Three-year-old Olvia Freytag of Sunnyvale chews on a strawberry as her mother shops at the Sunnyvale Farmers' Market as she does nearly every week.




Photograph by David Heller







Market Madness

Elbow to elbow, shoppers invade weekly farmers' market

By Sam Scott

Saturday mornings on South Murphy Avenue bustle. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., it's Farmers' Market time. Merchants' tents and tables narrow both sides of the closed street, creating a challenge for customers not to bump shoulders. Boxes of strawberries, bags of oranges, jars of honey and fresh-cut fish provide ample distraction to walkers-by.

On a fine day, the coffee shops on either end of the street spill over with customers, many sitting at tables under the shade of the tall maples. It is a Sunnyvale scene, a place to look as much as to buy.


Photograph by David Heller

A customer of the Happy Boy Farms stand pays for some cherry tomatoes during Saturday's Sunnyvale farmers' market.




Ron Pardini, executive director of Urban Village, the company that organizes the market, estimates 3,000 folks breeze the Saturday event. "We're bursting at the seams. We might try to expand on to Washington Avenue next season."

The benefactors of the event go beyond the visiting farmers and the coffee shops. Store owners also get increased traffic.


Photograph by David Heller

A customer chooses from one of the five varieties of cherry tomatoes.




Joe Antuzzi, owner of Il Postale Italian restaurant, says the market helps him even though his business is closed on Saturday mornings.

"Every year business gets better and better," he says. "But we still get people who don't know we're here until they come to a farmers' market."


Photograph by David Heller

Elizabeth Bartfai, of Sunnyvale, selects an apricot from the Hamilo Ranches of Turlock stand.




The success of the market in bringing people to the area isn't lost on the downtown merchants who are faced with several very large construction projects in the area. Three large changes are on the books and likely to begin very soon. One is the building of 460,000 square feet of office space in what is now parking by Town and Country. The redevelopment of the Town Center mall, and the construction of a new Caltrain station complete with a multilevel garage are the other two.


Photograph by David Heller

Several sets of hands select, bag, and pay for vegetables at a stand.




To help mitigate the effects of the construction zone, the Sunnyvale Downtown Association hopes to open the market on Wednesdays. Starting July 12, the Sunnyvale Downtown Association has planned "Midweek Market and Music Madness," with arts, crafts, a farmers' market and live music groups.


Photograph by David Heller

Marin Santiago, holds an orange and nectarine while conversing with 8-year-old Dmitri Heller of Mountain View. Santiago sells fruit at the Sunnyvale Farmers Market regularly.




"We're all trying to work together to get through it," Antuzzi says.

Antuzzi, chairman of the downtown association, says "Midweek Madness" will have a slightly different tone. It likely will have an outdoor beer garden, a stage on Washington Avenue for music, fewer food vendors and more crafts.

Photo: Keeping cool at Sunnyvale's Serra Park

Columnist Mark Mayfield: There's nothing like the lure of fishing

Sunnyvale Serra A's win TOC minors

Saenz, Kiel join all-stars football fraternity