Gluten-Free: Bolton Orchards & Gerardo's Italian Bakery

On Wednesday, after passing it for months almost every time after leaving my home to go anywhere, my little family & I finally stopped at Bolton Orchards. My previous experience had been limited to enjoying the "ssssh the apples are sleeping" sign, mentions on the Boston Events Insider (which I recommend as the best source for cool events in New England) & Yelp reviews, and a large box full of gluten-free pastries from Gerardo's Italian Bakery my parents bought when they stopped on their way to visit us.

My primary interests were to check out the entirety of their gluten-free stock as well as their farm-fresh fruit and vegetable selection, of course. I was not disappointed. What a fabulous place! Starving after a doctor's appointment, I was delighted to find out that they offered deli-made gluten-free sandwiches, complete with list of which meats & cheeses were definitely safe. I ordered a roast beef with everything (lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions & Monterey Jack cheese); my partner Bill ordered turkey with bacon, lettuce, pickles, Monterey Jack, hot peppers on the side for him and tomatoes on the side for Liberty.

While our sandwiches were being made, I first made a beeline for the Geraldo's Italian Bakery counter. They're actually a separate business with a location inside Bolton Orchards, instead of freestanding stores like their other locations in West Boylston and Westborough. I discussed gluten-free with the woman behind the counter, telling her I was writing this blog post tonight, and she gave me a little tour of their current gluten-free offerings. Most of them are in a separate display case on top of the glutenous but incredibly tasty-looking baked goods; this included brownies, two different kinds of macaroons, and two varieties of nut pastries. Inside the usual display case was incidentally gluten-free strawberry & raspberry cheesecake bites. Having had not cheesecake in longer than I care to remember, I purchased a strawberry cheesecake bite, frosted pistachio pastry and chocolate frosted macaroon. Also, they do special orders for standard and customized cakes, for events like weddings and birthdays; for instance, they can make a gluten-free Elmo cake for Liberty's impending second birthday!

Cheesecake!

I already knew it would not be wise to open the box until later so I put it in my shopping cart and proceeded to check out the rest of Bolton Orchards. I saw brands of cheeses I haven't seen since my many years living in Britain, gluten-free Italian meats wrapped around thick logs of mozzarella, lots of gf breads & pizzas including some that need to be pre-ordered, Amy's products I can't find anywhere else, mixes that are hard to find, and donut holes. That last one is going to get discussed in another blog post at a later date, because I couldn't prevent myself from buying it. I mean, donut holes. C'mon.

DONUT HOLES

Passing a truly exceptional amount of local artisan food -- some of which I could eat but most of which I couldn't. I really would have liked to try that "authentic Massachusetts pub pizza", jerky, fudge and candies. Frankly, the latter two might have been gluten-free... if only there was a label which told me. This seems to be an issue with artisan food in general, it was prevalent at Bolton Orchards, and I would love to see that corrected. It's worth noting that they even sell Bliss Bros Ice Cream that's made in Attleboro from a window out the back and in the freezer section, which I didn't buy this time but know to have gluten-free flavors from my time living in Norton.

Doubling back to the fruits and vegetables, we were spoilt for choice. So many fresh options grown either right there at Bolton Orchards or sourced from other farms nearby. We took advantage of their "utility vegetables", close to their sell-by dates and ready for use now, to procure some heavily discounted sweet peppers and tomatoes. Liberty then demanded bananas. We couldn't possibly go to an orchard without getting their specialties, and Bill didn't want to get the "utility fruits", so we purchased three varieties of six apples from their 2011 harvest and a small punnet of Candor peaches just picked in their 2012 harvest.

Bill's turkey sandwich.  I ate mine
too fast for a picture.  Again.

We checked out and made our way to the car, which failed to start. This gave us time to feed Liberty a banana and check out the sandwiches. Good thing we did, as they had forgotten the bacon on Bill's sandwich and bacon costs extra. It was very nice of them to replace it with a whole new sandwich even though Bill had eaten half of the first one before I noticed the bacon was missing. The amount of fixings on our sandwiches were incredible. I've never seen a market deli sandwich stuffed so high with both meat and vegetables. The vegetables deserve special mention here, because local and truly fresh vegetables made the internal part of this sandwich one of the best I've ever had.

However, there is a major caveat. Bolton Orchards has no dedicated gluten-free way to toast the frozen locally-made gluten-free bread. Both a normal toaster and a panini press would be major sources of cross-contamination; we had to go for a quick microwave zap instead. This led to both sandwiches completely falling apart shortly after we began eating them. That's a real shame, since this is often the deciding factor in whether to order a gluten-free sandwich from anywhere, and would easily be fixed if they bought a dedicated toaster. I can't see how they'd lose money on these if they invested $20 in better gf sandwiches. I'd even buy them one if they'd pay me back in sandwiches.

Despite this minor negative point, their food is awesome.  Liberty and I tucked into the Gerardo's Italian Bakery pastries shortly after returning home; if how big a toddler can open her mouth to take a bite is any indication, these are fabulous. And they really are. They're small and pricey, but rich and moreish. We then shared an amazing apple, with dinner had very flavorful sweet peppers in a stir-fry, and I just ate a peach that was so good I kind of wanted to have sex with it but settled with slurping its juices off the plate. Why do I buy supermarket produce again?

Our pastries, pre-nosh.

Bolton Orchards has a new regular gluten-free customer. If you live near Route 110 or 117 and want to take a gorgeous drive to a yummy location, or just want a day out in the fresh air of rural central Massachusetts, you must check it out. Open 6-6 every day of the week!