A modest market that started five decades ago has become a New York City staple.

The Union Square Greenmarket was launched in 1976 with a handful of local farmers selling their produce directly to New Yorkers.

Now, 50 years later, there are dozens of farmers and bakers who sell every week at the open-air market.

Jim Van Houten, 81, has been selling his fruits, vegetables and plants at the Union Square Greenmarket for 49 years. His brother operates a farm in Pennsylvania where he gets his produce from.

“When Barry Bennepy and Bob Lewis started the Greenmarkets, there was no Whole Foods, there was no Trader Joe’s, there was none of that. It was this, and it was something that was, I think, probably very, very needed,” Van Houten said.

“You know, people do have a wider choice of way. But, if they want to talk to the farmer, if they want to get right from the farm, the markets are where they should go,” he added.

The concept has expanded beyond Union Square. GrowNYC operates over 60 seasonal and year-round Greenmarkets across the five boroughs.

According to a GrowNYC impact report from 2023, there are 66 sites across the city. The Greenmarkets distribute approximately 2.6 million pounds of local food per year and 90% of that food goes to organizations dedicated to increasing food security. It also collects 2.2. million pounds of food scraps for composting every year.

Frequent shoppers like Frank Jedda said there are good reasons the Greenmarket has made it to the half-century mark.

“It should be here forever. I think it’s a great thing and makes New York a much more friendly place,” he said. “It’s much fresher, tastes better and I want to support the farmers.”

Marjory, who declined to give her last name, said she does not buy fresh produce from grocery stores and has shopped at the market for all 50 years.

“It’s my life, you know, I live that way,” she said. “I couldn’t live any other way.”

To celebrate the Union Square Greenmarket turning 50, there is a free festival on Friday evening from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. featuring live jazz, a pop-up beer garden and a cake cutting at 6 p.m.  It is free to enter, but attendees must pay for their own food and drinks from local vendors.

Nearby restaurants are joining in on the fun and will be selling bites alongside 140 regional farmers.

Meanwhile, GrowNYC is collecting memories from longtime market visitors, including photographs, essays, poems and stories about favorite vendors.