David Taber
JP CENTER—Threatened with eviction from its perch in the Centre Street Bank of America Parking lot last spring, Stillman’s Farm has leveraged the community outcry that saved it into a second location for its 2010 JP farmers market.
The Lunenberg and New Braintree-based farm is still hosting markets in the bank parking lot at 677 Centre St. at the traditional times—noon to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays and noon to 3 p.m. on Saturdays. But it will also be hosting a market in the Loring-Greenough House parking lot on Thursdays, Geneviève Stillman told the Gazette.
The Loring-Greenough House market will run from 2 to 6 p.m., she said. She said she hopes the later hours at the Loring-Greenough site will be more convenient for “working folks” who miss the weekday Bank of America hours.
A move to the Loring-Greenough at 12 South St.—owned by the Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club—was one of the suggestions for an alternate location for the market during a tense multi-day stand-off between the bank manager and the farmer’s market in April, 2009.
Community support for the farm won out and the bank allowed Stillman’s to stay, but the seed was planted for the expansion. Stillman said negotiations to use the Loring-Greenough parking lot took all year. Ray Dunetz, a member of the Tuesday Club board, “called last week to say it’s a go,” she said.
Both the Bank of America and Loring-Greenough markets will include a handful of other vendors, including meat from family member Kate Stillman’s turkey farm and various cheese, honey and baked-good sellers.
Asian Hmong farmers from Flats Mentor Farm will also likely be selling produce at some of the markets again this year, Stillman said.
She said Stillman is still looking for local food producers to join the markets. Because of space constraints, she said, Stillman is not inviting craft vendors. For more information, see Stillmansfarm.com.