Once upon a time (like the 1800s or something), the Hamptons was a farming region—one where a humble man would tend to corn and wheat and potatoes, or whichever vegetables fit his fields’ fancy, and sell them to the local townsfolk or ship them to Manhattan city dwellers. But then some Gilded Age millionaires decided to buy a beach house (or two) because income tax hadn’t been invented yet. Fast-forward two centuries, and you’ve got some South Fork towns with a median home sale price of $24.9 million—and no more humble farmers.
Although a select few pretty rich ones. Across the Hamptons, a small sliver of its agricultural heritage lives on—via its extremely bougie farmstands.
Oh yes. Out east are an endless number of farm stalls, baked-good shops, and gourmet grocery stores all boasting local produce and seafood offerings—as well as prices so exorbitant they might make President Trump himself rethink his tariffs. Former Real Housewife and Hamptons resident Bethenny Frankel has even taken to TikTok to chronicle what she calls “Hamptons savage gourmet-market wars”: “We have a situation going on in the Hamptons—savage gourmet-market wars. Okay? Used to be fitness wars. Like what Pilates class? What spin class? What yoga class? All that stuff. It’s savage gourmet-market wars. It is insane. There are at least 8 to 10.”
So below, find a perhaps not-very-informative (but definitive!) guide to the farmstands of the Hamptons, as well as what to get at each. Who needs a status bag when you can have status asparagus?
Round Swamp Farm
Let’s begin with a story. It’s Memorial Day weekend in 2022. My best friend is hosting a few people, including me, for the holiday. We don’t feel like cooking because we are outrageously hungover. “Why don’t we pick up some things for the house at Round Swamp?” we say to each other. “Just for breakfast and lunch.”
We drive there. There are no parking spots. We pass by and then circle back. Still no spots. We end up parking in a muddy ditch a quarter mile down the road. We schlep to Round Swamp Farm and start to throw a bunch of insanely delicious sounding but deeply random stuff into our basket: blueberry muffins, chicken fingers, chicken salad, Thai spicy noodles, guacamole, bao buns, some sort of Funfetti pastry, and, I think, a few more things. There must have been more things.
“I’ll get this,” I tell her at checkout. “I’m so grateful that you invited me out there this weekend.”
“That’ll be $382,” says the cashier.
“It’ll be what?”
Anyway, that’s my story about how I went on the world’s most expensive supermarket sweep.
Round Swamp Farms is a fourth-generation, family-owned farm that’s grown into a mini empire: It’s got three stores in a 20-mile radius, offering produce fresh off its fields (where are they? No clue!), gourmet prepared foods, and baked goods so twee and homespun you’d think that, in addition to those fields, it also has a sweatshop of grandmas chained to a radiator somewhere. Is everything you buy priced at a level that would make your accountant fall to their knees and weep? Yes. Is it amazing? Also yes. Two truths can exist at once.
The Status Item: Chicken salad, chicken fingers, and those muffins
The Celebrity Fan: Justin and Hailey Bieber
Sagaponack General Store
Clears throat, adapts Stefon from Saturday Night Live voice: The Hamptons hottest grocer is…the Sagaponack General Store. It’s got everything: Cinnamon rolls. Willoughby cheese washed with dry rosé cider. Buttermilk-biscuit-bite-flavored Froyo. Penny candy. Also baby clothes.
After a four-year closure and rumored $12 million renovation, the Sagaponack General Store reopened this May under proprietor (and billionaire) Mindy Gray. It’s since become the place to get coffee if you want to be seen getting coffee—or to post the act of getting coffee to TikTok or Instagram. The whole cream-and-wood space looks like something straight out of a Nancy Meyers film.
Full disclosure: I haven’t been, because the line is insane and I simply refuse to wait in it! So here’s a dispatch from my Hamptons friend who is a regular: “It’s a very beautiful space,” she says. I asked if she had any more to add. “I don’t want to upset the powers that be,” she replied.
The Status Item: Cinnamon roll, rotisserie chicken, the Froyo
The Celebrity Fan: Someone wait in that line and tell me.
Carissa’s the Bakery
Carissa’s has some street cred that goes further than Further Lane: This year it was a James Beard semifinalist for outstanding bakery. In 2020 it won for best restaurant design. Don’t come here to grocery shop, but do come for the best baked goods in the Hamptons. (Pro tip: If you are staying with someone, swing by there in the morning to pick up a box of pastries for your host. Gold-star guest behavior.) Warning: You will inevitably wait in an interminable line behind a TikToker.
The Status Item: Monkey bread, almond croissant, pistachio-milk latte, a loaf of pickled rye
The Celebrity Fan: Stanley Tucci
Loaves and Fishes
The OG Loaves and Fishes opened back in the 1980s—when the Hamptons were still just Wall Street rich, rather than oligarch rich. Although I guess the Fed sanctioned all of those? So…Cayman Island bank account rich? Bombardier Global 8000 rich? Bought a Labubu at auction for $150,000 rich? A goddamn Labubu?
Sorry, I got distracted. Loaves and Fishes! It was founded by Anna Pump, a friend of Ina Garten, who once worked for Garten at the late (and legendary) Barefoot Contessa food store in Westhampton. The Sagaponack store is known for its artisanal breads, cheeses, and premade meals. (This week, they’re offering ginger-glazed rotisserie duck quarters, shrimp and pineapple skewers, and turkey burgers with peach chutney.) Don’t expect any influencers here. But do expect old-school Hamptonites who own those 12-bedroom estates that aren’t visible from the road. Oh, and a hefty charge on your credit card bill: They don’t call this place Loaves and Riches for nothing.
The Status Item: $100-per-pound lobster salad
The Celebrity Fan: Ina Garten
Amber Waves Farm
Amber Waves Farm in Amagansett may be better known for its merch than its produce: Everyone from Jenna Lyons to Jay-Z has been spotted wearing the store’s trucker hat. (Jay-Z even did so on a private jet.) Not that the produce isn’t good—it is! Great, even! But the trucker hats are inescapable—so…
The Status Item: ...the trucker hat. Also, the breakfast sandwich.
The Celebrity Fan: Beyoncé and Jay-Z
Balsam Farms
Balsam Farms is also in Amagansett. They do not have the cult status trucker hats. They do, however, have amazing jams that J.Crew even started selling in its Southampton store. Chic.
The Status Item: Rhubarb and apple crumble
The Celebrity Fan: Gwyneth Paltrow
Milk Pail
Sure, you could go to the Milk Pail in the summer. It’s nice! Everywhere out there is nice!
However, if you don’t go to the Milk Pail with your family in the fall for pumpkin or apple picking—are you really a good Hamptons parent? Let me answer that for you: No! Your kids will get wait-listed at Spence because they weren’t enriched enough! Then you won’t meet any of the Spence parents…and you won’t get their recommendation letters for the Maidstone! And then Paul won’t be able to network with his boss outside the office, and he won’t make partner! You’ll never move south of the highway!
The Status Item: Apple cider doughnuts, any pie
The Celebrity Fan: Jimmy Fallon
