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Four pints of soup in paper cartons
Finger Foods Farm currently sells four varieties of soup: Tuscan bean, butternut squash, broccoli cheddar and Southwest vegetable. Photo courtesy of Finger Foods Farm | Grant Taylor Photography.
Field Note

Finger Foods Farm: Soups made with Upstate NY ingredients now in stores

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  • Center of Excellence in Food and Agriculture
  • Cornell AgriTech
From New Jersey to northern Georgia and now, the Finger Lakes, Sarah and Alex Cookfair’s winding journey in produce farming now includes a new stop: your local supermarket’s frozen food aisle.

The Cookfairs, who began farming together in New Jersey in 2010 before relocating to Georgia and then to the Finger Lakes, where they grow a variety of organic vegetables, including kale, mustard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, and heirloom tomatoes. 

They initially began selling their produce at wholesale markets, but rather than dealing with the uncertainty of markets, they pivoted to creating a brand of their own: Finger Foods Farm. 

“We wanted to do something that would give us more ownership of what we were selling,” Sarah Cookfair said. 

Located in the Ontario County town of West Bloomfield, Finger Foods Farm produces frozen, ready-to-heat soups made with vegetables grown on their own 40-acre farm, where they started farming in 2022, and 10 other farms in the Finger Lakes. 

They initially eyed canned soups, commonplace at most supermarkets, but Cookfair said the quality of the shelf-stable product wasn’t up to their standards. Instead, they looked toward frozen soups, which would better preserve the quality and taste of their homegrown produce.

A man and a woman standing in a field.
Alex and Sarah Cookfair, owners of Finger Foods Farm, standing in the farm where they grow many of the vegetables used for their line of frozen soups. Photo courtesy of Finger Foods Farm.

Growing the business

Finger Foods Farm partnered with Rochester-based Nathan’s Co-Packing, the company that also operates two Nathan’s Soup & Salad restaurants in the Rochester area, to produce the frozen soups. They began working with the New York State Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture (CoE) at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva in 2023. In addition to connecting Finger Foods Farm to the Cornell Food Venture Center (CFVC) for scheduled processes and other food safety validations, the CoE connected Finger Foods Farm with Wegmans.

That connection proved pivotal. Finger Foods Farms soups, available in broccoli cheddar, butternut squash, Southwest vegetable and Tuscan bean, are now available at Wegmans supermarkets across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, as well as more than 50 independent grocery stores in New York City and elsewhere. Their goal, Cookfair said, is to double the number of stores carrying their soups by this summer.

As the demand for their soups increases, so will the need for locally grown vegetables. Sarah Cookfair previously worked in food system development and for a food distribution company in New Jersey and has long been interested in creating a cooperative of produce growers. Finger Foods Farm already works with 10 other local farms to source some of the ingredients for the soups, a number that’s only poised to grow. 

That growth was bolstered by being named a finalist in the 2025 Grow-NY food business competition and winning the $10,000 Wegmans Audience Choice Award. 

A field of kale
Kale growing at Finger Foods Farm. The kale will be used in the Southwest vegetable and Tuscan bean soups. Photo courtesy of Finger Foods Farm.

Unlike the other awards, which are determined by a panel of judges, the audience choice award is voted on by attendees of the two-day summit, held last fall in Canandaigua. That award, Cookfair said, is proof that people are excited by their soups and support their mission to help local farmers. 

“It felt really awesome to see that people are on board with us,” Cookfair said. 

Eventually, Cookfair said, she’d like the business to expand into other frozen and non-frozen foods, all focused on creating new ways for people to enjoy locally grown produce. 

“This is what I really like about this — the building of community amongst farmers,” Cookfair said. 

Jacob Pucci is the marketing and communications coordinator for the New York State Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture at Cornell AgriTech. 

A pint of broccoli cheddar soup
A paper carton of butternut squash soup
A pint of Tuscan bean soup
A pint of Southwest vegetable soup

Finger Foods Farm's broccoli cheddar soup.

Finger Foods Farm's butternut squash soup.

Finger Foods Farm's Tuscan bean soup.

Finger Foods Farm's Southwest vegetable soup.

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