Ithaca Farmers Market looks ahead as season nears end

The last weekend for the Ithaca Farmers Market’s outdoor season is this month (Dec. 19), a time that would normally be filled with celebration and excitement for what’s to come. But as it has with many things, COVID-19 has greatly affected not just the Market’s past season but also the next one and other plans going forward.

From the famous Rutabaga Curl and Winter Market in the near future to massive renovations planned farther out, the Market has had to adapt its traditions and plans to be more flexible to keep serving the community through the pandemic.

The Rutabaga Curl comes at the very end of the Market’s outdoor season and usually draws a large crowd from across the region. The event typically features not just a rutabaga curl but also several performers and additional celebrations. Christi Sobel, vice president of the Board of Directors and the “rutabaga goddess,” spoke to the curl’s importance to the area and the Market.

“It’s such a strange street theater,” she said. “For us, the Market season is a long season. We started in April. We’re there every weekend. And by the time we’re done, we’re ready to be done, and it’s kind of this big goofy celebration of, ‘Hey, we made it through another season and here we are.’”

At the time of this publication, the plans for the Rutabaga Curl have yet to be finalized, but several Farmers Market leaders suggested that the tradition may continue in a virtual format, perhaps with the only in-person audience being vendors.

“We’re definitely planning on doing something,” said David Stern, president of the Board of Directors. “We’re not going to skip the Rutabaga Curl unless the sky falls, and even then, we might still do it. So, it’s not going to be crowds of people shoulder to shoulder with no masks rolling rutabagas.”

Whatever the curl looks like this year, sources interviewed for this story universally agreed that it is an important tradition to continue, especially in these uncertain and stressful times.

“It’s quirky, and it’s fun, and it kind of kicks off the holiday season for a lot of people,” said Market Manager Kelly Sauve. “Things are so wacky this year that we are trying to do everything that we can to kind of bring a little bit of sense of normalcy to folks. And, eventually, one day, we’ll be able to be unmasked and go back to having our more traditional event.”

This is also the time of year when Farmers Market staff would be looking forward to the upcoming Winter Market, but like the
Rutabaga Curl, the pandemic has altered what those plans would usually look like. Last year, the Winter Market was held at the Triphammer Marketplace to significant success, as several sources described. And while it’s planned to be at the same location this year (starting in January), the format will likely look very different.

Chaw Chang, chair of the Winter Market Committee, said that Market staff value the relationship with Triphammer Marketplace, but because the Winter Market is indoors, staff have to take significant precautions to reduce the risk of infection. Vendors will need to be at least 6 feet apart, which requires more space. The Market is even renting out one of the storefronts to meet safety standards.

“Normally, you’re trying to get as many people as possible to where you are as a business, and in this situation, we’re trying to control the number of people coming there, at least all in one moment,” Chang said. “So, it’s, to me, a little counterintuitive, but we understand that that’s how it’s got to be. And the Market, I feel, has put in a lot of effort in doing that at Steamboat Landing, and now, we’re just going to have to rewrite another book going indoors.”

Chang said traffic control is going to be the largest challenge for him and his team, and they also have to make sure their plans can be adjusted should situations change.

“I think a lot of people are in the same situation where you’re planning for the best but also expecting possibly the worst-case scenario, which might mean, eventually, the Health Department might [issue a] shutdown or something,” Chang said. “So, we’re kind of running through all sorts of scenarios that way, trying to figure out how to do this as safely as possible.”

One such measure the Market is planning to implement is an online marketplace for not just the Winter Market but the next outdoor season as well. Chang said while it will likely prove useful during the pandemic, with people’s buying habits changing, it will likely continue to be an important asset many years in the future.

Sauve added that Market staff will be using the experience from the past season to help both the Winter Market and the 2021 outdoor market run as smoothly as possible. She said the most important component of that is communication among staff, vendors and customers. To that end, staff have organized an Internal Advisory Committee to help guide this process.

“We’ve learned a lot about best practices, and we’re continuing to kind of shape them with an advisory committee of vendors and customers over the next couple of months to refine what our protocol has been to make sure that it works best for our community while also following all of the state and local guidelines that we are subject to,” she said.

Chang said the Market staff’s efforts have been well-appreciated by vendors, including himself. He runs Stick and Stone Farm, and he’s seen the effects of the Market’s policies during the pandemic firsthand.

“Everybody has to be flexible about this, and I think, having been through the summer, people hopefully have that mindset,” he said. “And certainly, as a business owner, we’ve had to change tactics quickly a number of times this year. So, that kind of experience and that flexibility, I believe, is helpful in this situation.”

Further out, one of the larger news items for the Farmers Market in the past couple of years was the nearly $350,000 grant it was awarded at the end of 2019. The money is for infrastructure improvements as part of statewide Regional Economic Development Council funding. The grant is set up as a reimbursement grant — meaning that the Market must spend money first and get paid back later.

As Tompkins Weekly has covered previously, the financial challenges the Market has faced in the past outdoor season have also affected this renovation project. As Stern explained, earlier this year, the state stalled its granting and contracting processes — only resuming very recently — which delayed the needed reimbursement of funds. This meant the Market had to wait longer to receive money from its agreement with the city of Ithaca for the grant.

Stern said the Market plans to have an executed contract with the state within the next few weeks, after which, the planning process can begin. From there, the whole renovation process is expected to take about five years to complete.

“As soon as the state signs a contract with us, they finalize the contract, then we’ll be able to sign with the architects and the engineers and get that work moving,” he said. “In 2021, we should see both completed engineering work for the parking lot and — without every last nail and screw — a design for the pavilion and how it interacts with the waterfront and the parking lot. And that’ll be a community-driven process.”

Crystal Van Gaasbeck, chair of the Project Advisory Committee, explained the main reasons Market staff are still pursuing the improvements despite the setback.

“We’re right there on the water, and I think we aren’t really utilizing that as much as we can,” she said. “Right now, our parking lot isn’t very safe. We have the cars and pedestrians sort of together in a way that it makes the cars come in and out inefficiently, and the pedestrians, … they’re right next to the cars. And hopefully, we’ll have a much safer design moving forward.”

While the Market’s usual pavilion at Steamboat Landing is historic, Van Gaasbeck said that it could use a change as well.

“Our current building is beautiful and iconic, and I think that moving forward, we’re really going to have a new site and new building that’s just as iconic that will propel us into the future,” she said. “It’ll kind of set the stage for what the future Farmers Market will be.”

Stern added that planning for such a far-off project is a welcome experience for staff, but focusing on the present crisis is making it all the more difficult to prepare that far out.

“It’s really exciting vision if you start to look out three to five years, just thrilling,” he said. “Then, we have to wake up in the morning and get through the day. So, I think there’s this kind of dissonance between how we feel about life today and the vision we have for tomorrow.”

Sobel, who is also a Market vendor (Christi A. Sobel — Fine Art, Scientific Illustration, Design), spoke to the importance of the renovations from a vendor perspective.

“As a vendor, having a space where we can stay warm when it’s cold would be awesome because it gets really cold down there when the wind whips off the water,” she said. “My booth is great, but if my booth was kept a little bit nicer inside, more sheltered, being able to be there through the winter might increase my ability to want to be there in the winter months. And it would be just great to have a new space.”

Moving forward, sources interviewed for this story expressed hope for the Rutabaga Curl, the Winter Market, renovations and more. Staff expressed deep gratitude for the cooperation from vendors and customers this past season, and the Market is looking forward to what lies ahead, even as it faces significant challenges.

“It is a little hard for some people to look past day to day, just getting through this, and look at the bigger picture, and I know a lot of people have had a really tough year this year,” Van Gaasbeck said. “I personally want to be there and try to support the vendors through it. I want everyone to succeed and prosper. I think the Farmers Market is such a gem in our community, and I want us to be successful this year and next year and in many years.”

For more information on the Ithaca Farmers Market, visit ithacamarket.com.