Letter: Coastside Farmer’s Market opens May 2

Erin Tormey is the director of the Coastside Farmer’s Market

We are only weeks away from Opening Day 2009, and boy, are my arms tired.

And they look great too, as a result of a flurry of activity that ranges from serious bouts of weed-pulling to double-arm, overhead waving at bureaucrats to high-five hijinks as one by one the requisite papers pile up in triplicate, trying to keep my hat on while planting and pruning in the wind, and returning the cheerful waves and hollers from across the street from many y’all asking when Opening Day is - so thanks, Marketeers, for the tony forearms and bulging biceps!

I am happy to report that we are on track to open the Season at 9 AM on Saturday, May 2nd in Half Moon Bay,  and a subsequent wing-dang-doodle at 2:30 PM at Rockaway Beach in Pacifica on Wednesday May 6th, thanks to the generosity of our fabulous cadre of  Market Sponsors, the newly formed and very much appreciated Friends of the Farmers Market, the nimbleness of soem very friendly though somewhat harrried City staff, and the Carrubba Family who are once again donating the space for the Half Moon Bay Market in Shoreline Station.  

Fun news this season is that in addition to our long loved and hardworking stalwarts,  there are several new organic farms emerging in our area which will be joining us this season including Fifth Crow from Pescadero,  Potrero Nuevo from Half Moon Bay, GreenHearts Farm and this season we welcome C&MP farms,  one of the few organic olive grower & bottlers in California, and the only one that grows the Kalamata type olives locally.  They will join our Coastal  Market Marvels from Giusti Farms, Tunitas Creek Ranch, Green Oaks Creek, Swanton Berry Farms, Coastside Flower Farms, Cypress Flower Farms, Harley Farms Goat Dairy, Irish Ridge Ranch , Ladybug Farms, Pacifica’s Triple J, and of course our own Farmer John, and our frineds the Cipponeri’s, the Busalaccis (with those amazing cherries) and yes, Santiago Marin will return with his top hat and songs about  beautiful fruit for beautiful people, people, people. 

As far as I can tell, in Half Moon Bay we have the only Farmer’s Market where the Mayor has a booth, though I must say that while the Mayor of Pacifica is not a farmer, it is rare that she does not appear at the Market in Rockaway Beach every week. . Same could be said for the former Mayors of both communities, now that I think of it.  And then there are you, the ever-faithful Marketeers, who show up every week, who realize there is some heavy lifting involved in getting these things up and running, that appreciate the challenges, show up in the rain, hail and deep fogs of August to support your neighbor farmers and their colleagues from fields afar. It is a rare and a mighty nice feeling to enjoy such a consistent level of community support, and I thank you from the bottom of my bushel.

I hope you’ll be able to join us on May 2nd for Opening Day in Half Moon Bay as the The Zoo Human Project sounds the fanfare, and on May 6th in Rockaway Beach with Nancy Hall and Friends singing in the new season in Pacifica.

A Bag Full of Gratitude to the Friends of the Farmer’s Market is in order! Thanks to you, for the first time ever we’ll have a nice supply of post-consumer recycled content, reusable shopping bags with our groovy logo available for your shopping pleasure.  We are hoping you will all help us to keep our green-goals in mind by flipping us a few bucks for a FOFM reusable bag, limiting your use of plastic bags, bringing bags from home to re-use. 

BTW - If you don;t know about the Friends of the Farmers Market and want to join or find out more, drop me a note at [email protected] and I’ll tell you all about it!

See you soon!

Erin Tormey