Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Every Sunday morning, from the summer until December, over two dozen vendors set up shop on Sunrise Highway to offer community members from Rockville Centre and beyond a variety of products they can’t find in big name stores. These merchants sell products that range from fruits and vegetables, coffee, tea, alcohol, baked goods, poultry and more.
“They’re all small businesses from Nassau and Suffolk County,” Ethel Terry, founder of the Long Island Growers Market LLC, said. The organization hosts farmers markets in Rockville Centre, Islip, Roslyn and Seaford. Terry’s family operates Fred Terry and Son Farms and has a stand at the Rockville Centre market every weekend.
“We were in New York City doing farmers’ markets at the World Trade Center and then we had the opportunity to go to Islip and we started the market in Islip with other small businesses,” Terry said. “And that’s how the markets on Long Island actually started.”
Terry started the Long Island Growers Market to help farms and small businesses on Long Island promote and sell their products. “Everybody [selling at the farmers’ market] can only sell what they make, bake, grow or catch,” she said.
The Rockville Centre farmer’s market has been operating in Rockville Centre for twenty years and has gained many loyal customers along the way.
“I think its’ important for us to all support it, to keep a lot of these smaller vendors still going and keep them in business,” Melissa Coyne, of Rockville Centre, said. “I think it’s a lot better than the products in the big chain stores anyway.”
While most of the vendors at the Rockville Centre market are based in surrounding towns, one local organization sets up a stand every Sunday. Sharon’s Garden, based in Rockville Centre, is a a group that collects fresh produce to donate to Sharon's Pantry, a popular non-profit food pantry that provides food to families facing food insecurity.
Founded by then-high school students Ryan Cooke and Declan Taylor last year, Sharon’s Garden allows the village’s young people to make a difference in their community.
“It’s a program children run where they collect monetary donations and produce for the people participating in the food pantry,” Marie Digennaro said. Digennaro was at the Sharon’s Garden stand with her son Charlie, who was walking around to the vendors telling them about the organization and asking for donations.
“A child sits here and hands out the pamphlets and collects the donations, and an adult sits on the sidelines and they do the setups, but it's mostly kid-run,” Digennaro said.
This year, the Rockville Centre farmers’ market began on June 1 and will conclude December 21. The market is every Sunday at 510 Sunrise Highway from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. For more information and a list of vendors, visit LongIslandGrowersMarket.com.
This version has been corrected from the print story.
