MoMA PS1's Plaza Is Now Long Island City's Saturday Market Run

On September 12, the first morning of the new farmers market outside MoMA PS1, Sarah Magid of Knead Love Bakery ran low on bread. "I had to run back to the bakery to grab more inventory because we ran low on everything," she told the Hunters Point Ledger. She said some of the people at her table were longtime customers from her Union Square and McCarren Park stands who live in Long Island City and could finally shop closer to home. Others had wanted to try her baked goods for years but could never get to her other markets.

That sellout comes down to distance. The GrowNYC Greenmarket on PS1's 46th Avenue plaza is the first Greenmarket within walking distance of the Hunters Point ferry landing and the Court Square subway complex. Before it opened, the nearest one was in Sunnyside, about a 20-minute walk away. Put a farmers market at the door of a museum that charges nothing to enter, and a gallery visit can fit inside a grocery run.

The market, by the numbers that matter

The market runs every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. through November 21. It sets up in the plaza right in front of the museum's main entrance at 22-25 Jackson Avenue. Counting from October 3, that leaves eight Saturdays in the season.

Six vendors make up the roster:

• Halal Pastures, with certified organic vegetables and eggs, plus honey, from Orange County, NY
• Breezy Hill Orchard, listed with Knoll Krest Farm, bringing orchard fruit, berries, cider, and baked goods from Dutchess County
• Millbrook Beef and Dairy, with eggs, beef, chicken, pork, and cheese, also from Dutchess County
• Knead Love Bakery, a Brooklyn bakery making gluten-free breads and baked goods
• Wave Hill Breads, from Fairfield County, Connecticut
• Mushroom Queens, which grows gourmet mushrooms here in Queens County

The list is short, but it covers a weekly shop: produce, eggs, meat, cheese, bread, and fruit. Greenmarkets are producer-only, so every farm and food maker sells only what it grew, raised, caught, or baked. Knead Love's breads are naturally leavened, vegan, and made without refined sugar. The bakery also follows GrowNYC's "Baker's Rule," which requires at least 25 percent regional grains in everything sold at market. It planned to bring seasonal apple baked goods made with heirloom regional apples.

Vendors take cash, debit, and credit, plus SNAP/EBT, the Farmers Market Nutrition Program, FreshConnect Coupons, Health Bucks, and Greenmarket Bucks. Every $2 spent in SNAP/EBT benefits earns a $2 Health Bucks bonus, up to $10 a day.

The market is tied to a pair of birthdays. Greenmarket and MoMA PS1 both turn 50 this year, and that inspired the partnership. PS1 representative Rachel Rhee first announced the market at a Queens Community Board 2 meeting in early September.

Free admission makes a short visit worth it

Admission to MoMA PS1 became free for all visitors on January 1, 2026, a policy announced to last three years. Once a ticket costs nothing, a twenty-minute look at one gallery is as reasonable as a full afternoon, and that's the kind of visit that fits around a bag of apples and a loaf of bread.

The hours line up neatly. The museum opens at 10 a.m. on Saturdays and stays open until 6 p.m. Regular hours on other open days are noon to 6 p.m., and the museum is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On Saturdays, the market's first two hours fall before the doors open, so early shoppers can drop groceries at home and come back.

"As a hub for the community offering free admission for all, visitors will be able to explore our galleries, experience Precious Okoyomon's living installation in the courtyard, and pick up fresh local foods to take home." Connie Butler, the Agnes Gund director of MoMA PS1, speaking to QNS

Here is what's inside this fall, ordered by how long each one lasts:

1. Teresa Margolles: En el lugar de los hechos (At the Scene), September 24, 2026 through February 8, 2027. PS1's anniversary announcement calls it the artist's first U.S. survey.
2. Homeroom: Artists Against the Bomb, September 10, 2026 through February 8, 2027.
3. Precious Okoyomon's Among the Flowers I Learned to Love: A Garden of Decreation, the courtyard commission, open from July 31, 2026 into 2028. It fills the courtyard with a living forest of plants, interactive sculpture, and sound, and visitors can step inside a large teddy-bear sculpture that holds the artist's poetry.

The courtyard will be there the longest, and it changes the most with the seasons. A garden made of living plants will look different in mid-November than it did when it opened at the end of July. Because the market season ends November 21, the next eight Saturdays are the stretch when the courtyard, the galleries, and the farm stands all sit at the same address.

The café is still coming

The one piece not open yet is Symone, a French-African daytime café from chef DeVonn Francis. PS1's announcement lists seasonal seafood, salads, sandwiches, soups, and pastries, plus La Cabra coffee, curry chicken salad sandwiches, patties, cod and rice porridge, and soft serve.

The timing is still unsettled. PS1's announcement said early October, while Eater NY reported an expected late-October opening. As of October 1, the museum's Visit page lists the café as closed and opening later this fall. Eater says the café is expected to follow museum hours, which would make it the one place on the plaza still open after the market packs up at 3 p.m. Check PS1's site before planning a coffee around it.

For a sit-down meal later in the day, Eater added Canton Harbor, a Cantonese restaurant at 5-14 51st Avenue, to its September list of new Queens restaurants. Eater describes a large dining room and a menu of Cantonese classics.

Down 46th Avenue toward Culture Lab

The market sits on PS1's 46th Avenue plaza. Farther down the same avenue toward the water, Culture Lab LIC at 5-25 46th Avenue has packed its October calendar into one week. For the last two weekends of the month, one avenue holds a full Saturday and most of a Sunday.

The NYC Plant Market is a monthly gathering of local plant shops, growers, and nurseries. Blocktoberfest was first scheduled for September 26 and moved to October 24 because of rain. Its new date means the Greenmarket wraps at 3 p.m. while the beer festival is two hours in, a few blocks away. Culture Lab's page still has some leftover text with the old date and notes that schedules can change, so check before you go. The 5 Boro Foto Fest the next morning features local photographers and photo-related work for sale.

Culture Lab's calendar keeps going into November. Its graphic design exhibition Form & Function runs through November 1. A new queer musical, Atalanta: The Long Shot, plays November 5 through 8. SpeakEasier language exchanges are listed for October 24 and November 28.

Planning around November 21

The plaza works on a set schedule. The market season ends the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The galleries stay up into February. The courtyard garden runs into 2028, and free admission was announced for three years starting January 2026. The produce stands are the only part with a firm closing date this year, which makes Saturday mornings between now and November 21 the time to try the full corner. One cue from opening week: a vendor sold through her stock early on September 12.

When a neighborhood gets a new weekly anchor like this, it can change how a few blocks feel day to day. That matters to owners and renters near Court Square and Hunters Point long before anyone plans a move. If you own, rent out, or manage property near Jackson Avenue and want to talk through how changes like this new market fit into your plans, Salima Tongo is glad to help. Let's Connect.