By Carrie James
The farmstand, at Merrick Avenue and Luddington Road, will close its doors Friday after providing area residents with bushels full of organic fruits, vegetables and herbs for 30 years.
"It started in 1971," said JoAnne DeRiso-Hamlin, owner. "My dad started it for my grandfather. He did it so my grandfather wouldn't be bored. He was a retired farmer."
Even in the beginning, the farmstand fared well in the mid-Nassau County community, drawing people from near and far who wanted organic foods at fair prices.
DeRiso-Hamlin, her family and farmstand staff grew and handled all of the business' operations, including growing most of the merchandise. It was this homegrown, locally sold produce that helped the business prosper.
"We grow it," DeRiso-Hamlin said, pointing to the piece of land behind the store where many of the vegetables and herbs were grown. "We start it right from seedlings and grow it, pick it and sell it here at the farmstand."
In the past five years, business has grown significantly, DeRiso-Hamlin said, attributing her success to her dedicated customers and word of mouth.
"I've been coming here for many years," said Sandy Bonadonna of Baldwin. "I don't know where I'm going to go after it closes. This place is like a little general store. This is as country as you could get here. I come here once a week. She'll be very missed."
Bonadonna, like hundreds of DeRiso-Hamlin's customers, has begged her not to close. As many as 50 times a day, DeRiso-Hamlin said she gets customers asking her not to close, but after 30 years, she knows it's time to move on.
"You know when it's time," she said. "Nobody wants to see it close."
It wasn't possible to find someone else to run the store and keep it open either, DeRiso-Hamlin said, because running the place, from farming to selling, took so much time and effort.
Especially at the height of the growing season, DeRiso-Hamlin said, they could put in 15 to 18 hours a day into picking, stocking, selling and maintaining the crops.
"People see how much work is involved in this business," she said. "We work 100 hours a week from early in the morning unloading the truck and setting up the store to working all day."
While her employees said they put in heavy hours for JoAnne's Farmstand, they will miss working there and feel for the customers who have become like family to them, as well as to DeRiso-Hamlin.
For Stacey Caruso, who has worked there for about five years, the farmstand will always have a special place in her heart. As a child, she would come with her family and then as an employee felt like she was part of DeRiso-Hamlin's family.
"This place has been special for me," she said. "Everyone's really sad. For me, it didn't hit home at first, but now we're all getting really sad."
It's sad for DeRiso-Hamlin also, who has given much of herself to the business and her customers while she operated the store.
"There have been a lot of tears, lots of sadness," she said. "We have a really great crowd. They've become like family, even the girls who work here."
DeRiso-Hamlin isn't falling too far from the farmstand after it closes its doors on Friday, though. She plans to work at her youngest brother's farmstand east of here in Setauket a couple days a week and hopes that, once she is free of JoAnne's Farmstand, she can finally spend more time with her husband.
"He said the other day, 'I'm finally going to get my wife back," she said.
