The Healdsburg Certified Farmers’ Market is opening its 42nd season two weeks early on Saturday, April 18. Like many essential services around the county, the market is having to navigate a new set of rules and procedures for its opening to ensure that the operation adheres to social distancing and increased health and safety practices.
Among some of the changes to the market, there will be no seating, entertainment or food sampling, and booths are going to be 10-feet apart.
“Vendors have to get the food for you,” Market Manager Janet Ciel said. “You cannot handle it — you’re going to point to it and the vendors are going to handle it and give it to you.”
Ciel said that the decision to open the market early came after speaking with the city and getting approval to change the market’s permit date.
“Although the market won’t be a social gathering spot for a while, it will still have what it has always had: an abundance of local farms selling produce and flowers, fresh seafood, meats, pastries and breads. Eggs and cheeses, chocolate, oil and vinegars, tamales, bagels, coffee and prepared food are all part of the market experience,” Ciel wrote in a press release about the market’s opening.
“In light of the situation now, what we’re really focused on as a community is ensuring food security and ensuring that people have access to a safe and adequate supply of food to feed their families,” Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner Andrew Smith said about the opening of local farmers markets.
When the shelter-in-place order was first announced in March, there were market producers countywide who hadn’t been issued a Certified Producer’s Certificate (CPC), which allows them to sell at certified markets. Smith said that the Ag Commissioner’s office is first working to make sure vendors are issued their CPCs, and will then focus on going around to different markets to check for proper social distancing protocol.
“We were a little behind in issuing CPCs because the state’s program had some sort of glitch, so we weren’t receiving the CPCs to update,” Smith said. “We have a whole bunch of CPCs ready to issue, then we plan on having the presence out there more for support and surveillance to catch egregious violations or issues of the farmers market code or regulations.”
Smith said that because of this, the county is allowing markets to overlook CPCs for the time being, until the office is able to renew all of them.
Ciel said that shopping at a local market can be a valuable experience, especially when folks may have hightened concerns over supply chain hygiene.
“You’re shopping in an open air environment — where pretty much the door handle is of worry, the shopping cart is of worry — we don’t have any of those things,” she said. “The food has a shorter chain of handling — that head of lettuce you’re buying at Safeway or Whole Foods or whatever has gone through a dozen different people. Our produce is grown 20 miles from here, put on the truck and brought to the market. You can’t get any less handled than that.”
The Healdsburg Certified Farmers’ Market meets on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the West Plaza Parking Lot on North and Vine streets. The Tuesday market, usually held in the Plaza is being delayed due to the Plaza’s current closure.
