Farmers bring summer’s bounty to nearby markets

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To people living in Van Cortlandt Village, it is a play- ground with a train structure that children enjoy climbing into, and with benches shaded by linden trees where older visitors can sit, chat, play chess, or watch the kids.

But on Wednesday afternoons from midsummer through fall, the playground on the corner of Orloff Avenue and Gale Place — a yard known locally as “train park” — becomes the location of a produce market, where teenage vendors offer locally grown beets, radishes, lettuce, peaches and whatever other fruits and vegetables are in season.

The market, organized by the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park and GrowNYC, runs on Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. until Oct. 26. It is one of several farmer’s markets and “youthmarkets” that are flourishing in the northwest Bronx.

At train park, rectangular tables are arranged into a U shape under a large white tent, and filled with fresh corn still in its husks, beets and carrots with the leaves still attached, small baskets of green serrano peppers and blueberries packed into small containers. The produce comes directly from farms in the area.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing for the community,” a shopper, Pamela Brennan, said on a recent afternoon, after buying cherries and beets. “The food, the fruit, the vegetables are always fresh and they always have good buys, compared to the stores.”

Because of the market’s location amid apartment high-rises of housing co-ops and smaller single-family brick homes, its fresh produce becomes easily accessible to the many elderly people living in the neighborhood.

The market boasts a base of regular customers: “It’s convenient, and we haven’t missed a week,” said Marvin Kamile, who came to the market with his wife and bought tomatoes and peaches.

High-school students who work at the market have gotten to know some of the regulars, who talk about what foods they like and what they would like to see at the market the following week.

“I think it’s brought the community closer,” said Kimberly Cruz, a student working at the market.

A few miles to the north in Yonkers, another farmer’s market takes place at Van der Donck Park on Fridays from noon to 5 p.m. through October.

It offers seasonal produce such as cucumbers, lettuce, eggplants and tomatoes – all of which are grown hydroponically on The Science Barge, an urban farm docked off the Yonkers coast of the Hudson River.

The market is operated by nonprofit group Groundwork Hudson Valley, and employs high-school students.

“Since there are not many access points for fresh, local produce we tried to be an outlet for the community,” the nonprofit’s deputy chief of the lands and river program, Nathan Hunter, said. The barge where the produce grows uses coconut husks in place of soil, and collects rainwater in massive tanks for watering.

“A lot of people are familiar with The Science Barge because it sits right on the harbor ... But when they pick up the lettuce they [ask] why are all these roots attached to this lettuce? So, that gives us a teaching opportunity to tell people about hydroponic items,” Mr. Hunter said.

Van Cortlandt Village, like many other residential areas in the Bronx, “really is a vegetable and fruit desert,” said Christina Taylor, the executive director of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park.

“There is one grocery store that is within a short walk without having to walk all the way down to Broadway,” she said. To make up for the “desert”-like scarcity of fresh produce, her group opened the farmer’s market, Ms. Taylor said.

Beside fresh fruit and vegetables, some markets also offers demonstrations on how to cook them. At the Wednesday farmer’s market that operates at the New York Botanical Garden at 225 Mosholu Parkway Greenway, shoppers watched a demonstration of sautéed summer squash being cooked. The recipe also included black currant, roasted corn and baby tomatoes topped with tamarind dressing.

A vendor and second-generation farmer, Ernesto Acevedo, tended to his stall on a recent day, arranging bundles of carrots, beets and radishes — all with their attached green tops — from the family’s all-organic farm.

Mr. Acevedo said he tends to the mar- kets while his father tends to the farm. His young son Jaden was helping his father at the market, peeling corncobs.

Mr. Acevedo said his father does not use pesticides, maintaining that in his native Puebla, Mexico, local residents eat clean produce, and cancer rates are low. The father blames the higher incidence of the disease in the United States on pesticides in American food, Mr. Acevedo said.

For teenagers working at the market at Orloff Avenue, the summer job offers an additional perk: They can take some of the unsold fruits and vegetables home.

“I used to eat junk food,” said Tiffany Class, who is working there for a second summer. Now, she said 75 per- cent of her lunch or dinner includes vegetables.

Another student, Raphael Nwadike, seconded: “I ate chips, candy,” but now tomatoes and mesclun are his favorite foods, he said.

“Now, that I can bring vegetables home and I know more ways and combinations to make the food,” Raphael said. “It’s really cool to go home and say: ‘Yeah, we can do this and we can do that,’ instead of buying a bag of chips.”

Area green markets:

The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park operates a youthmarket every Wednesday from noon to 7 p.m. on the corner of Orloff Avenue and Gale Place.

The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park also operates a youthmarket every Thursday from noon to 7 p.m. at E. Gun Hill Road and DeKalk Avenue.

The Riverdale Neighborhood House and GrowNYC run a youthmarket at W. 256th Street and Mosholu Avenue on Thursdays from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The Riverdale Y operates a market at the David A. Stein Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy at 660 W. 236th St. on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A Wednesday farmer’s market operates from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the New York Botanical Garden at 225 Mosholu Parkway Greenway.

In Yonkers, a farmer’s market takes place at Van der Donck Park on Fridays from noon to 5 p.m. through October.



David ‘Dee’ Delgado contributed reporting for this story.

Friends of Van Corlandt Park, youthmarket, organic food, The Science Barge, farmer's markets, New York Botanical Garden, Van der Donck Park Farmer's Market, David "Dee" Delgado, Lisa Herndon

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