The Schenectady Greenmarket will be celebrating the unseasonably summerlike weather Sunday outside City Hall.
The Greenmarket will set up on Jay Street every Sunday for the next six months before going back inside Proctors for the winter.
The Greenmarket offers music and children’s activities along with traditional farmers market goods every week, but the first day outside will be particularly festive.
The Electric City Rock Gym will set up its portable climbing wall for free climbs. The New York Wildlife Rescue Center, which rescues exotic, domestic and wild animals every year, will bring some of its animals to entertain children.
Two bands will provide live music all day.
One of the Greenmarket farmers, Cooper’s Ark, will bring two nearly grown turkeys. But those won’t be marketed as pets.
“It’s just to show people what they have at their farm,” market spokeswoman Barbara Blanchard said. “They’ll be ready to eat by the Fourth of July.”
Nearly 50 vendors will set up shop Sunday. That’s yet another record for the Greenmarket, which began 17 months ago and has had great success. This winter, the market doubled its vendors as more farmers began planting in greenhouses to extend their season and storing extra produce to sell all winter. The market now fills its allotted space at Proctors in the winter and negotiated for more space last year because it had so many interested vendors.
All of them must sell locally grown food or locally made products. Baked goods, for example, must use local ingredients.
The market has been a hit. On its first weekend, hundreds of shoppers crowded the aisles.
During a recent weekend, 3,339 patrons visited the market, Blanchard said. The market also recently hired its first employee.
“We’re very excited,” Blanchard said. “The community has really supported us and our vendors have had success both indoors and outdoors.”
The market is open every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., rain or shine.
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