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Gilroy
November 27, 2024

Businesses Give Farmers’ Market Vendors a Home

Morgan Hill
–Thanks to Morgan Hill farmers’ market advocates and BookSmart
owners Brad Jones and Cinda Meister, a few vendors are still in
business for the winter.
The vendors include tamale makers, bakers and gardeners.
Morgan Hill – Thanks to Morgan Hill farmers’ market advocates and BookSmart owners Brad Jones and Cinda Meister, a few vendors are still in business for the winter.

The vendors include tamale makers, bakers and gardeners.

They’re selling their goods Saturday mornings from 9:30am to 1pm in the Depot Center parking lot near the corner of Depot and Second streets.

The regular farmers’ market – held during the same hours – at the Caltrain station nearby is closed until early May.

“It’s slow, but the farmers enjoy the business they’re getting,” Meister said. “It’s definitely worth their while.”

Jones said he had to get a temporary use permit from the city to let vendors set up tents in his parking lot. He said the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce paid $500 for the permit after the Morgan Hill Downtown Association “did all the leg work.”

Lousy weather in recent years forced the farmers’ market to close in November because many of the 19 farmers and seven food vendors couldn’t make a profit.

Jones, who has been a long-time proponent of moving the seasonal market to Monterey Road, hopes to bring more traffic to the market by running an arts and crafts fair in his parking lot this spring.

“We’re going to invite local artists to set up a pop-up tent and sell their stuff out of the parking lot,” he said.

Meanwhile, the farmers’ market will reopen this Spring in its regular spot at the train station across the street.

“I think it would be a good idea,” said Doug Hayden, director of the California Farmers’ Market Association, a Walnut Creek-based organization that runs 12 Bay Area markets including Morgan Hill’s. “As long as the crafts are quality and made by the people selling them … the events will be symbiotic.”

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