L. I. Growers Market comes to Hewlett

Farm-fresh produce and other products, along with kosher items, are coming to Hewlett: The Long Island Growers Market, a nonprofit association of a dozen farmers’ markets, will open in Nassau County’s Grant Park starting this Friday.

The market, which will feature at least 17 vendors — and, for the first time at such a market on Long Island, kosher vendors — will be open on Fridays until Nov. 18 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The idea of bringing the market to Hewlett originated with the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Schools Endowment Fund. And it will also include an educational component, with booths manned by the Cornell Cooperative Extension, a nonprofit group that provides research-generated science and educational programs; the Center for Science Learning at Tanglewood Preserve in Rockville Centre; and the Hewlett High School Youth Forum, which will offer programs focusing on nutrition and food preparation, gardening, recycling and emergency preparedness.

“Our idea is to use it as a community-building program,” said Endowment Fund board member John Roblin, comparing his nearly 4-year-old school board affilated fundraising organization, which is supported by local businesses and made up of parents, teachers and residents, to a venture capital firm that helps a new company get started. “We look to fill in the gaps where we can to provide sustainable educational opportunities.” Roblin noted the recent fiscal hardships school districts such as Hewlett-Woodmere have endured due to budget constraints.

Ethel Terry, of Fred Terry Farms in Orient Point, said that her family farm began selling its produce retail and founded the Growers Market in 1991 in Islip. The 130-acre Terry Farms, which grows 60 varieties of vegetables and has three fruit orchards, is one of the oldest family farms in the state.

“We would pay a broker for 12 heads of cabbage and make maybe $2 on a whole carton,” Terry said. “Now, selling retail, we make $2 per head.”

The Growers Market charges its members a nominal fee for insurance and securing contracts to sell their merchandise, Terry explained, adding that Terry Farms supplies produce to seven of the group’s 12 markets.

“Absolutely fantastic,” she said of the feedback from customers. “Folks love fresh local produce, and it’s keeping farmers alive.”

But Joseph Gelb, president of the Hewlett Business Association, isn’t happy about the market infringing on his merchants. “Yes, I am upset,” Gelb said, “but I will speak to the school district.”

John Richards, a manager at Town Gourmet, which sells fruits and vegetables in Hewlett, said he was not pleased to learn about the grower’s market coming to the community. “It’s not good for us, with the economy down and people looking to get the best thing for their dollars,” said Richards, who added that summer is when his store makes its money. “With more competition, it’s something I will have to go over with my boss — the prices and the quality of our products.”

Mitch Rakita, owner of the Cheese Store in Cedarhurst, said that if he were in Hewlett, he wouldn’t be happy about the grower’s market. As a shopper, however, Rakita acknowledged, he likes farmers’ markets, believing that shopping locally is better for the economy, and patronizes one near his home in Suffolk County. “I believe in shopping locally when I buy fresh fruit,” he said, “and if all of it’s local, from Long Island, I have no problem with it.”

Asked about coming into a community where merchants who sell similar products may be upset about the market, Terry said, “We’re trying to reach out to local restaurants to provide menus, and also have some local merchants who fit the criteria to become vendors.” Those criteria include making their products in a commercial kitchen, growing everything they sell on Long Island and being insured.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the market, which will include local officials and a performance by the Woodmere Middle School Jazz Band, is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Friday.