{"id":301119,"date":"2026-07-20T21:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T21:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/301119\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T21:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T21:37:13","slug":"manhattan-beach-certified-farmers-market-turns-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/301119\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan Beach Certified Farmers Market turns 20\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine downtown Manhattan Beach on a Tuesday if there was no farmer\u2019s market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nary a stone fruit in sight. No homemade pupusas. No smiling parents pulling a toddler sharing a wagon with a bunch of fresh produce, no cyclists balancing a backpack full of goodies, a bouquet of flowers in their handlebar basket. No joyous shrieks of children playing. No songs drifting through the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It would be like Christmas minus Santa Claus, or Paris without wine and baguettes. It wouldn\u2019t quite make sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That absence is nearly impossible to picture now, but it was the reality until 2006, when the Manhattan Beach Certified Farmers Market opened its first Tuesday downtown. On Tuesday, July 21, it turns 20, keeping its standing hours of 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Civic Center Parking Lot and Plaza off 15th Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kelly Stroman, executive director of the Downtown Manhattan Beach Business & Professional Association, announced the milestone at the July 7 City Council meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really been an incubator for so many small businesses, so many nonprofit groups that have exhibited at the farmers market, and just really bringing the community together in so many different ways,\u201d Stroman said.<\/p>\n

Maureen McBride was president of the downtown business association when it brought the market to life, and she has watched it from the beginning. McBride, who owns the downtown shop Tabula Rasa and has been in town 25 years, said the board had been circling the idea for a while before it committed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn retrospect, it\u2019s probably one of the things I\u2019m most proud of, because we were able to create something that brought together the community,\u201d McBride said. \u201cIt supported local farmers, small businesses, and it added a layer of connection and camaraderie and family to our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

It started small, with a little more than two dozen stalls, adding one hand-curated vendor at a time. Six of the original vendors are still there every week: Arnett Farms, JR Organics, Deisy\u2019s Pupusas, Dry Dock Fish, Aliki Greek, and Dave\u2019s Korean Foods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose six have been with the market since day one,\u201d Stroman said. She called JR Organics and Arnett the market\u2019s two farmer anchors, and Deisy\u2019s \u2014 the pupusa stand \u2014 a quintessential part of the market. \u201cDeisy is a legend,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Arnett Farms is famous for its stone fruit.<\/p>\n

A seventh constant, guitar player Richie Lecca, has performed at the market all 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The certification in the name is not decoration. A certified farmers market carries a county certification distinct from an ordinary market, and it must be sponsored by a nonprofit that receives the proceeds; here, that sponsor is the Downtown Business Association. It is an utterly reliable operation, closing only for torrential rain forecasts, or wind strong enough to threaten the vendors\u2019 canopies. Vendors commit to being there every week.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Market manager Cynthia Rogers and musician Richie Stecca.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a rain or shine market,\u201d Stroman said.<\/p>\n

That weekly reliability is what market manager Cynthia Rogers has cultivated for more than a dozen years. The market has grown on her watch, from roughly 30 vendors to about 60.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s been steady, steady growth,\u201d Rogers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her focus, she said, is community experience and the caliber of the vendors: \u201cQuality of vendors is a really key piece.\u201d She pointed to JR Organics, which she said was named top small farmer of the year in California about three years ago. She noted that Smith Farms and its grower, McKay Smith, is one of the early figures in the certified-organic farmers market movement, and cited Re:Broth, which sources from regenerative farmers, \u201cthe next level beyond certified organic,\u201d she said. There are crowd favorites like Creamy Boys ice cream and the hard-to-find offerings, such as two vegan-pastry vendors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The market is in a very real sense a congregation of outright goodness. Produce from a small farm is often picked a day or so before it reaches the market, and the science is on its side: many of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, particularly water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and folate, begin breaking down soon after harvest, so the less time between field and table, the more of that nourishment survives. A peach bought Tuesday morning may have been on the tree Monday afternoon; the same peach routed through a national supply chain can spend days or weeks in transit and cold storage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Freshness is only part of it. Buying direct keeps small, sustainable family farms financially viable, and it builds the kind of weekly connection between grower and neighbor that a grocery aisle cannot. \u201cIt\u2019s intrinsically and inherently a good thing at every level,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n

The market is also about something beyond food. It builds community, not only in the gathering itself but as a forum for good causes.\u00a0 Over two decades it has hosted community groups and nonprofits and funneled its proceeds back into the city \u2014 more than $250,000 in all, according to Stroman. Beneficiaries include the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation, the Roundhouse Aquarium, Grades of Green \u2014 the sustainability nonprofit that started locally and now operates globally, and that partners with the market on recycling \u2014 and Growing Great, the nutrition-education nonprofit that Peggy Curry helped launch and that was part of the market from the start. Stroman also cited Manhattan Beach Little League, Mira Costa Grad Night, and others.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dave\u2019s Korean Food has likewise been at the market since its beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more than a farmers market,\u201d Stroman said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely an integral piece of the fabric of Manhattan Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the things that has always set the MB Farmer\u2019s Market apart from other nearby farmer\u2019s markets is how kid friendly it is, first with the choo choo train that ran through its former location behind Metlox Plaza, and in its ongoing\u00a0 programming. The market has run cooking demonstrations with kids and scavenger hunts with schools and preschools, sending students out to track down a nectarine or a gourd and, along the way, learn where fresh food comes from. Stroman recalls kids \u201cwolfing down strawberries,\u201d much to the delight of the farmers themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The market almost didn\u2019t survive its 20th year in one piece. For most of its run it was held on 13th Street, between Morningside Drive and Valley Drive. When the Lot 3 parking structure was slated for emergency demolition and the surrounding block turned into a construction zone in 2024, the market had to move on short notice. Stroman credited Rogers and the vendors with reacting almost overnight, decamping to the Civic Center Plaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cCynthia and the vendors did an amazing job of reacting literally within a week as that parking lot three was torn down,\u201d Stroman said.<\/p>\n

What began as a forced move has, by every account, improved the market. The vendor count and footprint are roughly the same, but the new configuration invites people to linger \u2014 a grove of trees, easy access off 15th Street for the hot-food vendors, the library next door drawing families to and from the market, City Hall and the fire station steps away. The market and City Hall run a wellness program together, with $1 and $5 \u201ccarrot coins\u201d the city hands employees for walking or biking to work. The market is at the Civic Center to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a home run,\u201d Stroman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish we would have done that years ago, because it just makes so much sense,\u201d McBride said, calling the plaza more protected and safe than the street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likewise given the Civic Center a jolt of life, populated once a week with the gleeful circus-comes-to-town feeling of farmers, artisans, neighbors, cooks, musicians, and kids, all at play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe brought energy. That\u2019s for sure,\u201d Stroman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just has really filled that space in and given it a life that I don\u2019t think it had before.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mayor Joe Franklin said the market has become \u201can essential part of downtown.\u201d He described the summer swim-program kids who stream up afterward, the babies in carriages, the families spread across the grass. It has become a community within the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vendors, they become a part of your family,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cYou see them every week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere\u2019d the 20 years go?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The legendary Daisy of Daisy\u2019s Pupusa\u2019s.<\/p>\n

A weekday market during working hours, Rogers said, draws a cross-section that would rarely otherwise stand shoulder to shoulder \u2014 a police officer stopping for a tamale, a firefighter grabbing a lemonade, seniors walking over from the senior center, small children with their nannies. The market\u2019s volunteers, she said, are in their 50s and 60s, people who knew one another raising their kids and now have a weekly reason to see each other again.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s all slow our lives down just a touch, especially when we live in an urban environment like we do, and be more connected not only to food but to each other,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n

The Manhattan Beach Certified Farmers Market is \u201ctruly a community event,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is what its sole purpose is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The market\u2019s 20th anniversary celebration runs Tuesday, July 21, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Civic Center Plaza, with special activities planned. <\/p>\n

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