Last Sunday, we stopped by the New Amsterdam Market (NAM) to see how the vendors are adjusting to the new weekly schedule (they’ll be at the Seaport every weekend through December 19th).
While we didn’t toss off our shoes and partake in the grape stomping (see photo), there were plenty of other attractions to check out, including fresh produce from Breezy Hill Orchard, Saxelby Cheesemongers Porchetta and Rick’s Picks.
The crowds have definitely thinned out now that the market is weekly, rather than monthly. Founder Robert LaValva told us his focus now is on attracting more downtown shoppers. In the past, a large percentage of the people visiting the NAM were coming from outside the neighborhood. In the weeks ahead, Robert would like to see more participation from residents of the Lower East Side, Soho, Tribeca and the Financial District.
This weekend the market is going wild! Via the market’s weekly email blast:
The Wild Food Gatherers Guild has Hen of the Woods, Chicken of the Woods, Lobsters, Yellow Food Chanterelles, and white Matsutake mushrooms; they will also have fresh fall Jerusalem Artichokes, wild watercress, wild ginger root, and other finds from the woods and open lands of Vermont. She Sells Seaweed will feature Nori, Dulce, Kelp, Atlantic Wakame and Atlantic Kombu gathered from the clean, cold waters of Maine’s Gouldsboro Bay. And Main Street Farm – a purveyor from Livingston Manor, New York – will bring wild-caught, smoked Delaware River eels, which may only be trapped by special permit and are very hard to come by. Main Street Farm will be representing the Catskills region along with Early Bird Cookery (selling seasonal ice cream); Summer’s End Orchard (selling jams); and Farm Catskills (selling cheeses) in a special representation organized for New Amsterdam Market this Sunday by the Watershed Agricultural Council.
You can see the full list of purveyors here. The market takes place Sunday from 11-6pm, in front of the old Fulton Fish Market buildings.
