TOUR: Idylwilde Farms - Acton, MA

Idylwilde Farms

Opened: 1985 in present location

Owner: Tom, David, and Richard Napoli

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: none

Location: 366 Central St, Acton, MA

Photographed: May 13, 2023

I can already hear you grumbling. Not another farm market! But trust me, you're going to want to tour Idylwilde Farms. The 17,000 square foot store is indeed a farm market, but it's also an extensive gourmet supermarket that more than warrants a visit. (Remember Bolton Orchards? It's a similar setup, with a lot of produce and specialty items, although Idylwilde is both larger and more upscale.) Although the farm and original door-to-door produce business originates as far back as 1898, today's grocery store was only built in 1985.

We're in the western part of Acton here, where the area starts to feel less like Boston suburbs and more like, well, farmland. Incidentally, we've seen stores in the northeastern part of Acton, and now we're in the northwestern area. We'll also see stores in southern Acton.

The store still feels like an old-fashioned farm market, but is in fact a very extensive modern supermarket. Let's step inside!

We enter to the middle of the barn building and turn left to enter the first produce aisle. (Also note that many of the produce shelves also have grocery shelving above and/or below them.) Produce, wine, meat/seafood, deli/bakery, and dairy/frozen are on the left side of the store with grocery, garden items, and the checkouts on the right side.

The focus is on specialty and gourmet items. I don't remember seeing a storebrand here, and I don't believe this store is a member of a cooperative, but I could be wrong.

The interior design is spectacular. It feels simultaneously upscale and rustic without feeling tacky.

The fresh and specialty departments are the focus here, such as this massive island with an enormous selection of cheese and wine on the far left side of the store.

An in-store bakery is on the far left side, too, along with the deli.

Looking out to the middle of the store, which is mostly taken up by produce, the centerpiece of the store.

Deli, prepared foods, and meats are in the back-left corner. I don't recall seeing service seafood here.

Here's a look across the back wall, and we can see that the building is much wider than it is deep. Therefore, all the aisles are oriented sideways across the building, with the registers lining the right side of the front wall of the building.

Out on this side is also the packaged grocery items.

The registers are here on the front wall, with flowers and the garden center on the right side of the building.

One more thing! If you're still hungry to see more of Idylwilde Farms, there's a full interactive tour from 2018 posted to Google Maps, which you can view here. This is a fun store and definitely worth a stop when you're in the area -- but it's definitely a specialty market, and not exactly a place for regular food shopping. Still, an exceptional store. Tomorrow we're off to the commercial center of Acton to check out a supermarket there!