Nobody's doing it, but somebody should, so here we are.
Supporting Local Communities
Our mission is to transform the way we shop by prioritizing our immediate community. We aim to inspire everyone to choose local farms, dairies, nurseries, and artisans for daily essentials. Let's support our neighbors and build a sustainable future together. Through educational resources and a wide range of locally sourced products, we aim to be a model for other regions, fostering a stronger connection between consumers and producers.
About Us
Welcome to The Underground Grocer! This site and endeavor is designed to encourage our immediate community to shop local and to utilize our community's farms, dairies, nurseries, farm stands, and artisans on a more regular basis. While a myriad of resources exists online already, nothing is streamlined to our immediate community nor presented/organized in such a way as to be a user-friendly shopping experience. After many years of trending towards shopping locally, we feel that multiple factors in the current climate are ripe for that final push towards changing the way we shop on a more permanent basis. We hope that The Underground Grocer will meet the needs of producers and consumers primarily in Higganum, Haddam, and Killingworth and extend to neighboring towns in order to provide for a thorough shopping experience. We also aim to allow our community opportunity to easily identify gaps in services and products offered locally and thereby encourage new growth within our community. In addition, we hope to be a model for other communities to do the same.
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The scope of this website is to list farms, products, and services by town, product, and method of shopping (online, multiple stops, CSA's, multiple farm-1 pickup location services). As the season progresses, we will include a Sunday - Saturday calendar of local farm markets and a monthly calendar for periodic food, farm, and vendor events. We will include a printable map with icons for approximate locations of smaller farm stands, egg stands, and firewood stands. Please share any information you have on these smaller stands so we can support each other.
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We are gearing up to offer some merchandise to help offset fees for maintaining the site and if we happen to have a surplus of funds, we will donate to our local food pantries.
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We are truly excited to be here with all of you and look forward to a successful season and what is sure to be an exciting adventure.
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- Mindi Murphy & Kristy Benson-Amarante
Nobody's doing it, but somebody should, so here we are
MEET THE TEAM!
Mindi Murphy
Mindi first moved to Higganum as a teen in 1983 and just a few years later went off to explore the world beyond the farm. Despite being voted by her 5 siblings as the most likely to move the furthest away, she returned in 2007 and built a home right next to her parents, where she raised her 3 children; Higganum just always felt the most like home. She has been in and out of the food industry since the early 80's, working in her parents' bakery, various restaurants, and at one time ran a small catering company that focused on using locally sourced products. She enjoys reading anything and everything food-related and has been known to write cookbooks to give as gifts to friends and family. As soon as it is warm enough to spend time outdoors, you will most often find her working in her kitchen garden, which is always abundant with nasturtiums, lettuces, herbs, and heirloom tomatoes. She is on a constant quest to find new varieties of edible flowers to add to salads and to garnish her dishes.
P.S. she loves butter.
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"Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are" - Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
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"Butter, butter, butter! Give me more butter!"
- Fernand Point
Kristy Benson-Amarante
Kristy grew up in East Haddam and had her first garden bed at the age of 6 years old. Her mother grew veggies, had a potpourri-style herb company in the 80's, and later ran 2 of her own businesses. Her father was a renowned commercial photographer, so it's safe to say that running her own business and farm was written in the stars for her. She started her own farm (Bittersweet Farm & Tea Co.) in 2015 in Old Saybrook, and in 2020 relocated to Higganum where she and her family reside. Since starting her farm almost 10 years ago, it has grown into a tea company at which she works full time. She is also the farmers market manager for Higganum (2020-2023 and 2025-?). Kristy's passion has always been a combination of growing food, promoting and serving her local community, and helping people through the teas she concocts. She often teaches classes, hosts events on her farm, and runs local events in town.
She is also an avid (intense) Red Sox fan, and you may hear her on any given summer night yelling at or cheering her team on.
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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead
YOU!
There is so much incredible talent in our small community.
We are: Bittersweet Farm, Bitta Blue, Bogue, Wellstone, Rosa Farm, Button Factory, Gulielmetti, Deep Hollow, Starlight, JC Farms, Brencher, HealthyPlanEat, Scott's, Chambers, Essex Garlic, Annie's Garlic, Halfinger's, Running Brook, Hidden Lake, Sycamore, MerryWeather, Durham Sugarhouse, Parmalee Farm, Cleveland's, Down the Lane, Larsen's, Deerfield Farm, 7 Falls Mushrooms, 8 Mile Meadow, Passionately Pasta, Ashlawn, Deep River Roasters, Cato Corner, Moodus Mud, Perkatory, Tralli's Chickens, Ivory Mill Baking, Priest Farm, Foxglove Soap Company, Bake Up Artist, Wandering Woman Candles & Soaps, the Bread Girl, Maple Breeze and more.