Photograph by Douglas Rider
Freshly Picked: Guadalupe Aguilar, from Watsonville's Happy Boy, sells her vegetables April 13, at the Willow Glen Farmers' Market, at Willow Glen Elementary School. Merchants travel from all over Northern California to sell their goods at the farmers' market.
WG Farmers' Market sells produce from local farms
By Jim Aquino
The arrival of springtime marks the return of the Willow Glen Farmers' Market. From April to November, the market's vendors sell fresh produce grown by local farms, bread and pastries from Central Coast bakeries like Nina's Kitchen and Beckmann's, and seafood. Jewelry, pottery, and arts and crafts are also available.
In 1996, Melanie Defe and Su Ellen B. Sterling first opened the Willow Glen market, which is located at Willow Glen Elementary School on the corner of Minnesota and Lincoln avenues, after the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association invited them to bring a market to the area. Defe, a substitute teacher for the San Jose Unified School District, and Sterling, who works at her son's local software company, Stopware, also run a similar farmers' market in Los Gatos.
"There is nothing like the taste of a luscious, red, vine-ripened tomato, a sweet, juicy peach or a snap bean that really snaps," Defe and Sterling say on their company's website.
The produce at the market ranges from berries to potatoes to different kinds of Asian vegetables.
According to Sterling, many of the market's customers belong to a community that pledges to support a local farm, in what is called "community-supported agriculture," or CSA.
"In a CSA, people buy shares of the farm, and then for a set fee every week, they come and get a box of that farm's produce," says Sterling. Tom Boaz of Live Earth Farms out of Corralitos has a lot of members who come to the Willow Glen market and pick up their boxes of produce each week. They're primarily Willow Glen residents. Sterling lists the relationship between the grower and the consumers as one of the benefits of having a CSA in the community.
Sterling says Boaz is an excellent grower who maintains a close relationship with the members of his CSA.
"Several times throughout the summer, he invites them to come out to the farm. He'll have music. They have a harvest day. They can go into the fields and bring their families and kids," Sterling says.
Besides organic-food enthusiasts, the market also caters to gardeners by offering fresh-cut flowers and potted plants.
"We have quite a large gardening following," Sterling says, "and we usually feature three to five rotating local artisans who bring in different things --photography, jewelry, pottery."
According to Defe, the Willow Glen market is more than just a farmers' market.
"It's one of the few markets I've seen that's involved in the community," Defe says.
The market also serves as a venue for such community events as silent auctions for the Willow Glen Elementary School PTA and blood drives.
"We're going to have a day set aside to work with organizations like the Lions Club, which usually collect glasses that they can recycle," Sterling says.
Six years ago, the downtown merchants weren't as responsive to participating in the market as they are now, according to Defe.
"Willow Glen is a whole different place now. It's alive on Saturday," Defe says.
One of the things Sterling enjoys about the Willow Glen market is the camaraderie between the farmers and the public.
"People develop some wonderful relationships with the growers and the sellers. It's just all positive. The public gets to talk to the grower and find out how to cook this and prepare this," Sterling says. "It's like going home--it's that feeling of community that we all desire."
Willow Glen Farmers' Market, Minnesota and Lincoln avenues. Open Saturday, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. For more information, call 408.353.4293.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
