Business

Mattituck farmers market to open in May

East End Farmers Market is opening May 9 in the back of Mattituck Florist on Love Lane. (Cyndi Murray photo)
East End Farmers Market is opening May 9 in the back of Mattituck Florist on Love Lane. (Credit: Cyndi Murray)

A new farmers market is opening in Mattituck next month.

On Thursday, Southold Town gave the green light to a handful of local business owners and growers who have been working since November to open an outdoor farmers market in the back parking lot of Mattituck Florist on Love Lane. 

East End Farmers Market will operate from 3 to 6 p.m. on Fridays from May 9 through Oct. 31, organizer Donna Burden said.

“We are very excited about this,” said Ms. Burden, who also owns Donna’s Treatery.

Unlike the popular Riverhead Farmers Market, Mattituck’s 11-vendor market will focus on providing space to small, local businesses that don’t have storefronts, Ms. Burden said.

Although the vendors haven’t been finalized yet, the organizers said all the sellers are going to be Southold residents with small operations.

The idea grew from talks the economic development committee initiated with the business community last November on ways of supporting the year-round agricultural industry.

Ms. Burden partnered with Mattituck residents Gene and Maryann Krupski, the owners of Mar-Gene Farms on Soundview Avenue and Mattituck Florist owner Danielle LaScala to get the plans in motion.

Last month, the group presented the proposal alongside the town’s economic development committee to the town board.

Although attempts have been made in the past to start an outdoor farmers market in Southold Town, this is the first to gain approval. Other applicants were proposed in areas not zoned for business and did not receive approval. The location for this market, however, is in a commercial site, Supervisor Scott Russell previously told the Suffolk Times.

“We are very happy to be working with the local farming community to pilot the farmers market this summer,” Phillip Beltz, Southold’s special projects coordinator and a member of the economic development committee, said Friday.

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