Shop an Elegant Hodgepodge of Nantucket Treasures at the Green Market

Clean beauty products from the likes to Tammy Fender and OSEA will be a mainstay at Nantucket’s new Green Market. / Photo by Mona Miri

Stroll down any of the streets in Nantucket and you’ll find pricey designer boutiques, art galleries, luxury real estate offices, and souvenir shops—things that might appeal to tourists but don’t suit the needs of people who actually spend a lot of time on the island. With the opening of the Green Market this month, born-and-raised Nantucketer Tessa Cressman is out to change that.

After attending both art and culinary school on the mainland, Cressman returned home 10 years ago and began work as a pastry chef and Pilates instructor. But the longer she stayed, the more she began to think bigger-picture about Nantucket life and how she could contribute. “That’s when I thought, Nantucket is really missing this ‘whole market’ idea,” she says.

The concept of her eclectic shop is simple: a celebration of everything that makes Nantucket great. Expect local flowers, artisan creations, tried-and-true clean beauty products, produce grown at Fog Town Farm just a few miles away, and prepared foods through a partnership with the Green, a popular café on island. It’s the only place where you can pick up a breakfast sandwich and a handpainted platter from local ceramicist Nell Van Vorst.

Among other goodies, the Green Market will offer seasonal flowers, cut fresh from owner Tessa Cressman’s home gardens when possible. / Photo by Georgie Morley for The Green Market

Of course, this being an island in New England, seasonality will play a factor—and Cressman is entirely comfortable with the idea of certain products not being available at certain times of the year. If there aren’t enough fresh flowers to stock the shelves in mud season before the summer blooms come in, for instance, she’ll carry dried-flower arrangements by another islander, Sally Barber, instead.

What shoppers can expect year round is a range of clean beauty products. And while they may be some of the store’s select items imported from the mainland, they’re no less thoughtfully curated: Skin-care lines include OSEA Malibu, which features ingredients like seaweed and marine algae; and Palm Beach–based Tammy Fender, which harnesses the power of organic botanicals.

In other words, the shop is an elegant hodgepodge of everything you’d need to actually live on Nantucket. “Having grown up here, people support me because they know me,” Cressman says. “But most of all, people are supportive of the Green Market because there isn’t really anything like it.”

Things we Love

Photo courtesy of The Green Market

1 Nell Van Vorst planter, $250.

Photo by Mona Miri

2 Sally Barber dried-flower wreath, $80.

Photo by Mona Miri

3 Tote bag, $65.