The rolling greengrocer known as the Mobile Market makes its last stop of the season on Oct. 14, after what organizers from Island Grown Initiative say has been a successful second season.
For nearly four months, the truck-based market has made weekly visits to Vineyard neighborhoods including Woodside Village and the public library in Oak Bluffs, Hillside Village and St. Augustine’s Church in Vineyard Haven and the tribal housing in Aquinnah. A sixth stop, Mondays at Morgan Woods in Edgartown, was discontinued at the end of the summer.
“We just didn’t have a lot of attendance,” said Island Grown program coordinator Olivia Rabbitt. The nonprofit hopes to add another Edgartown stop or find a better time to visit Morgan Woods next year, she added.
At the other locations, Ms. Rabbitt said, business has been good, with up to 30 shoppers during the discount market’s hour-long stop. “We have a lot of customers who were coming to see us last year who are coming back, and we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on our location switches,” she said.
Ms. Rabbitt said this year’s move from the American Legion to St. Augustine’s has been welcomed by Vineyard Haven residents, and the Oak Bluffs library site is popular with families.
As of this week, Ms. Rabbitt said, the market has processed more than 900 transactions since it began making the rounds in June. She added that more than 20 per cent of the sales were made with some form of food assistance, such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps), WIC (Women, Infants and Children) or Mobile Market coupons provided by local social service agencies.
SNAP recipients have an especially good reason to purchase fresh produce from the market: It’s one of the only places on Martha’s Vineyard where they can take advantage of the Healthy Incentive Program (HIP), which automatically credits back the benefits they spend to buy fresh vegetables and fruits from farmstands and farmers markets.
The market is open to all and the prices are appealing. On Sunday evening in Aquinnah, sweet corn from Morning Glory Farm was 80 cents an ear and lettuce $1.75 a head; carrots, red potatoes, onions and eggplant were $2 a pound. There were also Morning Glory eggs at $5 a dozen, Thimble Farm tomatoes at $4.95 a pound and raw honey from New England Apiaries in Westfield, $8 for a one-pound jar.
The first customer of the evening was Eileen Sullivan, a year-round Aquinnah resident.
“It’s an absolute gem to have this come to us,” she said. “You couldn’t have a better shopping experience. It’s a community event.”
As if on cue, a neighbor arrived and the two began to chat.
“This is dinner tonight. I love the fact that it doesn’t have to sit in my fridge,” Ms. Sullivan said, as she selected bok choy, corn, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, a squash and a red apple, “for the drive to the beach.”
A barefoot young girl in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask walked up to buy potatoes, an envelope in her hand.
“That little girl just paid with one of our coupons, which makes me very happy,” said Island Grown community food education director Noli Taylor, who runs the checkout at the Aquinnah stop.
Several customers lingered at the counter (a folding table) to chat about their meal plans for the produce. Ms. Rabbitt said she finds this one of the most rewarding aspects of the mobile market: connecting people with healthy food, providing them with simple recipes and sharing the excitement of cooking.
She also enjoys introducing customers to new foods, such as easy-to-cook shishito peppers—which have become a market staple—and nutrition-packed aronia berries.
“They are absolutely amazing for you. They are considered to be one of the new health foods,” Ms. Rabbitt said of the tangy aronias. “They are full of vitamin A, E C and K, folate, iron, zinc and manganese.”
To cook them, she recommends roasting the berries a slow oven, about 150 degrees, for three hours or so, then mixing in some chopped candied ginger.
The Mobile Market visits the tribal housing in Aquinnah Sundays from 5 to 6 p.m. On Tuesdays, it’s at the Oak Bluffs Public Library from 5 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays is a double header: Woodside Village, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. and Hillside Village, 5 to 6 p.m. On Thursdays, also from 5 to 6 p.m., the market is at St. Augustine’s Church.
And while the mobile market is off the road this winter, Ms. Rabbitt said Island Grown will be selling its Thimble Farm greenhouse produce at the winter farmer’s market in West Tisbury and through a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program. To learn more, email Island Grown at office@igimv.org.
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