The Healdsburg Certified Farmers’ Market at the Plaza ends this week, Oct. 25, with its last open-air market of the year. While the Saturday Farmers’ Market will continue until Dec. 17 at the West Plaza Parking Lot, and the weekend day has always been more well attended, there’s a comfortable, almost cozy sense of community on Tuesday mornings. The shoppers wander from jeweler to baker in search of a neighborhood, and find it.
Mark Themig, who as the city community services director works with the market board and city facilities and departments, was sold on the value of the farmers’ markets for Healdsburg.
“The market is one of the activities that really help to ensure Healdsburg has a continued sense of community. It’s about locally grown produce, locally made arts and crafts—it’s really a place where people can come together, see their neighbors and see their friends.”
Tuesday Farmers’ Markets begin in mid-May, a month after the Saturday Farmers’ Market. It operates from 9am to 12:30pm, while Saturday market opens at 8:30am and closes at noon. Both have booths of quality goods, often organic, always hand tended: vegetables, cheeses, olive oils, bagels, fish, pastries and wheat grass, as well as artists showing their wares and florists their blooms.
A singer performed from the gazebo stage to no particular audience, vendors rearranged colorful peppers and greens and a woman showed off her new bike with room for two toddlers in the rear cage. The morning was softly busy, and genial.
“Bottom line, it’s a beautiful market in a wonderful location which needs more customers!” said Janet Ciel, who for the past six years has managed the farmers’ markets in town.
Ciel speculated that most regular customers of the markets do the bulk of their weekly shopping on Saturdays, but enjoy coming by on Tuesdays to “fill in the gaps.” The irregular revenue the Tuesday market generates for the vendors can be a challenge, especially near the end of the summer, after the usual Tuesday Night in the Plaza music season ends.
Next year, the Tuesday Market may see a slightly shorter season, said Ciel, ending in September instead of October. “We seem to do okay when the concert season happens, but once August ends, our traffic dies down considerably,” she said.
Information, including vendor applications, is available at healdsburgfarmersmarket.org.
