Introducing Madeleine Zenir: A Familiar Face Guiding the Farmers’ Market Forward
By JOSHUA YOUNGQUIST
COOPERSTOWN
The Cooperstown Farmers’ Market has long been one of those places where the community feels most like itself—familiar faces, changing produce, and the weekly rhythm of people stopping to talk with one another. This year, that spirit is being stewarded by Madeleine Zenir, a Cherry Valley native who stepped into the role of market manager with a mix of local roots, organizational precision, and genuine affection for the space she now helps oversee.
Zenir has been coming to the market for years, especially after returning home from college.
“What I love about the market is you’re guaranteed to run into someone you know and connect with people of all ages,” she said. “The vendors know you by name, and it’s exciting knowing the produce selection is changing every week. The atmosphere is really positive, welcoming and all around wholesome.”
That sense of belonging, and the chance to help maintain it, is what drew Zenir to the position.
Alongside her market duties, Zenir also works in research at the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health in Fly Creek, a role that has shaped her approach to managing operations.
“I love a good spreadsheet and am very organized,” she said.
Zenir already has the market schedule planned for the entire year, but she’s quick to note that things are always evolving.
“We are always welcoming new vendors and things are always changing,” she added.
The market’s year‑round nature means each season brings a complete shift in offerings and energy. Zenir sees part of her role as helping maintain continuity through those transitions.
“As the seasons change, the market shifts completely, but we try to always have a wide selection of vendors and other activities to bring people into the space,” she said.
Some of those activities have become staples: a monthly kids’ craft and the increasingly popular Repair Café, where volunteers fix small broken items—clothing, jewelry, appliances, electronics—for anyone who brings them in.
Despite her organizational role, Zenir is clear that the market’s direction is not hers alone.
“Honestly, I have very little influence,” she said. “This is a vendor‑run market,” she explained.
Governance and vendor selection are handled by committees made up of elected vendors, and Zenir works closely with them as well as with her colleagues at Otsego 2000.
“They are so wonderful and we all work together,” she said.
The collaborative structure, she added, is part of what keeps the market grounded over the past 35 years in the needs and priorities of the people who make it possible.
“The Cooperstown Farmers’ Market has grown into much more than a weekly farmers’ market featuring fresh and local foods and artisanal wares. It has become a central weekly hub of connection and friendship between vendors, customers, staff, musicians, and visitors,” said Otsego 2000 Executive Director Ellen Pope. “This was evident during the pandemic, when it was a rare public space to escape social isolation, and even more so now as new generations of market vendors and customers arrive.”
Zenir’s perspective, rooted in community, shaped by organization, and guided by teamwork, reflects the market itself. Her role may be new, but her connection to the place is not. And as the seasons turn and the stalls shift, she’ll be one of the people helping ensure the market remains what it has always been: welcoming, familiar and unmistakably local.
