Occidental Bohemian Farmers Market To Close After 17 Groundbreaking Seasons
UPDATE:The Market will continue but operated by the Sonoma County Farmers Market Association. So hang in there as the group decides what to do. Everyone loves the market! Thank you Kim Dow for creating it and for 17 years of hard work for our benefit and enjoyment! It's like raising a child and sending it off into the world. Your kid, the market, is going off to start a new life!
TheOccidental Bohemian Farmers Market (OBFM), a mainstay of the Sonoma County small agricultural industry, decided not to reopen in the 2019 season this June in downtown Occidental.
Founded in 2002 as a non-profit, the OBFM began as a small market at the Community Center on the north side of Occidental. Originally just six vendors, the market took place Saturday mornings June through October, before moving to a more fruitful location in the downtown shopping district on the south end of town. It launched the first Friday evening market in the county and grew to nearly three dozen vendors each week, showcasing the best in west Sonoma County agriculture, prepared food, and artisan crafts. The market celebrated the end of each season with the elaborate Harvest Market Festival starting in October of 2005.
For many years, there has been a small, but vocal, community group in the area demanding the OBFM deliver successive infrastructure improvements that the unincorporated town and limited market resources could not provide. In the last year, the scale of the demands became insurmountable to OBFM management and inconsistent with its ability to create a successful environment for small farmers and businesses to sell directly to hundreds of community members.
“The market has been a source of great joy for me since we started it in 2002,” said Kim Dow, Director of the OBFM. “I draw considerable inspiration from the farmers, food makers, craftspeople, and market attendees, and am incredibly grateful for having had the opportunity to work with this community for so many years. It is with a heavy heart that we cease our operation, but are hopeful that it provides an opening for the town to address the issues some of its business community clearly desires.”
Kate Rowe, owner of Aztec Dahlias, fell in love with dahlias at the OBFM, and it drove her decision to both move to Sonoma County and become a farmer. “Without question, the OBFM was a cornerstone of West Sonoma County. It stood out as one of the best markets in the region and was completely unique in feeling and community.
As a farmer and consumer at a large number of local markets throughout Sonoma, Napa, and Marin for the past 10 years, there was nothing that compares to the fun, relaxed, community-driven atmosphere at the Occidental market on Friday evenings; it was at the core of what made the town great.”
The OBFM was consistently the most affordable of all the Sonoma County certified farmers markets for vendors. It served as an incubator for small businesses, many of which got their start at the OBFM, including Cookie...Take A Bite and Lata’s Indian Cuisine.
In addition to farm fresh food, OBFM also showcased local musicians who entertained market shoppers, provided a gathering place to sing and dance, and entertainment for children while families shopped. The market became far more than just a farmers market to purchase food. It was a social gathering place to end our weeks with fellow West County people, and people from far and wide drawn to the Bohemian nature of this market that made it unique. It even hosted a wedding one Friday evening.
Requests to move the market to the Occidental Community center increased complications for market organizers. The Center is a much smaller space with limited parking and has the added burden of requiring barriers set up and taken down each market to protect landscaping and to hinder children from running into the road.
There is talk of other groups finding ways to resurrect the market, but time will tell if that comes to fruition. Merchants downtown might find that without the market there are less reasons for people to come into town, so losing the market could hurt the local economy.
Occidental is a lovely community isolated from other towns by winding, two-lane roads. People have to want to come to town as their destination and the market created that destination every Friday evening throughout the warm months.
Traditions are hard to let go, so gather once more on Saturday, April 6th for the Occidental Fools Parade and celebration. Come early to have breakfast. Parking is good down by the Post Office and community center since the parade starts and ends at that end of town. Join in the parade (gather at Occidental Center for the Arts at 12:30p), dress like a fool, go up one side of town and down the other to end right where you started for more celebrating. While you're in town, see if you can encourage people to bring the market back downtown. This has been one of the best markets in Sonoma County and will be sorely missed.
