For many locals, it’s one of the last spots passed on the way out of the Sloatsburg. With season-changing rows of tabled green herbs and garden goods, it’s also a welcome site upon returning to the village. Auntie El’s Farm Market stands as a friendly roadside attraction just outside Sloatsburg on Rt. 17. Open early, and seven days a week, people can make a last-minute garden supply run or get that key cup of morning coffee with muffin. Auntie El’s seems to have just about everything.

This Saturday the store celebrates 30 years in business by throwing an anniversary party at 1 p.m. that will feature a bluegrass band, baked goods and beverage sampling, and a raffle for a pair of New York Yankee tickets or grand prize Weber gas grill.

Popular Sloatsburg figures, Karl and Elena Schlademan run more than just a store. They sell everything from fresh baked goods and locally-grown produce to folk crafts, hot sauce, jams, honies and syrups to garden supplies, wooden rain barrels and Mexican pottery and artwork. Karl Schlademan, who can be found silently roaming the expansive property, said the store, of course, is named after his wife Elena, who everyone calls Auntie El. The Schlademans’ daughter, Gina, runs the bakery, which bakes pies, cookies, cakes, and donuts daily.

“Things have been good for us in Sloatsburg,” said Schlademan. “We appreciate all the local people who have been so loyal. Thirty years went real fast.”

The Saturday celebration will feature a presentation to Auntie El’s by Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright in honor of the store’s longevity and service to Sloatsburg. Schlademan said the day also marks the official grand opening of the location’s Yankee Propane filling station, a new business venture Schlademan said he’s excited to bring to the store and Sloatsburg.

“It’s been up and running for about a month and has been very successful so far,” said  Schlademan, who’s become an official Yankee Propane dealer. “If you use propane in any way, I can take care of you. I’d like to quote on anything anybody has — heating their home, heating their pool — any tank that they have at their house that they can’t transport, I can do something.”

Auntie El’s is geared to do much more than just swap tanks. They supply propane in most any shape and size. Customers can get complete refills while keeping their old tank. Schlademan is also in the process of converting a spare building on the property into a one-stop propane shop, with everything from Weber and Ducane grills to tanks and other propane accessories.

Auntie El’s has also beefed up two other areas — functional garden crafts and produce. Currently, the store features work by Sloatsburg folk crafter Mark Nimal, whose increasingly sophisticated distressed wood works are making their way east to Piermont and Nyack, and may soon cross the Hudson into Greenwich Village. Auntie El’s sells Nimal’s sturdy all-purpose wood with stone top garden tables. Schlademan said that he’s also selling a full line of Mexican pottery, which is lined up colorfully in front of the market in red and orange earth tones.

“About every week I’m getting a full line of Mexican pottery and art work,” he said. Auntie El’s has expanded its produce section with  goods from the black dirt fields of Florida, NY and rich river farms of Kingston.

The store also has a new mascot, Samson, who replaces the gentle giant Russia, the Schlademans’ Central Asian Ovcharka that died. But Samson looks very similar — big and blond and already up to 140 lbs at only 16 months old. Samson will most likely have paws like Russia’s, which were as big as a person’s face. Ovcharka’s are a shaggy Caucasus shepherd dog descended from the ancient Molosser and used to guard livestock against predators such as wolves and bears.

Family owned and operated, Auntie El’s over the years has meant different things to residents around Sloatsburg. But everyone receives the same warm welcome from fresh herbs and baked goods stuffed with seasonal ingredients, and piles of interesting and distracting stock spread through the rambling nooks and aisles of the store. Already the third generation of Schlademans can be found working there.

“My grandchildren are starting to work as they come of age,” said Karl Schlademan. When asked if they were giving him a family discount, Schlademan smiled wryly. “If I under pay them any they just take the money of out the register.”

Auntie El’s 30 Year Celebration & Grand Opening of its Yankee Propane Filling Station takes place Saturday, June 9 at 1 p.m. There will be a raffle for a “used-once” Weber Grill (new but being used for Saturday’s cookout) and NY Yankee tickets, bluegrass band and more. Auntie El’s is located on Rt. 17 in Sloatsburg.