The Business Organization of Old Town brought back its Saturday Farmers Market April 18, marking Clovis’s first farmers market since the COVID-19 crisis began.
The event took place in Old Town from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and featured produce from eight local farmers, B.O.O.T. President Cora Shipley said.
“It was very well attended,” Shipley said, “Everybody was happy, customers were happy, the farmers were really happy to have a place to sell their produce, so it turned-out to be a nice market.”
B.O.O.T. shut down its weekly farmer markets after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered non-essential businesses to close in mid-march in effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Farmers markets are considered essential business under the order, but Shipley said B.O.O.T. still suspended its markets as a safety precaution.
“When the coronavirus first hit, of course nobody knew exactly how dangerous it was, how wide-spread it was, so after meeting with our growers we decided we would hold off two or three weeks and just see the lay of the land,” Shipley said.
Now the market is back, but it is not the same as it once was, as B.O.O.T. enacted social distancing measures to ensure the event followed health guidelines set forth by the state.
Customers stayed six feet apart and were not allowed to bring their own bags. Grocery stores are following the same rules.
Farmers and vendors, who traditionally put their produce on display for any customer to pick up for themselves, were the only ones allowed to handle food at the event. Customers had to point to what they wanted.
“We had a hand washing stand and sanitizers. All the farmers had masks, most of our customers had masks, we did not let them bring their own bags, the farmers handled all of the food. We made sure people in line were six feet apart,” Shipley said.
The new safety measures didn’t stop customers from buying up produce, as at least a few of the vendors sold out by the event’s end.
Tania Mitchum attended the event as a vendor for her family’s farm, Ferrer Farms. She said her stand got so many customers that they sold out of produce.
“I was actually amazed…I thought it was going to be super slow, so we took minimum produce,” Mitchum said. “But we sold out in about 40 minutes, people were very supportive. I was not expecting that turnout.”
Ferrer farms sells a wide variety of produce. At the farmers market, its stand sold items ranging from lemons and oranges to parsley and kale.
The farm is also delivering boxes of produce, called Community Supportive Agriculture boxes, to residents of Clovis, Fresno, Coarsegold and Yosemite Lakes.
“We are giving customers the choice to choose whatever they want on our website in the box,” Mitchum said. “They also have the option to do a farmer’s choice box, which we offer in three sizes. Whatever we are harvesting we will put in those boxes.”
Lynette Ballis, co-owner of Busy Bees Honey Farm, said the event was a major success for her stand as well.
“It was wonderful to see so many people come out. Everyone socially distanced and they were very polite and waited their turn. We had a phenomenal day, it was our best day ever,” Ballis said, adding that her stand also sold out.
“My husband had to go home to get more honey, we had one jar of honey left from what we had brought, and we probably had 85 jars of honey, so we sold quite a few,” she said.
While it was great to sell her product, Ballis said she was happy to see customers again after a month of not going to any markets.
“It was nice to see customers. They were really glad to see that we were getting back to some form of normalcy, we had quite a few people thank us for coming out,” Ballis said.
Shipley said there were so many customers that the market closed a half hour later than scheduled to allow everyone who was in line to make a purchase. She believes open-air farmers markets are a safer alternative to grocery stores, as only farmers handle the produce.