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Read the press release here.

New Farmers Market Could Bloom at McGolrick Park This Spring

By Meredith Hoffman | January 30, 2012 7:53pm
Community Markets has 19 farmer's markets in New York City, Westchester, and Rockland County.
Community Markets has 19 farmer's markets in New York City, Westchester, and Rockland County.
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Community Markets

GREENPOINT—Fresh food-loving locals might just get a healthy present this spring.

With the support of nearly 600 online petitioners, a company with 19 farmers markets in the region, is planning to set up its newest outdoor shop near McGolrick Park.

Community Markets, a Westchester-based company, will unveil its proposal at a community board meeting Monday, hopes to have 14 vendors sell their local bounty from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays, from late May to November beginning this spring.

The exact location has not yet been determined, but will likely be near McGolrick Park, said Frankie Rowland, Marketing and Advertising Director for Community Markets.

The market would give priority to vendors that already work in the organization's other markets, though it might include new vendors, too, Rowland said.

Last year, five of Community Market's spots were in New York City, with the most popular ones in Park Slope and Morningside Heights, she said.

Sellers must follow certain requirements such as food safety, to participate, said Rowland, and they must live close enough "to feel comfortable driving round trip" to Greenpoint.

Supporters of the new market praised the salubrious effect it could have on the neighborhood.

"Everyone should have access to healthy real food," wrote James Suffern, who signed the petition for the market. "It makes our community healthier and thus more happier and more productive. Additionally, supporting local farms protects small farming and the land and water of those farms."

Rachel Gibbs, another petition signer, said a market "boosts food security, encourages conviviality, and supports local food producers."

And local Christy Denes wrote, "I love farmers markets. Right now there is only one per week anywhere close by and if we miss the opportunity to shop there we miss out on fresh local affordable food!"

A farmers market takes root on Saturdays in the nearby McCarren Park, run by GrowNYC, a nonprofit that runs 53 greenmarkets including the city's largest at Union Square.