Since it first opened in 1933, the Capital District Cooperative, Inc. has traveled a road of changes. For starters, it’s now called the Capital District Farmers Market.
Back at the original market, more than 500 farmers from nine counties would sell mainly to mom and pop stores around the Capital Region. Today, there are roughly 150 farmers from 15 counties selling to restaurants, larger chains and the public.
But throughout the years of changes and challenges, the fundamental goal of the enterprise has stayed the same: providing fresh, locally grown products to the region.
“It’s really one of the few places where a farmer can drop off a product that was picked within 12 hours and get to the end user,” said Jim Hans, president of D. Brickman Inc, a wholesaler at the market since 1958.
With the rising “buy local” movement, the Menands-based farmers market is celebrating its 80th anniversary with a bigger presence than ever. People are becoming much more conscience about what is on their plate, Hans said, creating a movement that swings back to “supporting the local operator.” The market will celebrate its anniversary by doing what it does best: continuing its retail and wholesale market, as well as adding some family-friendly events, including a corn festival and pumpkin festival.
“To mark the 80th anniversary, it’s really about continuing to promote the small operator, from product to table not only in a timely matter, but in a cost efficient matter,” Hans said.
A market with many faces
The Capital District Farmers Market is the oldest and largest farmers market in the area, with its home base at 381 Broadway in Menands. The market has always had two main components: the wholesale and the retail market. Farmers come from Hamilton, Warren, Washington, Saratoga, Fulton, Montgomery, Schenectady, Albany, Schoharie, Rensselaer, Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Ulster and Delaware counties.
Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, the more than 100 active members line up at the wholesale market, which runs from 6 to 8 a.m, May through October. Grocers, like Honest Weight Food Co-op and Price Chopper, restaurants and residents can come to the wholesale market to buy in bulk. Items span free range eggs from Blackberry Hill Farm in Hudson to watermelon from Hand Melon Farm in Greenwich to mums from West Shaker Farmer in Albany.
“If you come early enough (you can) see the diversity of the products that we handle,” Capital District Farmers Market Board President Ralph Douty said. “And the quality. We deal in premium products, basically.”
Douty called the wholesale market a “food hub” for the northeast due to its location, the diversity of its offerings and volume of products that come into the market.
Douty has been coming to the market since he first visited with his farmer grandfather at 7 years old, and has farmed on land on both Wolf and Albany-Shaker roads. He said the distribution system has changed over the years.
“We lost the mom and pop, and door-to-door peddlers. Supermarkets have taken over the food distribution,” Douty said. “And the whole market in general has gotten smaller because the farm population is shrinking.”
While there may be fewer farmers in the area, the wholesale industry is still booming. Several wholesalers at the market are actually tenants right on the Menands property, including Capital City Produce and D. Brickman. Those wholesaler tenants are open Monday through Friday, from 5 a.m. to noon, May through October.
The wholesalers act as liaisons from the farmer to the customer and Douty said the wholesale market remains strong and busy, with a consistently high turnout.
From farm to table
When not buying in bulk, the general public can frequent the retail farmers market every Saturday from the beginning of May until the end of October from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. At the market, roughly 10 to 12 vendors settle in under the pavilion. Each week, the retail market highlights a product, such as cherries/raspberries on July 27 and eggplant on Aug. 31, and a brochure is distributed with a recipe to be used with the product. The retail market also has a “mystery farm box,” which includes one item from each vendor and is raffled off to a customer.
There aren’t just edibles, either. Lisa Osborne-NeJame sells handmade jewelry and Terry Wescott offers one-of-a-kind log cabin bird houses, for example.
The small retail market attracted a handful of customers on Saturday, June 15, but Douty said the market sees roughly 200 customers a week. At special events, like the Strawberry Festival on Saturday, June 22, closer to 400 people turn out.
Lansing’s Farm Market and Greenhouse, based on Lishakill Road in Niskayuna, attends both the wholesale and retail markets, offering products including lettuce, flowers and herbs. They also specialize in baked goods, including zucchini bread. By noon on Saturday, June 15, Lansing’s had sold out of their strawberries at the retail market.
“And people love the apple cider donuts. People go crazy over that,” John Peterson, of Lansing’s, said.
Retail market first timer Rocco Parvana, of Guilderland, came with Eileen Gogan to the market to buy some herbs and greens.
“I saw the commercial for it last night on TV. I like buying local,” Parvana said.
Already a tough season
With the 2013 season well underway, some farmers are already struggling to contend with the year’s unpredictable weather, which has included heavy downpours in the last few weeks.
Herman Krug, 74, of Krug’s Brookside Farm in East Schodack, has been coming to the market since 1944. On Saturday, June 22, he held a cup of coffee and looked forlornly at the small offering of produce he was able to bring to market that week.
“The plants are drowning. Crops are too wet. The strawberries, tomatoes, are hurting very bad,” Krug said. “It is early enough that it can recover.”
Recent sunny weather bodes well for that possibility. Hans, who has been visiting the market for the last 25 years, said he’s not worried either, especially after the farmers recovered from storms like Tropical Storm Irene.
“I can’t speak for the farmers, but I know them well enough to say that their resiliency is incredible. Their season can change within a 12-hour weather pattern. Their crops can go from seedlings to nothing in the matter of one storm,” Hans said.
Hans said he’s aware that the farmers are behind this year with their products due to the storms.
“This is what I learn from farmers: they don’t worry. They’ll plant again, they’ll grow again. They can’t control Mother Nature. They can’t control how it plays out,” Hans said. “But what they can do is put the product in the ground new season. The sun will shine and life will go on.”
Check capitaldistrictfarmersmarket.org for a schedule of the year’s special events, which include a Corn Festival on July 20, a Harvest Festival on Sept. 14 and the Pumpkin Festival on Oct. 12.
