If all goes according to plan, there will be a farmer's market at Loma Alta Park beginning Easter Sunday afternoon, April 24.
And the market manager will be the same one who started -- and abruptly stopped -- the short-lived market at Sacred Heart Church earlier this year.
At Tuesday night's Altadena Town Council meeting, Al Evans of the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Dept. said that the market's manager will be RIck Hernandez, whose Air Machine Farmer's Markets ran the Sacred Heart market and several others around the county.
Evans also said that the organizers of the Urban Farmer's Market were invited to participate, but county regulations and state requirements for certified organic produce may restrict the vendors to packaged goods and arts and crafts. (The Urban Farmer's Market is technically a private, membership-only event, which circumvents several regulations, although membership is open to anyone who wants it). [Ed. note: see update below]
Evans said that he will come back to the town council next month with a list of vendors. Anyone interested in becoming a vendor should contact Hernandez at 818-399-3767.
UPDATE: Gloria Putnam, one of the organizers of the Altadena Urban Farmer's Market, sent us this:
Just FYI, no one has contacted me about the farmers market. I have lots of ideas for collaboration, though. The most obvious is that the AUFM is an incubator for local businesses that can move to the Loma Alta market once they go into production (at a commercial kitchen or factory). There are several Altadena-based businesses starting up as a result of the AUFM that I can think of that will be great candidates for the Loma Alta market in a few months, making more room at the AUFM for people who are more at the product testing stage or don't have an interest in launching a business.
I think Evans might be confusing this with a meeting held a couple of weeks ago about having the June AUFM on the grounds of Loma Alta park in conjunction with the Altadena Community Garden picnic. But that's a one-time event and is completely separate from the Farmers Market in my mind.
