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The collective of acclaimed chefs, farmers, and artists behind Forts Ferry Farm in Latham recently opened Farm Shoppe in Hudson to provide diverse offerings, from pantry staples to antique table attire. The team behind the shop, made up of 2012 James Beard Award-nominated chef Emma Hearst, CIA-trained chef and farmer John Barker, and artist James Barker, is guided by their mission to have fun while growing and sharing high-quality produce with the Hudson Valley region.
An extension of Forts Ferry Farm, Farm Shoppe sells everything from fresh-grown produce and flowers to baked goods and curated kitchen staples. Upon entering the store, visitors will be transported to a sumptuous garden, with seafoam and jade green walls and embellishing wood treillage designed in collaboration with Hearst and designer Michelle Smith of Studio MRS, which was featured on Elle Décor’s A-List in 2023.
Hearst and John Barker, her husband, opened their 100-acre farm in 2015, quickly expanding their offerings from a handful of vegetable varieties to hundreds of vegetables, fruits, flowers, baked goods, honey, and more. (John’s brother, James Barker, who joined the team later, is also a part owner of both the farm and new shop.) Before collaborating on Forts Ferry Farm, Hearst, now 38, was the chef and owner of beloved Italian restaurant Sorella in Manhattan. In 2014, Hearst closed Sorella and moved upstate to Albany, where she grew up, with her husband, who she met in culinary school. After working in a kitchen for years, Hearst decided she did not want to be in the restaurant business anymore but still wanted to work with food, shifting her focus from the industry to the ingredients she was in search of daily as a chef.
“I wanted to get out of the restaurant industry because it was literally killing me. I had two restaurants in Manhattan which I opened at the ripe age of 21, and they were very successful. But my work-life balance was very not successful,” says Hearst. So she and John—whose family works in agriculture in Ohio—took a chance on his dream of owning a farm, vowing to grow the “culinary-focused vegetables” they used in their former lives as chefs. Today, Forts Ferry churns out some 300 varieties of produce, herbs, and flowers. “The company has just kind of taken off,” adds Hearst.
I wanted Farm Shoppe to feel very welcoming and otherworldly… like people were stepping into a different planet of happiness and joy, says co-owner Emma Hearst.
Coincidentally, Hearst and her team were searching for a new retail location in a place with more foot traffic at the same time that she and her husband were looking for a new personal home. After falling in love with a building on Hudson’s Warren Street, Hearst managed to kill two birds with one stone by opening Farm Shoppe downstairs and moving into the space above the store.
“I have been coming to Hudson since I was a kid. My parents acquired a home here in Hudson before the pandemic and, over the years, we have fallen deeply in love with the magic this city has to offer and the beautiful, open-minded, and caring individuals that it attracts,” says Hearst about the shop’s location.
The store offers a chance for the team to diversify its portfolio and boost foot traffic in a town Hearst knows well. “My family has always had an affinity for antiques, so I grew up surrounded by [them]. We would always come to Hudson [to shop] and we’ve seen the growth [here],” she says. “We just wanted to be a part of this community.”
Since Farm Shoppe’s opening in February, it has served as a hub for all of Forts Ferry Farm’s offerings, edible or otherwise. The store announces itself on Hudson’s Warren Street with swaths of pistachio-hued paint, offset by a breezy striped awning. Inside, the scene is just as playful. More walls of green—this time, with warmer tones—form a cozy backdrop for the curated array of antique European tableware, farm-fresh produce and to-go foods, and pantry essentials. Displayed with care but easily accessible to curious shoppers, each item begs to be picked up for a closer look.
“I wanted it to feel very welcoming and otherworldly… like people were stepping into a different planet of happiness and joy,” explains Hearst.
Shoppers should plan to make repeat visits to peruse the everchanging abundance of farm-grown produce and florals, along with frozen, refrigerated, and shelf-stable products and food produced at the Latham farm. Aside from what’s on the culinary front, Farm Shoppe also stocks a smattering of pantry items, kitchenware, antiques, and whimsical gifts that are sourced and curated by Hearst.
“Farm Shoppe is a place to come have fun, be inspired, and learn. I wanted it to feel like an Alice in Wonderland foodie adventure on acid. It’s a unique play on a traditional farm stand gone wild!” notes Hearst.
For Hearst and her partners, that means offering goods like the farm’s freshly picked pea shoots, honey-laden barbecue sauce, and sweet snacking cakes alongside picnic-ready tote bags, slender beeswax candles, and antique platters and glassware sourced by the former chef herself.
The team also carries items from other food purveyors (including Ines Rosales’ manchego crackers and hot-honey mustard from Wilder Condiments) and hopes to collaborate with area businesses on pop-ups down the road. In the meantime, though, Hearst just encourages customers to visit and enjoy themselves. “I’m so happy in my little Farm Shoppe world,” she says. “I want everybody who visits the shop to have fun in it.”
As for what’s on the horizon, both Farm Shoppe and Forts Ferry Farm intend on showing up for their respective communities in the best ways they can. The Hudson shop plans on expanding its produce and floral offerings as the seasons change and hopes to wholesale some of its products to neighboring restaurants, while Forts Ferry Farm will be featured at the Troy Farmers Market year-round with fresh produce. Additionally, Hearst released her new cookbook, Flavors From the Farm, on April 30 as a collaboration with her business partner, James Barker, who helped to shoot and style the project.
In the wake of its first few months of operation, Farm Shoppe is more than excited to be a part of the Hudson neighborhood.
“The reception has been phenomenal!” Hearst enthuses. We couldn’t have picked a better community to be amongst and feel like we hit the jackpot with the wonderful shop owners we are surrounded by. We are beyond proud to have a business in this wonderful community.”
Farm Shoppe is located at 554 Warren Street in Hudson.
This story originally appeared online on April 18, 2024 and has since been updated with additional information from a print piece, which ran in the August 2024 issue.
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