{"id":186469,"date":"2026-02-20T19:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/186469\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T19:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:56:10","slug":"weekly-farmers-market-to-start-march-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/186469\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly farmers market to start March 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Seen above is the Bixby Park Farmers Market in Long Beach, one of the markets organized by Lee Ostendorf. She has organized the coming Seal Beach Farmer\u2019s Market. Photo courtesy of Lee Ostendorf<\/p>\n

The city government has received an application for a special event permit to hold a weekly Farmers Market at the Pier. A notice that the city received the application was published in the print edition of the Feb. 12 Sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The market is scheduled to be held every Friday, starting March 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe anticipate roughly 30 vendors a week although this number could fluctuate a little based on vendor size,\u201d wrote Seal Beach Recreation Manager Tim Kelsey in a recent email.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe event time will take place from 9-2 and we think that we\u2019ll see around 250 people each day throughout that time period, this number is an estimate.\u00a0 At this time we have not planned live music but we could assess that later if a small ancillary act is in the betterment of the event. As this is a weekly event the City plans to review and adjust as is necessary to insure that the market is successful and something that residents positively respond too,\u201d Kelsey wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market will focus on fresh produce and prepared foods,\u201d Kelsey wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Farmer\u2019s Market is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, and will be similar to the other Markets in the area,\u201d wrote District One Councilman Joe Kalmick in a recent email.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will feature fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as additional prepared foods and baked goods. The hope is to bring both residents and new visitors to downtown, where they can also visit our existing shops and eateries,\u201d Kalmick wrote.<\/p>\n

According to Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce Board Member Peter Magalhaes, the Chamber worked closely with city officials to make the weekly event happen.<\/p>\n

The applicant for the permit was Lee Ostendorf of Local Harvest Farmers Markets, who is also the owner of Main Street Mercantile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJust trying to bring a good farmers market to a great city,\u201d Ostendorf said.<\/p>\n

Ostendorf said she has been doing farmers markets for more than 30 years. She said she was looking to bring the best for Seal Beach. Ostendorf said she could only fit so many participants into the space, so they would be selective about who is allowed to be there.<\/p>\n

Ostendorf said she currently does five farmers markets a week.<\/p>\n

Asked how she would define success, Ostendorf said: \u201cHappy people that continue to return to the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ostendorf said her farmers markets are local harvest and certified markets\u2014everything is grown in California.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to bring the freshest of the fresh,\u201d Ostendorf said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeal Beach has wanted a farmers market for a long time,\u201d she wrote in a text message.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just didn\u2019t want to close down Main Street,\u201d Ostendorf wrote.<\/p>\n

Background<\/p>\n

Farmers markets are not new to Seal Beach. One is held every Tuesday in the Seal Beach Village shopping center next to Leisure World.<\/p>\n

Farmers markets have been proposed for different locations on Main Street in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 In 2014, then-Sun columnist Lara Anderson of Huntington Harbor argued in favor of farmers markets in general in the Sun. She did not advocate for a farmers market in Seal Beach. (For details, see Opinion: \u201cFarmers markets\u201d at sunnews.org.)<\/p>\n

\u2022 In late May 2018, the City Council heard from supporters and opponents of a proposed farmers market to be held on the 2000 block of Main Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time, the city was looking at a 90-day pilot period. (For details, see \u201cWeekly market proposed for Main Street\u201d and \u201cMerchants argue merits of proposed Main Street \u2018farmers market\u2019\u201d at sunnews.org.) The Sun received a letter to the editor opposing the farmers market. (See \u201cLetters to the Editor: Thursday, May 31, 2018,\u201d at sunnews.org).<\/p>\n

\u2022 On Jun 6, 2018, then-Assistant City Manager Patrick Gallegos confirmed that the application for the weekly farmers market had been withdrawn.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The issue came up again in 2019. The Sun received a letter to the editor arguing in favor of the farmers market. (See \u201cLetters to the Editor: published Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019,\u201d at sunnews.org.) However, by the time the Sun received the letter, the application had been withdrawn. (See \u201c2019 market permit application withdrawn\u201d at sunnews.org.)<\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seen above is the Bixby Park Farmers Market in Long Beach, one of the markets organized by Lee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-186469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}