Land & Sea

Breakfast takes on a whole new meaning when you buy the very freshest eggs, especially from a very cool place – Terra Firma Farm – off a very beautiful road.

Meander down the forest-lined country road running between Stonington’s Pequot Trail (Route 234) and Route 184, past well-preserved historic homes, palatial horse pastures and lush, verdant growth everywhere this time of year, to 330 Al Harvey Road where you’ll find more than 700 chickens living on the hilltop farm. These girls are busy filling up refrigerators with their pale green and blue and all-shades-of-beige-and-brown eggs, awaiting your purchase at the little red-and-white farm stand.

The stand also stocks peas, carrots, beans and lettuce, along with frozen kielbasa, hot dogs and chicken. Meats and vegetables vary throughout the season. You also can pick mint from a patch and choose from a selection of Sleepy Moon Soaps from North Franklin’s Bailey Farm. Choices include bars of Rose Geranium buttermilk with rose clay and Indigo Moon coconut milk, mango butter and silk.

You also can receive eggs and a range of farm products delivered right to your door if you live in Mystic, Stonington, Pawcatuck or Westerly. Arrange for the weekly service through the farm's website and you'll receive e-mails each week as to what is available for delivery.

Take a self-guided tour and visit the hens, roosters, sheep, lambs, goats, kids, bunnies, turkeys, ducks, pigs, and any other barnyard creatures, including two of the cats, Timmy and Concrete, currently calling Terra Firma home.

Seven years ago, Brie Casadei and Ethan Grimes began their working organic farm that gives local children and adults real-life experiences of sustainable farm life and offers a plethora of programs including camps and care after school.   

Be careful when you drive back down the driveway to leave, as Tuna, the third feline at the farm – a 12-year-old, black-and-white fat cat – likes to time his back rolling and bathing to the same as when your car wants to pass – or maybe it’s just his way of saying, “Don’t leave just yet – there’s more to see.” 

From farmland, travel to 47 Greenmanville Ave. (Route 27) in Mystic to the sea – or specifically, to the Mystic Seaport Museum Store. Whether you’re a day-tripper, weekender or local, this place is worth a stop. Many of us enjoy the Seaport along the Mystic River year-round as members, and trips to the museum store are no exception.  It’s a great place for gifts and more – with or without a pass to the Seaport.

The store's offerings include candles, ornaments, jams, chowders, glassware, books, prints, models, clothing and jewelry, many of which are American made. Upstairs you’ll find nearly all of the Mystic Seaport publications. 

Three kinds of products are great sellers, according to Store Director Julie Vangel. The first is the pale-green, solid-glass deck prism replica, which, with a lighted base, makes for a pretty light source. The conical deck prisms of the past laid flush into the boat’s wooden deck, drawing light below without weakening planks and without incurring the danger of candles, oil or kerosene on a wooden vessel.

The second is anything having to do with the 1841 Charles W. Morgan, the last all-wooden whaling ship, now undergoing a multi-million-dollar restoration at the Seaport’s dry dock. Items include glassware, models and prints.

The third bestseller is old-fashioned fudge made on premises. A Wall of Fudge showcases shelves stocked with myriad flavors, from traditional Chocolate to Raspberry Lime, Root Beer, Almond Joy and Creamsicle. Who needs ice cream with this kind of fudge.