Tracy Press

The downtown Tracy Farmers Market is set to return April 12, bringing fresh produce to the streets of the city.

Maria Mondragon sorts strawberries during last year’s farmers market in downtown Tracy. This year’s market kicks off April 12 on 10th Street in downtown Tracy. Press file photo

Just after sunrise for the next six months of Saturdays, local growers will hawk colorful fruits and veggies, while musicians entertain shoppers.

"The great thing about the market is you don’t have to check the labels to see where it came from," said Ken Cefalo, owner of Main Street Music and president of the Downtown Tracy Business Improvement Area, the group that heads up the market. "You know it was locally grown."

Downtown merchants voted to change the farmers market from Wednesdays to Saturdays last year in hopes that commuter families would shop on weekends. Some of the busiest weekends for last summer’s market drew 1,800 people.

"Last year on Saturdays, it was really successful for the market and for the merchants," Cefalo said. "This year, it should be even better."

The produce-focused market will open with a few more vendors than in years past because of Tracy’s steady crowds, he said.

The downtown business group named Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association as the market’s new organizer last year because Stockton Certified Farmers Market Association, which organized Tracy’s market in downtown since 1994, couldn’t run a weekend market. The Pacific Coast association runs 45 markets each week at the season’s peak, including some in Danville, Pleasanton and Livermore.

Thanks to the farmers market, Second Avenue consignment store bustles on weekends, according to Patti Blahnick, who opened the shop eight years ago.

"It’s brought a lot more people into the store who are discovering downtown," she said.

A starting date for Tracy’s Wednesday evening market, organized by Stockton Certified Farmers Market Association, has yet to be set, according to the group’s marketing manager, Carlos Dutra.

He reopened the Wednesday farmers market last year in the parking lot of the Kaiser Permanente building on Grant Line Road.

An opening day for the Mountain House Saturday farmers market, also organized by the Stockton association, is pending as well. Both the Mountain House and the Wednesday Tracy markets have about 15 vendors.

"We’re looking into different locations and at vendors," he said. "We won’t know for another couple of weeks or so."

At a glance

WHAT: Tracy Farmers Market

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays, April 12 through Nov. 22

WHERE: Tenth Street in downtown Tracy

INFO: Downtown Tracy Business Improvement Area, 831-4170

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written by IMHO08 , March 26, 2008

YIPPEE!!!

IMHO

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written by ConcernedParents , March 26, 2008

Now that's good news.

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written by amy , March 27, 2008

Those are blooming big berries!!! Yummy!

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written by amy , March 27, 2008

Gave me spring of hope to save few bucks!!!

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written by MRS. ROCHA , March 28, 2008

DID YOU CHECK ALL THOSE STANDS FOR HEALTH CERTIFICATES AND BUSSINESS LICENCES. I GUESS NOT. EAT AT YOUR OWN RISK. I SEE THEY WASH THEIR HANDS OFFEN ALSO.