“We have a strong tradition of agriculture on the coast,” said market founder and director Erin Tormey. “What makes this market unique in the Bay Area and the state is that the focus is on farmers in their own community and the local population spending money on their neighbors.”
It opens at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 2, and runs to 1 p.m., in the Shoreline Station parking lot in Half Moon Bay, on land donated by the Carrubba family, each Saturday through Dec. 19.
  
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The process by which the growers are selected is rigorous. Every year, Tormey said, U.S. Department of Agriculture Coastside office biologists visit farmers early in the season to determine varieties, quantity and expected yield of their produce and include that information on the Certified Producers’ Certificate the grower must stick to.
“They know for sure that the person behind the table is the one that grew that food,” Tormey said.
It’s an annual process, but the grower does have leeway to change the crop.
“It’s a living, flexible document,” said Tormey of the certificate.
New this year will be the Fifth Crow and Green Oaks Creek farms in Pescadero. Also participating this year, from near Chico, is the CM&P Farms, which feature fresh organic olives including kalamatas.
About 10 of the booths are food booths. Scheduled to return this year is the Bay Bread Co. booth with scones and muffins. After high demand in previous years, the market will have fresh eggs, to Tormey’s delight. “That’s my big happiness this year,” she said.
Seafood may or may not be included due to the cancellation of the salmon season. Keeping to the local mandate, Tormey said she will not seek seafood caught outside the area. “I feel strongly, and in no uncertain terms, that (that would be) an insult to the fishermen who risk their lives every day and live in our community and are in peril right now,” she said.
Three booths feature Coastside artisans who sell crafts made by hand. Those include jewelry, pottery, and fiber arts and crafts from a local spinners’ group.
Tormey keeps the focus on produce, not the crafts. “This is not meant to be a street fair,” she said. “This is meant to be a farmers market.”
The stage in the southwestern corner of the market will resound with music by local bands and singers, and a handful from out of the area. “I can’t believe the caliber of musicians who play for basically tips,” she said.
One booth each week will spotlight a different local nonprofit group, and special-interest events are planned.
In May, the Green Moms (a group of high-tech professionals committed to raising environmentally aware children) and a blood drive are scheduled. The spinners’ group will hold a spin-in in June. The market will be one stop on the Tour des Fleurs in July. Reece Computer Systems will hold an e-waste collection in August. “There will be some kind of shenanigans every month,” said Tormey.
The farmers market is sponsored by local businesses including Damasco & Associates, Studio 4 Pilates, Reece Computer Systems, First National Bank, Absolute Flooring and Personal FX, and roughly 50 individual Coastsiders who have formed the Friends of the Farmers’ Market.
For information on the market, call Tormey at 726-4895 or e-mail her at farmersmarket@coastside.net, or visit the Web site of www.coastsidefarmersmarket.org.
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