Farm to steward Beacon Farmers Market

For years, Common Ground Farm has embraced and supported Beacon’s diverse population through its twin missions of food and education access. While Common Ground Farm’s work has previously focused on growing vegetables and educating people on the farm, this year it will take on a new endeavor by managing the Beacon Farmers Market. This is an opportunity for the farm to steward a community-based market, emphasizing education, food access and communal activities.

The market’s newly drafted mission is to feed and engage the Beacon community, support local farms and businesses, and create a more just food system.

After a winter-long hiatus, the Beacon Farmers Market will reopen April 24. Sarah Simon, who was a Common Ground Farm apprentice in 2015, will be returning this year and will split her time between market manager and farm crew. She is very excited to take on this new role: “There is so much momentum and excitement building around Common Ground Farm. I really believe in the values of the organization, and I am excited to extend Common Ground’s mission to the farmers market.”

The Beacon Farmers Market is hitting the ground running with four big initiatives:

1. Collaboration with local educational groups to offer free arts and gardening-based activities for children and adults. This will kick off with a summer programming showcase on May 15, which will feature some of the area’s popular summer camps, with fun demos and sign-up opportunities.

2. Music every weekend, in partnership with the Beacon Music Factory. Every week musicians with eclectic musical stylings will perform, bringing a level of added excitement and furthering the festive communal atmosphere.

3. Create access for the whole community. Simon will be initiating a token system where people can trade in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) coupons or pay for tokens with a credit card that can be used anywhere at the market. Once this is in place, the market will also offer Fresh Connect checks, a New York state program provideing an additional $2 benefit for every $5 of SNAP used at farmers markets.

4. Working with Zero to Go, an education-based waste management company that provides zero waste event services throughout the Hudson Valley. Simon hopes to make the entire market virtually waste free by 2017, starting with a weekly compost pick up by Zero to Go. She thinks this program will also encourage vendors and customers to work toward composting and recycling.

Beacon is a diverse community, with almost 50 percent of the children in school on free or reduced price lunches. At the same time, Beacon has become a popular destination for New York City weekenders and a great place to raise children for families moving up from the city. The Beacon Farmers Market has the challenge of providing vendors and activities that work for all potential visitors. While day visitors will be engaged by the diverse group of specialty vendors, the primary focus of the market is to support the people and businesses of Beacon. The new market will be almost entirely food based, so the market really can serve as a place for people to purchase their essentials. Simon said she feels it is important to provide a variety of options so customers can choose between different price points and products reflecting their values. She is hopeful this, along with the Fresh Connect and SNAP programs, will really increase market accessibility to the full community.

The number of meat and dairy vendors at the market will greatly expand. Vendors include Chaseholm Dairy Farm, Dashing Star Farm, Edgwick Farm and Eggberts Free Range Farm. In addition, the market is bringing on two farms that are participating in the Glynwood Incubator in New Paltz, Grass+Grit and Back Paddock. The Glynwood Incubator provides the tools and resources needed to support aspiring agricultural entrepreneurs. Farmers markets are great places for new farmers to get started and build a following, and it is exciting to support these new businesses in their first season.

Simon said she believes the vegetable vendors are the heart of the market. At the same time, she wants to make sure each vendor provides a unique product so they are not in direct competition with each other every week. This year’s lineup will feature Common Ground Farm, Fishkill Farms, which will also be the market’s primary fruit vendor, Starling Yards, a farm provides specialty products such as flint corn for polenta, and guest appearances from Obercreek Farm, which specializes in salad greens.

There are also several new specialty products at the market, including Kontoulis Olive Oil with olive oil sourced directly from the vendor’s family farm in Greece, a whole grain meat alternative company called Mindful Bear, and Coyote Kitchen, offering jams and preserves made of local fruits. In addition, Simon will be highlighting new prepared food vendors that make use of the raw products sold at the market. These vendors include Farmer-to-Chef Food truck, run by John Lekic of Le Express Bistro & Bar, and Elephant Belly, a new Cold Spring based vegan food purveyor.

The market will only be bringing on a small number of non-food vendors. These are all local Beacon-based businesses, including Sallyeander Soaps, whose production facilities are just up the road from the market, and One Nature, a restoration ecology native plant nursery and landscape design firm.

Using vendors that support each other, working with Glynwood Incubator farms, and creating opportunity for local organizations providing a variety of services does more than create food access and education — it creates a network of support for small businesses, enables fledgling farmers to get a foothold on their dreams, and engages the whole community in investing in a local food system through their purchasing power.

“I am excited to experiment with what a community supported market can be,” Simon said. “We have a different mission, which is so special. We are interested in supporting our community as a whole. It will be really interesting to see how it goes as we forge into the unknown.”

Sember Weinman is the education director for Common Ground Farm. Visithttp://www.commongroundfarm.org/

Beacon Farmers Market

•The Beacon Farmers Market reopens at the Beacon Waterfront April 24, and will run every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

•The market will have a reopening celebration May 15 that will feature a summer camp showcase. For more information, visit www.beaconfarmersmarket.org