Farmer's Market Opening Day
By James Doran
The marketplace defines a community.
The spot where folk from every corner of a town or village come together to exchange ideas, goods, gossip and the latest news is a vital hub that nourishes minds and bodies in equal measure.
So it is in Lexington where, with a rush of springtime fervor if not an equally seasonal temperature, the Farmer’s Market opened on Saturday, May 29th from 10am to 1pm as it will every other Saturday until November.
A small but enthusiastic collection of purveyors from beef, poultry and pork farmers, to growers of organic vegetables and mushrooms, suppliers of baked goods as well as makers of tinctures, tonics, syrups and salves. There is a potter selling delicate tableware, a natural perfumier and – for when it warms up – an icy man.
Today’s vibrant market would be nothing, however, without Peggy Rappleyea, one of Lexington’s most prominent and well-known community members whose work for the town never seems to cease.
“For many years I tried to get people to realize how important it is for all of us to be able to buy locally grown good food, to eat well and to support our local farmers and businesses,” Peggy told me during a recent chat at The Lexington Town Court House, where she is Clerk of the Court.
“After Hurricane Irene we had a lot of interest from local farms like JJF, Newton Farms and Danny Dymond’s Maple Syrup to set something up where they could come together. They needed help getting back on their feet as we all did after the storm.”
And that small group of pioneer farmers is largely still present at the market today. In fact Cole Freeman, who manages Newton Farm Collective in Spruceton, and Connor Greeley, who works there, are lending their expertise to the Farmer’s Market this year to seek out interesting new vendors and generally to expand its scope.
Beverly Resnik-Dezan is another of the market’s founders and still plays an active role in running it today.
“Back in 2011 after Hurricane Irene a group of us here in Lexington – Peggy Rappleyea, Lynn Byrne, Bonnie Blader, myself and some others – were working as a part of the Greene County team with Project Hope, an outreach program to help anyone affected by the storm. The market was a very important development that helped the community get back on its feet. People needed a place to gather and to feel that sense of belonging.”
But it is not just those who come to shop, browse and chat who benefit from the Farmer’s Market, it is a crucial outlet for the producers, growers and makers who sell here.
“It is vital for communities to be able to eat local,” says Jackie Spencer of Heatheridge Farm who has been a regular vendor for the past six years selling pasture raised chicken and eggs, grass fed beef, rare breed heritage pork, lamb and goat as well as cheeses, raw honey and maple syrup.
“For us small farmers to have a store the overhead is huge. It is just not sustainable for many of us. The cost of regulation in particular is getting more and more expensive. With a farmer’s market like this one we can reach the communities that want and need our produce affordably. The more farmer’s markets like this one we can access the better for us and for our customers.”
The quality of the produce available at the Lexington Farmer’s market is superb.
The chicken from Heatheridge, for example, has a completely different color, texture and flavor to the chicken you find at the supermarket. The freshness is sublime.
On our first visit to the market my family was able to buy beef short ribs from JJF Farms, daikon radish from Newtons and shitake mushrooms from Beverly’s mushroom stand. With the simple edition of soy sauce, ginger, garlic and some rice wine we were able to perfectly replicate a favourite dish from china town with all the ingredients sourced right here on the mountaintop.
That’s what the Lexington Farmer’s market is all about.
Babs Mansfield is the owner and operator of the Phoenicia Soap Company who makes artisanal soaps, shampoos perfumes and lotions. For her the farmer’s market performs a different but equally important role in mountaintop life.
“For me the farmer’s market is all about the story of our produce, and of our environment,” she says. “The Catskills has unique flowers and herbs that enable us to make unique products that are of the Catskills, nowhere else. For example, all over the world when we think of lavender we think of the South of France, where supposedly the best lavender comes from. But we have our own lavender here in The Catskills that I think has a much more beautiful fragrance. It is unique.”
Lynn Loflin, owner of Newton Farm Collective and former restaurateur in Manhattan and Brooklyn, believes farmer’s markets like ours are crucial to the sustainability of rural communities.
“The farmer’s market is a great place for long-time residents to bump into new residents and to get to know each other and to forge those links that make a community strong. We do a lot of that here,” Loflin says sitting beneath an awning on the farm last weekend while friends and neighbors shared seedlings for the new growing season and sipped iced tea.
And she hopes the farmer’s market will inspire even greater change.
“It has long been common for rural producers like me and the farmers from around here to take their produce to farmer’s markets in big cities like New York. Rural communities need to be reminded that we exist, that we can provide them with the food they need ecologically and affordably.”
And as the Farmer’s market season begins in Lexington we look forward to a summer gathering on Saturday mornings beneath the shade of the town hall, to share a story or two, some good gossip and of course the most delicious and natural food and drink our local farmers, producers and makers have to offer.
Come see for yourself.