Valley Stream farmer's market returns July 9

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After a delay from uncertainty over the coronavirus pandemic, the Valley Stream farmer’s market will be returning to the Hendrickson Park pool parking lot on July 9, and will continue every Thursday from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The market’s sponsors, Long Island Growers Market LLC, announced the news on Wednesday, July 1, and said many of the vendors from the previous year’s market will be returning, including Fred Terry and Son Farms, Conklin’s Farms, Sal and Jerry’s stuffed breads and many more.

Growers Market was founded more than 30 years ago by Ethel Terry, the owner of the Orient Point-based Fred Terry and Son Farms. At the time, she said, the farm was struggling to survive, and to save it she knew she would have to sell her produce first-hand. In 1989, her first farmer’s market opened in Islip.

Valley Stream’s was the newest of Terry’s markets, first opening last June. She had been invited after village Assistant Recreation Superintendent Mike Pellegrino discovered the organization upon inquiring with Rockville Centre village officials, whose own Growers Market had proved popular. The Rockville Centre market opened this year on June 7.

All of products sold at the markets must be made, caught or grown by the vendor, according to Terry’s policy. She also verifies that the vendors are licensed, and makes each show her their invoices to prove that they make their own products. “She has pretty strict standards,” Pellegrino said.

The market also accepts Women, Infants and Children Program and Nutrition Program for Seniors coupons for those on food assistance.

The village asks that shoppers wear facemasks.