Need a NoFo-themed thank you token for the members of your bridal party or a thoughtful holiday gift for your kid’s teacher?
NorthForkGift.com, a new online store which is part gift shop, part farmers market, wants to help.
“You can think of it as an Amazon.com for the North Fork,” said proprietor Nicole Tumilowicz, who launched the online marketplace several weeks ago. “I want to be an advocate for the small businesses on Long Island.”
Tumilowicz, who has a sales background, said she would send clients gift baskets featuring North Fork items every holiday season. However, there had previously been no easy way to assemble them.
“It was a need that I wanted and couldn’t find,” said Tumilowicz, who lives with her husband and two young sons in Wading River. “Without physically going around to the stores myself, [North Fork-themed gift baskets] didn’t exist.”
Customers can visit NorthForkGift.com and chose from prearranged gift baskets (which range in price from $45 to $250), create their own assemblage or purchase individual items. The baskets have a beachy vibe with burlap accents, chicken wire and wood panels.
“The baskets are reminiscent of what you would find at our farm stands or vineyards,” Tumilowicz said.
Several local vendors — like pickle makers Backyard Brine, spice and canned good company A Taste of the North Fork and coffee roasters North Fork Roasting Co. — have already signed on and can be found on the website.
“It’s always a value to have other outlets on the North Fork promoting your product and working together,” said North Fork Roasting Co. co-owner Jess Dunne. “We try and sell local products here (at the Southold coffee shop) so it’s cool that other people want to sell our products.”
For some, Tumilowicz provides a touch that otherwise eludes some crafters.
“She is definitely filling a niche that was open. People have come in asking us if we had gift baskets. I tried to do it myself and it just looked never like a gift basket should,” said Laura Klahre of Blossom Meadow, which makes products from beeswax. “When she asked me, I was like holy cow, yes, I want to be involved.”
Tumilowicz, who said she will ship anywhere in the continental U.S. or deliver to locations east of Stony Brook, added that new vendors are continually signing on.
“My goal is really to showcase and support the local artisans,” Tumilowicz said.
