The Wintertime Farmers Market Is Better than Ever

Short is the history left in the wake of the Hope Artiste Wintertime Farmer’s Market, but long is its reach in empowering Rhode Island’s farm-to-fork food movement. Since opening in 2007, inside AS220, with only a dozen or so farms and producers, the market quickly outgrew its humble roots, and so transplanted itself in the Hope Artiste Village, in 2009, with approximately four times as many farms and producers.

Since then, they have seen two additional expansions, one of time and the other of space. The former occurred in 2010, when the Saturday-only market opened its doors on Wednesday nights, from 4-7pm, so that individuals unable to make the Saturday morning market could spend their time after work perusing the produce. The latter expansion came about this year - at the start of the winter season, in fact - when the market expanded into both the 1005 and 99 hallways of the Hope Artiste Village, essentially doubling the size of the market.

Growth of this nature provides a sense of context for Rhode Island’s farm-to-fork movement. Over the past six years the steadily increasing demand for local, community-driven produce has allowed for such farm and produce epi-centers as the Hope Artiste Wintertime Farmer’s Market to take hold. It grew, expanded, found new sources for seasonal vegetation and then found - and continues to find - efficient avenues for connecting the Ocean State’s farms to the community. And that community quite literally eats it all up.

So on the surface, yes, these new hallways allow for additional farm-to-family connections by bringing in new farms and producers, but beneath the obvious surface lies a supply-demand formula that any elementary student could easily point to as a shining example of Rhode Island’s growing love for local food. The Hope Artiste Wintertime Farmer’s Market provides an opportunity and the community acts, it’s that simple, and this upward cycle continues until the two are so entwined that it’s hard to tell where one begins and the other ends.

Take for example the market’s upcoming events:

January 8: Soil Nutrition 101 & Cooking Demo with Sebastian Porto from Sensata
January 15: Soda Making Workshop
January 22: Youth Art Show
January 29: Farms and Food Job Fair

Besides the slight connection between better soil producing better crops, none of those events particularly scream advertising intended to entice people to purchase produce. In fact, the tone taken is more of a gentle whisper inviting the community to come together as a cohesive unit. The Youth Art Show encourages kids to use their imagination and creative skills; the Farms and Food Job Fair helps put Rhode Islanders back to work; the Soda Making Workshop fights back against big carbonated business - the Hope Artiste market is seizing upon its ability to pull in people to provide a foundation for a more empowered community future.

And where those two new hallways will someday lead, it’s hard to say. Especially when considering such a successful, community-bound establishment as the Hope Artiste Wintertime Farmer’s Market.