Shannon Raider ripped into me, with reason. I identified her in a recent column about crime on Laurel Street and I failed to quote her. She wanted her say, so I hunted her down at her Saturday morning haunt: the Laurel Street Farmers' Market.

Before discoursing about the organic fruits and vegetables available at the market, she had a few words about the street itself.

"This neighborhood has a lot of challenges," Raider said. "It has a lot of good things going for it. But the problem with the media is we only hear the bad things, and that drowns out the positives.

"It drowns out the people working to create the Hartford we all want to live in," Raider said.

The Hartford she wants to live in, she said, has an organic farmers' market. So Hartford Food Systems started one on the south side of Laurel Street, past Knox Parks.

Connecticut's capital had no retail oriented community farm market, Raider said. It has weekday farm markets at places like the Asylum Hill Congregational Church, but no weekend gathering like a smaller version of New York City's Union Square farmers' market.

The regional market on Brainard Road serves its purpose of bulk sales, Raider said, but she and her cohorts at HFS sought an avenue for area produce sales in the city.

"We want to bring locally-grown, nutritious foods into the city where it didn't exist before," Raider said. "We are completely committed to bringing access to the community."

The Farmers' Market started last year with one booth that was attached to the Grow Hartford program, Hartford Food Systems director Jif Martin said. HFS runs Grow Hartford to train urban youth in agriculture.

"We realized that we had an opportunity here," Martin said.

So this summer, on June 11, the Laurel Street Farmers' Market opened with a dozen booths. And true to its mission of creating access, the market accepts WIC, food stamps and Foodshare Farmers' Market coupons, Martin said.

Martin was selling flower and herb arrangements at one of the dozen or so booths at the market. Customers browsing the lot could buy breads, cakes, kale, and pigs and chickens (no, the livestock was not there Ð just the farmer selling them).

Between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., Martin said that about 250 customers a week will pass through the dusty, sunny lot. The next step, both Martin and Raider agreed, is to attract more people.

"It is really important that farmers have enough sales to make a profit," Martin said. "We're working hard to increase attendance."

By partnering with local not-for-profits like Family Life, HFS is growing the crowd. Liz Santiago, a family support worker at Family Life, brought by about six mothers and their children to Saturday's market.

"We brought the girls here to learn about nutrition and foods," Santiago said. "We are doing a whole summer session on nutrition, foods and fitness. Next week we will bring them to Holcomb Farm. It's all brand new and they seem excited about trying new things."

Mothers seemed to like the market. Hartford resident Aisha Robinson and her six-year-old daughter had never been to anything like this before.

"I'm used to going to Stop-n-Shop," Robinson said. "This is good. It's nice to see Hartford have a market like this. It's fresh and it's for whoever wants it. I'll be back."

Everyday, Robinson said she passes the lot where the market is held, and she never knew it existed.

"I'll be back," she promised. She should shoot for August 13, which is Kids' Day. Hopefully, positives like this market on the south side of Laurel cancel out the negatives on the north side of Laurel. Only time will tell.

7/25/05

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"We want to bring fresh, local, nutritious foods into the city," Shannon Raider said.

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"We want to bring fresh, local, nutritious foods into the city," Shannon Raider said.