Back to the Farmers Market

The Amagansett Farmers Market was a buzzing hangout for decades, from the 1970s through the 1990s, but after closing for a few years and then bouncing from owner to owner for a while (Zabar’s, then the Amagansett Food Institute), it lost its mojo. The lines of customers’ parked cars disappeared. Last year, however, Amber Waves Farm, which grows and markets local produce, took over its management and it started buzzing again. At the same time, family-friendly activities began and became what may be an even greater draw. 

Every day this summer, as customers sit or sprawl on the lawn drinking coffee and eating organic foods from the on-site kitchen, Amber Waves has offered activities for children and adults, including farm chores, story time, and cook-your-own-pizza nights. As autumn arrives, the programs will continue with kitchen-skills seminars and themed dinners. 

On Saturdays and Sundays this summer activities started in the morning. Amber Waves cultivates 10 farmland acres north of Main Street, growing hundreds of vegetables and herbs, plus more than 75 kinds of flowers. Families who sign up to pitch in on farm chores are guided into the fields for light tasks, perhaps stopping to visit the chickens and taste a few vegetables. Then, Ann Jones Levine, the farm’s education coordinator (favorite vegetable: Sungold tomatoes), reads stories to the children, who are then let loose on the grounds. 

The flour for the pizza dough comes from wheat grown on site, and during pizza nights participants of all ages roll and shape the dough, customizing their pies with toppings from the fields and watching them go into and come out of the wood-burning oven.

Weekday programs are more structured. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Amber Waves partnered this summer with the Children’s Museum of the East End to create a farm club; it will continue after school in the fall. Other attractions that may keep the energy hopping once summer is over will be a dinner for Community Sponsored Agriculture participants on Sept. 16 and a fund-raiser for the Amagansett School on Oct. 6. Autumn-weekend workshops are planned on topics such as fermentation, canning, pickling, and flower  arranging. 

“We are a nonprofit educational farm,” said Katie Baldwin, a co-founder of Amber Waves (favorite vegetable: Chioggia beets). “Everything the farm produces and the market sells funds and supports the farm’s educational programming.”