Brookline Farmer's Market: Opening Date And New Rules

Press release from the Brookline Farmers' Market:

May 29 2020

Will the market open as usual on the first Thursday in June this year?
YES, The Brookline Farmers’ Market will open on Thursday June 4th from 1:30 pm – 6:30 pm. The Market will be open on all subsequent Thursdays through the week before Thanksgiving in November, unless conditions change.

Will there be changes, and is it still worth making the trip?
You will notice many changes to the Market, to protect the health of our vendors and our customers, as well as our staff and volunteers. Shopping at your local farmers’ market supports the New England food chain and gives you safe access to fresh food, bursting with flavor, that will last longer in your fridge or pantry than anything from a grocery store.

What’s all this I hear about “New Rules” at the market?
Please see the full list of safety rules in the graphic above. These rules are in accordance with State and Town guidance. There will be greeters at the Market to clarify and help you best follow these rules for your own safety and that of other customers and vendors. Be prepared to clearly point and ask for what you want to purchase, as you will not be able to touch anything until you have paid for it.

Will all my favorite vendors be there?
Unfortunately, we will be starting our market season with a reduced number of vendors in order to create a space that is safe for customers and the community. You can support our vendors who are not able to start the market with us by visiting their websites to buy their products online, for delivery, or at other markets. Links to all of them on our market website at WWW.BROOKLINEFARMERSMARKET.COM

Starting on June 4th the following vendors WILL be at the Market each week:

• Assawaga Farm
• Boston Smoked Fish Company, LLC
• Clear Flour Bakery
• Monumental Market
• Dick’s Market Garden
• Golden Rule Honey
• Habibi Gourmet Food
• Kimball Fruit Farm
• Langwater Farm
• Luluna Kombucha
• Monumental Market (coffee & baked goods)
• Myco Terra Farm
• Nicewicz Family Farm (starts July 9th)
• Red's Best Fish Company / Fish Lady
• Smith's Country Cheese (Catlin Creamery)
• Stillman Quality Meats
• Stillman's Farm
• Valicenti Pasta Farm

LINKS TO ALL VENDOR WEBSITES at WWW.BROOKLINEFARMERSMARKET.COM

Please consider visiting their individual websites beforehand to familiarize yourself with the products you are interested in so you can shop quickly at the Market. The more efficient you can make your trip, the more people will be able to access the Market overall, and the more we can support our local farmers.

You can even pre-order and pre-pay for orders from some of our vendors on their websites and pick up your order during Market hours. People picking up pre-orders will still have to wait to enter the Market if lines form at peak times, as we are required to control the number of people inside the market.

What can I do to help keep the shopping experience safe and enjoyable?
In addition to bringing your mask to the Market, please bring your patience and best positive attitude! There will be times you need to wait, as only one shopper can be allowed to shop a booth at a time.

We do ask that you come alone to shop for your family group. Consider offering to shop for a friend or neighbor as well. Especially those who need to stay home because they are in a high-risk group.

At this time, we are NOT using a pre-reservation system to shop as some other are markets are. Our records suggest to us that our customers already spread themselves out fairly evenly throughout the day, and anecdotal evidence from other markets shows that restricting customers to pre-registered time slots is not always working well.

Just like all businesses in Brookline and beyond, we are figuring out all these new rules and guidelines as we go. A lot of thought has gone into planning the Market under these conditions, but we are pretty sure there will be some hiccups along the way as we figure out what works and what doesn’t. Please be patient with market staff, volunteers and our vendors. The vendors especially have had to turn on a dime to reinvent how they bring their product to market, and how it is displayed and sold. Supporting our local food networks will help our whole community stay more resilient.

When you arrive our volunteers and staff will review the new market rules. As long as you follow along, most of the changes to keep you safe have been made for you by our layout of the market and the manner in which our vendors have redesigned their booths.

What ABOUT SNAP/EBT & HIP?

• SNAP cards will be accepted as usual at the INFO booth in exchange for tokens to be used at ALL vendors. Reminder: SNAP purchases made with the tokens DO NOT earn you HIP Benefits
• There is no SNAP MATCH offered at this time
• 5 of our Vendors DO now accept your SNAP cards at their booths AND offer you HIP Benefits:

Dick’s Market Garden - Stillman’s Farm - Kimball Fruit Farm - Mycoterra Farm - Nicewicz Farm

A final note –
Our nation’s top doctors, researchers, and epidemiologists believe that the current drop in COVID-19 cases and deaths are more reflective of the successful social distancing measures that have been taken over the past months and NOT a reduction of the prevalence of the virus due to weather, the passage of time, or any other causes. They believe that there may be more spikes, or a major “second wave” as the nation opens back up. Therefore, we at the Brookline Farmers’ Market plan to err on the side of caution as we make decisions as the season goes on about when to allow things to “return to normal” at the Market. We will make all decisions with the guidance, direction, and supervision of our local Department of Health (as well as compliance with State of Massachusetts orders that apply to us). We want to express our appreciation to the Town of Brookline in general, and the Brookline Department of Health specifically, for working with us to make the Market possible under these difficult conditions.

This press release was produced by the Brookline Farmers' Market. The views expressed here are the author’s own.