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A hospital employee buys fresh vegetables on the first day of the new
Greenmarket on Ft. Washington Avenue and W. 168th Street. PHOTO: Daniel
P. Bader
Inwoodite Sharon Rivera stepped out of her job as a post doctoral research assistant at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital on Tuesday and bought some yucca and some squash.
“There’s no more peas in the bucket,” Rivera said, looking longingly at a table full of vegetables.
Rivera shared the crowded sidewalk with dozens of other shoppers on July 6, the first day of the new Fort Washington Greenmarket located outside the Hammer Health Sciences building on Ft. Washington Avenue and W. 168th Street. She now has two options for farm-fresh produce; she can shop at the Inwood Greenmarket on Isham Street on Saturdays, and stock up again on Tuesday right near work in Washington Heights.
Hospital and city officials cut the ribbon on the area’s third Greenmarket around noon on what would be come the hottest day of the year so far, but the day started much earlier for Katherine Montelione of Calkins Creamery.
Montelione, whose family-owned farm is located in northeastern Pennsylvania, was up at 3:30 a.m. loading up her truck with blocks of gouda and other assorted cheesees she planned to sell at the Greenmarket.
“This is our first Greenmarket,” she said. “I didn’t know what to expect. But we’re excited to get to a different group of people.”
Calkins sells its products at farmers’ markets near the farm, Montelione said, but in that part of rural Pennsylvania the value of having a family-owned small operation can be lost on people.
“We use raw cow’s milk, we don’t pasteurize,” she said. “People seem really into that.”
Stephanie Pitsirilos-Boquin, director of the hospital’s Choosing Healthy and Active Lifestyles for Kids program, or CHALK, beamed in front of her group’s tent, right in the middle of the market.
“We’re the organization that brought this to be,” she said. “It makes a lot of sense to have a farmers market [near the hospital]. … We’re increasing the healthful resources in the neighborhood.”
CHALK’s goal is to promote healthy eating habits and increase physical activity for children, and will use the tent at the Greenmarket to establish a visual presence in the neighborhood to supplement all the programs it does around Northern Manhattan.
Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined hospital president Dr. Herbert Pardes, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat in inaugurating the new market.
“Today we add New York City’s 51st Greenmarket. That is a huge accomplishment,” Quinn said. The market also accepts food stamps and Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, to make the fresh fruit and vegetables more accessible to low income residents.
Last year Quinn said $300,000 was spent at Greenmarkets using the EBT cards, and not just for homemade pies or cookies.
“Nintey-eight-percent of EBT sales were for fruit, vegetables, meat or fish,” Quinn said.
“This is not just about jobs,” Stringer said, gesturing to the farmers selling their wares in the market. “It’s about bringing the green economy to the city.”
Across the street Shafy Hashimi, another arm of the green economy, expressed little concern that the bananas and peaches on his Greencart might sell less on Tuesdays.
“I see a lot of veggies over there,” Hashimi said, but not much fruit. “It’s a farmers’ market, what ya gonna do?”
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