'Stinkiest Festival On Long Island' Coming This Weekend To New Spot

RIVERHEAD, NY — Something stinky is coming to Manorville — and scores of delighted fans just can't wait.

Manager Marc Weiss of Waterdrinker Family Farm & Garden in Manorville said there are big plans in place for the popular destination. In addition to expanding the business — Weiss explained the family-owned business is now managing a portion of the Garden of Eve on Sound Avenue in Riverhead, calling the new space Waterdrinker North Fork — they will also be relocating the Garden of Eve's popular annual Garlic Festival this year to Waterdrinker's Manorville location at 663 Wading River Road.

The 21st Annual Garlic Festival will take place September 16 and 17 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

"As we get the farm ready in Riverhead, we have decided this year to move this year's Garlic Festival to Manorville! We are super excited about it and planning is well underway," Weiss said.

He added: "It’s important that we keep the amazing traditions going at this year's festival. The festival is all about celebrating harvest season and supporting local vendors, but most of all it’s about garlic. We want this to be the stinkiest festival on Long Island!"

Reflecting on highlights of the Garlic Festival, Weiss said, "We are working on a garlic-festival inspired beer for visitors to enjoy, as well as garlic butter roasted corn and garlic ice cream." The event will also feature live music, food trucks, and local vendors who will "flood the field" in Manorville for the festival.

"It's the 21st Annual Garlic Festival so we want it to be bigger and better than ever," Weiss said. "It's important that we keep a lot of the garlic traditions alive from the previous 20 years. The Garden of Eve family did an amazing job running the festival so we want to keep the traditions going."

Progress on the farm in Riverhead is going really well, Weiss said, with the fall season kicking into high gear by Friday, September 15.

"Our hope is that our farm will be the unofficial gateway to the North Fork. It’s a great spot for families that live out west. It’s not too far down the wine trail, but it’s just enough to give a taste of what the North Fork has to offer."

The Riverhead location will mirror the family fun offered at the Manorville farm, Weiss said. "If our kids love a new attraction, we know that other families will enjoy it, too," he said. "Just like Waterdrinker Manorville, this location will always be in a constant state of growth and reinvention. Our sunflower fields are planted and getting ready for the fall season and our new activities are being built and perfected."

Weiss said guests can visit the farm for pumpkin picking, hay rides, a haunted corn maze, jumbo jump pads and an activity alley.

"We are building up a new and improved Waterdrinker Raceway, a small pedal car track for the family to enjoy," he said. Activity Alley will consist of all-new wooden play structures including Noah's Ark, a giant John Deere tractor, a castle, train station, wooden airplane, monster truck, playhouse lane, swing sets, and giant basketball hoops. Also available will be roasted corn, fresh-baked pies, lemonade and candy apples. The greenhouse, Weiss said, will be stocked full of fall plants, including mums, asters, crotons and pumpkins. The gift barn will stock organic products and gifts made by artists, as well as Waterdrinker merchandise.

While Waterdrinke has taken over full operation of the farm activities, the greenhouse and the gift barn, Garden of Eve will still participate in local farmers' markets and CSA programs across Long Island, Weiss said.

Waterdrinker will also be growing organically, with sunflowers, corn and a corn maze for the fall season.

Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht, who owns Garden of Eve with her husband Chris, said although Waterdrinker is leasing about 20 acres from them the pair is still farming 45 acres organically for Garden of Eve, dropping off produce at locations on Long Island and in Queens and Brooklyn, where farmers' markets are part of their landscape.

The decision to lease a portion of their property seemed a natural transition, Kaplan-Walbrecht said. "We're fortunate to have a lot of space, but it was a lot for us to manage organically," she said. Although they have staff, the couple has no other family at the moment to help manage operations; she also pointed to other issues that have emerged over the years, including labor costs, as motivation for the change.

"We wanted to simplify things and return to where we started; we started just with farmers' markets, then came the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and farmstand." The farmstand was born at the same time as her son, in 2004, giving Kaplan-Walbrecht a place to nurture the land, and her babies. She and her husband, she added, have always felt strongly about the educational side of organic farming.

But when approached by the family behind Waterdrinker, Kaplan-Walbrecht and her husband agreed, "It could be a good fit for both of us."

Now, Waterdrinker North Fork has a fenced off area; something, Kaplan-Walbrecht said, that's not so different than how it used to be. Before her family bought the property in the 1970s, the parcel actually existed as two separate farms, with their own buildings and entrances.

"We're just sort of going back to that kind of structure," she said, adding that her family still maintains ownership of the entire parcel, with a long-term lease for Waterdrinker North Fork.

She's also thrilled, Kaplan-Walbrecht said, that the family behind Waterdrinker has pledged to farm the land organically.

That being said, Garden of Eve is alive and well, and would love to see people support their ongoing mission with CSA memberships. She and her husband are also focused on a new "organic transition program," to help teach Long Island farmers how to transition to organic farming, with new farmers needed.

"I'm definitely excited," she said, of the changes. "I'm pretty realistic about the way things end. We're all mortal. The things we do, especially workwise, don't live forever. Either you're going to do it until you die, or until you can't do it anymore. We wanted this to be something we could pass on to someone, rather than have it all disappear."