Running the Public Market

  Margaret O’Neill has been a devoted volunteer with the Friends of the Rochester Public Market for nine years. She calls it her “retirement gig.”

  You might also say O’Neill is a champion for the 112-year-old market, one of the community’s most beloved landmarks, at 280 N. Union Street, Rochester.

  The “Friends” is a volunteer organization that was founded in 2003 to help celebrate the market’s 100th Anniversary celebration. Their purpose is simply to support the market, which is operated by the City of Rochester.

  Today, the Friends not only organize some events, provide guided tours and order and sell market-branded merchandise, but also run the market token program, sponsor monthly healthy eating programs and food tastings, and more.

   “I love working on programs and with the market audience,” O’Neill said. She explained that she just didn’t want an “office job” in retirement.

  Formerly of Rochester and Henrietta and now a Honeoye Falls resident, she previously had a 30-year career with Cornell Cooperative Extension, the last five-plus as executive director.

   Since Jim Farr, the Public Market’s director, was on her board, he suggested she help start the token program when she retired, and maybe do some grant writing. O’Neill now does both. One of the grants received supported the purchase of the tram that shuttles market shoppers to and from more distant parking lots.

   “There will never be enough parking,” O’Neill said with a smile, “but we do try really hard to make shopping at the market as convenient as possible.”

   She spends three days a week at the market. Her tasks include coordinating volunteers and leading tours.

   The wife, mother of one, and relatively “new” grandmother also does her shopping at the market. “I rarely shop at the grocery store anymore,” she confessed. “I can buy just about everything I need here.”

   She admitted, like many a market shopper, “You have to pace yourself. … It’s so easy to buy more than you can use!”

  O’Neill helped develop the market’s popular cookbook program. In fact, the first cookbook is already out of print, O’Neill said, but the second is still available.

   “It is a veritable feast of favorite recipes shared by farmers, vendors, shoppers, and renowned local chefs,” O’Neill said. “And all recipes feature food from the market.”

   Proceeds from the sale of the books directly supports the operation of the market token program.

   O’Neill often can be found at the new “token center,” built out of a one-time shipping container, much like four of the market’s most popular food vendors. It is located behind the market office near the center of the market.  The Friends’ willingness to run the token program makes it very viable, said market supervisor Cindy DeCoste.

   There are two kinds of market tokens: Ones that can be purchased with food stamp EBT benefits and used to purchase fresh produce at market vendors, or “gift tokens, which are $5 gift certificates accepted by vendors at the market throughout the year.

   It costs about $50,000 a year to administer the token program, O’Neill said, but notes that $1 million dollars worth of tokens were sold last year alone. “And that goes directly to farmers, families, and the local economy,” she pointed out. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”

   “I think fall, though, is the most wonderful time of year to shop at the market,”O’Neill said. “Where we live has some of the most fertile farmland in the country, and at the market, you get bargain prices, since you’re buying direct from the farmers.”

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Food and history

  There’s so much to learn at the market — not only about food, but also about history. Among the facts O’Neill provides to tour-goers, often school groups, are that since the Rochester

  Public Market has been operating continuously for 112 years, it makes it the third- oldest such market in the country. In fact, the brick streets are original.

   She also explains that since Rochester’s is a “public” market, its vendors have always been a combination of local farmers and wholesalers who buy from around the country and world.

   She likes to ask tour-goers what they think is the most expensive food at the market. (It turns out it’s a spice, saffron, which costs $12 a gram or $4,000 a pound, since it takes 47 acres to produce just one pound, according to O’Neill.)

   With recent major renovations, the market is also a wonderful blend of old and new, O’Neill said, pointing to new solar panels in roofs, and the new enclosed shed with new restrooms and areas for cooking demonstrations.

   DeCoste called the renovations “incredible, state-of-the-art.”

   The latest cold-storage technology also means you get really fresh, local produce — especially apples and root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, onions, squash, turnips — year-round, O’Neill said.

   While permanent storefronts at the market — bakeries, cheese vendors, a florist, and more and more restaurants — are open seven days a week, farmers and wholesalers are on hand with their offerings on Tuesdays,  Thursdays, and Saturdays. The only time the market is closed is on Thanksgiving, which always falls on a Thursday, or if Christmas falls on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday.

   “Or unless there’s a blizzard,” added Mike Mizerny of Greece, who has been a market volunteer for three years now. He is now in charge of the Friends’ market T-shirt and sweatshirt sales. His daughter Lauren has also joined him as a volunteer and works part-time for one of the vendors.

    The market can be “a crazy place to be” on Saturdays, Mizerny said with a smile, noting that one Saturday a couple of weeks ago, just the token program alone processed 826 transactions.

  “But the market is fun,” O’Neill said. “ ere are food demonstrations, music, places where you can pick up coffee and breakfast … It can be a great, social and relaxing outing — a good time for the entire family.”

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Holidays at the Market

   There are special events at the Rochester Public Market year-round. One of my family’s (many) favorites is Holidays at the Market. If you’re looking for unique ways to help prepare for the holidays, there’s no need to look further than the market.

   This year’s three Sundays of holiday events and unique shopping opportunities are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays, Nov. 26, Dec. 3 and 10. Admission is free.

   One of the event’s “treats” is a free horse-drawn carriage ride around the market — with Santa. While families wait for their rides, there are activities like cookie decorating.

   For shoppers, the market is  filled with the scent of evergreen — trees, wreaths, table centerpieces, roping — plus produce, prepared foods, and gifts.

Give a gift of the market

You can support the Rochester Public Market by simply visiting, but you can also put a piece of the market under the tree. For instance:

• The Friends of the Rochester Public Market sell a variety of market branded merchandise, from hoodies and T-shirts to coffee mugs, tote bags, a market history book, posters of historic scenes, and more.

• The Friends’ second cookbook: “Bringing the Market Home; Savoring the Seasons from the Rochester Public Market,” a full-color, 84-page cookbook that celebrates the joy that is the shopping — and eating — experience at the market. The gorgeous pictures are worth the price ($25) alone. Cookbooks can be purchased at the market, but may also be ordered online at www.marketfriends.org and can be shipped anywhere in the country.

• One of my favorite “stocking stuffer” ideas is market gift tokens, which can be purchased in $5 increments and work like gift certificates at any market vendor or food stand.

For more information, check out the market’s website at www.cityofrochester.gov/publicmarket, or call the market office at (585) 428-6907.