by Timothy Rutt
What's the next for the Altadena Urban Farmer's Market?
The monthly market, a project of the Arroyo Time Bank, was in many respects a victim of its own success: it provided a place where small businesses and craftspeople rubbed elbows with weekend farmers and kitchen-based hobbyists --sometimes literally -- and it quickly outgrew its home at the Zane Grey Estate.
Now, says the Time Bank's Janine Christiano, it's time to look at what's next. The Time Bank will have a community meeting to talk about it at the Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, on Wed., Aug. 24 at 6:30 PM.
The next phase of the market is "still very malleable right now," Christiano said. "I have ideas, but it's a community event ... it's an exciting time because it can grow, and it should grow in the ways the community members would like it to grow."
Decisions need to be made about future farmer's markets, Christiano said: does it continue as a private membership event (attendees signed a free membership form for each market in order to circumvent county health regulations)? Do they advertise? And, as a volunteer organization, is there enough energy to keep it going?
"My goal is to have some sort of event. I would love to have something put on by November, and do it quarterly," Christiano said. "There should always be a space for people who want to do homemade homegrown stuff. .. and that's what we want to cultivate. It's a space for real small-scale community-produced items."
