Today’s Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper had an article about the Byrd House Market. Excerpt:
The here was the weekly Byrd House Market, a fresh-food bonanza sponsored every Tuesday, May through October, by the William Byrd Community House.
For decades, the nonprofit organization has provided educational, development and nutritional programs for kids in the city.
It has a library, runs after-school programs and summer camps, hosts dinners — often featuring food grown on site — and generally makes itself available to meet the needs of its community.
Since about 2007, the organization has run the farmers market on the yard that spreads out behind its building on Cherry Street.
About two dozen vendors set up each week, offering a wide variety of locally grown fruits and vegetables, meat, flowers and prepared foods. Earlier in the season, some vendors also were selling locally grown plants.
In keeping with the Byrd mission of trying to uplift its community, the market was the first in the area to accept food stamps.
“We’ve always tried to promote better, healthier lifestyles, and this really fit into that,” said Peggy Friedenberg, who was chair of the Byrd board when the market started.
Friedenberg also said the market is a novelty among the many of its kind in the area: “We’re the only one on grass,” she said.
Hicks, who sets up as Amy’s Garden, said she has been coming six years now for one reason.
“Community,” she said. “There’s good support here.”
Ana Edwards, the manager of the Byrd House Market, looked around the small lot, tucked in along Idlewood Avenue between the Downtown Expressway and Hollywood Cemetery, and said the location was what made the market what it has become.
