coronavirus new york

Coronavirus News: NY farm offering contactless fresh produce pickup

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Local farms step up to fill gap left by strapped supermarkets

Nina Pineda interviews local farmers who are stepping up for consumers during produce shortages.

MONROE, New York (WABC) -- Going shopping for groceries requires a mask and gloves - but the reward is your pick of fresh produce if you are lucky.

"Every time I go to the store they're out of everything organic - it's frustrating." Said Amy Regina, a Hillsdale hairstylist, wife, and mom to a kindergartner, lamenting the lack of good produce to feed her family.

If you are staying at home and are trying to order fruits and vegetables for delivery, get ready for delays. There is no slot time at Wegmans or Whole Foods for weeks - same with Shoprite.

So instead of waiting, Regina sourced food to a bucolic farm in Monroe, New York. Every Wednesday, a handwritten list is posted on the

Blooming Hill Farm website - customers choose items, and then drive up for contactless pickup.

COVID-19 closed the farm's farm-to-table restaurant along with the New York City eateries, plus farmers' markets they usually supply.

However, Guy Jones is doing more business than ever.

"I'd rather be sleeping in a bag than benefit from the evil that this is," he said.

Jones' harvest from the farm's greenhouses and fields are selling as fast as you can say 'kale salad.'

Guy says he is doing what he has always done for 40 years, only now masks and gloves are required to rummage through the rutabaga, and he has updated to cashless payment.

"Except now we take credit cards. And Venmo...I don't even know what that is," says Jones.

His customers, like Amy Regina, are pretty grateful.