New Haven Independent

Sunday’s crisp fall weather added a glow to the finale of the festive weekly gatherings in Edgewood Park, where organic farmers from around the state would bring their produce and neighbors would gather to taste, pick, and chat. CitySeed, a local not-for-profit, runs farmer’s markets in three other neighborhoods, too: Fair Haven, downtown, and Wooster Square, the last of which has six more weeks to go. (The others closed this week.)

Choices abounded at all the stalls Sunday, with one exception: You could also contribute $1 to the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance organization and take home four gourds collected from neighborhood activist Thea Buxbaum’s backyard. Click on the play arrow to watch Buxbaum, accompanied by Kate Bradley and Janis Underwood, describes the venture.

Jim Roby brought his tomatoes and garlic bulbs and Jerusalem artichokes one last time from his organic farm in Berlin. Click on the play arrow to watch Roby, who’s also a mover and shaker in the Northeast Organic Farming Association, describe which crops fared better than others this season and run down the pros and cons of agribusiness’s embrace of organics.

Ismael was selling the season’s last batch of Macoun apples from the farm where he works in Glastonbury, prepared to return home to Mexico, where he spends the winters with his family before returning for seasonal work in Connecticut.

Jane Maher, on the other hand, has to return only up the road to Oxford, where she prepares her organic prepared “Snooty Foods.” Click on the play arrow to hear her story.