Sebastopol Farmers Market manager Carla Rosin is torn about whether to keep the farmers market open as the region plunges deeper into the coronavirus pandemic.
On the one hand, the state considers farmers markets to be essential businesses, just like grocery stores, so they have the right to stay open.
In addition, Rosin said, “I think farmers markets are safer and you’re far more able to keep distancing than in a regular grocery store.”
On the other hand, as the shelter-in-place order has corralled people in their homes, fewer and fewer customers have been showing up at the market, which happens every Sunday in Sebastopol’s downtown plaza from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“I would say our customer numbers have dropped down to maybe a third of what we usually see this time of the year,” Rosin said.
The number of vendors is dropping as well, though there are still more than 20 vendors showing up with their tents, produce and other goods.
There’s no scheduled music at the moment — though one guy with a guitar was giving it his all this last Sunday to an almost empty plaza.
Asked if they were trying to control the number of shoppers they allowed into the farmers market, Rosin said that hadn’t been much of a problem.
“Last week, we didn’t really have a lot of people,” she said. “As people get more and more fearful about going out, that’s less of an issue.”
She has nonetheless appointed a volunteer, Lawrence Jaffe, to monitor the situation and do crowd control if necessary.
Rosin said she was almost happy when the weatherman called for rain this last weekend because that alone keeps the crowds down, which is good for virus suppression, but not so great for farmers hoping to sell their wares.
“We’re looking at these numbers, and it’s not sustainable for the farmers market to exist on that for a long period of time,” Rosin said.
Rosin said the market has made several changes to its routines to prevent the spread of the virus.
• They’ve posted signs reminding people about the importance of social distancing and hand-washing.
• Starting this last Sunday, customers will no longer be able to handle the produce. They’ll point to what they want, and the vendors will package it up.
• The vendors will have to work in pairs — with one person to handle the money and another to handle the produce.
• There are also hand-washing stations in the market, mostly for vendors, but some vendors are making them available to customers as well.
• The market has been encouraging vendors to pre-package and price their produce to shorten the interaction time.
• In addition, they’re hoping customers will bring lots of small bills to the market and round up to minimize the exchange of cash.
To reach out to customers who are afraid to come to the market while the shelter-in-place order is in effect, Rosin said she’s considering creating an online purchasing section to their website, where customers could order a box of veggies — say, root vegetables or greens — and then come and pick it up curbside.
She said farms that have community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs, like Laguna Farms and Singing Frog Farms, have seen orders for their CSA vegetable boxes skyrocket, and she’d like to find a way for all the farmers in her market to profit off a similar system.
It’s a complicated process, however, she said, because she has dozens of vendors to consider and wants to make sure everyone could be included.
“It’s a work in progress,” Rosin said. “We’re all learning together.”
“I want to make sure that our farmers will be able to do more than just survive through this, but actually thrive,” she said. “We’re working on ways to help them do that.”
