Winter storm warning puts Tompkins Square Greenmarket on ice tomorrow

Given all the blizzard-ing expected tomorrow into Monday... GrowNYC has cancelled all greenmarkets for Sunday, including the one in Tompkins Square Park. Monday's Union Square Greenmarket is also a no-go. 

H/T Steven

Arctic blast delays Tompkins Square Greenmarket opening until 11 a.m. Sunday

Photo by Stacie Joy 

Given the Extreme Cold Warning in the NYC area, the Tompkins Square Greenmarket will delay its opening from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. tomorrow. 

Tonight will see dangerously cold wind chills as low as 20 below. 

The weather advisory ends at 1 p.m. tomorrow.

Tompkins Square Greenmarket CANCELLED for tomorrow

Here's the word from GrowNYC: 

Sunday, January 25: Due to an expected winter storm, the Tompkins Square Greenmarket will be closed. Clothing/textile collection is cancelled. 

H/T Steven

Sunday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

At the Tompkins Square Greenmarket today...

The Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket is a go today

Despite the downed tree from yesterday afternoon on Seventh Street and Avenue A, the usual vendors for the Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket are here today... set up around the fallen elm — three vendors are on Seventh Street ... the rest along A...

And Steven reports that a tree crew is on the scene...

Toigo Orchards returns for the season to the Tompkins Square Greenmarket

A quick note from the year-round Tompkins Square Greenmarket along Avenue A (and Seventh Street)... Toigo Orchards from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, returned for the season last weekend with "orchard and small fruit and certified organic greenhouse vegetables." 

The Greenmarket's last returning producer, Luna Family Farm (cut flowers, branches and wreaths from Burlington County, New Jersey), is expected to return on May 15. 

Market hours are listed as 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Compost collection returns to the Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket

The Lower East Side Ecology Center has returned — as of last Sunday — to accept kitchen scraps for composting at the Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket...





EVG reader Bobby G. also notes that they are selling potting soil ...



Find more info at the LES Ecology Center website.

Thanks to Steven for the top three photos!

Samascott Orchards are back at the Tompkins Square Greenmarket

Today marks the return of Samascott Orchards to the Tompkins Square Greenmarket (haven't seen them in weeks) ... they are set up Seventh Street...





...and other vendors today until 4 p.m. ...

View this post on Instagram

Samascott Orchards will return to Tompkins Square Greenmarket this Sunday! Thank you for your patience and dedication. 🍏💚 Attending this Sunday 5/10: @breadalonebakery, @samascottorchards, Pura Vida Fisheries, @fledgingcrowvegetables, @meredithsbread, @stoneandthistle, @norwichmeadowsfarm. See you Sunday, we’re open 9am- 4pm! #gmktnyc @samascottorchards

A post shared by GrowNYC Manhattan (@grownyc_manhattan) on May 8, 2020 at 10:49am PDT

Today at the Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket

Today's vendors, who are putting in place social distancing with their sales:

• Bread Alone Bakery

• Pura Vida Fisheries

• Fledging Crow Vegetables

• Meredith's Bread

• Stone & Thistle Farm

• Back to the Future Farm

• Norwich Meadows Farm

Information taken from the GrowNYC Instagram account.

And here's a photo via EVG reader Daniel from last Sunday showing the social distancing in place...

The Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket is open today

The Greenmarket is open today along Avenue A at Seventh Street, as these photos by Steven show.

Signs are up reminding people about social distancing... and touching products...



Today also marks the last day for now to drop off food scraps at Tompkins Square Park ...



As EVG regular Daniel noted, New York State considers farmer's markets to be essential businesses that can stay open during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Union Square Greenmarket is expected to be open tomorrow.

You can monitor any changes to the Greenmarket schedules via the GrowNYC site.

Compost pumpkin patch

Post-Halloween scene at the compost bins today at the Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket...

Weather upstate KOs Greenmarket at Tompkins Square Park today

Info posted on Facebook yesterday...

Avenue A and 7th Street now during the Tompkins Square Greenmarket

Stannard Farm, a regular presence on Avenue A and Seventh Street on Sundays dating to 1998, abruptly pulled out of GrowNYC's Greenmarket program the week of Sept. 9.

For the past two Sundays, the prime corner space was being used for Greenmarket information...


[Photo by Steven from Sept. 16]

A Greenmarket rep said that they are waiting for confirmation on a new producer/vendor for that space.

You can find a list of the other Tompkins Square Greenmarket farmers here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Stannard Farm pulls out of the Greenmarket; 20-plus year veterans of Tompkins Square Park

Stannard Farm pulls out of the Greenmarket; 20-plus year veterans of Tompkins Square Park

[Photos by Blake Farber]

Stannard Farm, a regular presence on Avenue A and Seventh Street on Sundays dating to 1998, abruptly pulled out of GrowNYC's Greenmarket program this week.



Here's their note to customers:

With a heavy heart, we write this. Due to injustices we have faced with Greenmarket, we will no longer be participating in the Greenmarket Program. Unfortunately, this means we will not be finishing the CSA season.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your faithfulness and loyalty to Stannard Farm.

Please keep an eye out for a letter in your “snail mail” over the next couple of days that will have your refund check for the remaining 10 weeks of your CSA share.

They did not specify what "injustices" they experienced at the Greenmarket.

I asked Michael Hurwitz, director of the Greenmarket program, for a comment about Stannard Farm. To his knowledge, reps from Stannard Farm had not approached Greenmarket officials with these concerns. His statement:

GrowNYC’s Greenmarket Program has been supporting farmers for over four decades and we strive to work with all our Producers to help them succeed and prosper. We also have some of the strictest rules in the country, requiring farmers to grow their own products for sale at our markets.

In addition, we have a Farmer Community Advisory Committee (FCAC) that serves as advocates for farmers who may have concerns with Greenmarket’s operations. Prior to receiving Stannard Farm's notice Tuesday afternoon that they were immediately ending their relationship with Greenmarket, to my knowledge, Standard Farms had not approached Greenmarket Management or the FCAC through the process outlined in our rules, or otherwise, to raise concerns over perceived "injustices."

While it is unfortunate for their customers that they would end their CSA and market operation so abruptly, Greenmarket will do everything possible to replace them at market with a suitable farmer so that customers can continue to access fresh, healthy, local food.

So no official word just yet who will be taking over their space on Avenue A and Seventh Street in the Tompkins Square Greenmarket.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated move, the Greenmarket announced a new vendor for Tompkins Square Park on Sundays. NY Cider Co., located in the Fingerlakes Region, will be selling their hard ciders made from New York State grown heirloom and wild apple varieties.

Vendors at the Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket this winter

[EVG file photo]

Just as a reminder ... here's who you can expect most Sundays this winter at the Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket along Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place...

• Bread Alone, Boiceville, N.Y.: organic baked goods
• East Branch Farms, Roxbury, N.Y.: Farmstead kimchi, probiotics
• Flying Pig Farm, Shusan, N.Y.: all things pork
• Ronnybrook Dairy Farm, Pine Plains, N.Y.: bottled milk, yogurt, drinkable yogurt, butter, creme fraiche, live cultures
• Meredith's Bakery, Kingston, N.Y.: baked goods with gluten-free options
• Pura Vida Fisheries: Fresh seafood
• Stannard Farm, South Cambridge, N.Y.: 20-plus years of growing for the East Village Greenmarket. Storage vegetables, pears, apples, cider, donuts, beef, pork and eggs.

In addition, there's GrowNYC's Food Scrap Composting from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and GrowNYC's Clothing Collection from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Thanks to Madalyn Warren, one of the Sunday vendors, who helped compile this list...

Peonies at the Park

EVG regular Daniel notes that the Briscoe Flower Farm will be at the Tompkins Square Greenmarket today and next Sunday ...



...selling fresh peonies...if this is of interest...







Briscoe was stationed on A near St. Mark's Place last Sunday, when Daniel took these photos.

A Greenmarket FYI

With Christmas and New Year's falling on Sundays this year... today is the last day for the Tompkins Square Greenmarket until Jan. 8.

At the Tompkins Square Greenmarket today

Just two vendors — Meredith's Bread and Pura Vida Fish — are braving the wind chills today. Also, from the Greenmarket folks: "Sangmin from the compost team will be here til 1 to collect your food scraps, but there is NO textile recycling today."

Learn the history of the NYC greenmarket program tonight

[Greenmarket guy Barry Benepe]

From the EVG inbox…

Greenmarkets: A Presentation by Barry Benepe
Tonight 6:30-8
Church of St. Brigid, 119 Avenue B at East Eighth Street
Free! Reservations required

In 1976, planner and architect Barry Benepe co-founded the Greenmarket program in New York City with a fellow planner, Bob Lewis. Their open air farmers markets offered a solution to two pressing problems: regional farmers were struggling to make a living and losing farmland to development, and New York City consumers had a hard time finding good, fresh produce.

Barry will join GrowNYC and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation to discuss the history and development of several iconic open air farmers markets, including the Union Square Greenmarket, Tompkins Square Greenmarket and the Saint Mark’s Church Greenmarket.

To register, please call (212) 475-9585 ext. 35 or email rvsp@gvshp.org

Salsa-off this Sunday at the Tompkins Square Greenmarket

Via the EVG inbox...

This Sunday Sept. 14, 12:30 p.m.: Salsa-Off!
Think you've got the best salsa recipe in the East Village? Enter the Tompkins Square Greenmarket Salsa-Off. Customers are the judges, winner gets a prize! Email the market manager, Kathleen here to participate.