Call it North Fork synergy.

From Riverhead to Orient, many established businesses are helping start-ups gain momentum by providing them with a free storefront and advertising.

A bakery in Jamesport sets aside shelf space for three very diverse entrepreneurs who offer personalized poems, homemade tomato sauce and crystal jewelry. A Southold farm sells gelato handcrafted in Greenport. Nurseries stock plants and shrubs from neighboring greenhouses. Farm stands give small businesses a shelf in their barn, and wineries offer North Fork potato chips alongside Disset and North Fork Chocolate.

All are contributing to an ecosystem of solopreneurs, giving their products much-needed visibility and traction in addition to 100% of the profits. And it helps keep small businesses alive. They are working together, not competing but instead supporting one another.

It’s a symbiotic relationship, one that is unique to the North Fork, but is also a large part of the deep-seated community spirit here. Small businesspeople say they can’t afford to have a brick-and-mortar store to get eyes on their products; established business owners remember when they were trying to scale up, how challenging it was to get their merchandise noticed, and they are passionate about helping those who are hoping to see their dream flourish.

The power of a borrowed shelf

Before Christina Padrazo became the owner of The Treatery bakery in Jamesport, she sold her baked goods out of her food truck for nine years, as well as at farmers markets.

“I didn’t have a way to get my desserts out there. It was challenging when you don’t have a storefront. Some of it was financial.”

Now, a self-admitted marketer at heart, she wants to support women-owned businesses to help them have a starting point with no overhead or rent.

And so, on the cafe table that’s strategically positioned near her cash register at The Treatery, Padrazo is marketing three local businesses.

“What it does for me is that I get their people in my door.”

Women lifting women

Poems for Tired People is Kate Seward’s side-hustle brand now featured at Padrazo’s bakery. At Seward’s desk in Orient, she writes upbeat personalized poems that are waiting to be picked up by customers buying coffee and a doughnut or cookie at Padrazo’s counter.

“They’re meant to be a moment of cheer and thoughtfulness. I write three lines you can look at every morning and think, ‘I can go on with my day!’ The experience of having a poem written just for you is so special.”

Grateful her inspiring pieces of paper have a spot at The Treatery, Seward said she loves the vibe because Padrazo is selling things that she likes.

Kate Seward’s ‘Poems for Tired People’ (Courtesy photos)

“And she’s always been encouraging for me. I need a backer to achieve my vision.”

Her encouraging words are also featured on card decks, bracelets, clothing, at weddings and at vineyards.

“People are really supportive here, and there are a lot of female-owned businesses. I think people on the North Fork value ingenuity. No one makes you feel bad for wanting to try something new.”

With her advertising background, she supplements her income by teaching creative writing and helping students with essays for college applications.

Allison LaBarbera’s Vibing High crystal necklaces are on sale at The Treatery in Jamesport. (Courtesy photos)

Dangling alongside Seward’s poetry are crystal necklaces, Allison LaBarbera’s creations from her company Vibing High. The crystals are mined by her own hands in North Carolina, Montana and Herkimer, New York. The Treatery was one of the shops she approached about selling her products. The East Quogue businesswoman said having her metaphysical crystals here gives buyers more opportunity to buy them.

“Christina said to me, ‘Let’s have a cakes, cookies and crystals pop-up.’ It’s so great being at The Treatery. I couldn’t get the outreach beyond using the internet. I had a baby and couldn’t open my own shop.”

Her sparkling jewelry, which she says helps elevate a person’s mood with its vibrational frequency, also has a spot at The Giving Room in Southold.

While Treatery customers are waiting in line, jars of homemade pasta sauce with Sicilian heritage might also catch their eye. Prepared in their modest Jamesport kitchen, Stefano DiBenedetto and his mom, Giovanna Russo, are what could be called microentrepreneurs. Basil and garlic freshly harvested from her farm, stirred with imported ingredients from Sicily, make the vibrant red sauce that is selling well online, but that can’t compete with customers who can see it in the shop and pick it up locally at The Treatery and at Golden Earthworm Organic Farm in Riverhead.

In her passionate Italian accent, Russo said, “I make it because people like the homemade recipe. It’s very tasty. It’s not the same American sauce you taste in a pizzeria! It comes from Sicily.”

DiBenedetto explained it’s her own recipe, learned from cooking as a child at the side of her great-grandmother.

“We like to keep it local, make small gourmet batches and support each other, and Christina’s place is unique,” he added.

They’re cooking up sauce now for a complimentary tasting at Golden Earthworm on July 11.

Women helping women is also what motivates Padrazo to give people a platform for their business.

“Giovanna had tears in her eyes when she came to my store and said she didn’t have the funds to advertise. My heartstrings were tugged. For me, it’s about doing the right thing. My grandparents would have been thrilled. It’s all about a full-circle moment.”

From kitchen table to customer

The petite farmhouse market at Treiber Farms on County Road 48 in Southold also provides free shelf space to several local vendors. Ground beef from NoFo Cattle Company is chilled in the refrigerator alongside North Fork Fresh eggs.

“I stock these items because why would someone want to make multiple stops at different locations to pick up what they need?” asked Peter Treiber Sr.

Paris Ahmad, owner of Doree Gelato in Greenport, was loading into Treiber’s freezer her all-natural handmade gelato, a product that uses fresh fruit — figs and peaches — from Treiber’s orchard.

“Sourcing my ingredients locally gives me connections to get a good-quality product.”

She does have a small storefront in Flavor Fork in Greenport, but having her gelato at Treiber’s “reminds me of small-town Europe where people make products in their backyard and support each other.”

Growing together

Neighboring Treiber’s is Cifarelli Nursery, where the focus is also on community and the local economy.

“The more we can find plant material on the East End, the better. We save on delivery costs, and we do that because we can support local businesses. We also want to be able to pick up something quick if a customer needs it,” said owner Lisa Cifarelli.

Her husband, Robert, feels the interconnection between businesspeople on the NoFo pays off for everyone.

“It’s probably cheaper to buy local because of the gas prices, and that’s less that I have to drive west for.”

The North Fork advantage

New to the North Fork and bringing her culinary background, Rachel Lattarulo, owner of Crumb and Kettle, stocks her granola at Good Food in Mattituck.

“It’s woman-owned, and she’s really supportive. I’m also at Rowan Craft Boutique in Feather Hill. People here love to work together to help entrepreneurs get started, and they know what it’s like to be a small business. It’s a special place in that regard.”

Padrazo feels the strategy of cross-promotion is an effective and valuable concept that benefits established businesses and those just getting started but who don’t need a huge space.

“It really helps a lot of people. After all, how many farmers markets can one person go to to try to sell their products?”

Bill Zalakar, executive director of the Long Island Farm Bureau, believes this type of fusion between businesses is really unique to the North Fork.

“The money goes right back into the local economy, which is a powerful driving tool. Our products help build the tourism and restaurant industries. That’s where we’re different.”

It’s a successful small-business model, according to Judy McCleery, president of the North Fork Chamber of Commerce.

“This is exactly how cottage industries take off. People who are doing what they love and have a side hustle that might turn into something big. And they now have a physical place where the public can find them.”