The Farmers and Makers Behind TFM
If you have not yet visited the Farm Market on Sundays, it is time to go! The Farm Market vendors are made up of food and food related products providing staple items to create your weekly meals such as fruit, veggies, bread, meat and eggs and specialty items such as jams, jellies and nuts.
Every week there are one or two pop-up vendors visiting every other week or once a month. Some of the vendors have been with the market for many years and some are new entrepreneurs who have just started producing or creating their food product.
North of Boston Farm: Justin Chase
Justin owns and operates his Boxford-based family farm, North of Boston, and has been coming to the Sunday market for many years. He grows almost all of the fruit, produce and meat himself on the farm but what he doesn’t produce himself, he brings in through partnership with other local farms.
Neighbor’s Acres Farm: Karen Vasso
Karen owns and operates her migro green farm in Chelmsford. Her microgreens are grown naturally and sustainably and her packaging is compostable. Because she seeds and grows everything herself, you can visually see the difference between her product and those microgreens which are commercially grown. Her stems are shorter but the leaves are bigger and more vibrant which reflects in their superior taste.
Nallie Pastures: Steven Hall
Steve owns and operates Nallie Pasture as the sole farmer on his farm in Dracut. He raises chickens for meat and eggs and every fall he raises turkeys, all pasture raised. All of his chickens are fed non-gmo grain but their diet consists mostly of grass from being out in the pastures all day, every day.
Julie’s Happy Hens: Julie Whitcomb
Every week Julie brings chicken, duck and goose eggs from her farm in Mont Vernon NH. She also brings lamb, pork, beef and peacock feathers. Julie has worked hard to gain funding to allow for some automation on her farm as she provides eggs to several farm stores and restaurants in NH. Her farm is still a small family-owned business.
Grateful Tastes: Tom Taylor
Tom is the owner and producer of jams, jellies and spreads at Grateful Tastes in Lowell. Every season, he picks the freshest, native to Massachusetts fruit and processes his spreads using traditional methods taught to him by his grandmother. He only creates a product when it is in season so a lot of his flavors are limited in supply. Any flavor combination that requires added sweetener, is sweetened with local honey. His spreads can be used on bread and crackers or can be used as marinades or on finished dishes.
Bread Obsession: weekly staff
Varda Haimo and Joan Forman and the female bakers and owners of Bread Obsession. They have been providing freshly made baguettes, European-style rye bread and bagels and naturally leavened crusty sourdoughs every week since 2019. Their breads are made using traditional, time-intensive methods and they never use any preservatives or stabilizers. The staff of this woman-owned bakery bake in the morning so sometimes you can still find a warm loaf by the time the market opens.
Empanada Dada: Bob Cuesta
Empanada Dada is one of the only food trucks in the area, and it is the only one serving authentic empanadas. Bob learned how to make traditional Cuban food from his immigrant mother & grandmother. An empanada is a crescent-shaped pastry filled with sweet or savory ingredients. Bob serves up family favorites every week but also has specials based on the seasons.
The newest resident vendor of The Farm Market is Samira’s Homemade. Samira Hamdoun grew up in Lebanon cooking for her large family. Today she and her team prepare all of their delicious Lebanese food such as Hummus, Baba Gannoush and Stuffed Grape Leaves in Randolph MA.
Throughout the summer several pop up vendors will provide biscotti, hot sauce, soup and stews, fresh flowers and seedlings for your own backyard garden. To find out which vendors will be at the market for the coming week, you can sign up to receive their weekly email here.
The market is open every Sunday from 10am-1pm outside of Mill No. 5 on Middlesex Street. The shops are open on the 4th and 5th floor from 10am-4pm.
