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Owners Lou & Lisa Caracciolo (Credit: Monique Singh-Roy)

Shade Trees Nursery is expanding its repertoire along with its Jamesport garden center.

In addition to a brand new 2,100-square-foot cedar-shingled retail garden shop, which was finished in May, owners Lisa and Lou Caracciolo have also developed their own food and goods line. That brand, North Breeze Farms, includes jams, jellies, pickles, pickled garlic and soap.

“When we decided to expand and put up the new building, we wanted to create more of an experience or destination-type store for people, other than [just] plant materials,” Mr. Caracciolo said. “The food thing is fun for us, now we’re getting more into gardening as we grow our own garlic and cucumbers for the pickles.”

Ms. Caracciolo said she harvests North Breeze’s honey from her own bees.

“I have six hives, ” she explained. “Three here and three in Mattituck. We make infused honeys, plus three types of honey butters.”

Unusual jelly flavors include IPA Beer and Stout Beer. (Credit: Monique Singh-Roy)
Unusual jelly flavors include IPA Beer and Stout Beer.
(Credit: Monique Singh-Roy)

Other food items include jams and jellies in traditional and unusual flavors like coffee stout jelly and IPA beer jelly.

“Our son brews beer,” Mr. Caracciolo explained. “He’s just a hobby brewer, so we make a couple of beer jellies, plus we’re doing a habanero hot sauce.”

On weekends homemade doughnuts are served at the store, while in the back customers can still find row after row of beautiful plants and flowers that make up the wholesale nursery.

A greenhouse is also under construction that will allow the nursery to grow herbs in the colder months for its popular “Cut your own herbs” program.

Besides the new food line, the new building offers a variety of gardening tools, gardening books, garden décor and gifts. Also consolidated into the new facility is North Fork Saddlery, moved from Mattituck into its own wing at the Jamesport store.

“I started North Fork Saddlery in 2009 because there were no saddleries here,” Ms. Caracciolo said. “But there are a lot of horses on the North Fork, a lot of show barns and a lot of backyard riders.”

The new Garden Shop at Shade Trees Nursery (Credit: Monique Singh-Roy)
The new Garden Shop at Shade Trees Nursery
(Credit: Monique Singh-Roy)

“We want to give people more reasons to come throughout the season by making it an agricultural experience and not just a horticultural experience,” Mr. Caracciolo said.

On Sunday September 6, Shade Trees Nursery will offer a free tasting session of their North Breeze Farms foods from noon to 2 p.m.

Shade Trees Nursery is located at 1875 Main Road in Jamesport.

For more information please visit shadetreesnursery.com

North Breeze Farms sells Bread & butter pickles and DIll pickles. (Credit: Monique Singh-Roy)
North Breeze Farms sells Bread & butter pickles and DIll pickles.
(Credit: Monique Singh-Roy)
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