PILLOW TALK: Ready-Set-Garden! | Deborah Goodwin

The Union Square Greenmarket. There are signs everywhere to Watch Your Belongings, because of pickpockets

Apr. 2, 2012 (ShapeShiftas) -- We are having an early Spring here in Vermont, and all patriotic Vermonters are getting ready to garden!

Everyone has a garden here, from the native Vermonters who grew up on farms to the transplanted (ha) flat-landers like us who came here looking for a more healthy and sustainable life. In New York the closest I ever got to a garden was the tulip beds in the middle of Park Avenue, or perhaps the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. If I wanted some seasonal, organically grown produce, I would either shop at Whole Foods (aka, Whole Paycheck), or go to the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturdays.

The trucks for the Greenmarket come into the city about 4:00 AM, driving down from farms in upstate NY, Connecticut, and Vermont. The city's chefs arrive soon after, and they pick up the best of the foraged, the free-range, and the seasonal. The market runs from 8 a.m.-6 p.m., and then the farmers pack up, drive back to the country, and do it again Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Farming is hard work, but selling at the Greenmarket seems even harder. It is certainly a long workday. I can't determine if these farmers are making a killing or barely breaking even, but they sure sell a ton of produce at top dollar to New Yorkers trying to shop as locally as they can.

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