Big Rock Community Farms Market: Down to Earth Goods in an Ethereal Setting
This Stanfordville market provides local farm fare and camaraderie in a stunning historic house.
Big Rock co-owner and farmer Mark Burdick.
Because we in the Berkshires and the upper Hudson Valley have built much of our collective local persona around the pastoral elegance of small-scale agriculture, it’s imperative to remember that this identity is constructed by the too often undervalued and undercompensated honest labor of our community’s farmers.
Big Rock Community Farms Market in Stanfordville, New York is making it look easy. Situated in the jaw-dropping, historic Campbell House and filled with the best fresh food a 50-mile radius has to offer, it’s a perfect shopping experience. But while it’s handsome as all get-out, it’s also a place to remind yourself of the dirty, tireless work it took to get the products from the farm to your basket.
“My goal is to help support local farmers, like myself, and bring good local food to the area,” said market co-owner Mark Burdick, who speaks plainly about the difficulties of the farming trade. “I try to pay farmers what it costs them to grow. We are in a fortunate place that there are people who understand that.”
Burdick’s family goes back six generations in Stanfordville. They were around when the Campbell House was built in 1845. In 2005, Burdick started Big Rock Farm as a Christmas tree farm with his sister and brother-in-law, a stone's throw from the imposing and crumbling Campbell House, which had been sitting vacant and neglected since 1973.
In 2007, Roy Budnik bought the house and began a massive renovation job. Burdick was growing a lot more than just trees by then and began selling vegetables out of a cart on the front lawn. Though he’d accomplished a lot and saved the structure in 2014, Budnik sold the property to Burdick.
It would have been too much for Burdick to take on by himself, however. Luckily a couple of farmstand customers, Soo Kim and Carolina Gunnarsson offered to go in on the business and now, together, the three have completed the herculean restoration job, saving what is really the small town’s crown jewel and creating a market that’s a boon to local shoppers and farm producers alike.
“Soo and Carolina love the town and have been very good to me,” Burdick said. “This wouldn’t be here without them and their dedication to the town.”
He adds that he’s seen the market serve as a real bridge between lifelong residents like himself and second homeowners like Kim and Gunnarsson. Everyone wants to support local farmers, and markets like Big Rock are the most direct way to do it.
Big Rock carries in-season produce, a great selection of local meats, dairy, packaged goods, local pottery and a lot more. It’s a place you can stop into for a cup of coffee or get a really special cut of local meat to steal the show at a dinner party.
It’s a ways out yet but Burdick is also in the midst of constructing a kitchen for the market so they can offer light fare and prepared food. He hopes the addition will be good for the market but also for the town, as a new place to gather.
“Stanfordville has never had a hub,” Burdick said. “With the new library next door and the Grange Hall, it’s becoming a bit of a hub.”
Burdick is looking forward to the spring and summer. Pretty soon young asparagus and fresh flowers will be coming in. The life that warm weather brings to the shop and sweeping front lawn will be back, too. Big Rock hosts barbecue nights and fundraisers, and is a fixture for townwide events throughout the year.
“That’s one of my proudest things about the place,” he said. “We really promote community. We’ve had a lot of friends made on the front lawn.”
Big Rock Community Farms Market isn’t a grocery store. Prices are higher than at most supermarkets because the quality is better and because this is what it costs for ethical farmers and those working at the market to make a living wage. So, you might not be able to shop at Big Rock for all your meals but when you do shop there, for your best meals, you’re supporting the agricultural economic ecosystem that has made this region what it is and the community that makes us who we are.
