New market for farmers and crafters to open in August
GUILDERLAND — A farmers’ market also open to vendors is coming to Guilderland, says town resident and organizer Scott Abraham. It will be open every Sunday during August and September and will also feature “other mom-and-pops and crafters,” Abraham says. He hopes also to attract flower markets and tree farmers.
The location will be behind Star Plaza at routes 20 and 155, with parking in the lot for Star Plaza.
The entire site is bordered on one side by trees. “So this has a little greenery involved,” said Abraham. “It will transform the parking lot into a nice, happy place,” he said.
Huge banners along routes 20 and 155 will alert drivers to the market, Abraham said.
Abraham is a builder by trade and is involved in event production; he has also coached lacrosse at a number of area schools.
Raised downstate in Tarrytown, Abraham has lived in Guilderland for eight years and previously lived in California, where he helped produce several large-scale events including a 2010 James Cameron Earth Day Avatar event that brought 4,000 inner-city kids into a Los Angeles theater to learn about ecology, meet James Cameron, and watch “Avatar,” he said; he also co-produced the Earth Day on the Promenade in Santa Monica, which had about 20,000 visitors, that same year.
The idea for a farmers’ market arose when he watched friends start what he called “a gentleman’s farm” — June Farm in West Sand Lake — and was shocked at the expense involved and at how little help farmers receive. “I just want to get the mom-and-pop farmers in here, and I want the community to be able to buy local, farm-fresh foods from the community,” he said.
Signed up so far are, he says, a jeweler, a woodcrafter, a vendor who takes down barns and sells reclaimed wood, and someone who offers meatball subs made with locally raised farm-fresh meat.