Astoria Farmers Market: New Open Street Effort Makes Dream A Reality

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Every few weeks, like clockwork, the question is posed on a neighborhood Reddit thread or Facebook page: why doesn't Astoria have a farmers market?

Despite being home to around 200,000 food-loving residents, Astoria lacks any kind of reliable, weekly greenmarket like those found in neighboring Jackson Heights or Roosevelt Island — save for a couple of small farmstands at Socrates Sculpture Park and Ditmars Park.

But thanks to a collaboration by a few charitably-minded Astorians, things will change starting this month, when a weekly farmstand will take shape on the 31st Avenue Open Street.

First announced last week, the farmstand will begin April 16 at 1 p.m. and continue every Saturday into the fall. It will be run by The Connected Chef, a food justice nonprofit that runs a farmstand in Long Island City and spearheaded a food-delivery program to keep Queens residents well-fed during the height of the pandemic.

Planning for the Astoria farmstand began late last year, when Cormac Nataro — one of the open street's organizers — pitched the idea to Connected Chef founder Kim Calichio.

"On Reddit it comes up every couple months — people say this feels like the ideal neighborhood for [a farmers market]," Nataro told Patch. "We just looked at the space that we have available to us with the open street — it seemed like a no-brainer."

As it turned out, Calichio — a professional chef and fellow Astorian — had had a similar idea. After months of planning, they received a go-ahead from the Department of Transportation, paving the way for this month's launch.

Like the Connected Chef's other farmstand, the offerings on 31st Avenue will be locally-sourced, featuring seasonal greens from vendors like Hellgate Farm, as well as specialty products like Bench Flour Bakers bread, raw honey from Astor Apiaries, fresh eggs from the Hudson Valley, and other staples like canned tomatoes.

But the new farmstand will be different in one key respect: Connected Chef organizers have designed a sliding-scale model, in which produce will be sold at discounted prices for those who need it, or at a higher, market price for those who can afford to pay.

Calichio believes 31st Avenue will be the first farmstand in New York City with a sliding-scale system. She prefers it over the food-giveaway approach used by some other charities, since it brings shoppers together regardless of their incomes.

"Whether you are an executive or you’re somebody who works in a restaurant, you are shopping in the same place, you have access to the same food, and you get to choose what you pay based on what your income level is," she said.

And the 31st Avenue location is only a first step. Organizers have secured a spot for the farmstand on the participatory budgeting ballot run by City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán's office, which — if enough neighbors choose it — would unlock another $10,000 in funding.

That money would go towards adding a third pricing tier in the sliding-scale system, and help Connected Chef start planning additional farmstands that Calichio wants to open in other parts of the neighborhood, like Astoria Heights and the blocks that border Woodside.

For now, though, organizers are focused on ensuring a successful launch on the open street later this month.

"I’m a little bit nervous to see how many people show up on the 16th," Nataro said.

The farmstand will run from 1-3 p.m. on April 16 on 31st Avenue between 33rd and 34th streets, with additional dates to follow. Learn more on the 31st Avenue Open Street and Connected Chef Instagram accounts.