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The farmers markets are overflowing with the fall harvest. But New Yorkers need to improve their rep among the country folk — who think city slickers can be a bunch of cheese gropers. We asked farmers and local food authorities for lessons in greenmarket etiquette — tips for shopping the stalls and getting service with a smile.
* Go early. It’s more pleasant. “The crowds are so much smaller, and people who are up at that time like being up at that time,” says Beth Linskey of Beth’s Farm in Stuyvesant Falls, NY. She sells her jam at spots including the Union Square Greenmarket (which opens at 8 a.m.). Go to grownyc.org/ourmarkets to find out when your local market opens.
* Talk to the farmers! “Ask as many questions as possible to know what [you’re] getting,” says Sonia Sola, owner of Nectar Hills Farm in Schenevus, NY. She sells her grass-fed meat at Columbia market. Ian Macdonald of Cherry Grove Farm in Lawrenceville, NJ, agrees. “It’s an opportunity for people to buy locally and sustainably produced food and also get educated about it and what the difference is between that food and the stuff that comes from the industrial food industry.” Cherry Grove sells its raw-milk cheese in Jackson Heights.
* Don’t write a shopping list. “Respond to [the produce] in front of you,” says Edible Manhattan’s Gabrielle Langholtz. “You go to the market with your heart set on making a pumpkin risotto, but then you see the most beautiful shell beans that are only going to be this beautiful for one week. Forget your pumpkin risotto and make shell beans . . . be inspired by what’s there.”
* Save the haggling for flea markets. “It’s just . . . bad etiquette to haggle with a dairy farmer or a farmer in general,” says Dancing Ewe Farm member Jody Somers. This holds especially true for New Yorkers, who generally have “a lot larger disposable income” than others, he explains. “As long as everybody in our world keeps a fair and a realistic price, there isn’t any reason to.”
* Take a stroll before you shop. “When people first start going to greenmarkets, they should scan before they decide to buy something. A lot of the farms have a lot of the same stuff,” says Union Square Café chef Carmen Quagliata, who shops at the Union Square Greenmarket four times a week. “More expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better,” he adds.
* Hands off the cheese, please! “I discourage people from touching the cheese,” says Somers, who sells Dancing Ewe Farm’s Tuscan-style cheese at the Union Square Greenmarket on Fridays. “What drives me most crazy is when we have fresh ricotta in small little baskets, and they’re always pushing in the ricotta and leaving fingerprints.” Yecch.
* Sample — just not too much. “Oh, we have the eaters, the people who come and eat every week. We just ask them to move on,” says farmer Beth Linskey. Unfortunately, not all shoppers take the request in stride. “We had one woman who got so mad at us . . . that she picked up the jar and threw it.” Don’t do that, either.
* Hit the cash machine hard. “Basically everyone shops until they’re out of cash, and then they realize there is all this other stuff they want to buy,” says Edible Manhattan’s Gabrielle Langholtz, who used to work for NYC greenmarkets in the mayor’s office. So get more money out than you think you’ll need.
* Bring your own bag. “We really like it when people bring their own totes,” Linskey says. “It’s less plastic that is being pushed out into the world.”