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General News: Food Co-op Plans Expanded Market
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| Rachel Scirbona (r) and Lauren Grace are planning to offer more food-related events to the Farmer's Market. |
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| The Farmers Market will return to Cornwall Town Hall this year. |
April 15, 2012
By Gabrielle Grilli
With cold weather coming to an end and warmer days approaching, fans of fresh, local foods, rejoice!
The Cornwall Community Co-op is bringing back the popular Farmer’s Market, which will take place on Wednesdays on the lawn in front of Town Hall. The market will feature fresh produce, cheese and other tasty foods from multiple farms, including Edgwick, Jones, Kiernan, and Gray’s.
“Our main goal is to help create a sense of community through the co-op,” said the group’s new president, Rachel Scirbona. “We want to focus on sustainable foods, but we also want to focus on events in Cornwall to get people together,” Scirbona said.
Scirbona, who is working alongside new co-op vice president Lauren Grace, hopes to hold an extension of the Farmer’s Market every first Saturday of the month, which could feature live music and prepared foods for shoppers to snack on as they browse.
Thelma Kiernan, who owns Kiernan Farm with her husband, started attending the market during the summer months to sell their 100% grass-fed beef. She believes that there is a need for the market. “People were excited about it last year and wanted to see it during the winter months.”
Kiernan and other local farms participated in this year’s monthly Winter Markets and will roll over into the markets of this summer, allowing locals year-round access to their products.
The co-op is hoping that the frequent Farmers Markets and other community events they are planning will re-invigorate area residents and spark interest in the group’s endeavors.
“The co-op is still around. A lot of people didn’t realize it was here,” said Scirbona.
The co-op started when Lynn Peebles and her partner Doug Land began to organize and effort to see a farmer’s market in the community, or somewhere residents could access fresh local foods. They decided on a co-op because, as Peebles says, “we both liked the values of a cooperative endeavor.”
After gaining community support and building a membership base of nearly 200 people, they opened a storefront at 208 Hudson St. in Cornwall-on-Hudson in April 2009.
“We had a nice little store for about over a year. We had ambitious visions for how much time and energy people could give to the coop,” Peebles said.
“I made an effort to get key people to participate, but it went so far and no further. There was a lot of interest, but not a lot of energy. We still wanted to have a connection with fresh and local food because it was so available in the community.”
Although the storefront is no longer open, it captured the interest of the community and produced the idea of a farmer’s market to be held on the lawn of Town Hall in the summer months.
Peebles developed the space into Studio 208, a movement center offering yoga, Nia, tai chi, and many other classes and workshops. “I’m disappointed that the store is no longer with us, but I’m thrilled that we have some lasting infrastructure in the farmer’s market going forward this year. It honors the original mission of the Co-op,” said Peebles.
Comments:
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We are very lucky to have such smart savy young women volunteering their time to our community.
posted by Edgwick Farm on 04/16/12 at 3:05 PM
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