Back in the summer of 1998, Stephanie Miller and her boyfriend Gary Pecore Junior started selling plants and vegetables from an improvised roadside stand in Hopkinton, the small community halfway between Potsdam and Malone. "My dad had a garage as a mechanic, and we sold from a picnic table. We sold out of corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers immediately. So we're like, okay, maybe this is a good location."
Stephanie was 19 years old, and Gary was 24. Within the year, they’d built a greenhouse, gotten married in that greenhouse, and officially started Adirondack Growers.
"Everyone would say to us, well, you're in the middle of nowhere," remembered Miller. "Why would you pick there? So if you picture the north country, like a wagon wheel, we're kind of at the center like a spoke, you know. So I think if you build something, people will come."
Miller and Pecore kept expanding the store and built six greenhouses next to their family home, where they grow about 75% of what they sell. The displays at the store are constantly changing. Flowers and produce in the summer, apples, and pumpkins in the fall, and Christmas trees in December.
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