Nature’s Green Grocer

Purchased a fresh «all natural» Vermont turkey from this place for Thanksgiving. Paid $ 4.00 a pound for a 15 plus pound bird. Yea that’s right $ 62.00 total! I have cooked over 40 turkeys in my lifetime and this was the worst bird I ever had. Tough as all get out. One could not even eat the dark meat it was so tough and full of grizzle and tendon. Meat was dry. I knew something was wrong right from the get go as the bird was producing very little drippings after a couple hours in the oven. Do yourself a favor as far as turkeys are concerned… do not buy your turkey from this place but instead pay less than half the price and go to the grocery store and get yourself a Shady Brook Farms all natural fresh turkey.

I was excited this little market was in the building I was staying in but I thought it was just okay. I was really hoping for a true local market experience with more farm fresh fruits and veggies and meats but it was mostly «health food» packaged goods and the fresh items were lacking.
I also had a sandwich and some soup at the café one lunch. I found the sandwich and the soup to both be a bit bland and not terribly interesting despite looking like things I would love from the menu.
My fabulous boyfriend grabbed me a coffee from here one morning, though, since we didn’t have any in our loft and I was aching, and that coffee was perfectly brewed, so there’s that.
Also, if it’s a nice day they have tables out back along the river, which is lovely.
There is free wifi, which doesn’t work very well and which wound up being more frustrating than useful. I wound up making my own hot spot the few times I needed some wifi.

When this place first opened, I was hoping the plan was to offer local produce, breads, cheese, meat, etc. Unfortunately, it’s melded into a small Whole Foods which I find to be fake organic. I don’t understand why a market like this would sell products I can find in the organic isle at Shaws, when they could be sourcing their products from local farms. I also find the staff to be cold. It doesn’t feel like a local market/​café that is part of the community.

Such a great find! My friend and I were traveling through the area and decided to stop for a bite to eat. We enjoyed a hearty nourishing lunch in the café and picked up some wonderful goodies from the market! Could have easily spent all afternoon there dining and shopping. A wonderful selection of locally made and organic products which I’m a big fan of! Highly recommend and will be back!

Contrary to other reviews I didn’t think they staff was rude at all and I came in at 1030
AM on a Saturday and there was no line but given how there is only one register I could see that there would be a line depending on when you go. Not the greatest selection, more of a sandwich/​wrap/​deli/​produce with some groceries and a lot of body and hygiene products. There is a whole foods coming to Nashua hopefully soon but there is literally nothing like this for an hour in any direction so the benefits of this location where it is are vast and worth the wait (s).

I live about four miles from NGG. In general I must say it is pretty much as advertised in terms of organic, natural foods with commensurate pricing, but I am accustomed to this, so that’s not a biggie. Don’t buy your paper towels there, though, I don’t care if they are recycled or not. NGG stands out for this one Peterborough symptom: the biggest bottleneck in town is at the cash register where orders for food to eat either on or to go are taken. First they need to enter a name for the order, the selections for, say bread are numerous and do you want that hot or cold, cash or credit, and so on. Seasons change for people waiting in line to place an order. The good part is once the order is placed, it’s delivered pretty quick. Like I say, bottleneck, everything before and after the cash register experience is worth it. If you go during lunch hour, allot time for the process.

GG café always gets it right. Whenever I’m in the area with friends, I make it a point to plan a lunch stop. I’ve turned many friends onto GG. As urban dwellers we can draw comparisons to comparable shopping resources such as Trader Joe’s and Wholefoods. GG ranks right up there with TJ and WF. I was very surprised to see a couple of reviews giving GG one star. Seeing these ‘reviewers’ are not regular Unilocalers (one has just this one review?!?), and given the common thread of the content focusing on staffing/​management issues, the feedback seems suspect and disinngenuous at best. My experiences at GG has always been positive and pleasant experiences. If you haven’t enjoyed a bite at the outdoor café, do yourself a favor and enjoy a pleasant interlude this fall. I recommend any one of their amazing soups. And again, heeding the demands of my sweet tooth, desserts are a nice way to finish, and always delish!

Yaaaayyy! I was so happy to see this little gem while visiting my little hometown. They have lots to offer and everything seems very fresh! I wish I had saved myself so I could have tried one of their sandwiches while I was there, but I didn’t know they offered that. The inside is really clean and inviting and seems very orderly. The employees seemed nice, if you talked to them first but they were not overly friendly and definitely did not approach me first. It’s ok… I was there to check out what they were selling not to talk I suppose ;)

This place is an excellent choice for a fresh, delicious lunch made with local and homemade ingredients. The only disadvantage is that it is a bit overly priced, especially since sandwiches and salads are not served with anything on the side like fruit or chips of any kind and are scant on the quantity of ingredients placed in a sandwich or salad.
Otherwise, the food was excellent here. We actually decided to eat lunch here twice, the first time we sat in the café area of the market and the second time we ordered sandwiches to go.
The Black Forest ham sandwich was delicious. I chose to have it on seeded wheat bread and pressed in a panini maker to warm it up. It also had apples, roasted red onion, and spinach. Others ordered the black bean burger on olive rosemary bread, which was quite good, and the chicken sandwich.
The second time, I got the goat cheese roasted veggie wrap but on seeded wheat bread and warmed. This was very good except that the goat cheese was spread very poorly, there were instead 2 big globs on the sandwich. The roasted veggies were not what I expected, they were thinly sliced sweet potatoes, white potatoes, some squash/​zucchini, and red onion.
Others ordered the curried tuna sandwich which was tasty and the kale salad which was delicious and not too oily.
I do have to say the service was fairly slow here and they messed up our to-​go order and served it on plates at first. The people are very friendly though for the most part. I also had their homemade gelato the first time which tasted very fresh and homemade but not like real authentic gelato. The texture was a bit weird. I had roasted plum, which was pleasantly not too sweet and very fresh tasting.

Be prepared to deal with long waits and rude staff. I can generally chalk up one bad experience to someone having a bad day but after many rude interactions it seems to be the norm. The owners must have very little respect for their customers to allow this behavior to continue, staff seems to turn over fairly regularly but the attitude remains consistent.
I was compelled to write this review after having had witnessed a manager berate his staff while still on the sales floor in front of customers. Following this, I was then insulted by the cashier. I was left speechless, in a small town like Peterborough it doesn’t seem that customers should have to put up with rude behavior and insults just to buy a bag of pricey groceries. There are many other places in town to take my business and I recommend you do as well.

EDIT: After a few less than pleasant experiences here I’ve decided to edit my review. If I’m laying down between $ 40-​$ 70 for ONE bag of groceries once/​week or once every two weeks, I really expect the cashier to be pleasant. Half of the time you get someone who just grunts at you, rarely are they friendly & the rest of the time they’re just polite. I could care less how much money they make or what their boss treats them like. Without customers willing to shell out their hard-​earned money here, easily $ 50 for one bag of groceries, these folks would be out of a job. So they really should be nice. If you’re looking for something, & it looks like you are, & someone who works there passes you, they just walk on by. NEVER has anything ever asked «can I help you find something?» Not once. I always have to track someone down. And they never show you, they just point in the general direction. God forbid they move their feet! Honestly if Maggie’s has carts with a kids seat, I’d stop coming here all together & go back to Maggie’s!
Until recently I shopped at Coll’s & Maggie’s. Living in Jaffrey, if Coll’s doesn’t have something, Maggie’s usually does, & Maggie’s is a lot closer than Nature’s Green Grocer. (Coll’s is in the process of trying to be sold, & their inventory is pathetic now — they never carry anything I want)
They have a huge selection of shelf-​stable organics, gluten-​free products, like cereal, jam, crackers, chips, bagged or boxes rice, grains, mixes, etc, although I don’t buy much of these ever, even at super markets, so I probably won’t get them here. (Actually Ocean State Job Lot has the best selection of Bob’s Red Mill I’ve ever seen & no doubt it’s cheaper there than at Nature’s Green Grocer, and OSJL is a more convenient location too.)
All of their produce is organic & I know when it’s in season they source it locally which I appreciate. They almost never have prices on anything though, which is annoying! Only ONCE have I seen a price on the produce in the refrigerated area.
They also have a decent selection of breads from local bakeries.
Their bulk herb section blows Coll’s out of the water & they may even have more than Maggie’s, although if they do it’s not by much. Also a great selection of bulk teas.
Their bulk grain, rice, coffee, flour, dried bean, dried pea, sweets & treats, etc section is insane. It, again, blows Coll’s out of the water although I don’t believe they have more than Maggie’s, just a few different things. Maggie’s definitely has a better selection of rice, dried seeds, & chocolate-​covered things. One thing I really appreciate that they carry here are vegan carob chips. I haven’t seen those any where yet. Although they do seem to have a better selection of bulk nuts here than Maggie’s.
They do freshly ground peanut butter here although only 3 kinds, & they’re more expensive than Coll’s — Coll’s has 6 or 7 varieties as opposed to 3. (edit note: Coll’s inventory has dwindled, doubt they have any now)
They have olive oil in bulk, 4 varieties.
I didn’t see honey in bulk, which Coll’s has, although I may have just missed it.
They have organic deli meat, cheese, salmon & scallops, grain-​fed beef (steak, tips, ground beef, etc) & chicken, organic bacon, etc.
Haven’t tried the café yet.
They had tons of Seventh Generation products & other biodegradable cleaners like Biokleen, etc.
They have a wonderful selection of supplements & homeopathic remedies. Coll’s doesn’t really do much of that but they definitely have as much as Maggie’s. I LOVE that they have Badger products — theirs is the only sun screen I will buy so when we need some, I now know I can get it here which is wonderful. They sell the brand «Butter» nail polish which, if you look it up on CosmeticsDatabase dot org you’ll see there’s nothing in it that will give you cancer. I wish they sold hot water bottles though! I need one!
Decent selection of cheeses. Organic, local, lots of pricey varieties, goat milk cheese & cow cheese too. Organic Valley & then smaller local brands. They have local milk (including raw) & dairy-​free milks, a good selection. Organic vegan GF frozen cookie dough (!!!) made in NH. Organic and/​or vegan frozen ice cream treats.
They have a rewards card & you earn something like 3 or 4% back which you can turn around & spend there for groceries or in the café.

I shop here on a regular basis for fish, meat, cheese, bread, pasta, chocolate, and produce. Everything is fresh, mostly local or regional, beautifully displayed, and clean. Sometimes the prices might be higher than the big box stores, but I am happy to support this fine local business. I also love their café, where you can get a hearty and healthy lunch of soups, sandwiches, and tempting desserts in a mix of traditional and new-​agey flavors. In nice weather, their location on the river is a big plus, enabling terrace dining. A fine addition to the Peterborough culinary scene.

Wonderful organic, whole food grocer and deli!
My boyfriend and I are now regulars. We recently just moved back to New Hampshire and though this place is a lil far from us, we still find time to go every weekend. We were mighty surprised and ecstatic when we found this little gem!
Decent fresh vegetable variety, mouth watering deli selections, juice bar, coffee and teas. It’s like a Whole Foods and Trader Joes put together but way better setup and ambience. The interior has a rustic country comfort but has more than just the staples. Anyone with gluten, soy or dairy allergies needs to come here. Vegans and vegetarians will dig this place as well. And for the rest… they have incredible savory and meaty sandwiches that are healthy as well as delectable.
Great location next to the river and has plenty indoor and outdoor seating. Clean bathrooms too! Ask about to join their reward card
When you’re done… head to the lake for some light trekking or go to Piggy’s Consignment shop (across the street) and browse their goods either way it’ll be a perfect day out.

Thank you organic culinary guardian angels!!! Finally a source for organic, fresh produce of extremely high quality in Peterborough!
Nature’s Green Grocer is located in a wonderful old mill on the edge of town right by the river. Its wide open spaces and original wood floors in the interior create an interesting space for shopping and dining.
No doubt about it, this is where you will find goods comparable to Whole Foods. There is a huge new vitamin section and natural home products section. Imported pastas offered beside farmstead cheeses from local NH farmers. Crazy named natural sodas like Lavender and Rhubarb. Safe, organic, antibiotic and hormone free meat. Fresh not-​farm-​raised fish. Safe baby food. Artisanal breads from local NH bakers.
In the small café all the desserts are fresh and organic. I love the fresh fruit smoothies, salads, sandwiches. In fact, I like them so much I have lunch here at least once a week if not twice. And the soups? Wow. Try the Senagalese Chicken, which is my favorite.
On my way out I usually try all the free samples (!), and check out the organic ice cream selections for one to take on the road.