Starting next month, the ENF will start to operate year round. This comes on the heels of the closure of the former Citizens Market and the fact that the Richland Park market has been proven successful year round market.
Margaret Littman explains what prompted the shift to year round ”
” Several of the food businesses that cook in Citizen Incubator Kitchens’ commissary kitchen and previously sold their wares at Citizen Market as well as at the ENFM reached out to Boynton. They asked to extend the seasonal market year-round so that they’d have a neighborhood spot for selling in the winter. Among them were CaityPies, Radical Rabbit and Cocorico!, which Boynton says are among the markets’ best-performing vendors. “These women are who I would consider dream vendors,” she says. “We are really proud of them and want to support them in any way we can.”
Boynton has wanted ENFM to go year-round for a while. It works well at Richland Park, she says (although the West Side market takes place on Saturdays, so it gets a bigger crowd anyhow). Obviously, in the winter there will be more prepared foods and less fresh produce — you won’t find a tomato in January — but the market will be stocked with farm-fresh chickens, eggs and grass-fed beef. Boynton expects between 30 and 45 vendors each week.”