TUESDAY MARKET

NORTHAMPTON, MA

Seeking part-time Assistant Manager for Tuesday Market, a vibrant, community-oriented farmers market located in downtown Northampton. The assistant manager will work closely with market managers Ben James & Oona Coy to make the market a welcoming & inspiring environment for customers, as well as a supportive & well-run business for market vendors.

10 hours per week (Tuesdays 1:00 - 6:00PM, plus 5 hours on Sundays or Mondays).
March - November.
$14/hr.

Responsibilities will include the following:

• Coordinate & oversee two market interns who are responsible for staffing the credit/debit/EBT machine and setting up weekly art projects for kids
• Act as a market “host,” welcoming new customers to market, offering recipe ideas and cooking advice, working as a liaison between customers and vendors
• Assist in coordinating special market events (e.g. visiting chefs, pie contest, musical events)
• Assist in creating & collecting content for weekly newsletter, including seasonal recipes
• Weekly outreach through social media
• Collect and count market tokens from vendors
• Input data for usage of SNAP benefits (food stamps) at market
• Assist in implementation of 2012 outreach & marketing initiatives

We seek applicants with the following strengths:

• Friendly & outgoing – someone who really enjoys being around people, who can communicate clearly and effectively
• Detail-oriented & good with numbers – capable of inputting and tracking data accurately over an entire season
• Good time and people management skills – someone who is able to use their own limited work hours, intern hours, and volunteer hours most effectively
• Consistency & reliability (able to commit to missing no more than two out of 30 markets)
• Enthusiasm for cooking &  preparing fresh, seasonal food
• Artistic & creative sensibility
• Comfortable using Excel
• Comfortable using social media

Applicants should submit the following:

• Cover letter describing your qualifications and explaining why you’d like the job
• Resume
• Contact information for two employer references

Send to:
Ben James & Oona Coy
benjabirdy@gmail.com
Subject heading: Assistant Manager Job Application

 Tuesday Market is getting drowsy. Tuesday Market feels the early morning frost pressing its whole body down. Tuesday Market hears the flitter of sparrows in late-sown fields searching for a few last seeds to crack. Tuesday Market sweeps the plaza and eight months of petals and breadcrumbs and overheard snippets of conversation are borne away by the wind. Dear friends, Tuesday Market is ready to take a long, long nap.

But not until we have one last hurrah, OK? This week the market features salad greens, spinach, kale, apples, ginger, and an incredible assortment of fall roots, including that most unduly modest of late-season vegetables – the watermelon radish (slice one open and you'll see why there's no need for modesty).

This week our friends at Justamere Tree Farm will be giving out a free maple candy to anyone who'd like one. It's their kind way of saying thanks for all the goodness that you – our customers – have brought to this market, just by showing up.

One person who showed up, and showed up, and showed up all season long was Peter Blanchette. His music made the market a good place to be. We can all offer a bit of thanks by helping to fund the movie being made about Peter and the Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra. More information is here.

So that's about it. Stop by and say hello & goodbye to us this week – wish us all some good, nurturing rest – but please don't forget that many Tuesday Market vendors will be selling glorious food at Northampton's Winter Farmers Market, which starts THIS Saturday and continues weekly, every Saturday from 9 to 2.

Here are some pictures from this season. And if we don't see you at market, here's wishing you a wonderful winter. Be well!

Tuesday Market is located next to the parking garage in downtown Northampton.

We are open from 1:30 to 6:30 every Tuesday.

Here is our website. Here is our facebook page.

Our second-to-last market is this week, and we're still loaded with freshly-dug roots, succulent salad greens, crisp apples, hardy flowers, and delectable cuts of meat. Our vendors also make a splendid array of crafts and value-added products for your belly and home, or for you to give away as the perfect gifts. You could, in fact, get all your holiday shopping done in one fell swoop at Tuesday Market. Start with hand-made brooms of all sizes from Justamere Tree Farm. Superb craftsmanship and earthen materials make these some of the most satisfying tools you can have in your house. Next check out the truly beautiful garlic and shallot braids at Astarte Farm, and the skeins of wool from Crabapple Farm. Bug Hill Farm makes gift boxes of their black currant cordial and their rhubarb rush, and – of course – jam from Beaumont's Berries and jars of Red Barn Honey will please just about anyone. (Check out the photos below of some of these great products.)

As we close in on the end of the season, I want to say on behalf of all the Tuesday Market vendors that you – our dedicated, charming, sincere, hilarious, inspiring, impassioned, busy, hungry customers – are just great. We really like you, and we are so glad you keep coming back. Thanks. We'll see you at market.

Despite what it says on our permanent sign, Tuesday Market has four more weeks to go – all the way to November 15th! And even as the season winds down, there are new and glorious things to find at market every week. The array of apple varieties available from Park Hill Orchard and Apex Orchards just keeps on growing. Check out the jicama and turmeric grown by Old Friends Farm. There's tender, succulent salad mix grown in Town Farm's winter greenhouses. Sangha Farm has a couple new cheeses to try out. And Dan Pratt from Astarte Farm will be at market with beautiful, braided garlic & shallot bunches.

After November 15th, come find a bunch of us at the heartwarming, musical, comfy, nourishing Northampton Winter Farmers Market in the Thornes Dynamite Space. Crabapple Farm, Apex Orchards, Bug Hill Farm, Town Farm, Mockingbird Farm, and Sangha Farm will be there every Saturday from 9:00 to 2:00. It's a fantastic market and an incredibly satisfying way to get fresh food and stay connected with your faithful farmers through the coldest months. 

Peter Blanchette – director of the Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra – takes us back into the zone this week on another beautiful Tuesday afternoon. Here's a great article about Peter & HVGO.

Last week Ms.  Walmsey – 2nd grage teacher at Jackson Street School – brought her class to Town Farm, where they met some goats & chickens, hauled firewood, and harvested carrots for market. The very next day to the whole class made their way down to Tuesday Market, where they interviewed vendors, snacked on apples, and admired the carrot bunches they'd dug. Ms. Walmsey, along with Mary Cowhey and other teachers & parents at JSS – as well as Ben Wood from the Northampton Health Department – have worked tirelessly to connect kids to farming and gardening, and to encourage in them a lifetime of good, healthy eating. Here's what I have to say: They're doing a great job. 

As the days get shorter & colder, there is nothing as satisfying as a braise, or slow-cooked stew, or tagine made from pastured beef or pork or lamb. For us farmers – and for everyone – this is the kind of food that builds back our deep strength after the work of a long, depleting summer. In my kitchen, the slow cooker and the dutch oven have suddenly reappeared after a break of several months. Also my copy of Molly Stevens' All About Braising, which explains the process of cooking tougher cuts of meat so lucidly it's a delight to read (it also includes vegetarian braises, and you can get it locally even though my link is to Amazon). Tevis from Crabapple Farm has many of the cuts of beef you'll need for a slow braise. Pete from Mockingbird Farm has pork and poultry. And Mark and Kristin at Leyden Glen Farm have the tastiest lamb available anywhere in the valley. All these farmers raise their animals in the open air on lush pasture. They spend real time with the animals, know many of them individually, and – with a great deal of humor, respect, and sense of responsibility – have conducted them all the way from birth to market. In so many ways these farms are antidotes to the ills and injustices of factory meat production. We're lucky to have them at our market.

Kristin has a great blog, with several really inspiring recipes for lamb. Here's a link to Moroccan Lamb Tagine from Leyden Glen Farm with Old Friends Farm Fresh Ginger, Prunes, Apricots, Apples, and Carrots, but make sure to check the sidebar for other good ideas as well. There are copies of the recipes at the Leyden Glen stand as well.

Bistro Les Gras returns this week with a fall vegetable-wheatberry soup and – yes – braised pork over beans and greens.  

Local authors Ann Woodhull and Shelley Rotner will be at market this week with their new children's book The Buzz on Bees, which explores the importance of bees as pollinators and is full of beautiful photographs.

The phenomenal Peter Blanchette returns this week with his archguitar. Yay Peter (and Maddy, too)!

Last week Julia Handschuh took a truck-load of fresh food from Western Mass down to Occupy Wall Street (Tuesday Market was the drop-off site). Here's her post about the food & the movement and its connections to things like the Kitchen Collaborative going on up here.

All those good fall things (like carrots! like apples! like pumpkins!) from from all those good fall people – this week at market. We'll see you there!

Tuesday Market is located next to the parking garage in downtown Northampton.

We are open from 1:30 to 6:30 every Tuesday.

Here is our website. Here is our facebook page.