A Green Market to get Greener!

A developing negative and insecure situation has stimulated the creation of a positive opportunity for long term farmers’ market site security. On March 6, 2010 a popular Saturday morning market will move to a new location.

The most important factor in maintaining the viability of a farm is that once all the money and labor have been expended in growing and harvesting the crops, there is an established place or outlet to sell those crops in order to recoup those costs and make enough profit to sustain the farm. The need and assurances for stability in a location prior to the start of the new round of seasonal harvesting in the coming Spring is paramount. The mantra is “unless you have a home for it, don’t plant it”.

Also paramount is the maintenance of low overhead costs at those sites. Since the farmers work on about a 10 to 15 % profit margin, there is not a lot of room for absorbing overhead without significantly raising their prices. Among other reasons, the Certified Farmers’ Markets system in California was created in 1979 to eliminate the “middle-man” so that farmers and the community could directly deal with each other for their mutual cost savings benefit.

In addition to the elimination of the wholesale “middle-man”, the farmers were also given an exemption from mandatory packing, grading and labeling regulations if they brought to sell at the Certified Farmers’ Market only what they grew themselves on their own farms. This eliminated the need to pick on the green side of ripe for shipping and packing purposes, and allowed for the availability of the fragile truly tree-ripened and vine-ripened fruits and vegetables to be available to the public without them having to travel great distances to the fruit stands located in the farming regions.

We all have been very fortunate to have had the site location security and low overhead needs provided at the Sunrise Mall property for the past 23 years. We are truly grateful to the owners of the mall for their past and present gracious civic patronage. But change in a dynamic world is inevitable and therefore it is not completely unexpected that changes have come and will continue to come to Sunrise Mall.

A significant increase in the potential for inevitable building construction at the present site, coupled with steadfast demands from the new owners for a substantial amount of monetary payment for site use, caused us to reassess our outlook for our low overhead and location security needs at that location. In the process of reassessing, we found an opportunity to create a new relationship that would alleviate our fears and provide the long term site security we need to support our farmers.

On March 6, 2010 we will begin a new chapter in the successful existence of the Certified Farmers’ Market that has grown to be so popular with both farmers and consumers. The Saturday Morning market at Sunrise Mall will move to the parking lot of the Sunrise Light Rail Station located at Sunrise and Folsom Boulevards.

This location is about 10 minutes away from the present site and provides a whole new dimension in the world of our farmers’ markets. Not only does it have a large number of parking places to accommodate customer and farmer vehicles, it also provides access to the market via the light rail system. We will be “green” on so many different levels. Most importantly, it has all the elements that we need to provide the long term stability, location site security, and low overhead needs that are essential for our continued success in preserving the present farmers’ market character.

The new location will accommodate the existing farmers’ market entirely and intact. Placement of the farmers within the market will be the same. It was important to us that relocation confusion is minimized and that the present farmer and customer relationships are maintained. Perhaps one of the most important consistencies that will occur is that Renae, the present market manager, will continue her gregarious connection with both the farmers and the community, providing recipes and advice to the customers while making sure that all the farmers are obeying the special rules that make this market so unique.

Thank you for your past support of our service.

We look forward to your continued support
as we begin a new era at the Sunrise Station Farmer's Market.