Updated 2007.06.15 with hours of operation and dates of the Grand Opening.

Apples from Red Jacket Orchards at the Cortelyou Greenmarket, June 2006

On Sunday, July 1, the Greenmarket resumes operation for 2007 on Cortelyou Road. This year, the Greenmarket will be located on the north side of Cortelyou Road between Argyle and Rugby Roads (in front of the library) [Google Map]. July 1 and 8, will be Grand Opening celebrations, with lots of activities including cooking demonstrations, musical performances, children’s events, and more.

The Cortelyou Greenmarket and those in Sunset Park and Borough Park are the three Greenmarkets furthest out in Brooklyn.

The Greenmarket will operate every Sunday, 8am to 4pm, from July through November; in recent years it operated on Saturdays. It’s hoped that this year’s location on Cortelyou will be more visible – resulting in more business for the vendors – than recent years’ location in the P.S. 139 schoolyard on Argyle Road.

Note: As of today, June 6, the official Greenmarket map (PDF) still lists last year’s location.

As of June 5, the following vendors are confirmed:

• Meredith’s Bakery
• Amantai Farm, vegetables
• Bread Alone (Note: Lousy Web design, forces Shockwave/Flashpage on you.)
• Red Jacket Orchards
• El Mirador Farm, vegetables
• Muddy River Farm, vegetables
• Butternut Valley Organics, organic vegetables, fruits, baked goods, dairy, eggs, and meat

Pies from Meredith’s Bakery at the Cortelyou Greenmarket, June 2006

Business owners on Cortelyou Road have expressed concern about the impact this will have on their businesses. In particular, the Flatbush Food Coop has reported that their sales dropped when the Greenmarket was open. In addition, the location on Cortelyou Road will take up some potential parking spaces for folks who drive into the neighborhood to do their food shopping.

I’m not a business owner, but I don’t buy into this scarcity model: that more business for some means less for others. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to buy fresh, locally and organically grown produce, and not have to choose between local or organic. The past two years, when the Greenmarket was in operation, we ate out less and cooked at home more. We went to the Greenmarket to see what’s fresh, and planned our meals around that. That meant more local shopping for us, not less.

The new Cortelyou streetscape is coming along beautifully; people are already using the new benches. By the end of the summer, in addition to the existing restaurants, coffee shops, food stores and supermarkets, there will be another coffee shop and a gourmet food shop. All of this will make Cortelyou a mecca for Brooklyn foodies; the Greenmarket will be one more reason to “Shop Cortelyou,” as the banners implore. It’s my hope that there will be more business than ever and Cortelyou will thrive as a commercial strip.

PS: I hate the CENYC Web design. There’s no need for frames. All the Greenmarket information is only available as a PDF. They make it impossible to link to specific topics within their site. That’s why there are no useful links to them from this post.