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| The entrance to DePiero's Country Farm store on a hill in Montvale. |
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| Stairs to the store's gift and housewares loft. |
No visit to Montvale would be complete without stopping at the hilltop store of DePiero's Country Farm.
Unfortunately, all of the fresh, local produce and the relaxed food-shopping experience soon may be just a memory.
If town officials approve, half of the farm's 55 acres will be used to build a huge Wegmans Food Market, displacing the homey farm store.
The Wegmans would be the chain's first store in Bergen County.
The Wegmans in Woodbridge is an enormous 140,000 square feet -- bigger than any other supermarket in Bergen.
Photos of the Woodbridge Wegmans
On Monday, I stopped at DePiero's for a large cup of soup and purchased sweet corn, romaine lettuce, basil and leeks, all grown on the farm.
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| Fragrant basil, above. Romaine lettuce and leeks, below. |
In late afternoon, customers arrived in twos and threes, but the store never got crowded.
The thick, meatless lentil soup was delicious.
When I got home, I shucked and steamed the bi-color corn, which was sweet and need nothing (6 ears for $3.50).
It was far superior to corn I picked up last week at the Ramsey Farmers' Market.
I chopped some of DePiero's fresh basil, along with oregano and mint from my garden, to use with fresh wild king salmon on Tuesday night.
I plan to use the rest of the basil to make pesto, which is wonderful with fish.
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| A plastic spoon stood up easily in the thick soup. |
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| Halloween costumes are available now. |
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| DePiero's greenhouse. |
DePiero's Country Farm Store, 300 W. Grand Ave., Montvale; 201-391-4576. Open 7 days until 6 p.m.
Web site: An Old-Fashioned Farm
Why not report that the owners are SELLING to Wegmans in order to let their store be displaced. You make it sound like a hostile takeover and not something that will take away from open space while the DePiero's profit.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you fail to mention the selection of fish from Off The Hook. Why the omission?
Off The Hook is way overpriced.
ReplyDeleteI don't pretend to know the economic pressures on the owners of DePiero's.
ReplyDeleteAt least, they are selling only half of the farm.
A Wegmans is preferable to another huge corporate campus, and I could see Wegmans using DePiero's produce in all of the prepared food the chain sells.
Maybe, even a DePiero's corner in the huge supermarket.