The former office in the century-old City Ice Co. Building is a raw space. It has bare brick walls, exposed ducts and a garage door that looks out on Campbell Street. But Craig Howard, standing on the plywood floor that he laid last week and sipping tea made in a nearby electric kettle, sees the potential for a very different kind of farmers market here at 900 East 21st Street, in a corner of the building that houses the City Arts Project....

On a wall of what will become Howard’s Organic Fare and Vegetable Patch, he envisions the produce cooler filled with local greens, eggs, milk, meat and cheese. Bricks from a stack out back will define the market’s aisles. This will be a small farmers market — a hybrid of a cooperative and a neighborhood corner store.

As far as his growing organic produce on the vacant lot adjacent to the building, I sure hope he's done soil samples because I can't imagine what has been on that lot, or what the soil has in it.

I'm among the bizarre subset of people that explores strange parts of the city.

Wouldn't rodents snack on the produce if it's not put away after normal business hours?