Crisp, sunny mornings of springtime always bring the promise of new beginnings, so it’s fitting that April marks the start of a new era for one of the oldest certified farmers markets in the state.
The Healdsburg Farmers’ Market will kick off the season in a brand-new spot: the $10-million Foley Family Community Pavilion, which opened in December after years of construction and rehabilitation on a former cannery and warehouse near City Hall in downtown Healdsburg. The new digs include a covered structure and an adjacent open-air parking lot. Together, they comprise the market’s first permanent home since it started in 1978.
The first market of spring always has a special energy to it, as local farmers and artisans fill their displays with bunches of crisp radishes, bundles of rhubarb, freshly baked bread, and bottles of olive oil. But this year when they pull up to the new pavilion to unload their trucks and cars on April 11, it will mark the realization of a decades-long dream.
Yael Bernier, co-owner of Bernier Farms in Geyserville, remembers fantasizing about a dedicated spot when her husband, Paul, started the market with some other farmers 48 years ago. “We always wanted a place to call our own,” she says. “Having a permanent home pays respect to those farmers who work so hard to bring this food to Healdsburg.”
Renee Kiff, whose family owns Ridgeview Farm in Healdsburg, adds that it feels good after all these years to settle down. Kiff, a local historian, noted that after starting in an abandoned prune-drying plant on Haydon and East streets, the market moved several times, from a tiny space in an alley to the empty lot where Hotel Healdsburg now sits. The market has been held in the parking lot behind the hotel since the late 1990s.
The new spot has two things none of its predecessors did: space and shelter.
Market manager Janet Ciel said her team will leverage the shelter for the comfort of both shoppers and purveyors. “On bad weather days we can squeeze a few more vendors onto the platform, so we can have as many vendors as possible attend,” says Ciel. “This means customers are protected too, obviously, and even on stormy or blazing days we will have good-sized markets worth attending.”
The footprint of the pavilion and the parking lot is larger than previous locations, and on market days (Tuesdays and Saturdays) the city will shut North Street between City Hall and Little Saint, giving marketgoers more room to roam. Currently the Healdsburg Farmers’ Market runs from April to December. While many locals have clamored for a year-round schedule, Ciel says the new facility has no plans to host that — at least, not yet.
Local farmers waited nearly 50 years for a permanent home; for now, they just want to enjoy it.
Book it!
In addition to new digs, this spring Healdsburg Farmers’ Market also will celebrate the release of a new cookbook, written by local award-winning author Liza Gershman.
The book, “Farm + Market: Healdsburg,” will debut in early spring and will comprise about 100 recipes — many from local farmers and chefs. Among the contributors: Melissa and Sean McGaughey of Quail & Condor and Troubadour, Duskie Estes, Dustin Valette, Charlie Palmer, and Ari Rosen, who owned the much-missed Campo Fina restaurant.
Proceeds from the book will benefit the Healdsburg Farmers’ Market. For more information, visit healdsburgbook.com.