8/2/2025
| DEBBIE GARDNER
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It started out as a simple idea. The owners of Fern Valley Farms wanted a storefront on the main thoroughfare of Wilbraham where they could sell apples from their orchard.
They didn’t expect their wish to come true, or for it to become a showcase for dozens of locally produced products from farms and bakers and crafters throughout the area.
But the modest wooden building at 651 Main St., painted a traditional barn red, is just that — a cornucopia that re-creates the best of the farmers market — offering farm-fresh produce, plus locally-produced breads, meat, eggs, milk, cheese, maple products, plants and other sundries — in air-conditioned comfort.
Fern Valley Market at Merrick Farm is a cooperative effort — the dream of one farm family — Bill, Dan and Brooke Fernandes of Fern Valley Farms — and the legacy of the Merrick family — who have been farming the land along Wilbraham’s Main Street since 1741.
“The Merricks were kind enough to do a lease [for the site] and it works for everybody because their produce is sold through here,” said Brook Fernandes, owner and store manager of Fern Valley Market, which opened in May.
Though the initial idea was to create a place to sell their apples and Merrick farm produce, Fernandes said the concept for the farm stand evolved into a “place to support our friends [in the local and farming community], we met so many while running the orchard.”
The market’s initial ad, when it opened in May, listed 20 businesses that were stocking products at the store. By July, Fernandes said the store’s offerings had already expanded and now the initial list of businesses was about half of the participating farms and businesses.
“When people shop here, they are supporting 30-something businesses from the area,” she said. “We’ve been able to get a lot of new products in here.”
Among those 30-plus businesses is Sugar Chalet, a fellow Wilbraham business, whose cookies and sweets are popular products at the market. Fernandes said she met the owner, Allison Henry, when “she started making apple cider donut holes for the orchard.”
Another big seller, according to Fernandes, is the locally produced sourdough breads by The Salty Baker of Ludlow and the bagels by Fancy Bagels of Southwick.
Loose tea products from Honey Bear Tea of Hampden, Massachusetts, are another popular staple at the store, along with Honey Bear’s biscotti. Coffee comes from Sturbridge Coffee Roasters, with refrigerated Nitro Brew from Dean’s Beans of Orange, Massachusetts.
And like the best of the area’s farmers markets, Fern Valley Market also carries locally produced meats, including whole chickens, drumsticks, breasts and wings from Hager Brothers Farms in Colrain and beef products from Austin Brothers Valley Farm in Belchertown.
Fernandes said Fern Valley Farms is also beginning to raise their own cattle up in the orchard and praised the Austin Brothers Farm for teaching them “everything about having beef” on their farmland.
The ready-to-bake chicken pot pies from Barston’s Dairy of Hadley — along with their soups, quiches and mac and cheese — are more products that Fernandes said are “hard to keep in stock.”
Fernandes said the store also sells “15 to 20 dozen” eggs a day, stocked from farms in Monson and Wilbraham.
Milk from McCray’s farm of South Hadley, and skyr, cheese curds and chocolate milk from MayVal Farm in Westhampton round out the store’s meat and dairy offerings at the moment.
Most of the fresh vegetables come from the fields of Merrick Farms directly behind the farm store — part of the mutual partnership — with fresh herb offerings from the gardens at Fern Valley Farms.
Sweeter staples of the store include kettle corn by Kettle and Pine of West Brookfield — “they used to bring their trailer up to the orchard, and now we carry it in the store” — Fernandes said, maple products — including syrup, maple ice cream that “doesn’t stay in stock” and cannolis “to die for” — from Ferrindino Maple of Hampden, Massachusetts, and raw honey from Billy C’s in Southwick.
Fernandes said the bees from New England Apiaries — Billy C’s farm — have been integral in pollinating their orchard’s trees or “we wouldn’t have any apples.” Since the tragic death of Billy C’s owner, William “Billy” Crawford, in an accident while transporting his pollinator bees in Ohio, Fernandes said she’s seen an uptick in people purchasing Billy C’s honey at the market “to support his family.”
Frenandes added that Ferrindino Maple — like the Sugar Shack — is a supplier who has been with the Fernandes’ since the early days of the orchard.
“They sold their maple syrup out of a tiny shop in the orchard; they have been with us every step of the way,” Fernandes acknowledged.
Beyond the foodstuffs, the Fern Valley Market also carried curated selections from Wilbraham Candles, Michelle Stalworth Pottery, Laya’s Lights, Mamma Life Oils, Nourish Valley creams and balms, Nightingail hand soaps and local history books by author David Boucier. They also have a selection of plants and hanging baskets on the store’s front porch from Four Rex Farm in Hadley. In addition, Four Rex supplies the Fern Valley Market with squash, zucchini, asparagus, in season, and cucumbers.
“We went with all of our friends, and all of our family, to put this together,” Fernandes said, adding that her sister, Alessandra Corbett, owner of Homegrown Studio, had done all the design work for the store’s promotional materials.
She said it’s been “fun” to see how quickly the store has grown both in the products it carries and the people who discover it, in the few months since Fern Valley Market opened its doors.
“People who come in to shop here, they tell us they used to prune up at Rice’s Orchard,” — now Fern Valley Farms — “or spend time up there,” Fernandes said. “It’s fun to hear the history.”
Fern Valley Market, at 651 Main St. in Wilbraham, is open Wednesday to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For more information, visit fernvalleyfarmsllc.com or follow the market on Facebook and Instagram.
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