An Early Bird Report from New Amsterdam Market

There’s not much that will get me out of bed before 7 AM other than food, or more specifically, a market. Growing up in San Francisco, from the age of 10 onwards, I would religiously get up in the wee Saturday hours to drive down with my mom and neighbor to snag a prime parking spot and the best stuff that the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market had to offer. Besides that, and maybe some early morning plane flights, I wouldn’t be caught dead waking up before the break of day, especially on the weekends. But two Sundays ago, I met my match, and willingly awoke before dawn in order to head down to a non-descript patch of concrete by the old Fulton Fish Market on South Street in Manhattan to work. For free.

What greeted me on that slightly nippy October morn was a group of volunteers and coordinators to set up the New Amsterdam Market. Now, this is by no means your standard pop-up New York street fair, or even a typical farmer’s market. The rows of disassembled tables and signs that awaited me that morning would eventually become a busily populated venue for vendors offering locally-sourced, and for the most part, organic and sustainable goods. The market builds on the age-old concept of open-air shopping and bridges it to the modern day with its sensibilities and considerations on the origins of the goods being sold.  Of course, this is a place for vendors to make a dime, but at the same time, it set ups a forum of explanation and engagement of the consumer with the provider. It isn’t very often that I go to the grocery store and learn the milk I’m drinking is from a dairy farm that is run almost 100% by volunteers, or discovering just how many more pigs a particular farm is raising this year compared to last, or that wild leeks can contain anti-cancerous properties. It's just a teeny bit more information, conveyed in a much more personal manner, than what you might get from the side of a box or a placard in the fruit and vegetable aisle.

To use a well-established phrase, it's food for thought, and then some, as it is a passion project, led by a few dedicated and persevering individuals and a generous helping of willing volunteers. It really seems more an exercise in community building from the heart – and gut – out. Vendors and coordinators frequently greeted each other with big embraces and warm conversation, while volunteers were eager to help out patrons and vendors alike. For this particular Sunday, there was a meat-centric approach, but even that lent itself to transparency between the consumer and the seller, as a pig butchering demo took place that afternoon under the Brooklyn Bridge, providing an eyeful of information for all watching about where this meat literally was coming from.

As the day wore on, the pork was raffled off, vendors sold out and packed up, and dusk settled upon lower Manhattan, volunteers and I headed back to work taking down all that we had assembled that morning, transforming the area back to a rather unremarkable spot next to a parking lot. I headed back toward the subway, slightly sore of shoulder, tired of feet, yet happily full - in the belly - and of anticipation for when I could next set my alarm for an ungodly hour on Sunday to help out again.

The market is scheduled for two remaining Sundays in 2009 – November 22nd and December 20th – running from 11 AM to 4 PM. The 2010 schedule is yet to be determined, but is based on the success of the upcoming dates. As a volunteer or a shopper, it’s definitely worth a stop, and your taste buds and conscience will both thank you for it.