Wondering if the local economy was ever going to turn the
corner? Thousands turned the corner
– and stimulated the market – Saturday on Third Street Promenade
and strolled along Depot Street at the third occurrence of the
farmers’ market this year.
Wondering if the local economy was ever going to turn the corner? Thousands turned the corner – and stimulated the market – Saturday on Third Street Promenade and strolled along Depot Street at the third occurrence of the farmers’ market this year.
“It’s much better now,” said Nancy Muta, who was offering free tastes of seaweed salad and green tea and selling sushi from Aoi restaurant on Main Street. The Japanese restaurant is family-owned and in its four years in Morgan Hill, has felt the pinch like many other local businesses.
“I think it’s because the economy has gotten better. People, I think, have saved their money,” Muta said. Her father, Makoto, said the amount of visitors walking and shopping Saturday must be because “the economy is coming back a little.”
Morgan Hill’s market has almost doubled in size since last season, said David Gerhard, the director of communications for the California Farmers’ Markets Association. Gerhard said this year it’s become more community focused with more booths that promote healthy living and nonprofit organizations.
And, the growth of the farmers’ market onto Third Street provides more opportunity for the community to come together through the “Make it, Bake it, Grow it” program that combines farmers, food producers, artists and artisans and local community groups. The market is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday, rain or shine.
The market had been a staple in Morgan Hill for 23 years. Virginia Sellers, the local farmers’ market manager, said this year the market has a children’s craft booth, food demonstrations and a free tasting event that will help shoppers find the fruit that best suits their palette.
Vivian Enriquez handled a large reusable shopping bag in each hand as she perused a pile of 6-inch long snap peas at a vegetable booth Saturday.
“Those beans are $10 a pound at Safeway and there’s not even a pound’s worth there,” Enriquez said. She moved from Indio, a desert city in the Coachella Valley, two months ago happily donning a light jacket and pants in Morgan Hill’s unseasonably cool May weather, something she couldn’t do too often in the heat of Indio.
“We didn’t have anything like this down there,” she said.
“We like the environment. It’s just wonderful,” her son Phillip Enriquez said.
Offerings of bok choy to nearly palm-sized strawberries begged for buying as well as booths selling smoked salmon, fresh cinnamon bread, field-cut flowers, herbs and live music filled the time in-between the finding, buying and thank you’s among vendors and shoppers.
A new couple to Morgan Hill, DeDe and Matt Bock, said it was the draw of living in downtown and the farmers’ market that initiated their move from Orangevale, a suburb in the Sacramento area.
“I’ve used a quarter of a tank of gas in three weeks,” DeDe said. “Most of the vegetables we cook with are from here, the zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce. We love the selection.”
“We buy the fruit for my lunch,” Matt added.
Sellers said apples will soon be a staple at the market and cherries will fade away as their season closes.
“I just about live here on the weekend. It’s a wonderful atmosphere,” Morgan Hill resident Patty Crone said.
“Make sure they keep this place going.”
The farmers’ market will continue during Mushroom Mardi Gras weekend but move from the Third Street Promenade to Second Street this Saturday and Sunday at its regular time, 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. But, buyers beware, it’s going to be crowded in downtown.
