Yippee!
It can’t come soon enough for us. This 18th season of New Jersey’s Favorite Farmer’s Market has a chance to be the best ever.
Attention, New Participants!
These instructions will help insure a smooth arrival and setup during what can be a hectic hour. We’ll offer directions and general instructions for the first three weeks of May to help orient new guest vendors and other participants.
Study your location
- Further down this post you will find the site plans for opening day SAT MAY 06.
- The first farm vendors arrive at 6am. You are welcome to arrive with them.
- Arrive no later than 7am. You need to be ready to meet the public at 8am.
- David will be on site wearing red sweatshirt and/or jacket and a Market cap.
- Find David or text him to let him know you’ve arrived.
- Text, don’t call, (856) 979-6653
If you’re on the North side of the Market (spaces 1-49)
- DO NOT drive into the Market at all.
- You’ll park briefly alongside the parking meters on the north side to unload.
Be Smart when you park.
Don’t command a parking space that shoppers can turn over a dozen times.
- David will have Vendor Parking Passes for you
- Park in the Lumberyard Garage for free
- Saving spaces for shoppers means more of them will visit your tent and table.
- Don’t be late, but text ahead if you’re going to be late.
- Text me: (856) 979-6653.
- If you must call instead of texting, please remember, when I answer, I will be busy with someone who’s on time.
- Remain patient.
Look for the chalk
- Market space numbers are marked with chalk on the pavement.
- Market spaces are parking space dimensions, 10 feet wide by 16 feet deep.
- Under the Speedline, we follow the diagonal parking space lines.
- On the north side, we “square off” the diagonals.
- The Market provides space only.
- Bring your own tables and tents.
- May can be windy; tents require weights for safety.
- Plan your displays so that your products don’t fall or blow away.
Forecast SAT MAY 06.
WINDY. We’re catching a break on rain, but let’s not push it. Thunderstorms Friday evening could make the pavement wet, complicating the “chalking” to mark your spaces. More important are the forecast winds for Saturday. 12 MPH at a minimum means tents can fly. Don’t shrug these off; they can be very dangerous. Bring tent weights as always.
Site Plan for SAT MAY 06
We’ve already posted this to Facebook where it has reached over 4,000 viewers. Here’s your chance to see it too! 🙂
NEW Vendors
BUCK WILD BISON
will bring choice cuts of the red meat preferred by customers who appreciate the strict requirements under which bison are raised. Local bison is exceedingly rare, and Shane Robbins is proud to bring the meat he’s raised since the animals were calved.
INSPIRED BREWS KOMBUCHA
comes to us from the highly-respected fermenteria in Olde City Philadelphia. You may have sampled their brews on tap at Whole Foods. This is your chance to stock up on bottled brews on Saturdays.
BID Vendors
Dulce Artisanal Pastries of Collingswood will fill the space historically occupied by perennial favorite DiBartolo Bakery. Dulce will find instant acceptance with their crusty baguettes, buttery croissants, and other familiar local favorites.
Market regulars Villa Barone, Cheese Etc., Charlie’s Crepes, and Sara’s Produce will round out the roster at the BID section.
Official Market Bloggers
BREAKFAST FOR DINNER
Our blogger Susan Mauer Lynch (Yellow Room Upstairs) has a knack for making the familiar seem fresh and new. This week, she turns the tables on breakfast, featuring blueberry pancakes (she’s enjoyed them all: from AT Buzby, Flaim Farm, Formisano Farms, Fruitwood Farms, Hymer Farms, Wm. Schober & Sons, Springdale Farms, Viereck Farms, and Green-Ford Blueberry Farm), no-nitrate bacon from Hillacres Pride, and “little girl eggs” from DanLynn Organic. Suggested wardrobe: your PJs.
FRESHEST POSSIBLE KOMBUCHA
Meanwhile, Patricia DiJulio (SouthJerseyGirlsGrub) visited the auspicious Olde City fermenteria of brand new Guest Vendor Inspired Brews Kombucha. She knows her way around the gut health favorites, having made her own sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, and sourdough starters, but when she tasted what the “amazing women” at Inspired Brews were offering, she was “hooked at the very first sip.” Come try them for yourself.
Featured Artist
We’re pleased to feature Monique Platt DuTill & Daughters Pottery at the Market for the first week of the new season. Monique offers handmade ceramics for the home and garden.
For espresso, tea demitasse, punch? Classy either way.
http://www.dutillanddaughters.com/
http://www.facebook.com/dutillanddaughters
Music SAT MAY 06
DAVE KELLY MAKES STRINGED THINGS SING. Dave will kick off the new season at the East stage Music Tent, sponsored by Collingswood Music. Last year, he added the lap steel guitar to the long list of stringed things he can make sing.
EVERYBODY’S SECOND-FAVORITE Market performer JOHN ROSSI (Sorry, John, I couldn’t resist.) commands the West stage, which doesn’t have a tent or a sponsor, but DOES HAVE a new PA system so performers don’t have to haul their own amplification. We love John (who doesn’t?). Stop by and make him feel welcome.
Dog Tent SAT MAY 06
NJ Aid for Animals
The wonderful people at NJ Aid for Animals sponsor our Dog Tent and for the last few years have kicked off our new season by staffing the tent with information, donation collections, volunteer opportunities, adoptable animals.
Luna, currently in heat
They will also operate the “Official Market Leash” program that for several seasons has eliminated the presence of troublesome misbehavers while at the same time respecting the rights of well-behaved animals and their handlers to enjoy the Market.
Small Bills and a Bathroom Key
Many of you know, but for those of you who don’t, I carry small bills for vendors who run out of singles during the Market day. For guest vendors who might not be aware, I also have a key to Perkins Art Center, a Market sponsor, the primary benefit of which, for our vendors is INDOOR PLUMBING!
Location for New Participants
The Market is not a permanent structure with a street address. It’s a section of pavement between Haddon Avenue and the High-Speed PATCO train to Philadelphia known as the Speedline. It sets up Saturday mornings from the first of May until the Saturday before Thanksgiving, from 8am until noon, and by 2pm the only way to identify the location is by the sponsor banners flying from the utility poles.
Using Google Maps?
For mapping purposes, use 713 North Atlantic Avenue, Collingswood as an address. That’s actually the Collingswood Police Station, but it’s the closest named building.
LINK TO GOOGLE MAPS
The market is located in Collingswood’s flourishing downtown business district, situated only 10 minutes from Center City Philadelphia by car and by PATCO Hi-Speedline.
The Towers. Once you get close, the Market can be found easily by looking up—for 2 water towers. The Market occupies the parking lot near the base of the two blue water towers in the center of town.
They’ve just been repainted. So, in case the Collingswood Logo isn’t in place yet, look for something like the photos on the right.
Near Directions
- If you enter town on Haddon Avenue, turn right onto Collings Avenue at the traffic light in the middle of town, then left into the entrance to the Community Center just before you reach the Speedline.
- If you enter town on Collings Avenue, make a right turn into the entrance to the Community Center, just after coming under the Speedline.
- If you enter town on PATCO, exit the turnstiles and head left, which is west, in the direction of Philadelphia. Walk along the PATCO tracks for about a block and a half and you will see the Market.
From the Ben Franklin Bridge
You will take Admiral Wilson Blvd. (30/676) to 30/130 south (the PUB is a landmark at the ramp)
Go thru the light at the Cooper River Golf driving range, past cemetery, and keep an eye to your right for a Dunkin Donuts.
Make the right at the Dunkin Donuts corner onto Haddon Ave, BUT keep right to jughandle around UNDER 130 and up onto Haddon Ave into Collingswood. (There is a sign “Welcome to Collingswood”)
Drive through first light (Browning Rd. intersection). At second light (Collings Avenue), turn right. You’re practically there.
Turn right onto Collings Avenue and turn left into the Community Center (past the fire hall). Stay to the right and follow the traffic or park immediately.
Look up. You’ll see two blue water towers. The Market is in the same lot.
This should be about 7 minutes drive from Ben Franklin in Saturday morning traffic.
Parking
- PATCO Collingswood Station parking along Atlantic Ave. extends right up to the Irvin Avenue entrance of the Market and is ample and free.
- Free street parking along the Market section of Atlantic Avenue and neighboring streets.
- Free parking in lots just north of the Market both west and east of the Police station.
- Kiosk and meter parking along Haddon Avenue.
- Kiosk parking in the Lumberyard Garage on Collings Avenue across from the Community Center.
VENDOR PARKING PERMITS
It’s good business to save the best parking spaces for SHOPPERS! Most visitors will tell you it’s tough to find parking at the Market. We make things worse by parking our own vehicles in spaces that could be used and re-used many times by shoppers. Please encourage your table crew to park for free in the Lumberyard Parking Garage (just across Collings Avenue from the west entrance). There are plenty of spaces inside, and the walk back to the Market takes 3 minutes.
Flexible Site Plan
Changes will continue to occur throughout the season as vendors come and go and as we learn more about how neighbors interact. I remind you no spaces are ever guaranteed and require your cooperation if I have to move your location any given week.
THANK YOU
David Hodges, Market Director
Home Office (856) 854-8385
Market Day Cell Phone (856) 979-6653
Farm Marketeer 
