Elipidio Trejo (at left in photo) and Ismael Gonzalez woke up at dawn Wednesday morning to harvest kale, radishes, sugar snap peas, arugula and lettuce for opening day at CitySeed’s downtown farmers’ market.
They drove for 35 minutes from Rose’s Berry Farm in Glastonbury to outside New Haven’s City Hall, where pedestrians gathered to buy juicy strawberries and sample fresh, crunchy sugar snap peas.
Rebecca Morrison from the Northfordy Farm in Northford brought naturally grown produce to the downtown market for the first time this morning. Regulars at CitySeed’s Wooster Square Market since it started in 2005, the Northfordy Farm workers were unaccustomed to the downtown clientele. “At Wooster Square people tend to bring their own bags,” Morrison said as their brown paper bag supply dwindled.
The Northfordy farm is run largely by volunteers with few paid workers. “It’s a work trade,” Morrison said, “you work on the farm … then you go home with some vegetables.” The naturally grown, volunteer-cultivated produce at Northfordy Farm is not USDA-approved organic, but they say it’s organic in spirit.
“Organic is an ethic not a marketing label,” reads a sign posted at their stand.
“It is important that we provide a range of price points for conventional and organic products,” Jennifer McTiernan said. McTiernan is the executive director of CitySeed, the non-profit organization behind New Haven’s farmers’ markets. The group tries “to offer a representative bounty [from] Connecticut farms at our markets,” she added.
Blue State Coffee was also new to the downtown market this morning. Benjamin Wilkinson, the shop’s manager, (at left in photo) came bearing free iced coffee to spread the word about the Wall street coffee shop. “Downtown, people don’t really know about us,” Wilkinson said. “With the Yale students gone for the summer, we have to figure something out.” He gave away at least 40 cups of coffee this morning. Next week, he will have tea and coffee for sale.
The Downtown City Farmers’ Market is held on Church street near the Green from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Wednesday until November 25. The market is WIC-certified and accepts food stamps.
European farmer's markets are popular in part because they sell drugs on the side. In New Haven we're stuck with mere drug-dealer look-a-likes and our stunted dreams.
Drugs not jobs!