Taking a Piece of New Hampshire Home with You

Oct 21, 2021

When guests come to the Bridges Inn at Whitcomb House, they don’t just experience our bountiful breakfasts and warm hospitality, they also get a taste of New Hampshire. We use many locally made products in our breakfasts and throughout the inn. We also sell many products in our small gift shop, allowing guests to take remembrances home with them.

Gift shop cabinet at the inn with mugs, maple syrup, books, soap, and many more locally made products
Our gift shop / showcase is visible at the entrance of the inn

We’ll start with the food products. We have been getting preserves, elderberry syrup, and mustard from a local organic farm, Cheshire Garden in Winchester, NH, for many years. Their products are delicious, made of fresh ingredients, and not too sweet. Our guests love the fruit preserves – peach, Damson plum, and many varieties of berries.

Shown are some of Cheshire Garden’s tasty preserves
We serve local maple syrup at breakfast-time with pancakes or waffles. We also sell local maple syrup, some of which might come from our own maple trees. We have two major sources of maple syrup, one of which is the Slate Bridge Sugar House, located here in Swanzey, who taps our maple trees each spring. Our other source of maple syrup is Crescendo Acres Farm in nearby Surry, NH.
Plenty of maple syrup plus gluten-free granola
Speaking of maple, a local company, Maple Nut Kitchen, just down the street from us, makes many flavors of tasty gluten-free, vegan granola, which we offer to our guests, particularly to those with dietary restrictions. The granola includes a variety of ingredients such as dried fruit, nuts, lavender, and toasted oats.
Recently we began stocking our guest bathrooms with Sunflower Herbal Soap, locally made in small batches in Surry, NH. Scents include golden ginger oat, lemongrass, lavender, herb garden, sweet mint, and orange cinnamon. Our guests enjoyed the soap in the bathrooms so much that we decided to offer it for sale in our gift shop in both small and large bars.
 
Sunflower Herbal Soap in many scents and two sizes
And we love Badger natural body care products, which “blend organic plant extracts, exotic oils, beeswax, and minerals to make the safest, most effective products possible to soothe, heal and protect.” Our gift shop carries Badger products such as lip balm, headache soother, foot balm, hand balm, anti-bug balm, and sunscreen.
Some of the Badger products we carry

We also have mugs, which are a favorite remembrance of a stay at the Bridges Inn. One series of mugs features the covered bridges of Swanzey, two bridges per mug. The other series features the Bridges Inn with photos of the inn at various seasons and other shots inside and outside the inn.

 

Many patterns of Bridges Inn mugs (shown, 11 oz.)

We have ornaments, one of which is a  3-D covered bridge with “Bridges Inn” etched on one edge of the roof and “Swanzey, NH” etched on the other edge of the roof. We also carry the New Hampshire series of Country Christmas Eggs ornaments.

 
We also have alpaca finger puppets from Crescendo Acres Farm. These adorable animal puppets are particularly popular for guests to buy for their children or grandchildren, but to be honest, they appeal to people of all ages — they’re so darn cute!

 

Adorable finger puppets for people of all ages

Plus, we have magnets, note cards, books, and other mementos of your New Hampshire visit. If you can’t make it to Swanzey but see something that you want, contact us ([email protected]) because we can ship it to you,