Two big firsts at Oakland Community Farmers Market on Saturday
Nine-year-old Orion Skye Smit-Holm will be selling the first apples, cider and dried fruit ever offered at the Oakland Community Farmers Market this Saturday.
Johann Smit, of Hidden Star Orchards, a family-run fruit farm in the Sierra foothills, is the Laurel District market's newest vendor and first fruit stand. He's also Orion's father.
"I'm always excited about something new happening between the blueberries and cherries," said Smit, who lives with his family in East Oakland and has a central warehouse nearby. "I can spend more time in the Bay Area now and get a feel for this new farmers market."
He has stands at most of the Bay Area's markets and always employs kids from the community to help work them. After he read about the Oakland Community Farmers Market in a local paper, he contacted Jason Harvey, founder and executive director of Oakland Food Connection, which runs the market. Smit offered to set up a stand and employ local youth. He's not concerned about turning a profit, Smit said, just covering his costs. His stand will have a signup sheet for whoever wants to work, starting with one-hour shifts.
"Life is experienced based," said Smit. "If a kid bites into a pink lady apple and says, 'Wow, what's this?' It's going to create a ripple in the pond; the ring gets bigger and reaches further over time. The adults are disconnected from food because of worrying about work, time, and cost. You can start to reach the adults through the kids."
Lokham Farms from Fresno is another new vendor at the market. It grows pesticide-free greens, cabbage, onions, beans, peas and radishes. Hidden Star Orchards and Lokham Farms join J&P Organics, Wingwalker’s Baking Company, the Purple Lawn Café and the Oakland Food Connection information booth to make up the market.
"The (Oakland Community Farmers Market) is quickly becoming a local destination for people who are interested in supporting community-driven efforts to access better foods, supporting youth to becoming leaders in their local food system, and for people who just love having a great farmers market featuring delicious foods right in their own backyard," Harvey said.
Harvey's Oakland Food Connection has been working with local youth for about five years. Under the group's guidance, students from Oakland Unity High School and E.C. Reems Academy of Technology and Arts have been building and harvesting school gardens and learning about food justice since 2005.
Its staff spends 10 to 15 hours a week teaching students how to build gardens and greenhouses, what to plant seasonally and how to harvest and cook the food they grow. The students learn about where food is, and isn’t, accessible and how they can bring nutritious food into their neighborhoods by gardening. The organization offers summer internships for four to six students to continue their gardening and food education.
In the Purple Lawn Café, a mobile food booth, Oakland Food Connection students flaunt their cooking skills. Using produce offered that day, they demonstrate how to cook simple and tasty meals, served with the recipe on the side.
Harvey said he's thrilled with the expansion of this East Oakland community-based foodie haven and wants to attract more farmers and vendors. To make the market more accessible to small farmers, Harvey offers sliding scale rates for stalls when necessary, sometimes waiving fees altogether. Vendors can face challenges recouping the costs of their agricultural investment, as they arrive at the market with a truckload of produce they've already paid to grow, harvest, pack and transport, he explained.
"Smaller vendors have a hard time getting into the larger markets," he said. "Building a customer base takes time. A food vendor arrives $400 to $600 in debt, making it expensive for a new farmer to start out."
The Oakland Community Farmers Market is located in the Laurel District of East Oakland at 4173 MacArthur Boulevard, between 35th Avenue and High Street. They accept WIC and EBT and are open from 10 am to 2 pm.
The market is seeking new vendors in the following areas: produce farmer, fruit farmer, nut farmer, jams, jellies preserves, organic meats, jewelry, soaps and more.
For more information about Oakland Food Connection regarding vending opportunities, volunteer hours or ideas for Oakland Community Farmers Market, e-mail info@foodcommunityculture.org.
About Cynthia Joseph
Thank you Thank you Thank you.
As the owner/operators of Wingwalker*s Baking Company, We are so happy to see this market finally getting some well deserved attention and press. OFC operates outside of the mainstream norm and provides services the so-called other farmers market organizations (Urban Village, PCFMA, Marin Farmers Market Assoc.) don’t care to do, probably because the profit incentive isn’t there for their type of larger corporate operations, i.e.; "Beckman’s" of Santa Cruz or "Edith's" of Modesto (large scale, out of area commercial bakeries that undercut prices, have deliverymen not BAKERS selling their goods, and unfortunately are entrenched throughout the entire bay areas Farmers Markets and many local grocery stores, thereby depriving local artisan bakers the opportunity to sell their goods in their own home towns). No ACME, No SemiFreddies, No WingWalkers? That leaves little to no room for small fry’s like myself to ever get a start, which is what I thought the Farmers Markets were a vehicle for, not to buoy the advantages of well established corps, in the guise of small businesses.
Jason Harvey, OFC's founder and driving force, is committed to bringing quality foodstuffs to underserved neighborhoods at an affordable price, without resorting to inviting in greedy corporate entities and by providing an equitable playfield for small businesses like our self. We can easily say, without the flexibility we found at the Laurel Village Community Farmers Market, or the support from our loyal base of customers, we would most likely not still be in business in today’s volatile economy. We base this on the experience of attending and selling at hundreds of Farmers Markets in the last few years, run by other organizations, whose only goal was to collect their $40-$60 per space selling fee at the end of every market. They didn't care where the food came from, the variety or availability of goods (too many grape vendors, too many bakers etc) and they certainly didn't care if it helped or hurt local businesses, or served the communities they entered, it seems in hindsight they only cared about their bottom line, disconcerting for supposed non-profits, which they all claim to be.
Kudos to you Laurel Village, with local businesses like Trattoria Laurellinos, Butta Qutzs and OFC, you make the market successful every week, you don’t hurt anyone in the process and we appreciate it.
At this point, even if offered a space at another market we would easily and without hesitation, turn it down flat. We are committed to building and maintain a loyal customer base in our own neighborhood (we live on Georgia St. in the triangle and are working towards a real storefront in our own neighborhood). In short, WingWalker*s Hella Loves Oakland and Hella Loves the Laurel. We want to put back as much as we get, if not more, from the neighborhood. Keeping our dollars local.
We like the idea that the market is so small, to us it means unlimited growth in an area that is very deprived of most everything except quality hair care and nail salons. Although we do not encourage nor discourage people to drive to our market we want them to know that there is a lot more free side street parking available at our farmers market than any other in Oakland. Come and see for yourself. If taking the bus the AC/Transit NL and NX have stops right in front.
To show my bakery's gratitude, anyone mentioning this story will receive a free piece of hand-dipped chocolate this Saturday (3/6/10) at the Market (9am -2pm) 4173 MacArthur Blvd between 38th and High St
Thanks again for the support and as we always say, "Well see you at market this week, so buy local and go home happy."
Sincerely,
Christian and Stefanie Smitherum
WingWalkers Baking Company
Oakland CA
What a neat market! And what an even nicer thing Mr. Smit is doing for those kids!! It's not only helping them in more ways than imagined, but will steer them hopefully to healthier eating habits throughout their lives and help them to take care of and appreciate Mother Earth a little more!
I'll have to give the market a visit!
Thanks Cynthia! :-)