By Mia Padovano
The farmer’s market is back and open for business, offering a range of fresh foods and produce to eager shoppers on Sundays.
Managed by Down To Earth Markets, which runs farmer’s markets in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Westchester, the Rye market showcases about 20 vendors in the parking lot off Theodore Fremd Avenue behind Purchase Street stores.
Some vendors return to Rye each week, and others visit once or twice a month. Michelle Fino of Fino Farms, which grows fruits and vegetables in Milton, N.Y., said she loves “how family-oriented Rye is, as opposed to the city, where most shoppers are single.”
On a recent Sunday, the market was packed with moms and dads buying fresh fruit and veggies their children will actually like, people walking their dogs, and kids coming from Little League, trying to convince their parents to add some baked goods to their baskets.
Claire Sypeck, a Rye resident and frequent farmer’s market shopper, said she comes to the market for the local produce. “It’s very hard to know if it’s fresh” elsewhere, she said.
But shoppers at the market also can buy pasta, coffee, olive oil, breads, seafood, and meats in one stop. “You can actually come here instead of the grocery store,” said another shopper.
A small crowd gathered around La Trafila Pasta, where the fresh Rigatoni and Fusilli were the most popular items. Shoppers could complement their fresh pasta with sauce from the vendor next door, Newgate Farms.
David Long, age 6, said his favorite thing about the farmer’s market is “they make the pizza really good.” Those who don’t want to wait to get home to the kitchen can grab a slice of George’s Wood Fired Pizza. For the second year in a row, the most popular pies there are the margarita and burrata. “Also,” David said, “the samples” make coming to the market exciting.
Flowering Sun Ecology Center had a display of mushrooms. Lance Bookbinder, who works there, helped a customer choose the best mushroom for risotto: A morel mushroom would lend a nutty, earthy flavor, he explained, while a coral tooth mushroom, a relative of Lion’s Mane, would blend into a cream sauce. Both varieties are an excellent source of protein. Flowering Sun Ecology Center is exploring how mushrooms are linked to intelligence and increased brain activity. Their table also had microgreens, and their honey was sold out by 9 a.m.
Peggy Conway, a Rye resident, owns P&S Seafood with her husband, Steve. Nearly all of their products are locally sourced. They had monkfish, flounder, bluefish, tuna, and sea scallops.
Conway hopes people pay a visit the farmer’s market. “I’m not sure people realize how great it is,” she said. In particular, she cited the quality and quantity of the vendors — and “the people” — as the primary reasons that she keeps coming back.
Jack Martin, who has a knife-sharpening business, Jack Knife, is a regular as well. He became famous in Rye after customers raved about his work in the Rye Moms Facebook group. He has been coming back to the farmer’s market and his loyal customers ever since.
The farmer’s market doesn’t only serve regular customers, it also attracts food lovers and food experts from outside of Rye.
Lucie Rochat, who lives in Albany and works at the Department of Agriculture focusing on farmer’s markets, was visiting the Rye market on a recent Sunday. Her favorite thing about farmer’s markets is they “are the only place where customers can interact with producers” when they buy food. In grocery stores, she said, shoppers grab their regular items from a shelf without every speaking with the person who grew or prepared it.
Rochat said she also appreciated that the Rye farmer’s market participates in the FreshConnect program. Local produce can be a lot more expensive than supermarket produce, and FreshConnect helps veterans and low-income families buy healthy foods.
A FreshConnect card works like a prepaid debit card, except it can only be used to buy fruits and vegetables. The Rye Farmers Market offers a matching program where users receive $2 in FreshConnect coupons for every $2 withdrawn from their card.
The market is open every Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., until Thanksgiving.
