Those looking for a place to buy fresh local produce away from the crowds of the bi-weekly Davis Farmers Market now have a new option: the Winters Farmers Market.
Re-opened on Sunday, May 2, the market will be open every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through Oct. 31. The market is held at Rotary Park in Winters at the corner of Railroad Avenue and Main Street.
“It’s a great market,” said market manager Ana Kormos. “The mix of vendors is very good but it’s calm and peaceful – less crazy than the Davis Farmers Market on Saturday.”
Kormos said that each Sunday the market will have plenty of fresh, locally grown produce as well as baked goods, flowers, honey, wine, cheese and pastries.
Food vendors include several Winters restaurants such as Steady Eddy’s (coffee and tea) and El Pueblo Taqueria (breakfast burritos and tamales). Davis food vendors include Upper Crust Bakery (breads and cookies) and Ciocolat (pastries).
Kate Hutchinson, the owner of Ciocolat, expanded to the Winters Farmers Market in order to attract new customers. She also wanted to expand because the market promotes many of the values that the business believes in, such as shopping locally, she said.
“It’s really a neat market because it’s small but it has everything you need for your weekly shopping,” she said. “It’s a really nice way to spend a Sunday morning with the small town atmosphere.
With a population of approximately 7,000 people as of 2008, Winters offers market-goers a much more intimate setting than Davis, a fact not lost on Davis Farmers Market Association executive director Randii MacNear.
“It’s one of those jewels,” MacNear said, referring to Winters. “It’s still an old-fashioned small town community that values community gatherings.”
The Davis Farmers Market Association currently runs the Winters Farmers Market. MacNear said the Association is projecting an opening of a downtown West Sacramento Farmers Market in May 2011.
Meanwhile, Kormos said that farmers markets in general help the relationship between the producers and consumers of produce.
“[Farmers markets] really builds the connection between producers and consumers of food,” she said. “They are a place to share information in order to bridge the gap between the two.”
CHINTAN DESAI can be reached at city@theaggie.org.
