Market report

Looking forward, looking back
This upcoming Saturday Aug. 22, will be Healdsburg Farmers’ Market half waypoint of the season. The market kicked off on May 2. That was my first farmers’ market as new market manager. For me that was a day filled with nerves and excitement. I had not met a lot of you and was curious to see how a paper map full of vendors and farmers would play out in real life.
So we are at a turning point, a chance to look forward and look back. For some farmers it means an end of a season. For our market interns and me, it’s full of ends and new beginnings.
Looking back, it’s been nothing but humbling and amazing. Our farmers and vendors and community are amazing.  At the market we’ve seen plant starts turn into produce, we’ve seen crop seasons begin and end and we’ve had some great experiences with cooking demos and other practical demonstrations. I’ve seen regulars who started the market with “baby bumps” now strolling the market and enjoying the music with babies.
Looking back, I’ve lost my amazing market intern, Dylan Cleaver, as he graduated high school and moved south for college in San Diego. Dylan and I learned a lot about market dynamics together and it was really an honor to work with such an eager and motivated young person in my first season.
Looking forward, I have an equally amazing intern who just started last week. Madi Farnsworth will be finishing up the season with us as market intern. As she puts it, she “didn’t know how interested in agriculture she was until she became interested in healthy eating and aware of factory farming.”
Looking forward, I see darker, quieter mornings, earlier twilights, golden afternoons and the smell that permeates our home during this passing of the torch from this season to next. I see pumpkin carvings, zucchini races, scarecrow competitions and costume parades.
Looking forward, I anticipate the second half of this market season will be as rich as the first, though it may change flavor and faces to some degree. Please join us to celebrate the vibrancy of our home that is shaped by our ecology and culture. Here are some pearls and programs to facilitate coming to the market and make it a little more enjoyable:
This coming Saturday Aug. 22, we’ll have a zucchini racecar clinic from 10 to 11 a.m. There will be large zucchinis on hand as well as wheels and parts to get you up and racing with the fastest zucchini in Sonoma County.
Saturday, Aug. 29, will be the official zucchini fest and race. It’s fun for the whole family with prizes and of course, bragging rights. We also have upcoming cooking demos that involve tomatoes, so stay tuned for that.
One of the things we’ve learned this season is that parking is a deterrent. In effort to mitigate that, we’re now offering free parking for customers from 3 to 6 p.m. at our Wednesday market, which is in the Purity lot next to SHED.
Saturday, while we can’t offer parking; there are always spots behind city hall and along Vine St. in front of Safeway. Healdsburg Pedicab is new on the scene and shows up at the market every Saturday. You can give them a call and they’ll pick you and your produce up, 707-696-BIKE.
You can also leave your produce with Madi and me and then drive up to the market border and we’ll deliver right to your car door. Looking forward to seeing y’all at the market.
Kenny Lowe is the manager of the Healdsburg Farmers’ Market.