Meet your farmers up close & personal
Four times a week, fresh, local food vendors set up their stalls on the west side of Union Square for GrowNYC’s Union Square GreenMarket. It’s an impressive bazaar that features an eclectic range of produce.
However, according to Sarah Atz, who’s been shopping at GreenMarket regularly for thirty-four years, it wasn’t always like this, “The market was just beginning [in 1980] and there wasn’t a lot of variety,” she says. “There weren’t any cheese makers or bread makers or wine makers. It was really just vegetables and fruits.”
The market has certainly expanded its selection since. On Friday alone you can purchase wine and spirits from King Ferry Winery and Harvest Spirits, milk and cheese from several vendors including Millport Dairy and General Cochran Farm, meat from Consider Bardwell Farm and Flying Pigs Farm (to list only two), maple syrup from Deep Mountain Maple, honey from Tremblay Apiaries and jam from Beth’s Farm Kitchen among other products.
Yet, GreenMarket remains in touch with its (forgive the pun) roots as it’s in no short supply of fruit and vegetable vendors. Stokes Farms, for example, grows vegetables and “just about every kind of herb you can imagine for cooking” and has been selling at GreenMarket since the market’s very beginning. “We are one of the original twelve members of GreenMarket. So, we’ve been here since 1976,” Stokes Farm manager, Tom Margotta, says. When asked about the benefits of shopping at a farmer’s market, Margotta points out that it’s much easier to verify the food quality when it’s grown locally.
“If you buy from here you know that you’re buying them from the farmer … We get people who buy from us here and then go visit us at our garden center. So you know where your food’s coming from.”
It’s a sentiment that other vendors at Union Square reciprocate, though Peter Henry of Consider Bardwell Farm adds that the size of a business is perhaps an even more significant factor.
“It’s important that it’s local but that’s not really the end-all important thing,” he says. “I feel comfortable supporting people who are taking care of their animals and their land and that’s an easier thing to ensure when you’re buying from people on a smaller scale.”
Beyond food quality, though, Margotta speaks of the unique vibe at GreenMarket “It is a totally different environment than any other retail business,” he says. “You’re here where people come looking for things that they don’t look for anywhere else in the city. We have our niche and people know that. And they’re generally very happy to get what we bring them. So, it’s just a different atmosphere.”
Lee Houck, who works for Deep Mountain Maple concurs. “In New York City you don’t often get to feel connected to the seasons …” he says. “So, [at GreenMarket] you get this feeling that you actually are connected to the earth and the seasons and the sunlight. It’s the best life, really.”
So, if you’re looking for a regular spot to buy locally-grown, fresh food and a personable shopping atmosphere, Union Square GreenMarket is open on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.