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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
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Sustainable Fruit and Vegetable Stand Opens on Vacant 10th Avenue Lot

 "The neighborhood is starving for something fresh," Farmacy NYC owner Harold DeLucia said.
Farmacy NYC
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HELL’S KITCHEN — A tented farm stand that sells sustainably grown fruits, vegetables and flowers has moved into a vacant lot on 10th Avenue.

Farmacy NYC opened at 605 10th Ave., near West 44th Street, this past Saturday, owner Harold DeLucia said.

His Christmas tree delivery company NYC Trees recently bought a company called Tyler’s Trees, which had been using the lot to sell Christmas trees for the past few years, he told DNAinfo New York.

“Seeing the neighborhood, and getting to know the people through the tree season, I saw there was a need for [the stand],” he said. “The neighborhood is starving for something fresh, for something that’s real, local.”

Fruits, vegetables and fresh flowers range in price from $1 to around $7 at the stand, which is open from 8 a.m. to around 7 p.m. seven days a week. Most of the products are transported directly from farms in New Jersey, DeLucia said.

The owner, who also works as a physical education and health teacher at Columbia Secondary School in Morningside Heights, hopes to start stocking antibiotic-, hormone- and pesticide-free free-range chicken and pork from a farm upstate soon.

“We cut out the middleman,” he explained. “We get it right from the farmers themselves.”