Schenectady Greenmarket returns outside
Spring is blossoming with the opening of Schenectady Greenmarket’s outdoor season on Sunday, May 1, outside of Schenectady City Hall.
In the fall of 2008, the Schenectady Greenmarket set up for the first time, but with the third outdoor season underway, the market appears to offer more than just a shopping experience. It has become a community gathering place, where residents from across the county can enjoy music, food, chat and, of course, shop.
Every Sunday through October the market will remain open before the cold air forces its return to its winter venue at the Proctors Arcade. The additional space of the outdoor market allows more vendors to participate more than 60 this season with products ranging from local produce, baked goods, wine, milk, meat and a variety of crafts.
`All of these products are produced and grown locally,` said Betsy Henry, chair of the Schenectady Greenmarket Board. `It is a great place to come and spend a Sunday. We have people of all walks of life.`
When the weather is `just right,` the outdoor market can see 4,000 people, said Henry, but the market averages around 2,500.
`There is a lot more space, so we tend to attract more people in the summer time,` said Henry. `We still get people arriving at the market that have never visited before, but we definitely have a core group of folks that visit every week.`
Supporting a local economy is important, said Henry, and having food travel long distances to reach consumers is not a sustainable model moving forward. Vendors are charged a fee to participate in the market.
`A lot of our vendors are just starting their own business at a market because they are not paying a huge amount of rent,` said Henry. `In a time when people are used to getting in their car and driving miles and miles to a mall when you come down to the market you can almost always run into friends. It is much more of a community focused event, and in that way, it supports the local downtown businesses as well.`
Chris Chandler of Mariaville Farms, which is family owned and operated, has been at the market since it started. What she likes most about the market is getting to meet new people.
`I think it has grown really fast. The market has grown and we have grown and we are changing the ways we do things so we can accommodate our customers,` said Chandler. `Every vendor there, they’ve all got different personalities and different stories. We have made a lot of new friends being at the Schenectady Greenmarket.`
Chandler and her husband grew up in Rotterdam, but moved out to Duanesburg before raising their three sons. The farming started out as a hobby with her children, but now she is thinking of building a storefront outside of the market to sell her products since the demand has increased. Besides the Schenectady Greenmarket, she is going to participate in two other farmers markets. Having a storefront, she said, would allow customers more options on when to purchase her products outside of the Greenmarket.
`We have to work to support the farm, but we are actually starting to break even with the retail,` said Chandler.
She sells meat at the market and said there are some people that won’t buy store-bought meat anymore after trying her local product. Her family doesn’t inject or feed the animals with any antibiotics. Animals are also raised in a `non-stress` environment.
`We have so many customers now that won’t even buy factory-raised meat anymore, because it has no flavor,` she said. `It is buying something and knowing where it is coming from.`
Another vendor, Josephine Carenza, owner of Josephine’s Wholegrain Baking in Glenville, is nearing her second year of selling at the market. With the market trying to offer a wide variety of products, she said she helped fill a niche with her whole-grain bread. She produces her products out of her home, which also include muffins, rolls and other treats.
`To me, the Schenectady Greenmarket is the friendliest atmosphere, it is for the purpose of the shopping, but it is really social,` said Carenza. `We have made a number of really nice friends at that market. It is just a wonderfully social atmosphere. A lot of my customers now know each other. It is just really very friendly.`
The market takes place every Sunday through October outside City Hall from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and features vendors from within a 100-mile radius, music, food vendors, massage therapists, community experts, children’s activities and cooking demonstrations.
Activities for the kick-off included music by The Slate Hill Band, an acoustic folk rock trio, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., followed by the Fairview Avenue from noon to 2 p.m. Family friendly activities included a Bouncy Bounce sponsored by the YMCA and Mr. Twisty. Other attractions were the First Annual Yoga Circus Day at the Community Table and children’s activities presented by 4H of Schenectady.“
