Photo via Open Works
A weekly farmer’s market is coming to Greenmount West, offering new options to neighborhood residents for fresh produce, healthy meals and other goods.
Starting June 4, maker space Open Works will host the Greenmount West Community Market — which is also going by the title “Grow Market” — in its parking lot off of Greenmount Avenue. The market will run every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Nov. 19.
Vendors will be selling farmer’s market staples like fresh veggies, fruits, dairy items, breads and coffee, as well as pre-prepared meals and artisan wares from local makers, including from the creative entrepreneurs operating out of Open Works.
There will also be “live entertainment, fitness and cooking demonstrations,” along with family activities, according to a statement from Open Works membership manager April Lewis.
The market is a collaboration between the relatively young maker space and Two Moons Food Group, an enterprise committed to equitably and sustainably grown food and creating new links in the food system in Baltimore.
The two organizations researched when to offer the market and what to sell there by soliciting feedback from residents through a survey. It included questions about what types of vendors, goods, services, entertainment and programming were in demand.
Greenmount West is one of many areas in the city identified as a “food desert” lacking in healthy grocery options in a 2015 study by Johns Hopkins University researchers. The planned farmer’s market will help to fill that gap and provide additional consumer options presently lacking in the neighborhood, said Two Moons Food Group co-founder Saché Jones.
“Most food deserts are deserts for other things as well,” she said, citing basic over-the-counter goods, which are sold at exorbitant premiums in corner stores, as an example.
Open Works became involved in the collaboration through Lewis, who previously worked in the realm of community-supported agriculture. Lewis said Tuesday that she was also inspired by her own experience of getting to know a next-door neighbor largely through talking outside on their porches or over their shared fence.
The idea behind the farmer’s market is similar, Jones said – “to be a space where our neighbors will be able to come and gather and eat and share food, knowledge and information at the front door, the proverbial fence.”
“Food is a thing that connects all people,” added Lewis. “Everybody eats.”
She also said that ideally, farmer’s market patrons who haven’t explored Open Works’ many course and workshop offerings will take a peek inside.
“By having a community thing that is recurring, hopefully everybody will have a chance to come in and see that this is here for them,” she said.
The farmer’s market will take place in the Open Works parking lot, located at 1400 Greenmount Avenue. Interested vendors and hopeful volunteers can reach out to organizers by emailing growmarket@openworksbmore.com.