On the second day of spring, Rick Vanderplas hurried over to Stewart Borowsky’s wheat grass stand in the Union Square Green Market and proclaimed, “I need a shot.” Like other customers before him, Vanderplas eagerly gulped down a thick, green, four ounce shot of wheat grass juice, without wincing from the extremely sweet and grassy flavor.
“You might take it and have like a little rumbling in your stomach, but then it just makes you feel really good,” said Vanderplas.
Wheat grass has high nutritional value and is said to help detoxify the body. “It’s strong stuff,” Vanderplas said.
Borowsky’s stand is one of about 30 vendors of the green market that were set up around the large lot at the north end of Union Square recently. The square’s green market, part of a program run by the Council on the Environment NYC, is one of New York City’s 16 markets that are open year-round, and the only one that is open four days a week, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The city has a total of 44 markets set up throughout the boroughs seasonally and year-round.
Many tourists and New Yorkers pass through the Union Square market and stop to taste some grass-fed beef, pure maple sugar candy, or raw-milk cheese, but the harmonious mix of employees from the boroughs, upstate farmers, decade-long customers, and one time tourists gawking at Vermont syrup, creates a warm sense of community that keeps competition friendly, and the markets a positive space in New York.
“It’s a great place,” said Borowsky, “And community is the most important part of the market. All of our customers are really happy to see us which makes it worthwhile to take good care of them.”
Grown in a warehouse in Brooklyn, Borowsky’s wheat grass is driven to the market in a yellow and green minibus, reminiscent of the ‘70s, the same decade that the benefits of wheat grass started to be recognized by health circles, Borowsky said.
Four days a week, David Tifford packs his truck in Patchogue, Long Island at 5 a.m. with hydrangeas, lilies, Easter bouquets, and other seasonal flowers to be at the market by 6:30 in preparation for a 10-hour day of selling his flowers.
“We are a pretty happy family here,” said Tifford, 59, who has selling at the market for 23 years. “All of us farmers know each other, even when we compete plant wise it is friendly competition.”
Tifford led Sylvia Carroll, a 67-year-old grandmother from the Bronx, down a narrow path between two large wooden tables showcasing dozens of yellow, purple, white and pink flowers, to a tent where his 81-year-old mother sat wearing a babushka, as usual, waiting for customers to come and chat.
Carroll has known the Tiffords for the eight years she has frequented the market, which reminds her of her childhood.
“As long as I could get it, I have always been buying fresh food,” Carroll said. When she was a little girl, her father took her to Long Island farms to buy fresh produce, she said.
“I love the tomatoes when they have them. I am a tomato freak,” she said.
No tomatoes to be seen in early spring, but apples were available by the bushel at the Samascot Orchard market. Two generations of Samascot brothers run the business with the help of Tibetans and Indians from Queens who have worked with the family for years.
The Samascot family splits the market days up so that each member has to make the three hour drive from their 1,000 acre farm in Kinderhook, New York to the city only once a week.
In her eleventh year working with the Samascot family, Doma Doma, a short pregnant woman from India, moved so comfortably around the apple tables it seemed she owned the farm. She loves the easy access to fresh, organic and seasonal foods that she grew up with in India.
“In India, everything you grow, you eat,” Doma said
As the seasons change, Doma will soon be selling beans, peas, and corn instead of apples, but Samascot will profit most once summer brings in the berry season.
Michael and Jen Yezzi sell organic pork from their Flying Pigs Farm in upstate New York year-round.
A customer inquired about a framed photograph of a “smiling” pig, resting in front of a bucket of sliced ham.
“Is this guy still around?” the customer asked.
“No, he’s gone already but we raise all our pigs in a low-stress, natural environment, with no by-products,” Yezzi said. “A happy pig is a tasty pig.”
“I’m sold,” the customer said as she smiled, handing Yezzi money for the ham.