"This has been an incubator for side hustles and small businesses," Robert and Barbara Blanche wrote when they announced that Rice's Market would close at the end of 2026. PhillyVoice reported that the owners went on: "Some vendors stayed for a season, some for decades, and many grew from a small table or booth here into thriving businesses of their own."
That line is the best way to plan the next eight weeks. The market on Greenhill Road in Solebury closes for good after Tuesday, Dec. 29. Some of the businesses inside it will close with it. Others already have a second home, or a plan for one. The remaining Tuesday and Saturday mornings are your last chance to shop the market, and also your best chance to learn which vendors you can still find after December, and where.
Seventeen mornings left
Management told the New Hope Free Press that Rice's will keep its regular schedule right up to the end: Tuesdays, Saturdays and Black Friday. Counting from Saturday, Nov. 7, that schedule leaves these market days:
- November: Saturday the 7th, Tuesday the 10th, Saturday the 14th, Tuesday the 17th, Saturday the 21st, Tuesday the 24th, Black Friday the 27th, Saturday the 28th
- December: Tuesday the 1st, Saturday the 5th, Tuesday the 8th, Saturday the 12th, Tuesday the 15th, Saturday the 19th, Tuesday the 22nd, Saturday the 26th, and the final day, Tuesday the 29th
That's 17 mornings in all. The day after Christmas and the last Tuesday of the year both fall on the regular schedule, so check the market's website before you drive over on either one.
Plan to get there early. The Rice's homepage lists shopping hours as 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market's holiday openings page says 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. If you aim for the earlier closing time, the difference won't matter.
The market closes, but not every business in it does
According to the Bucks County Courier Times, vendors learned about the closure on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 6. Each one got a letter from market staff thanking them for being "an essential piece of what has made Rice's Great for so many years." The paper talked with several of them that afternoon, and their plans differ a lot.
Sweet Annie, the gift and home decor shop that June Brauer runs with her husband, Charles, was started by her mother about 45 years ago. "We'll probably just retire when this closes," Brauer told the Courier Times. If you've been meaning to pick something up there, these weeks are your window.
Wickey Wackey Wicker World, owned by Wanda Detweiler, already has a permanent storefront in Perkasie, so Courier Times readers learned that this one continues after December.
Supa Thai is closing its takeout stand, but chef and owner Supa DeRose told the Courier Times she'll keep teaching the Thai cooking classes and leading the culinary tours she already offers, and she plans to add pop-up dinners.
So one vendor is retiring, one has a storefront, and one is moving from a counter to classes and events. That's three vendors in one afternoon of reporting. At its peak, from the 1980s into the early 2000s, Rice's held more than 400 vendors filling the barns and grounds each week, the Courier Times reported. Fishing-gear seller Kevin Shattuck told the paper that vendors and customers have thinned out over the past few years. Whatever the count is today, every table has the same choice to make, and asking is the only way to find out what a vendor plans.
So the useful errand for a last visit is simple. Ask your regular vendors whether they have a website, a shop, a farm stand or a next market. The owners suggested much the same thing in their farewell. "Find the local business and buy from them, stop at the farm stand, visit the independent shop, hire the person who turned their hobby into a business," they wrote, as quoted by PhillyVoice.
What 166 years looks like from a folding table
The market's own history dates the property to the spring of 1860, when A.L. Rice settled the farm. The Tuesday livestock auction grew into a market in the 1950s. PhillyVoice reported that the Rice family sold the property in 1982 and that the Blanches have run it ever since, upgrading the facilities and adding paths.
Some vendors have been part of that history for decades. Mike Barnes, who sells old tools, keys and other antique collectibles, has had a table since 1974. "The tables were often filled all the way to the tree line. Some people would come on a Monday and camp out overnight to be here in the morning. I thought it would be here forever," he told the Courier Times.
The owners' announcement, as published by the Courier Times, remembered "before sunrise Tuesdays, Saturdays and the great chaos that was a Black Friday," along with "Porkroll, egg and cheese sandwiches on a perfect Kaiser roll" and "so many high school kids' first job selling sodas out of coolers." The only reason given for closing was a changing economy. PhillyVoice reported that the owners haven't said what will happen to the property. Sources even disagree on its size. The New Hope Free Press puts it at about 40 acres, while the market's own site says 30.
Black Friday, one last time
According to PhillyVoice, Black Friday has historically been the market's busiest day of the year. This year it's Nov. 27, and it will be the market's last one. Because Rice's closes in the early afternoon, the final weeks fit around New Hope's holiday calendar without much juggling. Here's how the busiest stretch lines up:
- Thursday, Nov. 19: Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn opens at Bucks County Playhouse and runs through Jan. 3, 2027.
- Friday, Nov. 20: Peddler's Village holds its Grand Illumination, which opens a Holiday Kickoff Weekend running through Nov. 22. The Gingerbread Competition & Display opens the same day and stays up until Jan. 9, 2027.
- Saturday, Nov. 21: A Rice's morning, then the rest of kickoff weekend.
- Friday, Nov. 27: Rice's final Black Friday.
- Saturday, Nov. 28: Rice's in the morning, then Small Business Saturday at Peddler's Village.
- Sunday, Nov. 29: The Annual New Hope Christmas Tree Lighting at 5 p.m., as listed by the Greater New Hope Chamber.
- Saturday, Dec. 5: Rice's in the morning, then the first day of Holly Jolly Weekend at Peddler's Village.
- Sunday, Dec. 6: The Chamber lists the holiday parade, with music, floats, entertainers and Santa, at 4 p.m.
The New Hope Railroad's North Pole Express also runs on many of these dates. Visit Bucks County lists the season as Nov. 20 through Dec. 30, and Santa's Steam Train Ride as Nov. 27 through Dec. 27. Check the railroad's booking calendar for departure times.
After Dec. 29
For Tuesday-morning regulars, there's a year-round flea market just across the river. The Golden Nugget Antique Flea Market in Lambertville runs year-round on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to its website. Whether any Rice's vendors will set up there is their call, and the easiest way to find out is to ask at their tables while those tables are still on Greenhill Road.
That's really the main task for the next 17 mornings. Get a pork roll, egg and cheese, browse the barns, and write down the names, websites and next addresses of the vendors you want to keep buying from. The market itself is done after Tuesday, Dec. 29. If you collect that information now, some of the businesses it helped start will still be easy to find next year.
At Mish Realty LLC, we're a family-owned brokerage in Newtown, and we keep track of the Bucks County places our neighbors care about, including where Rice's vendors land next. If your favorite stand has announced its new home, or you have questions about what's changing near you in Solebury and New Hope, contact us. We're always happy to talk.
