Patrons of the Ithaca Farmers’ Market will now have to find alternatives to Gimme! Coffee for their future market visits. After a seven-year tenure as a popular market vendor, Gimme! Coffee stopped selling at the IFM on Oct. 11. The impetus for Gimme! Coffee’s departure was the inability of Kevin Cuddeback, Gimme! Coffee’s manager and CEO, to be present for 25 percent of market days — a violation of an IFM rule stated in its charter.

A 137-year-old farmers’ market in the small city of Orillia, Canada might lose its land, and Cornell University may be the only actor able to save it. As a result of an 1872 covenant drawn by Mr. Goldwin Smith, Patrick Kehoe, a concerned Orillia resident, is now appealing to Cornell to become the “Guardian of the Covenant.”

June 12 marked the opening of the Congo Square Market at Ithaca’s Southside Community Center. Advertising live music, delectable Cuban cuisine, local produce and textile vendors, 305 S. Plain Street promised a cultural feast for the senses.

Despite the success of the Ithaca Farmer’s Market at Steamboat Landing, the new market came to be in response to claims that only a small demographic of Ithacans utilize the Steamboat Landing market's resources. This new market — which is open on Fridays from 4:00-8:00 p.m. through Sept. 4 — represents just one of several recent efforts to extend the offerings of the Ithaca Farmer’s Market to a more diverse group of Ithacans, including lower income residents and ethnic communities.