New East Side Farmers’ Market Finds Home on Future Central Park Site

Beginning June 11, weekly 4 to 7pm, Madison’s new East Side Farmers’ Market will take place at Ingersoll and East Wilson. The Willy St. Co-op is sponsoring the market, and the site is being provided by the Urban Open Space Foundation (UOSF), a Madison-based land trust that has been working to create a Central Park on the site. (In March, the Common Council approved the creation of 24 acres of new open space here.)

“For years the community has looked for ways to set up an East Side Farmers’ Market,” says local Alder Judy Olson. “It’s taken a unique collaboration between grassroots organizers, the Co-op, UOSF, the city, and the county to finally bring it off.” All profits from the new market will go to farmers; UOSF and the Co-op will make no profits.

UOSF hopes eventually to include a permanent home for the market in the new Central Park. “I am just glad that this land that we are holding – which will someday be part of a great park for Madison – can already become a significant asset to the East Isthmus and for the entire city,” says Hal Cohen, UOSF’s project manager for the park initiative.

Before the market opens, the site will undergo a number of improvements, including environmental remediation recommendations handed down by DNR. This will include a gravel cap on the site to prevent contact with existing soil, which has some low-level contamination. Other improvements will be decorative, including flowers, shrubs, and banners. Improvements are being funded by public and private grants, as well as donations. “It is wonderful to see so many people pulling together to create a vibrant community event and space in what is now an empty lot in an industrial corridor,” says Lauri McKean, The Co-op’s member services manager and market coordinator.

The East Side Farmers’ Market will strengthen bonds between urban Madisonians and their agricultural neighbors, and it will provide a marketplace for produce from the region’s many family farmers. Judy Hageman, co-manager of the Dane County Farmer’s Market on the Square, says, “We’re totally in support of the new East Side market. The more farmers’ markets promoting buying locally, the better.” Already there is significant interest from farmers and neighborhood residents.

To get involved with the market or to donate materials, contact the Co-op at 251-0884.