(Not So) General Stores: Newfields General Store
Take a journey throughout the Granite State, and visit Newfields General Store and seven other of New Hampshire's unique General Stores
What makes a general store more than a place to buy pantry items and run into the neighbor down the street? It’s a family-centric quality; it’s an “everyone is welcome here, browse-at-will” vibe; it offers feelings of warm nostalgia while placing a strong emphasis on serving the local community. We feature eight stores on the following pages that celebrate that feeling of community and nostalgia in just the right amounts.
Read more about some of NH’s (not so) general stores:
Harrisville Country Store- Harrisville
Ira Miller’s General Store – Milton Mills
Calef’s Country Store – Barrington
Zeb’s General Store – North Conway
Old Country Store and Museum – Moultonborough
Mont Vernon General Store – Mont Vernon
From legendary scones to local gifts and to the hands that prepare and curate them, family is baked into everything at the Newfields Country Store.
Owner Kam Jamison knows about the joy and connection that the store holds through personal experience — she worked at the store for two years before buying it and taking up ownership almost 10 years ago.
“Newfields Country Store opened in 1884 and stayed in the same family until it was sold in the 1980s,” Jamison says. “There were five country stores in Newfields when it first opened, but it was the only one that stood the test of time. Once you come in, you don’t want to leave.”
The store was first run as a little country store complete with bikes, screwdrivers, hammers and other more miscellaneous things, but it now leans into the true “country store” aspect of homemade food and locally sourced items.
“We make all of our food on site and in our bakery out back,” Jamison says. “We do everything from homemade bread to muffins, soup and sandwiches.”
Fan-favorite menu items include the chicken bacon ranch club, homemade chicken salad and the gobbler with warm turkey, homemade stuffing, mayo and house-made cranberry sauce. They even have plenty of options for those who are vegetarian or gluten-free. Enjoy your food on the go or sit at one of the few in-store tables and shop from local syrup, pickles, jams or candles while you wait.
Jamison recommends also grabbing a maple cream or ginger ale Squamscot Old Fashioned Beverage from the cooler that was made just steps down the road at Squamscot’s factory (that’s older than the store!).
Local teachers, construction workers, regulars, neighbors and far-off travelers frequent the store year-round, but it’s the holiday season that draws many in for their famous holiday pies during Thanksgiving
or Christmas.
“We love decking the store out in its Christmas best every year — who can’t resist cozy food amidst the twinkly lights and garland, especially our pies,” Jamison says. “We do homemade apple, pecan, pumpkin, mixed berry and everyone’s favorite, chocolate cream. We also add in a few surprises every year, like a key lime tart or cherry crumb. Pre-order them because they go fast!”
Making goods like these with her hands naturally slows Jamison down, a pace that she and everyone craves in this urgent world. 
“We could all stand to get our hands dirty a little more, and by doing that, you naturally have more space to connect with those around you,” she says. “That’s why country stores like ours are so important to our communities — they invite you to step into simpler times where you can share face-to-face stories over a comfort meal, and fill up your stomach and your heart before going back out and doing the same for others.”
The store is like a revolving door of homegrown love that comes back through everyone who steps in, including those who grew up with it as a staple in their day-to-day lives. “I have staffers who started working here when they were 12 or 13 and now, they’re graduating from college,” Jamison says. “They feel like it’s ‘their’ store and talk about it in the terms of ‘we’ or ‘ours.’ We really are a family here, and anyone who comes by is part of it too.”
66 Main St., Newfields, Facebook
