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# Prices are rising at Farmers’ Markets
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/prices-are-rising-at-farmers-markets/
- Published: 2008-07-19T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:12:42.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Customers remain loyal*

*By CHRISTINA YOON Special to the Daily Press*

VIRGINIA PARK For many residents, walking to Farmers’ Markets on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays is a time-honored tradition, made even more valuable these days by the fact that it requires little driving. Astronomical gas prices, however, have begun to affect even the local markets, as sellers find it more costly to make the weekly trip from their farms to the stands.

“It’s ridiculous,” John Nichols of Nichols Farms said. “We’re thinking of quitting.”

He grows plums, eggplant and peaches, and has sold his produce at the Virginia Park Farmers’ Market every Saturday for five years.

Nichols, like many of the farmers at the local markets, comes in Fresno County. He drives about four hours each week to hit the Los Angeles-area markets. Nichols said that the gas prices for his pickup truck have doubled in the past year.

City Hall places no pricing restrictions for farmers, except for a state law that prohibits price fixing among groups of farmers. Still, sellers are well aware that drastically raising prices at the markets may scare away even their most loyal customers.

“The farmers are very very reluctant to raise prices,” Laura Avery, the Farmers’ Market supervisor for the city-run markets, said.

“Obviously if you raise the cost customers won’t buy from you,” Leyla Coban said. She works for Summer Harvest Farms, which sells peaches, heirloom tomatoes, plums and watermelon at Saturday’s market. In the past year Summer Harvest Farms has been forced to raise the price of tomatoes from $3 a pound to $3.50 to offset the $150 tank of gas required to drive from Dinuba, Calif., to Santa Monica.

Not all of the growers at the Farmers’ Markets make the long drive from farms in Fresno or San Diego counties. Tradewind Mushroom Company is based in Los Angeles and receives mushrooms from farms throughout California. Although Tradewind does not drive the crops directly to the markets, even this system has been affected by the steadily increasing price of gas.

“Because we ship them, we’ve had to up the price of the criminis by 50 cents,” Alison Mcgraw of Tradewind, said.

The Spring Hill Jersey Cheese farm is in Petaluma, Calif., located roughly 400 miles away from Santa Monica.

But Spring Hill’s Theresa Peter said that prices have been stable because the farm maintains a warehouse in Santa Paula, just one hour away.

“The cool thing about our company is that there’s no middleman to worry about,” Peter said. If shipment costs do increase, Peter said that the farm will simply make some adjustments in order to avoid raising prices.

“The way we’ll cut costs is by trying to get into more markets,” Peter said. For Spring Hill, the Farmers’ Markets serve more of a promotional purpose, so that customers recognize the brand when sold at local supermarkets.

Despite increasing prices, shoppers crowded the stands at Wednesday’s market Downtown. Joanne Berlin, who has lived in Santa Monica and attended its Farmers’ Markets for nearly 12 years, generously filled her bag with green peppers. She has no plans to abandon the markets because of the raising prices.

“I’ve been expecting it a little bit but I’m still willing to pay,” she said. “I think the farmers should do what they have to do.”

Fuson Wang from Westwood has shopped at the Wednesday farmers’ market for a year. Although he frequents Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods for his other groceries, the Downtown market is the source for his fruits and vegetables, and he plans to keep it that way.

“All the stuff here is seasonal, it supports local farmers and they have more organic stuff,” he said. “Overall it’s a more pleasant experience.”

Because of this, the farmers’ price increases have not discouraged him yet.

Stand employee Nathan Lyon, for one, does not worry about customer drop-off. A chef with a weekly show on the Discovery Health channel, Lyon also works at Ken’s Top Notch Produce, based in Reedley, Calif. On this particular Saturday, Lyon, who stars in “A Lyon in the Kitchen,” wears a shirt that reads “My carbon footprint is smaller than yours” as he sold Ken’s produce.

“The quest for flavor is worth the 25 cents a pound,” he said.

Even for those with less discerning palates, Lyon said that Farmers’ Markets are bound to continue thriving as long as local residents make the effort to keep them alive.

“It all comes back to the community,” Lyon said. “Why would you go to your neighborhood stand with lemonade sold by kids instead of buying five gallons at the supermarket? Because you care.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 19, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071908.pdf?ref=smdp.com)