Making it Easier to Buy Local
From 9 am to 12 noon on Saturday mornings through October 6, the parking lot of the Nantucket New School on Nobadeer Farm Road is the site of Nantucket’s newest opportunity to buy local: the Nantucket Farmers Artisans Market (NFAM).
Products sold at the market include needlepoint, pottery, jewelry, woven items, hooked rugs, vegetables, flowers, honey, and eggs. Both the vendors and their wares change slightly each week, but organizers Wendy Fereshetian and Heather Leisher Coffin try to keep a good balance between crafts and produce. During these first few weeks of the NFAM, partipating vendors have included Nantucket Native, Heather Coffin, Seaside Gardens, Moors End Farm, Bartlett Farm, Designs by Priscilla, Rosewood Gardeners, Sarah Wright, Amy Cabre, and Ann Marie Crane.
To participate, vendors must live on Nantucket and must grow or make the items they sell. Applications to participate are available each Saturday at the market and can be downloaded from the Sustainable Nantucket website at www.SustainableNantucket.org.
To get the market up and running, this spring Fereshetian and Coffin enlisted the aid of Sustainable Nantucket. According to Development Associate Tara Grunwald, Sustainable Nantucket considers the market a success because it supports their “Think Local – Buy Local – Hire Local” campaign and promotes cottage industry on the island. They also see it becoming “a much needed community ‘third place’ where people can meet up and convene outside of home and work.”
So far, says NFAM organizer and manager Fereshetian, the market has been a success. “The first day was amazing—there were so many people—and these past few weeks have been steady,” she said.
This Saturday, the local Bluegrass band Four Easy Payments will perform during market hours. Organizers hope to feature a different musician or band each week.
Next summer, they hope to run the market for 18 weeks. Residents who wish to volunteer at the market are welcome to contact Sustainable Nantucket or call Wendy Fereshetian at 508-228-9252.
“We hope it will become a new Nantucket tradition for our residents and visitors,” commented Grunwald. Sustainable Nantucket is working to have the Farmers and Artisans Market incorporated into Nantucket’s current zoning by-laws and plans to introduce a warrant at April’s Annual Town Meeting. In addition, to secure Nantucket’s long-standing heritage of agriculture, Sustainable Nantucket is working to create an Agricultural Commission to be confirmed at the 2008 Annual Town Meeting in April.
