Market at Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan

Now there are 54 weekly markets scattered among 40 different locations in the five boroughs, served by 175 regional farms and food producers. They draw a quarter of a million customers a week in peak season, according to the citizen's council that oversees the greenmarket program.

December is not the peak season for farmers markets in this part of the country, needless to say. But there are 23 greenmarkets that operate year-round in New York City. Having lived for many years in perpetually sunny Southern California, where every month of the year is prime time for dozens of crops, and where a week earlier I had found my local market in Santa Monica jam-packed with seasonal produce, I wondered, is a winter farmers market viable at all in the cold, snowy northeast? I was looking for answers to yet another question about New York City's greenmarkets: what are the smaller ones like. Seasonal Chef's regular New York City contributor, Denise Matychowiak, wrote about the Union Square greenmarket, the city's largest, back in August and October. Denise also covered a greenmarket in another Manhattan neighborhood, at St. Mark's Church, in September. To get a different perspective on the New York City greenmarket phenomenon, I dropped by two tiny markets on a busy Thursday. There was just one farmer and couple of bakers at the Bowling Green market, in a cobblestone square next to Battery Park at the lower tip of Manhattan. There were four farmers, two bakers and a cheesemaker in Tucker Square, uptown near Lincoln Center. Despite their small size, I found some interesting, locally grown specialties in each market -- fruit varieties that you can't buy anywhere but at a farmers market.

A sure sign of a negligently managed, so-called "farmers market" is tables groaning under the weight of multiple varieties of produce that couldn't possibly have been grown at that particular time of year within thousands of miles of that particular market. Since New York City's greenmarkets purport to be vigilantly run -- with farm inspections and other safeguards to assure that they are outlets where actual local farms sell only what they have grown themselves -- I was hoping I wouldn't find corn and watermelon, bananas and mangoes, in the markets I visited. I wasn't disappointed. 

Apples in Tucker Square

(left to right) Pippin, Baldwin, Golden Russet Apples and a Quince

The Golden Russet is the "ancestor of the Golden Delicious," the label on the table declared. It's certainly uglier than its famous progeny, which explains why it is so rare these days. Most shoppers would shun this rough-skinned fruit in favor of shinier varieties. It is not the tastiest of eating apples, in my personal opinion, based on my experience with this one sample. But the variety supposedly makes top-notch cider. The Baldwin has an interesting history. All trees of this variety today reportedly descend from a tree discovered in the woods near Wilmington, Delaware, about 1784, by Colonel Loammi Baldwin, a Revolutionary War officer and canal builder. His attention was drawn to the tree by woodpeckers, who were feasting on the apples. The quince is an old-fashioned "grandmother fruit," but it is making a comeback, led by adventurous chefs including Steve Cumper in Tasmania. Price: $1.25/lb.

Golden Russet Apple Baldwin Apple

(left to right) Bartlett, Yali, Sekel (or Sugar) and Bosc Pears

The three pear varieties on the left are from Red Jacket Orchards, in Geneva, New York, which has been in business since 1917, according to the sign posted with the display of fruit at the Bowling Green greenmarket. The bosc is the "Cadillac of pears," according to the sign on the table where I found this, at the Tucker Square greenmarket. 

Price: $1.25/lb.

Assorted Apples including Empire, Cortland and Winesap (red apples on left), 
Lady Apples ( front) and Mutsu (right)

California apples don't get very red, so on my visit to New York I was drawn to the red varieties. As far as I'm concerned, for eating out of hand, the greenish-yellow Mutsu is hard to beat. But the other varieties have unique attributes of their own. The Cortland, for example, is especially well suited for salads, because the slightly tart flesh is slow to turn brown after its cut. The Lady apple is a very old variety that is related to the Api line of apples from ancient Rome. Because of its small size, it is often used in Christmas wreaths and baskets, and thus it is sometimes called the Christmas apple.

Price: $1.25/lb. for all but Lady apples, which were $2/lb.

Cheddar (left) and Drum Cheese

This cheese was made by Nina and Jonathon White, of Bobolink Dairy, in Vernon, New Jersey. I bought it at the Tucker Square greenmarket. It is made with "cultured raw milk from grass-fed cows," and the cheddar is cave-aged for over 28 months. It's great-tasting but not cheap. These two chunks set me back nine bucks.

Price: $20/lb.