Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Vegetarians Unite! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (373)	12/21/2001 9:43:20 PM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Respond to of 2067

I just add a little canola oil to the marinade (water, soy sauce, lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, garlic, onion and ginger). I turn them if they're not covered by the marinade to keep them from getting dry.

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (373)	12/22/2001 10:30:43 PM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2067

Owner Of Popular Farm Stand To Retire By Keiko Morris STAFF WRITER December 22, 2001 newsday.com JoAnne DeRiso's farm stand has sparked many addictions. Most of her customers can't quite remember how long ago it started, but they came for their own reasons and ended up making weekly treks to the East Meadow stand. She's turned them on to persimmons, organic pears, dumpling squash and organic milk. Her customers come with special requests, dandelions perhaps, which send her or one of her workers dashing to the greenhouse to pluck their produce. People have congregated in this narrow, gray building for years to fulfill their quest of a healthy lifestyle and the comfort of DeRiso's personal touch. DeRiso's farm stand will open for the last time on Friday. After 30 years of sometimes 20-hour days, DeRiso thinks it's just time to call it quits. Contemplating this news, her customers were like bewildered orphans. "She became like a sister to me," said Maureen Goldstein, 49 of Massapequa, with wet eyes. She was introduced to Joanne's farm stand only last year when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and in search of a healthier regimen. "It's not like going to the store. It's like visiting your neighbor," Goldstein said. "Every time I leave here she kisses and hugs me." "She planted it, she harvested and she sold it," said Nassau County legislator Norma Gonsalves, who has been shopping at the stand since its early days. "She is an important part of everybody's family who patronize this place." The farm stand was a community unto itself, a place where recipes and information about organic foods and health were exchanged. Here, the produce is not waxed, there is no Styrofoam packaging and vegetables do not adhere to a standard textbook size and shape. And, her customers say they could not afford to eat organic without the farm stand. DeRiso never intended her job at the farm stand to be long term. Her father, Ernie DeRiso, started the farm in 1971, obtaining the lease on the land when the previous farmer, his friend, retired. "I could never be happy in a supermarket," Joy Noia, a retired secretary from Baldwin, said. "I never ask for a price here because I know it's the right price. She's honest." Tilling the fields has been a family tradition for DeRiso. Her grandparents farmed vegetables in upstate Pearl River and in Hicksville, so Ernie DeRiso also learned the family trade. He eventually started a sand and gravel trucking business. Ernie DeRiso sold his business and returned to farming to save his father from the boredom of retirement. At 19, JoAnne DeRiso left her job as a salesperson and agreed to help her father until the operation got on its feet. "I've seen most of my customers' kids grow up," she said. "This has been wonderful." While her fans are grieving the farm stand's end, her husband, Ken Hamlin, will be happy to have his wife back. He works nights in the wholesale produce business. DeRiso works days. Farming was good to her, she says, but the hours and work were heavy. They'd begin the planting season in February, mixing and setting their packs of dirt. The seedlings were incubated in a tray between 24 and 48 hours, then transplanted to the packs in 10 days and rotated from greenhouse to greenhouse. The farm stand closed its doors three months a year during the winter. But the rest of the year, DeRiso's days often began at 6 a.m. or earlier. And after hours, she either was doing paperwork or fetching more produce to supplement her own crops. Thirty years on this schedule took its toll. "When you go to bed tired and wake up tired, it's time," DeRiso said. As the end nears, the rush to DeRiso's farm has increased, as have the hugs and tears. "The psychology of the humanism here is really making people feel good about themselves whether they spend $2 or $10," said Faith Bonadonna, a retired West Hempstead teacher and a long-time customer.