Walking into the Sheepscot General Store is a little like walking into, well, let's just say it's not like walking into a Hannaford supermarket. Or any other market around for that matter.

Taryn Marcus, who owns the country store with her husband, Ben, was behind the counter on a recent Saturday greeting her customers with a big smile and some friendly banter. It feels like old home week there. Many of the people stopping by for some bread, milk, fresh produce and locally made items are familiar faces to the owners.

When they bought the store in 2011, the community rallied behind the young couple.

“It had already been a store, so it wasn't an entirely new concept to the locals. They wanted it back, so they came out and helped us get started,” Taryn said. Now many in the community are regular customers.

Ben Marcus grew up just down the road from the store. He met Taryn while studying agriculture in Washington state. After graduating, they headed back to Maine. “We came back here to start a farm,” Taryn said. “We kept driving by this place. It was going up in weeds at the time, and we were thinking it was some of the best land in town.”

The land had been owned by a local farmer before being sold to an out-of-state man in 2009. There was a store on the property that had been run by the farmer's daughter. They approached the new owner and asked if they could lease a couple of acres. “We wanted to grow some crops and see what we could do with the land,” Taryn said. “He said only if we agreed to open the store.”

At first the idea of starting a business was a little overwhelming for the couple. “We were in our early 20s and didn't have much money,” Taryn said. “But what did we have to lose?”

The interior of the store needed some sprucing up, so they started by cleaning it out. Then they went to garage sales and started turning inventory over. “We spent all our money just to fill two rows of shelves with whatever we could get,” Taryn said. “We picked up where the farmer's daughter left off.”

Sitting on the land of their working farm in Whitefield, the store has pretty much anything you might need if you get lost on the winding, hilly roads leading to it. There's plenty of fresh, locally grown, organic produce, pure maple syrup from their own trees, meats, baked goods, local crafts, pottery and soaps. And there’s raw milk and yogurt and cheese from the three creameries in Whitefield.

There’s a full-time cook and a full-time baker at the store. All the breads, including white, wheat and sourdough are made fresh daily. “Everybody has a hand in it,” Taryn said. “We've worked out a system so that nobody has to get up in the middle of the night to make bread.”

Ben is part Jewish (Long Island) and part French Canadian. “So our menu is sort of half and half,” Taryn said. But don't go there looking for any Canadian poutine (french fries topped with cheese curds and a light brown gravy.) There are no fried foods. “Our focus in on natural foods,” Taryn said.

Two ethnic items you will find at the restaurant counter in the store are a corned beef Reuben and pâté chinois or shepherd’s pie, which Taryn said is Maine French Canadian.

The corned beef is made in-house and the chicken comes from close friends. “We don't make the cheese or the mayo,” Taryn said. “But pretty much everything else is made fresh.”

You can get breakfast and lunch to go, or dine at one of the tables in the dining area. Breakfasts include homemade bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon, a breakfast panini sandwich and the Sheepscot Breakfast: Two eggs, bacon and scalloped potatoes.

For lunch there are sandwiches like the Reuben, corned beef, chicken with pesto mayo and cranberry sauce and a “great grilled cheese.”

And there are plenty of sweets to follow up the savories, with different baked goods being made every morning. You'll find scones, danishes, macaroons, brownies and chocolate chip cookies “almost as big as your face,” sprinkled with flaky sea salt. the store’s website states.

Most of the produce used in the kitchen is from the couple's organic farm. You can also find herbs and spices, and real salt — unrefined and full of natural minerals and flavor. 

In 2014, MPBN featured a short film about the store called Growing Local with a series of three vignettes about the Marcuses and other local farmers.

The store is open six days, closed Mondays. It is located at 98 Townhouse Road in Whitefield. Call 207-549-5185

Visit the store’s Facebook page for more.