The Queens County Farm Museum will be opening its community farmstands June 15 at Queens Borough Hall and June 16 at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.
For the next 21 weeks, farm-fresh fruits and vegetables will be available for purchase at these locations.
This marks the third year of a partnership between the Queens County Farm Museum and Queens Borough Hall to bring the community farmstands to 120-55 Queens Blvd. in Kew Gardens. There will also be cooking demos, free recipes, tastings and health and wellness resources available.
“Fruits and vegetables are delicious, especially when they are picked fresh and travel less than eight miles to Queens Borough Hall,” Queens County Farm Museum Executive Director Jennifer Walden Weprin said. “We thank [Queens] Borough President Donovan Richards for his leadership in growing healthy communities. We are thrilled to be back.”
“Nothing says summertime like fresh produce! I’m so excited to welcome back the Queens County Farm Museum for our third annual Queens Borough Hall Farmstand,” Richards said. “The farmstand is always a welcome sight for our local community members and Borough Hall workers who have come to love the seasonal and delicious varieties of fruits, veggies and produce the Queens County Farm Museum offers. I thank Queens Farm for their continuous dedication to the health and wellness of our families across The World’s Borough.”
The Jamaica Hospital Medical Center farmstand can be found at the Axel Building, located at 134-20 Jamaica Ave. in Richmond Hill. This will mark the fifth year of the partnership between the Queens County Farm Museum and Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.
This farmstand will be open every Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. until Nov. 3. This location was established in order to bring fresh produce to the food swamp in the area. Food swamps are neighborhoods where healthful alternatives are outnumbered by fast-food locations. As was the case at Queens Borough Hall, cooking demos, free recipes, tastings and health and wellness resources will be available there.
“Jamaica Hospital is thrilled to partner for the fourth consecutive season with Queens County Farm Museum, who brings hyper-local fresh produce to our campus,” Jamaica Hospital Medical Center Director of Planning Ann Corrigan said. “Our employees, patients and community can’t wait for the Farmstand to open.”
There will also be a farmstand opening June 14 at the Queens County Farm Museum. This location will be open Wednesdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Nov. 18. The Queens County Farm Museum is located at 73-50 Little Neck Pkwy. in Floral Park.
“Queens County Farm Museum is at the forefront of the New Agrarian Economy,” Walden Weprin said. “Every New Yorker deserves to eat farm-fresh local food. As we shorten the distance from farm to fork, we are thrilled to have the support of local leaders and partner organizations to expand our food work.”
In addition to the Queens County Farm Museum’s own fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, honey and eggs, these community farmstands will feature agricultural products grown and produced in New York State. This helps to expand the reach of New York State agriculture more deeply into the urban communities in New York City in need of access to fresh, minimally processed food.
Credit cards, debit cards and cash will all be accepted at these farmstands. Multiple forms of nutrition assistance programs will also be available. This includes SNAP/EBT benefits, WIC, FMNP Checks, Health Bucks and Fresh Connect Checks. To help encourage community composting, food scraps drop-offs will be accepted at each community farmstand location.
More than 200 varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers are grown at the Queens County Farm Museum. This makes it a leader in hyper-locally grown food in New York City. Its crop plan features a variety of produce. Its herbs include basil, parsley, sage, cilantro, chive, mint and scallions. Vegetables include asparagus, beans, broccolini, cabbage, carrots, chard, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, fennel, garlic, a range of lettuces, kale, kohlrabi, okra, onions, peas, peppers, potatoes, radish, spinach, squash, sweet potato and microgreens. Among the fruits are a selection of berries, melons and tomatoes. All of the farm’s produce is regeneratively grown using organic methods and is Certified Naturally Grown, meaning no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides are used.
“The Queens County Farm Museum is an important link connecting urban consumers with New York agriculture, not only educating their neighbors, but providing them with farm fresh food,” New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher said. “New York Farm Bureau congratulates the Queens County Farm Museum for expanding its reach to ensure more New Yorkers can access local fruits and vegetables.”
