The River Garden at the Union Square Greenmarket and in Martha Stewart Living

By West Village Bill

Before I moved to Manhattan, I was only slightly acquainted with The River Garden, which has, hands down, the most beautiful display of flowers at the Union Square Greenmarket. I'd occasionally catch these flower farmers at the market on a Friday when I was off or able to leave work early. Now that Union Square is my local Greenmarket, I've come to realize that TRG is here every day the market is open: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.

The August issue of Martha Stewart Living has a wonderful, eight-page article on TRG, which is in South Cairo, New York, and its owners, Bernadette and Walter Kowalski, who met cute while manning neighboring stands at a farmers market 20 years ago. (There's no link to the story on marthastewart.com. And TRG doesn't seem to have a website of its own.)

TRG's Union Square stand compels you to approach. There's such a tremendous variety of beautiful colors, and the mixed bouquets are so striking and imaginative. At today's market, I bought a bouquet of pink and green zinnias for my bedroom and some sunflowers, which I paired with some unusual-looking rudbeckia from another stand, for my living room.

The Holiday Craft Sale at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

Posted by Brooklyn Bill

I went to a craft fair yesterday at Martha Stewart's headquarters in the Starrett-Lehigh Building in far-west Chelsea with my pal Mark, a gay man who's a crafting enthusiast and a former professional crafter,* and Joyce, my straight girlfriend who, like me, enjoys cooking and baking but isn't one to make handicrafts. Though we enjoy buying them.

Until this year, the fair was open only to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia employees. A friend of mine who works at MSLO told me about the fair last weekend. She and her co-workers got first dibs on Friday. She said that jewelry was the predominant offering but there were plenty of other neat items** to be had.

We arrived separately and met up inside the large exhibit space shortly after noon, when the fair began. M&J hadn't previously met. Mark is from North Dakota and rode downtown from the Upper West Side on his bike. Joyce is from Ohio and took a "little yellow thing" (Joyce-speak for a cab) from Brooklyn Heights. Both of them have lived in the city for many years, and one other thing they have in common (besides their longtime residency here and their friendship with me) is that they always make sure to check out the department store window displays around Christmastime. Joyce took her Mom to view them while her Mom was visiting from Kent for Thanksgiving. And Mark scoped out the windows at three stores—Macy's, Lord & Taylor, and Saks—after he left the fair before succumbing to the rain, cold, and crowds.