Unexpected Directions in Greenwood Lake
Stacy Lawrence and Warren Congdon's Greenwood Lake Garden Center grew organically to become a social hub as well as healthy food haven.
By Vera Miller
Stacy Lawrence has deep roots in farming, seven generations in the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River, and her husband, Warren Congdon, has roots in Greenwood Lake. Germination of those roots resulted in Greenwood Lake Garden Center with an increasingly sociable and delectable setting, fertilized by history.
The couple met in college at SUNY Canton and moved to Greenwood Lake about 25 years ago. Congdon had studied technology and took a job with IBM in Sterling Forest, and Lawrence studied education but took a food marketing job in New Jersey that required her to promote grocery store food that she found unappealing. She was drawn to fresh, unprocessed food, but she saw Greenwood Lake as a food desert at the time, with stores mostly selling processed and packaged food.
“It was a tight-knit community in a commuter town. Many worked for the police or fire department in New York City ” Lawrence recalled.
To have more of the food she wanted, Lawrence knew she could grow vegetables herself, which she was doing in June of 2010, when she decided to make her organic vegetable seedlings available to the community—including tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans and herbs—first selling them from her yard. Then, in 2011, she opened a shop on Windermere Ave. that lacked electricity and running water. She brought water in rain barrels and sold home grown vegetables and produce from Rogowski Farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), until the farm was lost in a flood.
Still, Lawrence had no plan to leave the Windermere Ave. store. She developed relationships with other nearby farms providing produce. She often had to buy larger quantities than she could sell, so she made cookies, breads and soups to sell out of produce that might otherwise go bad.
“If I had an extra half crate of carrots or squash, I used it to make soup or bread,” she said, thus expanding her offerings for her customers and family. Meanwhile, Congdon took on accounting for the business.
“I talk to customers and educate them about how to grow and cook food,” said Lawrence. “I came to realize that gluten free and vegan are niches that need to be served.”
She gets most of her produce from local farms, although her organic fertilizer comes from elsewhere, she said. Her employees too tend to be local people she knows.
“The business is my baby,” said Lawrence.
What changed the business was realtor Nina Steen and having children.
Steen owned what she felt should become the garden center building and land, and she pointed out the advantages of her property. The couple lacked sufficient money to buy it, but Steen was willing to hold the mortgage until they had a foothold in the business, selling plants and cooked food.
“Once we had kids, we grew the business to meet their needs,” said Lawrence. “The kids changed what we were able to do. It was important for us to be able to oversee them. Much that we did, like the tree fort and games, we did so the kids could have safe fun.”
Steen’s property had the space for a tree house and other play areas as well as the garden center. Congdon built a tree house, stage and then a beer garden shaded with plants, prompted by people who asked, “Can we sit in the yard with our cider?”
People “organically” began wanting to spend time there, Lawrence said. Children who came with their parents were drawn to the treehouse.
In addition to clearing land for and building these new attractions, edible enticements also grew to include banana, peach and strawberry bread as well as muffins, cookies, organic coffee, fresh lemonade and cider. Eventually, after a three-year wait, the couple received their liquor license. They sold local wines, ciders and sangria slushies.
“We took baby steps as needed,” said Lawrence.
Their motto, on a sign hanging at the counter by the baked goods, became “Local goods for local good.” Nearby, local crafts, such as candles, pottery and jewelry, were displayed in an indoor area for sitting and sipping coffee or wine.
For a long time, food had been “grab and go,” croissants with fruit. Then Congdon cleared an area for tables, and lacking space for much variety, said Lawrence, “We carried the best of what we found. I’m not a cake decorator. When we started the cafe and bakery, I looked for gaps in the market. Not much nearby was fresh , vegan and gluten free.”
The pandemic stoked their growth, as restaurants were not open. So while Congdon and his mother home schooled the children, Lawrence worked long hours, though terrified of bringing home illness.
Because their sources were local, they were more reliable, supplying milk, eggs and other fresh food. Stacey taught customers how to prepare food and placed recipes next to products.
“At first people sat around eating baked goods we sold, and that made us think a cafe might work,” she said. “We have the best of the valley available in one space.”
Meanwhile, Congdon, who played drums with local bands for years, brought music to the ever-evolving gathering site and started outdoor family movie nights.
Then a nearby farm that their children visited to pet the animals stopped having goats and chickens, so Lawrence decided to make the garden center more “child-friendly” with games. Now in progress are fire pits to warm visitors as winter approaches.
“When the pandemic brought an influx of new people seeking community, parents and kids, we were welcoming. The business was fertilized by the need to find community,” said Lawrence. “That dynamic also supported local farming and crafts. We opened the beer garden unofficially last July, and now it’s full steam ahead.”
With her background in teaching, she also supported school community gardening and kids learning to grow food and know what it looks like before it becomes food, on the way to healthy eating. Then Congdon’s involvement with the musician community and his booking of local bands, including “high caliber” musicians who play in Manhattan, brought the center a musical expansion, further extended occasionally by the Broadway performers who came to Greenwood Lake during the pandemic. They have jazz on Thursdays and special events, like an interactive murder mystery later this month.
" We have felt welcomed by Stacy and Warren from the first day we came to GWL ,” said Margaret Tuten, a guest at the Garden Center’s recent ribbon cutting. “The Garden Center and Taphouse are a first stop when we have out of town guests visit."
“I’m a farm girl. I’m hosting like in my home, surrounded by yummy plants. It’s easy to be happy and friendly,” said Lawrence. “I never envisioned this, doing what I loved and having the kids with me.”
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I love the article, but it's Stacy Lawrence and Warren Congdon
Great piece about one of my favorite places to linger over a pint (or two!) in the garden... But who are the Moores? "Eventually, after a three-year wait, the Moores received their liquor license"?