ROTTERDAM Town aims to welcome growers Community garden, farmers market planned BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Life on Hamburg Street may soon incorporate elements from Rotterdam’s agrarian past. An effort is under way to establish both a free-to-the-public community garden and a farmers market in the commercial corridor. Members of the Hamburg Street Merchants Association are planning to host the market in the parking lot of the Rotterdam Senior Center later this year, while the Bridge Christian Church has offered about an acre of land for residents to grow vegetables a couple of blocks away. “Everything is kind of fitting together like a puzzle,” said the Rev. James Bookhout, Bridge Christian’s pastor and a member of the merchants association. Starting next week, Bookhout’s congregation will begin tilling the lawn area behind the church so that it can be divvied up into individual 100-square-foot plots. The church will also fertilize the land for prospective growers and provide seeds for those who need them; Carman Hardware donated about $200 worth of seed packets for the garden effort. “All people really have to do is stake their piece of land out; we’ll fertilize and cultivate it,” he said. Everything else, however, will be up to them. Bookhout hopes the community garden will bring more residents to the Hamburg Street area to see what his congregation and the area businesses have to offer. The previous use for the land was for overflow parking. Bookhout said the plots — he estimated about 30 of them could fi t on the property — will put otherwise vacant land to good use. “It’ll make it a whole lot easier for us, too,” he said. “We won’t have to cut the grass.” So far, the church has already signed up a half-dozen gardeners interested in growing this season. Bookhout said there’s been plenty of interest in the plots and he anticipates using most of the land during the growing season. “With the challenging economy, the high cost of vegetables in the stores and the threat of pesticides, we feel this would be another way to bring together the Highbridge community,” he said. Once a town dominated by agriculture, most of Rotterdam became mostly suburban during the 1950s. The town hasn’t had either a community garden or farmers market in recent memory. ......................>>>>...............>>>>.........................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01303&AppName=1
ROTTERDAM Vendors get ready for new farmers market Hamburg St. event to start May 22 BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
When the idea for a farmers market in Rotterdam fi rst came up, Skip Renaud was told it would take more than eight months to get started. Several experts advised the chairman of the Hamburg Street Merchants Association it would take that long to establish a governing body for the market and secure vendors, among other necessary details to get the idea off the ground. But Renaud and several of the organization’s members resolved to get the market established this summer, if not sooner. “We did it in four weeks,” he said Tuesday. And starting later this month, Rotterdam will host its fi rst farmers market in recent memory at the Senior Center parking lot off Hamburg Street. Renaud said the inaugural market will start at 9 a.m. and run until 2 p.m. on May 22. Renaud said the merchants association will continue hosting Saturday farmers markets at the senior center through September. Already, he said, the market has almost 10 vendors that will be selling everything from fresh produce to locally produced wines. “I’m told it’s the first one in Rotterdam,” he said. “That in and of itself is kind of exciting.” The notion of starting the farmers market came when Roslyn Warlik, a member of the Highbridge Civic Association, suggested a local farmers market might be a good way to draw visitors to the Hamburg Street area. Renaud began investigating the concept with the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, which supplied him with a list of 150 local vendors. “They’re all local folks looking for a local market to sell their products,” he said. Renaud also received help from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Schenectady County and the town, which helped streamline the permitting process. Now after roughly 160 hours of work, the market is ready to go. The first market will have free pony rides available for children. An alpaca breeder from Delanson has also pledged to bring some of the animals to the fi rst market. The market will also feature Buhrmaster Fruit and Produce, Santabarbara Cheese, Worldings Pleasure, Jannsen’s Jam and Jellies, Altamont Vineyard and Winery, Laurie’s Gluten-Free Goodness, Palatine Valley Dairy and Linda’s Baked Goods. And Renaud is confident more local growers will start attending as word spreads. ..................>>>>..................>>>>..........................................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00904&AppName=1
Logged
