Cookbook designer-cum-market manager wants to bring the Zane Grey Estate market's sensibility to Loma Alta Park
When will the Altadena Urban Farmer's Market (AUFM) make a reappearance?
Maybe soon-- folded into the long-awaited farmer's market at Loma Alta Park.
Joseph Shuldiner -- one of the organizers of the AUFM -- is working with the Los Angeles County Parks Dept. to become the manager of the long-promised market at the park. Al Evans of the county park's department says that Shuldiner is one of two potential managers for the market, and -- as he is local -- he's in the favored position.
"I'd rather have a local operation," Evans said. "I think it'd be stronger if we had the local people involved. It would enjoy a lot greater support from the community."
Graphic designer to market manager
Becoming a farmer''s market manager is a personal re-creation for Shuldiner. He was an art director for the LA Times for 15 years, and spent the last six years as a consultant, graphic designer, creative director, and editorial content consultant. He's also found a niche designing cookbooks, which is appropriate for a foodie.
Moving into managing a farmer's market, "my colleagues say, well, yes," Shuldiner said. ; "It's about content and education, and I love to do the entire marketing aspect of it to make it succeed -- and my passion is food. So somewhere it all makes sense to me."
Having a farmer's market at Loma Alta Park has been a "soon but not yet" project for several months now. It was almost a done deal until the manager the county had chosen pulled out, leaving them at square one. That's when Shuldiner wanted to get involved.
"From what I had gathered ... is that a more commercial, traditional farmer's market had been thought of there, but my proposal is more about the community, food production, local ... In my opinion, I'm taking a more creative food-foward approach to the market here." The AUFM, which quickly outgrew its location at the Zane Grey Estate, "was much more homespun, very noncommercial," Shuldiner said. "My proposal is to take those aspects and kind of weave them in with the more traditional structure of a farmer's market, with actual small farms."
Big plans for the market
His plans are ambitious. Shuldiner has been working with many different people and organizations to make his vision of the Altadena farmer's market something unique. He's worked with Greta Dunlap. manager of the South Pasadena farmer's market, Alexandra Agajanian of the Hollywood Farmers’ Market, Silvera Grant of the Altadena Community Garden, and is talking with the Art Center College of Design about a zero-waste initiative. He also wants to bring in the Arroyo Time Bank and their neighborhood fruit picking project, and the cookbook swap that was so popular at AUFM.
As well, he wants to establish a WIC Farmer's Market Nutrition Program, bringing in people who normally would not frequent farmer's markets: "I think it's gong to be really important to bring in the food stamp program, and WIC's farmer's market program -- it's a mixed income community, and there's really no other market."
The market will be a certfied farmer's market (CFM), which Shuldiner explained in an email "means only that the farmers are certified that they are indeed the grower and didn’t go to the downtown L.A. Produce Mart that morning. They are not required to be organic growers."
"To be certified, the market manager drives out to the farm and checks it out," Shuldiner said. Being in a CFM is "a bigger deal than people think," Shuldiner said. "There's some money to be made from this,"
It will not be a certified organic market, as that is even more rigorous, and Shuldiner said he wants to keep the prices reasonable: "I feel like there are some organic vendors that have reasonably priced produce, but I don't think in that neighborhood you could sustain an organic market." He said he would welcome some organic vendors as part of the mix.
An incubator
At the AUFM, some of the vendors were not professionals, but home farmers and home cooks who were offering their wares for the first time. "Some of the vendors making stuff in the kitchen are now forming legitimate businesses," Shuldiner said. "I want this market to be an incubator."
Shuldiner said he wanted to form an alliance with the Chef's Center in Pasadena, where amateur cooks could develop their products, and "when you come out, you'll have a venue with a booth to test your product."
Throughout the process, "I want to document this and create a template that other communities can use," Shuldner said.
LA County's Al Evans said that they were now in the process of getting the proper permits from the health department, fire department, and other county departments: "Hopefully within a month or so we'll be ready to rock and roll."
