Waterdrinker North Fork opening in Riverhead
The popular Waterdrinker Family Farm & Garden known for its seasonal festivals has opened at a second location just in time for fall fun for the family. This new Riverhead spot, known as Waterdrinker North Fork, is operating on property leased from the Garden of Eve Organic Farm and Market.
Waterdrinker has expanded the family activities at the new location, says farm manager Marc Weiss. “We’re going to be kicking into high gear in mid-September. We’ll have our haunted corn maze; we’ll have a playground; we’ll have pumpkin picking,” he says.
Aaron Matzuy, 8, front, and his mother Lucretia Matzuy and brother Angel, 5, at rear, all of Riverhead, race around the track on pedal-driven raceway cars at the new Waterdrinker North Fork in Riverhead on Sept. 1. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
The original Waterdrinker location in Manorville has been in operation since 2018. "We love the North Fork and thought we could bring something new," Weiss says of expanding. An Adventure Avenue at the Riverhead location offers jump pads, giant basketball hoops, a John Deere tractor and Noah’s Ark play sculpture. It’s double the size of the former Garden of Eve activity center, "with twice as many activities. We bought all new playground equipment. We’re revamping their raceway pedal cars,” he says. A miniature golf course will be open by mid-September.
The farm also has opened Beer Garden at Waterdrinker North Fork, offering beer from Long Island Farm Brewery for the grown-ups, he says.
"I thought it was great," says Jeanine Sabatino, 41, a stay-at-home mother from West Babylon who attended opening day earlier this month with her husband, Gaetano, 41, an information officer, and their two daughters, Eliana, 5, and Aurelia, 3. "My kids loved the inflatable slides. I loved the beer part."
Brayden Brown, 3, of East Rockaway pops out of the slide on the wooden John Deere tractor, one of several play sculptures that can be found in the playground area of the new Waterdrinker North Fork in Riverhead on Sept. 1. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
Erica Seinfeld's in-laws live in Aquebogue, so the 34-year-old teacher from Forest Hills, her husband, Joe, 34, a marketing manager, and their son, Hayden, 2, are often in the area. Seinfeld says she was excited to have a new option to explore when visiting.
"For a 2-year-old, having all these different play structures — a jeep, a boat, an airplane, a bus — he really liked that," she says. "Everything seemed clean and new. I just love the market, too." She also says it's nice that the location also offers a beer garden option.
TIME FOR CHANGE
Families climb aboard the wooden boat, one of several play sculptures that can be found in the playground area of the new Waterdrinker North Fork in Riverhead on Sept. 1. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht of Garden of Eve says she wanted to make her farming operation less stressful and complex, so she thought having Waterdrinker take over part of the farm operations would be a good match.
“We opened up the Garden of Eve farm market in 2005, which was the year my first child was born. Now, he’s headed off to college,” she says. She’s retaining the vegetable farming on 45 acres and continuing the community supported agriculture program and sales at area farmers markets. Waterdrinker has agreed to continue to farm organically on the land they are leasing, both Kaplan-Walbrecht and Weiss say.
Waterdrinker has taken over the market and events. “We’re doing a lot of the same things we do at our Waterdrinker location in Manorville,” Weiss says.
Weiss says he plans to move the Pirate corn maze that has been at the Manorville location over to the Riverhead location and create a new corn maze at the original Waterdrinker. Its theme will be a nod to the other activities at the two properties.
It will be called The Tulip Tunnel of Terror, a reference to Waterdrinker’s annual Tulip Festival. “Some ghosts unfortunately took over the tunnel,” he says. There’ll also be a vampire, a play on Garden of Eve’s annual Garlic Festival.
Both Waterdrinker locations will have new photo opportunities, Weiss says.
WATERDRINKER NORTH FORK
WHERE 4560 Sound Ave., Riverhead is the new location; 663 Wading River Rd., Manorville is the original
COST Entry to the Manorville location will be $20 per person with 2 and younger free; entry to the Riverhead location has yet to be determined, Weiss says. Food will be additional, as will pumpkins and sunflower stalks, he says.
INFO 631-878-8653, water-drinker.com
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
