Grow NYC's Youthmarket Keeps Windsor Terrace Lean and Green

It may sound like a cliché, but Grow NYC's Youthmarket, next to the Windsor Terrace branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, builds strong minds and bodies. 

On Saturday, September 14, I met workers Gabriel Carneho and Arkadydia Sefu, and Johnathan Miranda, who traveled respectively from the Bronx and Queens, and the Brooklyn coordinator of the farmers' market, Cindy Lee, at the corner of East 5th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway. The teens were so busy serving customers, they barely had time to pose for a photo, let alone talk to me.  

 

Arrayed on tables under a big white tent were several varieties of apples and peaches; eggplant, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes; carrots and beets; collards and kale; red potatoes and onions; and parsley.

As with the 54 Greenmarkets Grow NYC runs throughout the five boroughs, these fruits and vegetables came from mainly upstate New York orchards and farms. However, instead of having the farmers sell their produce out of their own trucks, which takes up a lot of space, the more compact Youthmarkets can be set up on a street corner, such as the Windsor Terrace location.

They also receive their products from a clearinghouse, rather than individual farmers, thus assuring a more reliable, and varied flow of goods. There are four other Youthmarkets in Brooklyn; two in Brownsville, one in Cypress Hills, and another in East Williamsburg.   

I bought two bags full of eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and  parsley for 14 dollars. These were some of the ingredients I needed to prepare Macedonian salad, based on a recipe in the 1992 edition of Mollie Katzen's classic, vegetarian Moosewood Cookbook.

Youthmarkets has a triple goal--to bring fresh food to underserved neighborhoods thereby increasing the market reach of state farmers, and in the process training and employing local young people in a retail trade vital to the public health.

Compared to the other locations in Brooklyn, Windsor Terrace is not an underserved community. But the sponsor of this Youthmarket is Councilman Brad Lander, a longtime advocate for low-income residents. The fact that the workers at the Windsor Terrace stand came from the far reaches of the city demonstrate Lander's commitment to serving disadvantaged youth.

I bought the rest of the vegetables I needed at the unionized Foodtown, on the corner of MacDonald Avenue and Albermarle Road. (A cause celebre in the neighborhood is a boycott of a large market, Golden Farm, which is fighting an organizing effort by its largely Mexican-American workers.) These included red and green peppers, garlic, lemons, scallions, and olives.

I varied Katzen's recipe by roasting all the vegetables, not just the eggplant, and adding potatoes and pasta. This enhanced the sweetness of the peppers and tomatoes, in contrast to the slightly bitter (unpeeled) eggplant. The starch provided a base for the taste buds, not otherwise possible with this marinaded dish. (I kept Katzen's marinade of olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, scallions, parsley, basil, thyme, and marjoram, garnished with olives.)

The Macedonian salad (two soup pots full) I provided for Brooklyn Quaker Meeting's social hour on Sunday, September 15 was completely devoured by 100 worshipers.