Healthy and Local at NYC Greenmarkets

Willa Hutner 

St. Stephen's Greenmarket on a Saturday in May.

Too many people miss one of the finest things Manhattan has to offer—its farmers’ markets. These take place in schoolyards, parks, and parking lots, where local farmers rent stands to sell the food they have grown. Merchandise is not limited to fruits and vegetables. There are also the freshest meats, poultry, cheeses, just-laid eggs with bright-orange yolks, milk with cream on top, seafood, handmade baked goods, flowers, and artisanal goods. Some markets have other features, as shown in the chart below.  

Why should you bother, when the supermarket sells everything you need, year-round, including sodas and Swiffers? There are several reasons. The foods you buy from the source taste like what they are. In-season is not an advertising gimmick; it’s real. There is nothing like asparagus in the spring; freshly dug little fingerling potatoes in late summer; tiny, sweet carrots with the soil still clinging to the roots, sugars and minerals intact; heirloom tomatoes in September; or parsnips in winter after the cold weather has chilled the soil and sweetened the roots by converting starch to sugar. The only place you can find a tomato ripened in the field, not by gas, is at a farmers’ market. Supermarket fruits and vegetables are bred to survive global shipping; farmers grow what tastes good. The food you buy from growers is healthier, so you eat better, and you know where the food is coming from, how it has been treated, wrapped and stored. Shoppers buy 75% more fruit and vegetables at greenmarkets. Supermarkets display processed foods prominently, drawing customers to junk food. 

Shopping at a farmers’ market supports small-farm agriculture, an important and growing part of our food production system. Initially, it helps keep the farms, and basic home economy, alive. But there is a bigger picture. Farmers’ markets could be the first step in a larger program in which local produce fuels a neighborhood’s economy by drawing other businesses. These businesses, in turn, support other local purveyors. The Bi-Rite in San Francisco is a typical example of a Community Food Enterprise. It uses local printers, designers, and signmakers. 90% of its employees live within walking distance, thereby generating local jobs. It promotes interaction among locals: if a jam maker buys in volume from a farmer, the farmer has a guaranteed sale, and the transaction generates higher profits for both parties because there is no distributor. The federal government stands ready to help. Last year, Congress mandated that 5% of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Business and Industry Loan Guarantee Program go to farmers who sell their products regionally. There’s no reason it couldn’t happen here, with La Marqueta at Park Avenue and 115th Street, already in place, as an anchor. Lastly, your being part of this movement reshapes the urban area as more of a family space. You are shopping from your regional neighbors in a local urban setting. Instead of cars in a paved lot, you walk to their market, see friends, and buy delicious, healthy food. As greenmarkets proliferate, so does the opportunity to maintain a distinct boundary between country and city, with a ring of green farmland surrounding the city. 

The Greenmarket movement is fairly new. In 1976, Barry Benepe and Bob Lewis saw a huge disconnect between living in the city and having access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Barry had spent summers on his father’s farm, growing, packing, shipping, and dealing with a canning facility. In New York, supermarkets offered poor quality produce. Farmland was being lost, as farms were bought up for development. Inspired by models in Europe’s cities, Barry and Bob obtained an $800 grant from the Council on the Environment to create such a market and then set up shop with about 12 farmers. This was a small beginning to what is now a wide-spread amenity for city dwellers. 

To read the complete spring 2013 issue of CIVITAS News, visit http://civitasnyc.org/civitas-newsletters/

Markets on the Upper East Side and East Harlem: 

The initials stand for: A- Antiques, B- Recycling of rechargable batteries & cellphones, C-Cooking demonstrations, F- Flea Market, N- Nutrition education, R- Free recipes, S- Accepts food scraps for composting, T-Textiles recycling. 

East 67th Street Market at P.S. 183 

East 67th Street (between First & York Avenues) 

Open year round 

Saturdays, 6 am - 5pm A, F 

East 82nd Street, St. Stephen’s 
East 82nd Street (between First & York Avenues) 

Open year round
Saturdays, T, B, S, R, C

Winter Schedule: 9 am - 2 pm 
Summer Schedule: 9 am - 3 pm
EBT/WIC Accepted
In addition to batteries and cellphones, this market also also recycles cords, Britta filters, wine bottle corks, CD/DVDs, jewel cases and eye glasses. Summer events includes weekly cooking demos led by the market manager and occasional area chefs, and live music with the Opera Collective and Mariachi Flor from July to Labor Day.

East 92nd Street Market 

First Avenue (between 92nd & 93rd Streets) 

Open June 23 - December 24 

Sundays, 9 am to 5 pm C, N, S, R

Recyclables collected are batteries, cellphones, cords, Britta filters, wine bottle corks, CD/DVDs, jewel cases and eye glasses. Summer events include cooking demos by the market manager, and from July 8th to Thanksgiving this year the Health Department Stellar Cooks will combine nutrition education with cooking demos. Compost and clothing/fabrics/hats/shoes/belts are collected 9am-1pm.

Mt. Sinai Greenmarket 

99th Street (between Madison & Park Avenues) 

Open June 26 - November 27 

Wednesdays, 8 am - 4 pm C, R 
EBT/WIC Accepted

Harvest Home East Harlem Market 

East 104th Street at Third Avenue 

Open July 11 - November 14 

Thursdays, 8 am - 4 pm C, N 

Harvest Home Metropolitan Market 
99th Street at Third Avenue 

July 5 - November 15 

Fridays, 8 am - 4pm C, N 

* Many of the markets offer merchandise and services beyond farm-grown food.