Kristina Gabrielsen, head grower at family farm in Jamesport, dies at 49

On the Pacific island of Fiji, where a long rainy season makes growing food hard, North Fork farmer Kristina Gabrielsen found her calling in life — building hydroponic greenhouses to sustain communities, her family said.

For two weeks, she and volunteers created a greenhouse out of what they could find on the island, a mission by the Bethel United Pentecostal Church of Westbury, said her uncle, Carl Gabrielsen, of Riverhead, a church member who led the trip. About 40 leaders from Fiji and nearby islands and college students heard how to replicate the greenhouses and help meet food needs, he said.

Back home, the farmer couldn’t stop talking about the hospitality of impoverished islanders, relatives said.

“She said: ‘This is what I want to do in my offseason. I want to travel around and help people grow food,’ ” her uncle recalled. “Her goal was to teach others to sustain themselves. She was so enthused about it.”

Gabrielsen, head grower at Gabrielsen’s Country Farm in Jamesport, died of an aggressive cancer Sept. 28. The Mattituck resident, who ran unsuccessfully for Southold Town Board in 2021, was 49.

Her curiosity, brains and organization yielded a leader with a special connection to plants, family members said. As a youngster, she was practically glued to her grandmother at the family’s Jamesport farm, asking questions about everything, relatives said. As an adult, they said, she was the go-to person for customers with questions and could fix almost anything on the farm.

Tina, as she was known, was the magic behind the farm’s mums, declared by some customers to be the most beautiful they could buy.

It wasn’t anything she learned in books, said her father, George Gabrielsen, of Jamesport.

“So much of what she grew was hands-on. She did it her way. People come to us and say, ‘How could you grow mums like that? It’s got to be something in the soil.’ No. It was experience — X amount of this, slow-release fertilizer in water. She had it down to a science,” he said.

Gabrielsen was taking business courses at Suffolk Community College when the single mom decided to change directions, for her only child.

“I was probably under 10 and her running the [farm] stand and doing the college took a lot of time,” said her son, Andre Vega, of Lakeland, Florida. “I wanted to spend more time with her, and she ended up dropping out.”

Not only did she attend all his sports games, Vega said, she prioritized experiences with him over material matters, such as the need for a new car.

They would take trips, like the summer before his ninth grade, when they motored across the country to California, going where spontaneity took them. One time, he recounted, his mother told him, “I think we can drive down to the Grand Canyon and go swimming.” That’s what they did.

“I may not have gotten extra things,” Vega said, “but I got what I needed, plus experiences.

“She taught me to always to do the right thing when nobody’s looking. ... I remember the first time I held the door open for this little lady. She’s like, ‘That’s what I want to see out of you.’ ”

Last year, Gabrielsen received a New York State Woman of Distinction award for her community volunteerism.

Each summer, she organized church camps at the family’s upstate properties, having grown more religious about a decade ago, when cancer led to her thyroid’s removal, relatives said.

She was setting up the church camp in August when she expressed fatigue, unusual for her, her family said.

Then when cancer was discovered in her liver, the disease cut off her planning for a greenhouse building in Africa, family members said. She wanted to save people from famine, give them greenhouse vegetables, just like the ones flourishing in Fiji, but knew she would not make it, they said.

Still, the dying woman offered comfort.

Her father remembers some last words that sprang from her faith: “Don’t feel bad for me. I’m saved.”

Besides her son, father and uncle, she is also survived by her mother, Janice Gabrielsen, of Jamesport; sisters, Georgia Gabrielsen, of Riverhead, and Stephanie Smith, of Baiting Hollow; and brother, Robert Gabrielsen, of Jamesport.

A graveside service was held Oct. 2 at Sound Avenue Cemetery in Northville, followed by burial.