Since they also have a commercial kitchen, you will can find baked goods, hummus, dips and salads that have been made on site. In addition, they offer a variety of local products such as maple syrup as well as certified organic seedlings to start your own garden. You may also cut your own flowers.
The farm store is open Tuesday-Friday 9am-5pm. The ice cream stand is open Friday and Saturday 1pm-5pm. The farm is dog friendly.
Free and Cheap Things To Do in Southern Maine
Here are FREE and cheap things to do in Southern Maine in the coming week.