THIS LITTLE TOMATO WENT TO MARKET The Story Behind the Brentwood Farmers' Market
	MAY 2005

by John Silveira
Photos by Russell Byrne

The opening day of the Brentwood Farmers’ Market, on June 24, 2004, was one of the best grand opening events of a certified farmers’ market in the history of the Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association. Everyone who attended, including farmers, community members, and customers, seemed to be really excited about the new thing that had come to Brentwood. The ribbon cutting was a joyful event, and was attended by Chamber of Commerce members such as Chris Becnel and Bonnie Lucchese together with many members from the planning commission, plus City Councilmen and staff.

It was a great celebration and I will never forget my sense of joy — even of awe — as I looked for the first time down the row of booths and saw Dwelley Farms, Arata Farms Produce, Rick Knowles, Brookside, Shelly’s Garden, The Home School Farms, Brentwood Olive Oil, Lewis Farms, Wolfe Ranch Cherries, Smith Family Farms, Frog Hollow Farms, Moffatt Ranch, Victoria Island Farms, and Spring Hill Dairy Cheese all lined up, one after another, and selling their wonderful products to excited customers. My heart filled with pride at the happy spectacle. These organizations were the true crème de la crème in the Northern California agricultural industry; the cream of the crop; the best of the best.

I became involved with a California farm operation for the first time in 1989 while working for a citrus grower who was farming in the Dinuba region, which is southeast of Fresno. The farm was distributing products to several Bay Area farmers’ markets from a warehouse in Livermore. Right from that first experience I developed a love for being around food in a market environment, so in 1992 I jumped at the opportunity of becoming Market Manager with the Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association, where I have been working ever since. I was eventually promoted to Operations Director and now am Director of Markets. In that capacity, I have oversight of 28 communities offering 35 market days per week during the summer. We have a staff of 20, including eight part-time people.

Even though I’m director of the whole operation, I still love getting out personally into the marketplaces themselves. A farmers’ market gives growers the opportunity to let vegetables and fruit ripen on the vine or tree. The consumer, for example, can then eat a peach that tastes like God meant for a peach to taste. Biting into one of these sprays the inside of your mouth with summertime goodness. Unless you are careful, the goodness will start dripping off the end of your chin. I wanted to be involved in promoting that kind of experience for everyone.

Enhancing Brentwood Downtown
I always loved Brentwood’s downtown area and right from my first contact with the community I could see the potential for a thriving farmers’ market. The downtown has come a long way. People are taking more ownership for the area and many local residents are now gladly supporting downtown businesses and activities. The farmers’ market is a component in creating that sense of downtown Brentwood being a lively social scene by creating foot traffic and promoting a pattern of people heading for downtown more often for products, services, and entertainment.

When the opportunity came to open the Brentwood Farmers’ Market last summer, I assumed the responsibility of director for the project so that I could be in on the ground floor of this exciting undertaking. I was particularly anxious for the Brentwood Farmers’ Market to become a great success. One reason I was so enthusiastic about this is because I’m a Brentwood resident myself. I moved here in 1996. When you are doing things to promote your own community, your work becomes more than merely doing a job. Out of love and respect for the city where I live, I might do a better job than one of my less-involved employees.

Another reason why I was particularly anxious for the project to succeed is because creating a farmers’ market in Brentwood has been a fairly long-range effort. We started making plans for the project back in 1996, so this was a development with an eight-year gestation period before the birth finally took place.

Perhaps the greatest reason for my enthusiasm for the Brentwood Farmers’ Market is because of the quality of the farms in this area. Brentwood has a wonderful and well-deserved reputation for excellent farm products. Perhaps there’s no other place in Northern California with such a concentrated source of excellent fruits and vegetables. People have been driving from up to 100 miles away to buy produce at the U-Pick stands of our local farmers. Memorial Day on Walnut Avenue is like the scene from a festival. We arguably have the best Heirloom Tomatoes you can buy anywhere in the world, plus the world’s best peaches and the best corn. We’ve heard reports of people actually moving to Brentwood in order to be close to the apricot harvest.

Our farmers have done a great job both in producing excellence in their products and in branding their products for the marketplace. How wonderful it is now to be able to have the yield from many of these local farms in one place!

Working Together on Many Levels
For our Common Good
Farmers’ markets have a position before the law equivalent to U-Pick stands; both fall under the same set of state regulations. Years ago visionary California lawmakers created direct marketing legal shortcuts in order to bypass the agricultural rules and standards that would otherwise have been obstacles to creating farmers’ markets. The bureaucrats recognized the major role farmers’ markets play in maintaining the family farm as a viable economic force.

One important factor in starting any farmers’ market is securing a base of support within the local economy. I have experience with the California Downtown Association and the California Main Street Program. Both organizations assist in promoting downtown events in towns and small cities and work primarily with business associations in seeking the best interests of the merchants. They are non-profit organizations benefiting local businesses and their extended communities, especially seeking to promote the economic vitality of the areas that they serve.

These two organizations often sponsor farmers’ market efforts because they recognize the advantage of this kind of community event in drawing people to city centers so that merchants can then benefit from the resulting foot traffic. Also, they knew that the events they create, such as farmers’ markets, help promote downtown areas as community gathering places and create a community spirit.

The two agencies didn’t help directly to create the Brentwood Farmers’ Market, but they helped foster the desire to create such a community event. The city tried to create a local Downtown Association, but they encountered resistance from the merchants, who feared that the organization would prove to be another tax-devouring social entity that would take money out of their pockets. We were unable to get the message across that the first priority of these non-profit organizations is to put money into the cash register of the organization members.

The Brentwood Farmers’ Market was finally sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce upon recommendation of the City’s Economic Development Committee. The Chamber was able to recognize the business advantages of the Farmers’ Market and agreed to steer the activities, which included selecting the choice of setting, securing appropriate business licenses, municipal zoning exceptions, public safety approvals, etc.

Harvest Time in Brentwood, the local association of more than 30 local farmers and growers, also did a lot of the groundwork. Harvest Time conducted several meetings to solicit and respond to the views and concerns of the local producers. We were most particularly concerned that farmers wouldn’t feel as though the market was competition that would be taking money away from them. The design is to let farmers make money, not spend it.

I worked with Harvest Time to make the Brentwood Farmers' Market a reality. I attended the annual meeting in January 2004 when the process was beginning and helped work the details out through several subsequent meetings so we could position the market as a true win-win situation.

A number of people championed the Brentwood Farmers’ Market and helped turn vision into reality. The Brentwood Economic Development Director, Howard Sword, for example, had a vision of the farmers’ market becoming a recognized event that would be welcomed by the community. Kathryn Lyddan, the Executive Director of the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust, and Ken Hagen, President of Harvest Time, were the people who really shaped the clay of the idea into the actual form that became the market’s structure and operation. The Chamber got involved in putting the finishing touches on the wonderful organization that all of us had created.

Reaping the Happy Fruits of our Labors
As the market moves forward in the months and years ahead, the experience of shopping there will become part of the normal weekly routine for more and more area residents, who will become ever more aware of East County’s large and lively local agricultural industry. We expect people to begin looking forward to their Thursday evening marketing experience.

Many customers who came last year ran into farmers they knew from the growers’ roadside stands. Janice Smith, for example, reported that a number of old friends from their Smith Family Farms roadside stand, greeted them at their farmers’ market stand. The U-Pick stands, farms, and the farmers’ market will eventually all work together to increase revenues to Brentwood growers and fresh produce to residents’ tables.

The Brentwood Farmers’ Market is too good to keep to ourselves; we expect people from outside East County to start to develop a Brentwood Farmers’ Market habit, at least on a monthly basis, perhaps. We also expect the market to expand beyond farm products; local businesses will begin showcasing non-farm products, as well. The farmers’ market will provide opportunities to pass along information and to educate people.

Some newer residents who attended the farmers’ market couldn’t believe the cornucopia of goodness that was being provided by our local farmers and growers. In the future the venue will provide an experience for kids, as well. We’ll develop arts and crafts activities that will help children understand where food comes from and raise awareness of the dynamics involved in retaining profits from our ag industry within our local agriculture and business community.

The farmers were pleased with the potential the market showed in its first year of business. It takes time for markets to grow; bugs have to be worked out and processes have to be massaged. Within the third year, usually, things are as smooth as can be and the project really takes off. Some of our participants did quite well this first year, however.

Win-Win-Win for Farmers,
Merchants, and Residents
Some of our local merchants failed to immediately catch the vision and to understand the potential increase in business revenues to the downtown that the Brentwood Farmers’ Market was going to provide. Instead they feared that the market would compete with them by selling ready to eat food and soft drinks, for example.

Granted that some people might buy a tri-tip BBQ sandwich and a Coke at the market instead of buying food from one of the local establishments. But in many cases, the people doing the buying wouldn’t even be downtown on Thursday evenings if not for the lure of the farmers’ market. And other people will be going to go to the farmers’ market and then go to dinner afterwards who otherwise might have eaten at home — or in a restaurant in one of the plazas.

In its first year the Brentwood Farmers’ Market began to impact the social patterns in the Brentwood downtown area. The Wine Store, for example, reported a marked increase in Thursday evening business even after the farmers’ market had closed for the season! “Thursday is a great night to get out.” That’s the message that more and more people will begin getting in the years ahead. We’re hoping downtown merchants will quickly see the advantages of embracing and supporting the farmers’ market just like they’ve been supporting the other downtown activities, like Walk In the Park, Corn Fest, Downtown Halloween, the Music in the Park Program, etc.

The population of Brentwood is now over 35,000. If we could attract three percent of these to the market each week, we would be doing very well. However, we’re planning to see that percentage actually grow to double-digits. The Brentwood Farmers’ Market is too good to remain a secret; it will become one of the most important East County institutions.

Let’s all get into the habit of buying and eating the wonderful products that our local growers provide. A fresh Brentwood vine-ripened tomato is so much better than the cardboard tasting one picked three weeks ago by a peasant working for some Costa Rican syndicate that the two things shouldn’t be given the same name. Just try the farmer’s market this summer! See for yourself! We’re open for business starting May 12.