The New Hyde Park Farmer’s Market opened for business last Saturday morning in a parking lot on Jericho Turnpike across from Village Hall with an array of organic fruit and vegetable stands and baked goods and other prepared foods.
Operated by G&G Long Island Farmers Market, the market will be open each Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. through Nov. 23.
The two sisters who run G&G, Jaime Greci and Lona Graepel, have a license agreement for the space with the village board.
Graepel said the central Long Island location on a main thoroughfare prompted their interest in starting the market in New Hyde Park. And Greci and her husband have lived in the village for the past 10 years.
“There’s not another farmers market in the area on the weekend,” Graepel said. “Everybody’s interested in eating healthy and finding good food.”
There were more than a dozen vendors at the market, which drew a modest crowd on Saturday morning.
Graepel said G&G is hoping to build the market up to 20 vendors as the season progresses. She said the partners are expecting to draw customers from New Hyde Park, Garden City Park, Floral Park and Lake Success.
“As time goes by, more vendors will find us,” Greci said.
Several prospective vendors inquired about setting up stalls last Saturday morning, Greci said.
The sisters said they’re also hoping to draw customers who have patronized the winter farmers market they’ve run in Huntington for the past three years. Graepel said they’re also running farmers markets in Babylon and Wantaugh for the first time this year.
“We have a following. People come from all over Long Island to some and see us,” Graepel said.
The current lineup of vendors included three Long Island farms – Half Hollow Farms from Mattituck; D&F Organic Farm; Goodale Farms, specializing in cheeses, from Aquabogue; and The Orchards of Conklin from Rockland County. The sisters said Cosmos Greenhouses will also be selling its produce in the near future.
“As it goes on, there will be a selection of seasonal vegetables,” Graepel said.
Greci and Graepel said they were encouraged to get into the winter market business by their brother, Thomas Williams, who operates the All You Need Bakery in Beacon, where he has also run a winter farmers for the past several years.
Other vendors at the Saturday market included Manhattan-based Orwasher’s Bakery, Polka Dot Poundcake Bakery from Rockville Centre, vegan bakery Sweet to lick, Brooklyn-based Monty Breads, Bambino’s Raviolli Fresh Pasta Co. from Bayshore, Imperial Empanadas and Scone Heads. An organic coffee vendor is expected to join the lineup this week.
The farmers market stall occupied more than half of the space in the parking lot, so some parking was available in the lot for shoppers.
