Buy local: Farm stand spotlight – Briermere Farms

At the intersection of Sound Avenue and Route 105, a hand-painted sign reading ‘fruit pies’ and an arrow-led semi-circle parking lot points way to Briermere Farms — the most heralded and well-known bakery in the town of Riverhead.

For more than 50 years, the McCombes have farmed the 200-plus acre terrain, which extends from the back of the bakery down to the Long Island Sound, planting a variety of fruit and vegetables, many of which are used daily in their bakery.

And through the years, everything from farming to all the recipes created by his mother and grandmother, have stayed the same, according to co-owner Clark Mccombe.

“We’re so busy with doing things the right way and keeping it consistent to fool around with a good recipe,” Clark said. “We’re just trying to do our best to maintain what we’ve had all along.”

When school is out and local fruit is in, the doors to the small house-turned-bake-shop are in constant swing, wafting out an aroma that brings any curious nose to the forefront of pie heaven.

Sarah Bryant, a decades-long customer of Briermere Farms, never leaves the bakery without a fresh fruit cream pie.

“The crust combined with the cream, combined with the fresh fruit, is just a sinful experience,” she said. “I try to get every type of fresh fruit cream before the season is out.”

The fresh fruit cream pies are offered from May to September. The flaky original Briermere crust is filled with a mixture of heavy cream, cream cheese and sugar then topped with an apricot-glazed seasonal fruit. Strawberries are the first to come in, followed by blueberries and raspberries and ending with peaches.

The $29 pie is a very popular seller, often selling out before the day’s end.

“People enjoy it so much because the peaches are fresh,” Clark said. “They’re freshly peeled and sliced every day.”

The peaches go from the tree, to the grading table, then to the peeling room and finally, neatly placed atop the cream pie shell.

But the pie wouldn’t be possible without a properly grown peach.

“Because we’re near the beach, the soil is really sandy so we produce our own compost,” Clark said. “We plant the peach tree right into compost to speed things up.”

“The main thing is good soil and plenty of sun,” he said. “And this year, we’re getting plenty of rain, so that’s always good.”

Since creating and using leaf compost, Clark has seen a tremendous difference in production; they have entirely replaced chemical fertilizers.

“Fruit trees take up nutrition more easily from soil that has a natural form of nitrogen,” he said.

Each peach has a different flavor depending on variety and point in season so the taste may vary throughout the harvest.

“Varieties do matter,” Clark said. “There are 20-30 different varieties of peaches. And of course, a peach that is ripe in the beginning of July will not taste as good as a peach at the end of September.”

Peaches can be bought by the pound or in a quart outside the bakery along with tons of other fruits and vegetables.

In addition to the plain peach cream, Briermere Farms also offers a peach-blueberry or peach-raspberry combination that has berries in the center.

Orders are suggested. Call 631-722-3931

Briermere Farms is open every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

RiverheadLOCAL historical photos courtesy of the McCombe family. Other photos by Michael Hejmej.

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Editor’s note: The author has worked on the farm at Briermere since 2006.