1. Fish Family Farm
City: Bolton, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (860) 646-9745
Address: 06043
Description: This 211-acre dairy farm in Bolton has its own bottling plant for milk, which you can buy in their store at the farm. Munson’s also uses their milk for its wonderful chocolate. However, you are probably more interested in the ice cream here, sold year-round by the quart in their freezer: vanilla, maple walnut, coffee, peanut butter, cherry vanilla, chocolate chip, and more. During the summertime you can get this ice cream on a cone, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day but Sun, which is why this farm made it from specialty food into the restaurant section of the guide. This is some of the absolute freshest ice cream you’ll find, made from Jersey milk that you can watch being pumped out every day at 3:30 p.m.
2. Munson’S Chocolates
City: Bolton, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (860) 649-4332
Address: 174 Hop River Rd. (Route 6)
Insider Pick:
Description: Begun in 1946 in Manchester as the Dandy Candy Company, Munson’s is now a huge business with chocolates spinning around the earth on the international space station. By far the largest retail chocolate manufacturer in Connecticut, it is still a family business run by the second and third generations. They have 10 stores throughout the state, with the original here in Bolton. You will find chocolate truffles, nut bark, and cordial cherries here, as well as more snackable candy bars, fudge, peanut brittle, chocolate-covered pretzels, and turtles. The store is open every day, and if you want great Connecticut-made chocolate, get it here.
3. Hop River State Park Trail
City: Bolton, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (860) 295-9523
Description: The Hop River State Park Trail that begins on Colonial Drive in Manchester and ends in Windham is one of Connecticut’s many rail trails, and part of the proposed East Coast Greenway. It is 19 miles long and runs along a former railroad line to just west of the town of Willimantic (Windham County), where it will eventually be linked to the Air Line Trail (if you’re riding the whole way today, you can just take the road east and you’ll hit the Air Line in downtown Willimantic). The other side will eventually connect to the Charter Oak Greenway in Manchester and Hartford. The trail is not paved the entire way, with gravel and dirt sections, and two short detours around two downed bridges. All in all, it makes for an exciting day out on your mountain bike (avoid trying a street bike on it) or for a very long walk (you can just take small sections at a time). In the winter, because it is dead flat, you will love to cross-country ski here. At any time of year, you might come across someone riding a horse, especially in the eastern section.