North Fork Foodie Tour returns for 2025

"It’s hard to believe this is our 19th year," said Ellen Zimmerman, chairwoman of the annual North Fork Foodie Tour.

The 2025 event, a self-guided exploration of North Fork agricultural and culinary treasures organized by the North Fork Reform Synagogue, is scheduled for Sept. 7. Participants will have access to 20 venues, many of them not ordinarily open to the public, as well as the opportunity to meet farmers, brewers, winemakers, distillers, chocolatiers and beekeepers. Ticket holders can chart their own course for the day, using the map they receive to guide them from Calverton to Greenport.

Zimmerman, of East Marion, recalled the tour’s origin story. "It was Rosh Hashanah in 2006 and some of us were gathered after the morning service, talking about what we could do for our next fundraiser. That year we had organized an artists’ studio tour — not the most creative idea."

The gathered congregants had begun to notice that "there were some really interesting food things going on" in their community. "It used to be potato farms, cabbage and cauliflower and those sorts of crops. But now, the wineries were getting started," she said. "And there were new restaurants, interesting restaurants, like the Frisky Oyster [Greenport, 2002] and the North Fork Table & Inn [Southold, 2006]."

Wouldn’t it be great, they wondered, "if instead of going into artists' studios people could go into the fields, get behind the scenes, learn about what was going on. "

That first tour in 2007 featured some establishments that are still on the itinerary (such as Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic), many more that are so well known, they no longer need an introduction (like Sang Lee Farms in Peconic and Aldo’s Coffee in Greenport) and a few that are no longer in business (Shinn Estate Vineyards is now Rose Hill Vineyards & Inn; R.I.P. A Taste of the North Fork market).

In 2007, about 100 tickets were sold; last year, the number topped 600.

There are three new stops on the 2025 tour:

• Pendleton’s Harvest Moon Farm (Riverhead), which raises Katahdin and Dorper sheep.
• Golden Acres Organic Farm (Jamesport), formerly Golden Earthworm, continues a commitment to certified organic produce and berries.
• Little Ram Oysters (Southold), a woman-owned 10-acre oyster farm whose processing shed is adjacent to The Shoals suites hotel overlooking Peconic Bay.

Returning stops include:

• Farrm Wines (Calverton): Long Island's first certified organic / biodynamic winery
• Breeze Hill Farm (Peconic): A trolley takes you through the apple orchards and you get a free cider doughnut
• Goodale Farm (Riverhead): Long Island’s only full-scale dairy farm
• Red Barn Farm (Baiting Hollow): Meet and learn about Andean alpacas
• Lavender by the Bay (Calverton): Long Island’s best-smelling farm
• Matchbook Distilling Co. (Greenport): Producer of bespoke spirits
• Mattituck Mushrooms: Grows shiitake, king trumpet, pioppino, lion's mane, maitake and pink, yellow and blue oysters
• KK’s The Farm (Southold): Long Island's only biodynamic farm

The tour's headquarters is Peconic Land Trust's Charnews Farm in Southold where speakers, featured throughout the day, will include Kristin Gerbino, of Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Choose Local F.I.S.H. (Fresh, Indigenous, Sustainable, Healthy) project; Rae McMahon, head roaster at Aldo’s Coffee in Greenport; Teddy Tomao, of Zafferano Farm in Mattituck, who will discuss "no-till" farming; Chris Kelly, of Promise Land Apiaries in Mattituck, offering insight into keeping bees for pollination and honey.