Pat Huckins had already cooked her family Crete’s corn for lunch last week and she was back at the Boscawen farm stand the following morning to buy another few ears for dinner.
“I just had to come back and get some more of this,” she said, sifting through a pile of fresh corn inside the stand’s wooden doors last week with an eager smile. “It’s the best corn ever. It’s so sweet and good. Yum.”
Originally from Boscawen, Huckins now lives with her husband in Greenville, Maine, five hours north of the town. She said she always stops at Crete’s farm stand on the property of Highway View Farm in town when she comes to visit her 94-year-old mother.
“It’s a reminder of home,” she said.
Crete’s corn stand, a miniature store built into the family garage on River Road in Boscawen off Route 4, is a local hub among town residents and a source of pride. The stand has been running for close to 30 years. It started out of a pick-up truck on the top of the hill on River Road and has slowly expanded, said owner Martha Crete.
Highway View Farm is primarily a dairy farm, but the farm grows a field of sweet corn, which is its greatest connection to the community, Crete said. Customers have been coming in nonstop since the stand opened for the season a few weeks ago.
“We start seeing people drive into the driveway and turn around looking for the corn stand to see if it’s open in the early summer,” she said. “They’ll do that long after we close in October.”
On any given day, there’s a steady stream of cars pulling into the dirt lot, with appreciative patrons.
“I come here every few days,” resident Thomas Gilmore said, carrying out a bag brimming with corn. “I try to have two ears of corn a day when it’s in season. This place has the best corn in the area – they’re known for it.”
Best corn around, really?
“There’s no comparison. It’s fresh every day and you know the people who are growing it,” said Sarah Millard, who was picking up a few ears with her infant son Colby in her arms. “It’s not just some nameless grocery store where you have no idea where it’s coming from.”
Everyone who buys corn at the stand has their own tradition of how to make it. The Millards like to steam it, butter it and salt it. They use the leftover corn to make fritters.
The stand is also a kind of community gathering space. Millard, who was shopping with her mother, Betsy, said you usually see someone you know shopping there.
“You stop and talk, have a conversation,” Betsy Millard said.
Corn is the main attraction at the stand, picked daily from 12 acres of sweet corn on the property. Crete’s sells vegetables like zucchini and summer squash there, too. This year, they added beef and chicken from the farm.
Highway View Farm, a 200-Holstein cow dairy operation, earned the New England Green Pastures Award for New Hampshire in 2017 – the honor for dairy farm of the year in the state.