Everyone knows about the Saturday Burlington Farmers Market, a Queen City fixture since 1980. Far fewer people know about the Tuesday market nestled among the trees in the Old North End's Dewey Park, across from the Integrated Arts Academy — even though it was also founded more than 30 years ago.
Part of the draw of the Old North End Farmers Market is that it flies under the radar. But its devotees would like to spread the word about what makes it special.
"It's not an Instagram market. It's where people come to buy their groceries," market manager Ben Rodgers said.
This year's vendor mix of about eight regular stands is heavy on fresh vegetables and fruit. Others sell honey, mushrooms, prepared foods and bread. Occasionally, someone might set up with sweet treats.
Last week, Bergeron's Produce & Goods displayed a late-summer cornucopia, including bell peppers, sweet corn and melons — plus jarred produce such as Sheldon farmer Terry Bergeron's signature spicy-sweet cowboy candied jalapeños, made with his own honey.
Bergeron said it was his first year selling at the market and his 35th farming.
"We like the diversity, all the cultures that come," his friend and helper, Heidi Kobera, said.
Dylan Zeitlyn, who cofounded Diggers' Mirth Collective Farm in the Intervale in 1992, was involved in starting the market that same year. Over the decades, the farm's stand has anchored the market.
"We all moved to Burlington and fell in love with the Old North End," Zeitlyn said. Collective members wanted to make sure their organic vegetables got to their neighbors. Then, as now, "there were not a lot of places here where you could buy good-quality produce," he said.
The farmers started growing bitter melon and some other plants at the request of customers originally from Vietnam, Zeitlyn said. They have always set prices lower than at the downtown market, and he noted that more than half the farm's Tuesday market earnings come from Farm to Family coupons. The U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded program helps income-eligible Vermonters buy local produce.
Last week, Old North End residents Carol Ann Wooster and Bob Clark bought corn and peppers from Bergeron's and then added lettuce and garlic from Westford's Dandelion Farm to their bags. They paid with a Farm to Family coupon.
The couple said they're market regulars. "We like seeing the people, getting the fresh vegetables, and we can use our farmers market coupons here," Wooster said.
Linda Oats had walked from her downtown Burlington home with a European-style rolling market basket. She shops at both city farmers markets.
"This one's even more personable," Oats said. "There aren't long lines. It's just a little more laid-back."
Another plus: Some of the market's wares, including Oats' favorite Tremolo Bread, cannot be purchased elsewhere.
She selected a pair of baker Wren Kitz's salted, seeded baguettes. "We get two because the first one is a palate cleanser," Oats joked.
Kitz, who runs his weekly stand with his partner, Abbey Meaker, has a home bakery license for their Old North End kitchen. The naturally leavened breads, for which he mills some of the flour, are barely more than a side hustle, he said. The small market is the right scale for his micro-business and helps get his bread "into the hands of the neighborhood community that we love," Kitz said.
Sabah Abbas of Sabah's House feels similarly about vending her chicken and vegetable sambusas at the market a few blocks from her home. The caterer of Middle Eastern food came with her family to Vermont in 2014 as a refugee from the Iraq war.
"It's our neighborhood," Abbas said. "We see each other. We are sharing all the things we have. That is the fun."