By Eliza DuBose
BERKELEY, Calif. — On a recent Saturday, this city’s residents strolled among the more than 50 white canopies of the city’s weekly Farmers’ Market downtown.
Brightly colored summer vegetables and fruits — squash, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and peaches — gave the entire market an almost festive feel. Visitors and customers wandered from vendor to vendor and stopped to listen to local artists strumming guitars.
People called out to one another by name to comment on the clear 80-degree weather. Sellers rummaged through boxes, unpacking and arranging their produce or soup or flowers.
They welcomed shoppers to their stands offering assistance, samples and knowledge of how something was made or why various varieties taste so different.
As customers left the stands they waved at the vendors, assuring the sellers they would return next week. A sense of kinship permeated the air like the smell of cooking batter from the stand selling crepes and kettle corn. Shoppers seemed to form a tightly knit community united by food and local options.
River Artsong stood under her white canopy at a Gourmet Hummus & Tahini with her carefully packaged hummus products encased in glass jars lined up on the table. Artson said they use glass because this is a plastic-free market with an emphasis on sustainability.
She and other sellers say customers share their values.
“We have kinda like common interests,” Matthew Cellis said, adding, “People who shop here are different than people who shop at Whole Foods.”
He opened his olive stand at the market about two months ago, after working as a manager at Kaiser Hospital. He said he was drawn to farming and Farmers’ Markets by the prospect of having a closer relationship with what he eats and how he lives.
“It comes down to knowing what’s in my food… So basically the health reasons,” he said.
And his reason for selling at a market like this? Connection. With farmers, with food, with people.
“It’s just kinda getting back to being a human and talking to people… to form those bonds,” he said.
Artsong agreed. “Either we’re selling our own products or we’re selling something that we are closely involved in and it’s more personal,” she said. “It’s important to each of the vendors that people love what they’re trying and that there is environmental consideration for everything we do.”
Customers agree. Carly and Howard Yiley are regulars at the market with deep connections to the vendors (the “Ethiopian Food Lady” as they affectionately called her, lives across the street from Howard’s parents).
“We’re helping people, independent farmers, kinda succeed,” Carly said. “We’d much rather give our money to the independent folks than the big Amazon.”
Howard said, “Every place else in the world has community markets. Everybody knows the farmers, everyone has this type of relationship… It’s community things that we don’t really cherish anymore. ”
The two also said they enjoyed the familiar and friendly air of the market. It lacked the desperate and rushed feeling that permeates the traditional shopping experience.
“It’s an outing, not a chore,” Carly said.
Not only does the Farmers’ Market offer a breeding ground for a like-minded community, but it also serves as a springboard for launching into the wider Berkeley area. Matthew Jervis is the director of vitality — marketing — for Downtown Berkley and has a table on Saturdays to welcome passersby. He hands out brochures advertising local businesses and events in the area.
“So many people from around the Bay Area come to the farmers’ market, but then they’ll just go, and they won’t really know what’s right over there,” he said.
He described the market as “a snapshot of a community. There’s a lot of different things going on and it’s just a great way of getting out,” he said.
“Inclusivity of being out on the streets,” he added. “This is like the town pantry, and everybody ends up in the kitchen.”