Do you have a favorite Farmers Market vendor? Maybe it’s Tomás of Lily’s Eggs, with his ready smile and lavish compliments. Or Amanda Iwamoto from Harry’s Berries, who knows your strawberry preferences and keeps the variety you like set aside for you.
Well, the feeling is mutual.
“We have great customers,” says Iwamoto. “They have been loyal, coming to us for a long time. They tell us how something tasted last week or what they used it in.”
If a regular doesn’t show up at the Wednesday market, Iwamoto says they’ll often pop up at a different Farmers Market later in the week to get their berry fix.
Alex Weiser of Weiser Farms has his devoted regulars as well. Gary Kamisher, a local landscape contractor, travels across Los Angeles weekly to peruse their gorgeous melons.
“[Weiser Farms] has the most alternative and new breeds of different things,” he says, while shopping with his wife, Chaya. “like different melons you can't get anywhere else in the market. Ogen melon for instance. The owner is very sustainable, very knowledgeable.”
Kamisher comes for more than just the flavor. Since he was diagnosed with cancer, he prioritizes nutrition as part of his treatment plan and buys medicinal plants from Logan's Gardens a few stalls down.
In her 1961 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs argued that healthy urban neighborhoods depend on what we now call third spaces for social cohesion. It took the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns to remind us that those daily, low-stakes encounters in cafés, barber shops, and sports bars are just as necessary as our interactions in the first and second spaces (home and work). The casual conversations with a neighbor on a dog walk — or while buying melons at the market — tend to be easy-going, light, and brief, but therein lies their value. Most of us benefit from small doses of social oxygen that don’t require a big investment of time or emotional energy.
The farmers, who wake before dawn to bring their produce to the promenade, relish polite, educated consumers, who don’t haggle.
“Good customers are people that are generally patient, people that actually understand that every time you knock our price down, you're essentially hurting the farm,” says Charlie Samos of Tutti Frutti Farm. “And you know, when they go to Whole Foods, they would never do that, right? And…there's always rounding down anyways. So even though something is three bucks a pound, if it comes out to $3.40, they expect to pay $3.”
In addition, he points out, unlike at Whole Foods, buyers pay no sales tax at the Farmers Market — nearly a ten percent savings.
Gary Kamisher agrees.
“The price is not always the lowest. It's costing more to produce." But, he believes, "You get what you pay for."
“I think one of the hardest things for us is when people are comparing our products to something they get from Costco,” says Meredith Bell of Autonomy Farms. “Some people say ‘I can get ground beef at Costco for $8 a pound.’ You're like, well, it's a different quality.”
Even more than shoppers who can discern an excellent product, Bell appreciates those who give some thought to what’s behind it.
“It's also the community and the people and the employees and the animal welfare health. We raise all our animals as humanely as possible, pasture-raised, no GMOs.”
Other gold star behavior includes respecting the line and offering exact change. And as tempting as it may be, customers should think twice before swiping their own samples. It violates California food safety law and is costly to the farmer.
“Especially [in] a market this size,” says Imamoto, “if you're giving away 100 strawberries, it's like a whole flat. That's $128 right there giving away. So, yeah, I mean, we would love for them to be able to sample ’cause we have different kinds. It's just not cost-effective.”
If that peach you buy untested turns out mealy or sour, making friends with the vendor makes it more likely they’ll steer you to the good stuff next time, top off your bag with some bonus goodies, and even share their favorite recipe.
Try getting that at Costco.
Clockwise: Meredith Bell of Autonomy Farms, Amanda Iwamoto shows off Harry’s Berries, Alex Weiser of Weiser Farms with one of his heirloom melons.
Santa Monica has four weekly farmers markets including the Wednesday Downtown market on Arizona Avenue between 4th and Ocean from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the Saturday Downtown market on Arizona Avenue between 4th and 2nd Streets from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the Pico Farmers market at 2200 Virginia Avenue from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays, and the Sunday Main Street market at 2640 Main Street from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.