Rye's Farmers' Market Will Open 2011 Season on Memorial Day Weekend

On Sunday, May 29, Rye's Farmers' Market will begin its eighth year of operation. The market will be open every Sunday, rain or shine, at parking lot number 2 on Theodore Fremd Avenue behind the Purchase Street stores (directly behind 73 Purchase St.) from 8:30 a.m to 2 p.m.

Two new vendors have signed on for the 2011 Rye Farmers' Market season: Flour City Pasta and Raaka Chocolate.

The inspiration for starting Flour City Pasta "was ignited six years ago when our family visited the Pike Market in Seattle," says owner Jon Stadt. "We saw a pasta shop there we had never seen in our area. I thought this artisanal type of pasta would be an awesome and healthy pasta to bring to New York."

The Durum Semolina flour used by Flour City Pasta is obtained from an organic farmers cooperative in North Dakota. The whole-wheat and emmer flours are grown and milled locally. The pasta is shaped using bronze dies imported from Italy.

Flour City Pasta's products include fettuccine, linguine, pappardelle, mafaldine, orzo, radiatore, rigatoni and fusilli.

Raaka Chocolate, located in New York, NY, entered the marketplace only six months ago. It does not make chocolate bars by roasting cocoa beans by conventional means. Instead it uses a low-temperature, bean-to-chocolate preparation process, developed by owner Ryan Cheney, a computer animation engineer. 

Before starting Raaka Chocolate 18 months ago, Cheney studied chocolate making for many years, experimenting with a wide variety of cacoa beans before settling on his current choices. The cocoa beans he uses are supplied by the Conacado Cooperative, an organization of small farmers in the Dominican Republic, formed to improve wages and protect farmers from fluctuations in global cocoa prices.

The Raaka Chocolate bars come in the following four flavors: dark with sea salt (70% cacao), blueberry lavender (67% cacao), hazelnut (67% cacao) and vanilla Rooibos (66% cacao and green Rooibos tea). Nibs (small edible fermented cocoa beans) will also be sold at the Raaka Chocolate stand and are intended for grinding and sprinking into ice cream or beverages.

An olive puree (tapenade) will be introduced by Kontoulis Family Olive Oil at its stand and customers who prefer to make their own olive puree using a food processor can simply purchase the olives. This vendor also sells bottles of extra virgin olive oil made from Kalamata olives, grown in Messinia, Greece.

The olive groves were inherited by owner Demetra Kontoulis Bouras, a Westchester County resident, from her grandfather. She travels to Greece to supervise the harvesting, ships the product to America in bulk and bottles at the Cook and Bake Center in Mamaroneck, a certified kitchen for rent.

Many of the food products to be sold at Rye's Farmers' Market and other farmers' markets in Rockland and Westchester Counties this coming season were on display and available for sampling by the press at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Community Markets, the network's organizer. The festivities took place on April 4 at Community Markets' newly opened headquarters in Ossining.

A preliminary list of the 2011 Rye Farmers' Market vendors are:

• Bombay Emerald Chutney Co), Yorktown Heights, NY. Chutney
• Feather Ridge Farm, Elizaville, NY. Eggs, poultry
• Flour City Pasta, Rochester, NY. Pasta
• Kontoulis Family Olive Oil, Larchmont, NY. Olive oil and puree
• Meredith's Bread, Kingston, NY. Baked goods, jam, pastry, pies, quiche
• Migliorelli Farm, Tivoli, NY. Fruit, meat, vegetables
• Millbrook Vineyards & Winery, Millbrook, NY. Wine
• Newgate Farms, East Granby, CT. Baked goods, fruit, plants, vegetables
• Pika's Farm Table, Big Indian, NY. Prepared foods, salsa, soup
• Raaka Chocolate, New York, NY. Chocolate bars and cocoa bean nibs
• Tierra Farm, Valatie, NY. Specialty foods
• Valley Shepherd Creamery, Long Valley, NJ. Cheese, dairy products

Community Markets was founded by Miriam Hass in Ossining in 1991 to bring fresh produce to local neighborhoods after she became disillusioned by the wilted greens at a local grocery.  

Only farmers, growers or producers and their family members or employees are permitted to sell at the farmers' markets. Middlemen, brokers or resellers are excluded. Crafts, jewelry and clothing vendors are not accepted for participation.

Other farmers' markets managed by Community Markets serve the Westchester County communities of Croton-on-Hudson, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisco, New Rochelle, Ossining, Pelham, Pleasantville and Tarrytown, the Rockland County communities of Piermont and Spring Valley and all New York City boroughs except Staten Island.

Potential vendors that meet the eligibility requirements can contact Community Markets, 173 Main Street, Ossining, NY, 9124-923-4837. www.communitymarkets.biz