Dan & Jerry’s Garden Center staff provide high level of customer service BY ANDREA KRINKE MONTICELLO TIMES It’s a simple str ategy for a b looming b usiness: Offer a wide v ariety of good-quality pr oducts. That business plan, identified b y both the manager and local customers of Dan & J erry’s Garden Center in Monticello , seems to be k eeping Dan & Jerry’s in the green. “We ha ve our o wn brand—Farm F resh Selects—and w e gr ow v egetable and some melon plants, as w ell as herbs , annuals, and per ennials,” manager Jill Gr atrix said. “W e also sell seed potatoes, packa ged gar lic, rhubarb and aspar agus roots, onion sets, and onion plants.” What else? Dan & Jerry’s also stocks a lar ge n ursery assortment of trees, shrubs and small berry , hops , and grape plants. The gar den center , located one mile w est of Highw ay 25 on 85th Street Northeast, is a sprawling site , b ursting with color. “The gar den center is a gr eat place to tak e
Julie Gratrix manages Dan & Jerry’s Garden Center.
a photo of the kids , with the fall décor ,” Jill gushed. “In the fall, w e have mums in thr ee sizes, fall ann uals, pumpkins , straw bales , corn shocks , and sweet corn and other
vegetables.” Owners J erry Quaal and Dan T otushek w ere college friends . First, Jerry far med f or Dan ’s dad. La ter, the tw o friends w ent into b usi-
(Photo by Andrea Krinke)
ness. They began with two gr eenhouses. T oday, the pr operty includes 35 acres of greenhouse operations, suppl ying w holesale plants to commer cial customers acr oss se ven
states. For a n umber of y ears in the 1980s, the men had Tatanka Gar den Center in Buf falo. After closing tha t site, they mo ved and expanded their r etail
operation to the curr ent location, adjacent to their greenhouse and far ming land, on the south side of Monticello . Dan & Jerry’s Gar den Center is also the home base f or Farm Fresh Selects CSA, a comm unity supported agriculture pr ogram established just this year. Gratrix called her job a personal, pr ofessional win. “I quit the corporate world to do w hat I lo ve; it’s just a bonus that I get paid for it,” she admitted. The shop manager confessed she sees gar dening as a kind of therapy, with prolific r esults. “W hile doing something I lo ve, I see beauty f or se veral months,” Gr atrix described. “My flower gardens ar e e xtensive and, also, I can and freeze vegetables every year.” Customers ar e hoeing the same r ow. “I do a lot of gar dening, and their product is top-notch, ” said r egular Bonnie Stromberg. ‘W hen I am looking for items, I know I can al ways find them there.” Continues on Page 2