New Farmer's Market Opens in Katonah

After four straight days of gray skies and rain, the sun shone down on opening day of the new farmer's market on the rolling front lawn of the John Jay Homestead in Katonah.

If you arrived hungry, chances are you left sated—free samples were offered at almost every table, from chocolate peanut butter to bean-free hummus to baby lettuces from Amba Organic Farms and brick oven pizza from Chappaqua's Cooking with Fire.

That's not including the freshly made Blue Pig ice cream appealingly stationed at the market entrance.

"I've never seen products like this," said market manager Jennifer Gordon. "You won't see anything this beautiful at the grocery store. These farmers and vendors are dedicated to what they do—they are not just in it for the money."

The market, announced last month, will run each Saturday 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. through October 15. Over 20 vendors have signed on to deliver local fruits and vegetables and products that "are good for you and good for the earth," said Gordon.

Healing Home Foods, based in Pound Ridge, offered raw hummus made from cashews and vegetable and flax seed crackers. The Clean Ridge Soap Company, also based in Pound Ridge, offered such products as preservative-free soaps make with essential oils. Cabbage Hill Farms had crunchy snap peas and baby lettuces and duck eggs.

The Homestead is particularly well-suited for the market given its history as a working farm, said Gordon, who switched from a career in fashion to farm-market managing. "Food grown on the site's 62-acres used to be sold at markets and fairs dating back to the 1860s. Plus it's a beautiful, wide-open space for people to walk and buy food; it's not so commercial. We hope that it becomes a real community hub," she said.

In choosing vendors, Gordon said she not only looked for locally sourced foods but high-quality products that would be unique to the area. For example the Larchmont-based Kontuli Family Olive Oil products are provided by a husband and wife team who inherited an olive orchard in Greece. "So this is a really authentic product to carry," said Gordon.

For more on each individual vendor, tune in this Friday when we launch the Patch Vendor of the Week series, featuring vendors from the two local markets serving the area, Gossett's Farmers Market and the John Jay Homestead Farmer's Market.