But there is a website you can visit with tips and ideas though actually shopping at the ones we have here, the Norwich Uncas on the Thames Farmers Market on Mondays and Fridays from 10 AM until 1 PM at the Campbell Building and the Downtown Norwich Farmers Market at Howard T. Brown Park every Wednesday from 10 until 2 is better for you, your health, and our local farmers.
If you've visited either one, you know there's more than just fruits and vegetables as local artists and artisans and a variety of community health care service providers are part of the experience. And if you haven't yet done so, sorry for that spoiler.
I live near Chelsea Parade and walk to the Downtown Norwich Farmers Market and have noticed the number of vendors is smaller than I remember in past years and that tends to impact the size of the crowd who shop there. And there's still a lot of grumbling and mumbling about the day and operating hours (though I never hear that about the Uncas on the Thames market).
When it began, the downtown market was another tool in the toolbox seeking to attract people to downtown during the weekday workday hours. It was long before we had the dozen or more eateries and bistros (not sure I know the difference or if there is one) we have now and I don't mean to imply it helped make that growth happen but if you'd like to infer that, by all means, be my guest.
I'm wondering if as Autumn arrives and the growing season comes to an end for this year the time has come to consider relocating the Downtown Farmers Market. We have areas of the city where access to fresh fruits and vegetables which you and I take for granted because we drive to a supermarket is a lot more challenging for residents who live in sections of the city without a supermarket and who rely on buses to get them to where they can grocery shop.
Reading about Foundry 66's The Sunlight Emporium inspired me to lean way out of the box, but I should warn you my last original idea died of loneliness. Ready? What might happen if the Downtown Farmers Market at Howard T. Brown Park were resituated to elsewhere? But where might that be you ask? Happy to answer that question, armed with nowhere near enough facts to become discouraged by what some may think is impractical or unworkable.
For neighbors near Hamilton Avenue Park, where do they shop and how do they get there? Would that site help them eat better by bringing farm freshness to them? And who says we can only have one other farmers market in Norwich?
Would patrons come to a market at the Greeneville Playground? How about, finally, repurposing the Greeneville School site and helping make it, again an important part of that community?
Would people who live in Taftville visit a farmers market at the Veterans Park next door to the Knights of Columbus or is that too small to support it? Then how about at the large empty parking lot that faces the Ponemah Mills at Providence and North A Street?
And I haven't even mentioned Franklin park on Lake Street, Washington Street Park (a/k/a Buckingham School) or the FW Brown Tract on Laurel Hill Avenue and a half dozen other sites. We could have as many or as few farmers markets as residents' desires and appetites dictate. When would the markets be open? Ask the people who live in the neighborhoods whose patronage will make them a success.
Here's my point, maybe, if we don't ask the question the answer is always no. And it's time to start to take the No out of Norwich.
-bill kenny
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