The Riverview Farmers Market's Last Sundays Are Here. Its Largest Market Comes After.

The Riverview Farmers Market's 16th season ends on Sunday, Nov. 22, at Riverview-Fisk Park. Thirteen days later, on Saturday, Dec. 5, the same park hosts the biggest lineup the organizers put together all year. That event is the Heights Holiday Market. Its organizers describe it as more than 200 makers, artists, food businesses and small businesses, and it is a different kind of market from the produce Sundays. The market's own season preview calls it "a post-market season event."

So the Heights market year has two endings. Farm stands leave the park in late November. The market's largest gathering of sellers arrives in December. Planning around both is how you get the most out of the next month.

Three Sundays Left on Palisade Avenue

From today, three market days remain: Nov. 8, Nov. 15 and Nov. 22. Each runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., rain or shine, at 498 Palisade Ave. Here is who the organizers listed for this season's tables in their spring preview:

• Farms: RH Farms, Natures Own, Stony Hill and Alstede Farms, plus returning second-year vendors Flowering Sun, which expanded its mushroom selection, and Grand Cru, which is bringing more produce variety
• Bread and drinks: Jed's Bread and Jane's Matcha, which the market calls "the backbone of our Sundays"
• New for 2026: Earth's Garden with vegan cheeses, sauces and pasta; Little Bagel; and New Leaf Flavors with microgreens

Two of those farm names go back to the start. Natures Own Farm, run by Scott Rowe, was the market's very first farm vendor, and Alstede Farms was also on the opening-day roster on June 12, 2011. Both are still selling there 16 seasons later.

Little Bagel has a seasonal item for the end of the run. The market's Oct. 25 roundup pointed shoppers to its Pumpkin Bagels, sold with a pumpkin pie cream cheese. The market also runs a SNAP/EBT matching program, which applies on these last Sundays as on any other.

A Fall That Already Cost the Market One Festival

The last few Sundays carry more weight this year because the autumn calendar has already shrunk. The Fall Harvest Festival was set for Sept. 20. In its October Riverview Roundup, the market said it had to cancel the festival after "five weeks of rainy Sundays in a row." The same post explained the market's usual approach to bad weather. Unless there are thunderstorms or damaging winds, the market runs, sometimes with a smaller footprint, and the organizers thanked vendors and customers for showing up through the downpours.

The calendar's other fall anchor came just before this post. The market calls its 12th annual Day of the Dead festival, held Nov. 1, its biggest event each year. This year's giant skeleton puppet parade, directed by artist Santiago Cohen, was planned to march up to Central Avenue and back to the park. That route came out of a partnership with the Central Avenue Special Improvement District. CASID also planned Central Avenue banners and skeleton displays in storefront windows.

With the harvest festival lost to rain and Day of the Dead now past, the three regular Sundays and the Dec. 5 market are all that remain of the market's 2026 calendar.

Thirteen Days With Nothing on the Calendar

After Nov. 22, the park goes quiet. The market's events calendar, viewed from Nov. 23 onward, lists one event: the Dec. 5 Holiday Market. It shows no weekly winter market and no off-season pop-ups. The 2027 season dates aren't posted yet either. For comparison, the 2026 season opened on May 3.

One longtime vendor now has a storefront. The October roundup congratulated Jersey Pickles on the opening, and the directions it linked go to 9 Romanelli Ave. in South Hackensack. For other favorites, the market's Instagram is where it posts weekly vendor lineups during the season, so it's the best place to see who is coming on Nov. 22.

From 80 Vendors to 200 in Three Years

The Holiday Market began in 2022, and the market's announcements for its second season described it as the first outdoor holiday market of its kind in Jersey City Heights. Since then, the number of vendors announced each year has more than doubled. These are the organizers' advance figures, not final counts:

The figures vary by source. For 2024, Hoboken Girl's weekend preview reported more than 120 vendors, fewer than the 150+ the market announced. For 2026, the market's spring preview said 150+ local makers. Its October roundup said it was "shaping up to host more than 200 vendors." Whichever figure holds, the trend is clear. The vendor application also notes that more than half of each year's vendors come back the following year, so the lineup mixes returning sellers with new ones.

That growth stands out against how the market started. In its 15th-anniversary history, the market recalls a 2010 community meeting where a resident told the founders that "the farmers would never come out here." The founding group was Mo Kinberg, Lisa Blando, Destenė Styles, Adrienne McCauley, Trish Ocone and Beverly Brown. With help from the Washington Park Association and the Riverview Neighborhood Association, they created the nonprofit Farms in the Heights to run the market. The same nonprofit now runs a Saturday in December that, by its own count, draws more sellers than any other day on its calendar.

What Changes on December 5

The Holiday Market runs on a Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., two hours longer than a market Sunday. The vendor categories the market recruits for are mostly gift-oriented: artists and craftspeople, jewelry and accessories, apparel and home goods, packaged and specialty foods, baked goods, prepared food and local retailers. For 2026, the October roundup mentions art and stationery, festive food, vintage and jewelry, along with free musical performers and seasonal photo booths.

The full 2026 program hasn't been published yet. Past years show what tends to come back:

1. Santa in the gazebo. Free family photos ran from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in 2024 and 2025, and pets were welcome. The Tutu School of Jersey City Heights sponsored the photos in 2025.
2. A city-sponsored photo booth. In 2023 and 2024 it was a vintage photo bus from Metro Photo Bus, sponsored by the City of Jersey City.
3. Local drinks. Fox & Crow poured holiday spirits in 2023 and 2024. In 2025 the food court featured seasonal drinks from The Alps and S'mores Hot Cocoa from Busy Bee Organics.
4. Music and extras from the Riverview Neighborhood Association. In 2024 the RNA sponsored DJ Lucy Euclid and DJ PreSkool and ran a kids' table with free games, prizes and face painting by donation.
5. The fundraiser tote. Limited-edition JC Heights tote bags were sold at the main info tent, with proceeds going to the market.

Weather planning works differently in December too. In 2025 the organizers announced a Sunday rain date. The 2026 announcements so far don't mention one, so check the market's Holiday Market page the week of the event. Patch's coverage last December put the timing plainly: the farmers market "has closed for the season," and the Heights Holiday Market "comes to town this weekend." Expect the same handoff this year. The last bag of Natures Own produce goes home on Nov. 22, and the park is full of gift tables by 10 a.m. on Dec. 5.

From the last farm Sunday to the first December Saturday, Riverview-Fisk Park sets the Heights weekend calendar, and Monique Belgrave follows that calendar as closely as she follows the housing market. If you're weighing a move within the Heights, or out of it, and want a strategy grounded in how the neighborhood actually works week to week, MONIQUE BELGRAVE is happy to talk it through. Work with Monique.