Dixon Farmer's Market Returns Saturday at Women's Improvement Club Park

The Downtown Dixon Business Association is preparing for the first Farmer’s Market of the season this Saturday at Women’s Improvement Club Park.

“We were supposed to start last weekend, but we didn’t have enough vendors,”  said DDBA Vice President Susan Motley, who along with Liz Robben runs the Farmer’s Market.

But this week is different. Motley said she has enlisted 10 vendors to sell farm-fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts and much more.

“We will have strawberries, cherries and blackberries, some fresh eggs, vegetables and flowers,” Motley said. “We have a bread vendor. Panaderia (Lupita) will be serving breakfast.”

Last year, the DDBA kicked off the Farmer’s Market in May, causing some to wonder if the market had quietly died off. However this is not the case.

Motley said there was a reason that the market started a bit later this year.

“Last year we started in May, but the weather was not conducive to the farmers, having fruits and things,” she said. “So that’s why we decided to wait until the beginning of June. All the fruit wasn’t ripe until now.”

One of the goals of the DDBA is to enlist more vendors, Motley said.

“This is our second year and we hope that it will continue to grow every year and get more participation locally,” Motley said. “There’s a lot of great agriculture in this area that we’d love to try to get to help out. We have famous corn growers here, we have olive oil, we have wineries. The Robben Ranch has fresh nuts and vegetables and beans.”

Motley said that many local growers may be discouraged to sell at the market because they lack the staff or money to operate a stall at the market. However, Motley said that the DDBA could work with local growers so that volunteers would help sell the products.

She also said the cost of a booth is only $25.

“If we get a higher participation we can lower that,” Motley said. “Some Farmer’s Markets are expensive I think, but ours I think has really been trying to make it affordable. We want people to come out and the community they can come out and hang out in the morning.”

To have a stall, the vendor must be able to provide proof of liability insurance. Anyone who is interested in becoming a vendor can contact the DDBA office at (707) 678-8400.

The Farmer’s Market is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday at Womens Improvement Club Park next to the Dixon Public Library.