Charlotte Uwimpuhwe at the market. Photo by Matthew Healey for Southside Community Land Trust
As October’s crisp air signals the changing season, Rhode Island’s beloved community farmers markets are preparing for their final curtain calls of 2025. Southside Community Land Trust invites shoppers to make the most of the last few weeks of farm bounty at both the Armory Park Farmers Market and the Hope Street Farmers Market. These markets have served as vital community gathering spaces throughout the growing season, connecting urban residents directly with the farmers who grow their food.
The Armory Park Farmers Market, held every Thursday from 3-7pm at Dexter Park in Providence, has been a neighborhood institution since its inception. Operating from June through October, the market provides accessible, affordable fresh produce in a community that has historically faced barriers to healthy food access. Shoppers can use WIC, SNAP/EBT benefits, and other assistance programs, ensuring that everyone can participate in the local food economy. The Thursday evening timing allows working families to stop by after school and work, transforming the market into a social hub where neighbors reconnect over peak-season tomatoes and late-harvest greens.
Meanwhile, the Hope Street Farmers Market continues its Saturday morning tradition at Lippitt Park, where Hope Street and Blackstone Boulevard meet. Running from 9:00am to 1:00pm, this farmer-run cooperative showcases Rhode Island’s best farmers and food artisans selling fruits, vegetables, flowers, cheese, breads and pastries, pasture-raised meats, seafood, poultry, eggs, and more. The market’s festive atmosphere features live acoustic music each Saturday, inviting families to bring blankets and turn their shopping trip into a picnic experience. With operations extending through October 25, Hope Street Market offers some of the season’s longest access to locally grown food.
At both markets, shoppers will find produce from SCLT’s own City Farm, carefully tended by City Farm Steward Rich Pederson and Assistant Steward and Youth Program Coordinator Ellen Asermely. Pederson, who joined SCLT in 2001 after years as a Peace Corps volunteer and schoolteacher, has spent more than two decades demonstrating how to grow “mega amounts of produce, safely, in the city” while maintaining what he calls a supportive and fun learning environment. He proudly claims to have been the first farmer in the area to bring garlic scapes to farmers markets. Working alongside him, Asermely, who came to SCLT in 2021 as a TerraCorps service member and describes Pederson as her “wonder twin,” has embraced bio-intensive agricultural practices while coordinating the youth program that brings the next generation onto the farms. Together, hosting a slate of dedicated volunteers, they’ve cultivated the three-quarter-acre demonstration farm into both a thriving center of biodiversity and a living classroom. City Farm’s organic vegetables, grown using environmentally responsible methods, represent the culmination of months of careful cultivation by farm stewards, volunteers, and youth program participants. The farm’s presence at both markets embodies SCLT’s mission to create equitable access to healthy food while supporting the next generation of urban farmers. Some of Providence’s most renowned restaurants source from City Farm, but these final market weeks offer everyday shoppers the same farm-to-table quality.
With the 2025 growing season drawing to a close, these final weeks at Armory Park and Hope Street markets represent more than just last-chance shopping; they’re a celebration of community resilience, agricultural abundance, and the relationships built between farmers and neighbors throughout the year. Whether stopping by Thursday evening in the heart of Providence or Saturday morning on the East Side, shoppers can stock up on storage crops like winter squash and root vegetables while savoring the last of the season’s tender greens. It’s a final opportunity to support local farmers, enjoy the fruits of Rhode Island’s soil, and carry the taste of summer into the coming months.
Mark your calendars for SCLT’s most important fundraiser of the year: the 33rd Annual Rare & Unusual Plant Sale returns to City Farm on May 17 and 18, 2025. This beloved community tradition comes at a critical moment as we face unprecedented challenges from federal funding freezes that threaten many of our core programs.
