Granada Hills Gets Its Own Farmer's Market
I've been wishing for a while now that Granada Hills would have a farmer's market we could call our very own, and now we will!This Friday evening, from 5-9pm at the Granada Hills Masonic Center on Rinaldi (near Hayvenhurst), the Granada Hills Farmer's Market will have its debut. And unlike the April-October market at the Northridge Fashion Center, market manager Ric Alfafara plans to make this a year-round Friday night event.
Alfafara, who also co-manages the Van Nuys and Sylmar Farmer's Markets, says, "Everybody's been talking about it, friends who live in Granada Hills have been saying we need a market out here. And so I talked to the Freemasons (who sponsor the market), and they said that they want to get involved with the community, they want to get the community up and strong.
"It's a certified farmers market, and a family festival too. We'll have jumpers, kids' rides, entertainment," Alfafara said.
In addition to farmers from outlying areas, 17 food booths will sell a variety of cuisines, including Mexican, Chinese, Mediterranean, you buy/we fry fish, hamburters, and the de rigueur kettle corn. Twelve booths will feature dessert items -- pastries, crepes, funnel cake, yogurt, and donuts made fresh on site.
All of the market's produce will be organic and in-season, Alfafara said, and among the offerings will be specialty honeys harvested by a Tujunga beekeeper, fair trade organic coffees from Aha Cafe, and organic produce, including tomatoes, corn, squash, and avocados.
"Almost everything in the market is going to be organic, from certified organic farmers," says Alfafara, "and it's a lot cheaper than the supermarket, because you're buying it right from the farmer, right off their truck."
Granada Hills Farmer's Market
Every Friday, 5-9pm
Granada Hills Masonic Center
16535 Rinaldi (at Hayvenhurst)
Granada Hills
Great news, we'll definitely check it out. It's a good excuse to get a closer look at the rad mid-century modern lodge building as well.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see people coming together in the neighborhood...
ReplyDeleteSo exited!! Can't wait to go!!
ReplyDeleteYaaaaaay!
ReplyDeleteLinda and I will be there this evening! We're glad to see this happen and hope that it is successful!
ReplyDeleteIt's great! Wonderful, local organic vendors steps from my door! I can't believe it...thank you! thank you!
ReplyDeleteGreat Job!!....Ric
ReplyDeleteLove the farmers' Market in our area.
Hope I get to meet you at the Market next Friday.
Oh man, I wish I had read this earlier. I saw the sign that it was coming and didn't know exactly when and didn't do much blogging because my mom is here from Ohio, but I will be sure to go next Friday and I agree - it's always good to see the community out there coming together!
ReplyDeleteGreat news! Hope to be there next week!!!
ReplyDeleteI hope they don't have pony rides and the other exploitative animal booths that Northridge has.
ReplyDeleteWhy presume that the relationship is exploitative? What evidence do you have that these animals are mistreated? Simply because they are hitched to a harness for a few hours, as opposed to living on their own in the wild?
ReplyDeleteAs a very young child, my first exposure to horses was through such pony rides, and this sparked my lifelong love and respect for these animals.
It's clear that from a coevolutionary perspective, both species benefit from the horse-human relationship.
A paper from Swarthmore College Environmental Studies on the early domestication of horses explains:
"Though the Dereivka hypothesis shows how humans gained immensely from domesticating prehistoric horses, the process of domestication still involved a two-way street. Like the relationship that developed between humans and dogs that had been living together for a long period of time, a similar “co-evolution” of traits (Wade) may have occurred between humans and equines. A mutual coevolution of both species’ traits allowed them both to benefit from their coexistence in the form of domestication. Similar to the wolves that benefited from venturing closer and closer to early human campsites, horses that also began to linger around permanent human settlements benefited from feeding off of agricultural fields and protection from predators. Those horses that became “semi-domesticated” were more curious, less aggressive, and more dependent over time and adapted to life around humans.
For the majority of our past history horses were valued as a food source, so much so that over-predation led to their near extinction. ...Just as humans were responsible for the previous near equine-extinction, equine domestication led to an explosive increase in the horse population at the time of the earliest domestication in Ukraine (Budiansky, 41). ...Humans benefited as they were able to spread to different resource-rich areas and spread their culture, but horses also benefited ... They gained protection and were provided food, and were also saved from extinction. The process of early equine domestication is the product of human-horse mutual adaptation and benefit."
I can't wait to go next Friday!
ReplyDeleteBTW, I agree with kellyskarma
I saw the Farmers Market last Friday. I have to say, it looked like a decent turn out. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to stop by, but I plan to do so this coming Friday! I heart GH!
ReplyDeleteRide a horse...eat some corn!!!
ReplyDeleteWill there be other vendor booths there -- ie: other that food? And if so, how does one get involved?
ReplyDeleteIf anyone would like info about the market u can call Miguel the AST MGR @ 818-325-5775 or email Benitezfoodz@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteWe would love to hear from Granad hill
Many of my family members and my parents live in Granada Hills and they love the fact that a Farmers Market has come to the neighborhood. My wife and I are also vendors there, and we love the atmosphere in the community. We sell Homemade Dog muffins and treats, so if you have a dog you want to spoil please come down and find our blue booth with a giant dog paws on the tarp or visit our website: http://fourthedogs.weebly.com, hope to see you there. Thanks Granada Hills for your support.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in a small mountain community and missing it every day I LOVED attending the Farmers' Market Friday evening! My daughters and Barbie our cocker walked there and enjoyed every minute. Though Barbie collected a few too many stickers for her liking, we have invited friends and will be attending again next week. I hope to participate as a future vendor selling artwork from local artists such as my daughter and our 89 year old neighbor! My email is: shastapam@hotmail.com if you are interested in this little venture. :)
ReplyDeleteWOW...
ReplyDeleteThe kettle corn at the Granada Hills Farmer's Market is soooooooo GOOD!! YUM YUM
We attended tonight's market and are pleased that a Farmer's Market has come to Granada Hills. I have a few concerns, however: in regards to the produce being sold, I did not see any kind of identification posted on the booths as to what farms/growers were selling at the market. Secondly, it is not clear which growers are organic and which are not....there's just a banner hanging saying "Granada Hills Certified Farmer's Market". I just checked the California Federation of Certified Farmer's Markets website, and Granada Hills is not listed. Can someone please address this? I would love to support this farmer's market, but from what I saw, it is teetering on becoming a mini-swap-meet/carnival, with the Lakers jerseys booth (haven't we seen that enough on gas-station corners?)...what's next, someone selling socks and reading tarot cards? The point of a Farmer's Market is to support LOCAL farmers and growers, not someone who goes down to Central Market downtown or farmstands in Oxnard/Camarillo and purchases "local" produce only to resell it at the GH market. Word to organizers: be legit or get out. Please get the kinks ironed out with this, because we want to support local growers (i.e., sellers, tell us who you are.) (Also, I'm not sure when that stuff was picked, but by 6 or 7 p.m., some of that produce wasn't looking so great.) There's so much potential for this market to become a wonderful Friday night family destination. If the quality is there, "build it and they will come."
ReplyDeleteGranada Hills Farmers Market
ReplyDeleteis a Cerified Farmers Market there are NO non-cerified farmers at this market.
I don't know what "cerified" means, but I do know what CERTIFIED means (I gather the above poster does not)....what I want to know is where is the produce coming from? What farms? I would suggest in the future that sellers have a hand-written sign on their booth clearly stating where their produce is coming from. Just saying that "it's from Oxnard" is not going to be enough. (And as of today, Granada Hills is still not listed as a certified farmer's market on the CFCFM website...you can check for yourself at http://www.cafarmersmarkets.com/index.cfm)
ReplyDeleteThe grilled pizza here is amazing! I had the Margherita which was great and a sample of some crazy good s'mores dessert pizza. Strange concept of a dessert pizza but it was tasty!
ReplyDeleteThe BBQ booth is also very good. It's too bad there are so many stickers in the dirt that get stuck to your socks though.
Caution!! The first time we went, we got stung by red ants. Yes. They were in their ant-hill colony in front of a peach and plum booth. Ouch! Very painful and very dangerous to those who are allergic. Beware.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see the Granada HIlls COC finally stopped pooh-poohing the idea of a farmers market and caved in to the reality that it's actually a good thing. Hope they aren't trying to take credit for it.
ReplyDeleteDoes the Farmers Market have a facebook page? I have been a few times and think it is wonderful and has a potential to grow, but it seems like we need to get the word out. A lot of people still don't know about it. If there was a facebook page, it would really help spread the word.
ReplyDeleteGood suggestion, but the market manager doesn't seem all that tech-savvy.
ReplyDeleteFINALLY...Granada Hills is listed on the CFM website.
ReplyDeleteIs there still a farmer's market on Friday nights?
ReplyDeleteDoes Granada Hills still have a farmer's market on Friday nights?
ReplyDeleteLast I heard, this was discontinued and I have not heard any reliable information that it has been resumed.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteWell that's unfortunate.
ReplyDelete