A Bit of East End In Western Suffolk

Ryan Teague Beckwith. STAFF WRITER Newsday – 6/13/02

Louis Leon likes to stop by the roadside stands near his home in Ridge and pick up fresh flowers and locally grown corn.
But yesterday, the 34-year-old didn't have to go far from his job as a mechanic at the H. Lee Dennison building in Hauppauge. The Long Island Growers Market opened a new location with six vendors in the northeast corner of the parking lot there.

“It's a little taste of the East End for western Suffolk,” said Leon, holding a bag of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies just purchased from one of the vendors, Kitchen Gourmet, owned by Christina Reichardt.

The farmers’ market at Hauppauge will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Wednesday until Thanksgiving. Vendors range from Eve Kaplan, who has run a 2-acre farm in Riverhead with her boyfriend for the past year, to Fred and Ethel Terry, who farm on 200 acres in Orient, in a family business that stretches back centuries. Golden Earthworm, a certified organic farm in Jamesport run by Matthew Kuszynski, and Miss Amy’s Preserves, a 4-year-old business that sells 17 different preserves, also have booths at the market.

Ethel Terry, who is also coordinator of the Long Island Growers Market, said the idea of coming to Hauppauge originated in the Suffolk County Health Department. Under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, pregnant women and low-income mothers of children under the age of 5 can receive a $24 yearly voucher to spend on locally grown produce.

Low-income adults over the age of 60 are also eligible for vouchers worth $10 a year if they are on the USDA's Food and Nutrition program run by Catholic Charities in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

But while most farmers are in the East End, the majority of the county's elderly population and the 13,100 families on the WIC program in Suffolk County live farther west. The Long Island Growers Market has eight other locations in Islip, Lynbrook, Locust Valley, Huntington, Hempstead, Riverhead, Port Jefferson and Patchogue.

The Dennison Building, just off the Veterans Memorial Highway, is on a major bus route and convenient for those using public transportation, Terry said. She worked with Suffolk County Legislator Michael Caracciolo (R-Baiting Hollow) to pass a resolution allowing the Growers Market to lease the area in the parking lot for $250 a day.

Lynette Terranova was skeptical when she arrived just before 8 a.m. to set up her booth. For the past year, the 50-year-old day- care worker has been selling baked goods like her popular black olive bread through the Growers Market and other roadside stands. Tuesday morning, she didn't even bother to brew any coffee to sell along with the bread.

Then, just after 8:30, the Dennison Building held a fire-alarm drill. As many of the building's 550 employees filtered into the parking lot, about two dozen walked over to check out the farmers’ market. Several bought right then. Others said they would be back at lunch.

“It was like serendipity,” said Terranova, beaming. “It looks like this one is a keeper.”