Eve’s Garden Organic Farm on Sound Ave. will now be managed by the owners of Watedrinker Family Farm & Garden in Manorville. (Source: Sunset Beach Movies)
The owners of Garden of Eve Organic Farm & Market have reached an agreement to hand over management of their long-term farm stand on the corner of Sound Avenue and the Northville Turnpike to members of the Weiss family, owners of Watedrinker Family Farm & Garden in Manorville .
While Gardens of Eve owners Eve and Chris Kaplan-Walbrecht will continue to farm most of the land, the public portion of their 20-year-old business — which attracts as many as 25,000 visitors a year through various festivals, tours and other events — will be managed by Waterdrinker management.
Ms. Kaplan-Walbrecht said the Weiss family leased 20 acres of land and a farm retail building on the east side of the property.
“Basically, they want to scale up what they’re doing, and we want to go out at the top of the farm stand and let’s scale it down a little bit,” she said.
“We’re still continuing to farm organically,” she continued. “And we’re still delivering our [Community Supported Agriculture] Pick-up and drop-off programs at the farm as well as about 15 different locations on Long Island. We also offer a home delivery service in Suffolk. ’ However, she added, “We will not be open to the public unless picked up by a CSA member. ”
The CSA is a subscription-based program in which customers invest in community farms by paying in full before harvest, and then claim their fresh produce once a week as soon as it is harvested.
We continue to farm organically.
Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht
A note on the Garden of Eve website includes a final thank you to customers: “We have handed over management of Farm Market to Watedrinker Farm and are no longer offering events, festivals or U-picks. Thanks to our many loyal customers over the years, we Love you guys and we will miss you when we slow down in 20 years!”
Ms Kaplan-Walbrecht said Garden of Eve’s organic tradition would continue under Waterdrinker’s stewardship. “They also agreed to use organic methods to farm their land. That’s very important to us,” she said, adding that, in a sense, the 135-acre property is returning to its 1950s roots , at the time it was “two farms…one on the east side and one on the west side.”
Kaplan-Walbrechts will farm the west side and Watedrinker will farm the east side.
Late last year, the couple sold the development rights to the 66-acre property to Suffolk, pledging that it would not be developed. The cost was $4.6 million, Newsday reported in December.
According to the farm website, Chris and Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht met in 2000 and share a passion for gardening, tending their Riverhead quarter-acre property in the evenings and weekends when they aren’t working full-time.
“Since then, they … now grow 50 acres of certified organic vegetables, flowers, raise 1,000 pasture layer hens, and manage nearly 20 farm team members,” the website states.
Kirk Weiss of Watedrinker Family Farm did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
