Farm Fresh Rhode Island blog

… along the sidewalk beside Burnside Park and Kennedy Plaza! It will open Friday, June 13 (scary!) just a few steps away from the old location, but a few steps can make all the difference. The new location will increase visibility and access for customers who work in the Financial District, bus riders and passersby. There will also be new benches, café tables, and chairs placed inside of Burnside Park so that market-goers have more green space to enjoy lunch or coffee.

Your survey responses favored a Kennedy Plaza location for the market, followed by the Financial District and RISD Market Square. Further discussions showed that vendor parking would be a nightmare by the Turk’s Head Plaza and that Market Square was considered a bit too far from Downtown. A walkthrough of Downtown last week with folks from Farm Fresh, the Providence Department of Art, Culture, & Tourism and the Providence Foundation revealed great potential for a market by Burnside Park.

The move is good timing, too. The City of Providence and downtown businesses have recently begun efforts to make Kennedy Plaza a more vibrant, exciting place. The city hosted a workshop with the Project for Public Spaces and invited several downtown businesses, city officials, and stakeholders to participate in re-envisioning Kennedy Plaza. Outdoor markets will be a top priority in efforts to make Kennedy Plaza a more pedestrian-friendly, community gathering space. In fact, the left lane of Washington Street adjacent to the market will be roped off for pedestrian use during the market, a transformation of the Plaza space in the spirit of New York’s Union Square.

One more thing: along with cooking demonstrations and music, this year Farm Fresh will host a new Market CSA at the Downtown Market. Sign up and you’ll have a box of fresh, local veggies waiting for you every week! To find out other ways to help the Downtown Market grow, contact Jessica.

Sign ups for the 2008 growing season have begun for Community Support Agriculture (CSA) subscriptions to the bounty of Rhode Island farms. Here’s how most work: in the spring, you pre-pay a farm when the farmers most need money for seeds and getting the land ready. Then June through October, you’ll pick up a box of fresh veggies and fruit each week. There are drop-off points all over RI.

This year, Farm Fresh is also introducing Market CSAs at the Armory Farmers’ Market on Thursday evenings and at the Downtown Providence Farmers’ Market on Friday afternoons. Think of it as a subscription to the market. The whole amount supports each market’s farmers and producers, which has the benefit of boosting the market itself. Only 20 spots available are at each market this year. So act fast!

Farm Fresh recently updated our listings of 2008 CSAs in RI and you can find a print version in the spring edition of Edible Rhody.

The market will still be Fridays 11-2, but we’re considering 4 potential locations for this summer’s Downtown Providence Farmers’ Market:

• Market Square / RISD
• Turk’s Head Plaza / Financial District
• Westminster Park
• City Hall Park (same as 2005 - 2007)

Help us choose! E-mail JessK@farmfreshri.org with your thoughts. There are a lot of considerations: walkability and foot traffic, farmer and customer parking, places to sit and picnic, the cityscape, etc.