Last Friday, after being closed for nearly six years, one of Los Angeles' most picturesque farmers markets reopened with so much excitement that nearly every food vendor sold out of their wares.
The Santa Monica Mountains provided a striking backdrop to tables laden with cabbages, carrots and vibrant purple radishes at the Topanga Farmers Marketa weekly event that has just made its first appearance under new management and since closing in 2018.
Held on the Topanga Community Center lot, the return of the historic canyon event saw nearly 40 vendors take over the space with beekeeper frames dripping with honey, traditional bean bags, freshly pressed corn tortillas so hot they steamed up their plastic bags. and fragrant rows of loaves of bread; some return, but most are new. The bustle of vendors and customers at its March 1 reopening felt a far cry from the final weeks of the market's previous tour, which ended largely due to fewer vendors, according to organizers.
But in early 2023, Topanga resident Kate Kimmel and her partner Frederika “Freddi” Swanson saw the promise of the market and sought to revive it.
They sent an email to the Topanga Community Center, asking if the farmers market could ever return and if they could help in the process. After an hour the former president of the center responded detailing the past difficulties in maintaining the event. “The vision was different, the community was different,” Kimmel said. “There weren't enough vendors; There were no farm anchors, and farms are the lifeblood of the farmers market. If you don't have that soul, it won't be sustainable, and I think that's what we're trying to do.
“Topanga has a little bit of a different vibe” since 2018, he noted.
Esteemed vendor Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms, left, is a new face at the Topanga Farmers Market.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Although their experience in the nonprofit sector helped them organize and raise money, the couple had never created a farmers market. It took months of research and effort, and they chose former market supervisor Sarah Seelinger to return as on-site manager every Friday. They conducted a community survey on the return of the market and got more than 500 responses, then used the data to inform their plans.
They set out to find a handful of notable farms to serve as a core of suppliers to the new market, from established regional veterans to hyperlocal producers based in Topanga Canyon. They began attending farmers markets throughout Southern California: Santa Monica, Ojai, Calabasas, and more, researching what worked at these events and what could translate effectively to Topanga. The past 10 months, Kimmel said, have been spent touring farms, meeting producers and trying to persuade a variety of vendors that this new version of the Topanga market would be worth the winding trip to the mountains.
At first they feared that farms and other posts would not want to participate. The first day of the market had 39 vendors; The waiting list for vendors now, Kimmel said, is long. More than a dozen produce, meat and dairy farms have signed on, including some of the region's most recognized farms, including Cuyama Orchards, Weiser Family Farms and Perennial Pastures Ranch.
Many are hyperlocal. Eli's Bee Co. offers Topanga-grown honey and pollen, while Topanga-based family creamery Sweet Raw Life sold out of all its vegan cheese products around noon. Another local family business, Happy to Be Here of Malibu, sold its adaptogenic cocoa blends. Prepared foods included tamales, acai bowls, and dumplings. In the lower lot, vendors offered organic candles, sustainable cotton clothing, a rainbow of crystals and other home goods. Most of the vendors are new, although some of the crowd favorites turned out to be the most familiar.
Returning baker Patrice Winter's stall was inadvertently placed in the exact position of her stall eight years ago. On Sundays, the Topanga resident sells loaves of traditional bread and inventive pastries, quiches and other baked goods at Canyon Bakery, your takeout window on the premises of the nearby open-air theater Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. But years before opening his bakery storefront, he sold his products at the Topanga Farmers Market.
“It was amazing because the people from eight years ago came back and they were standing in line, right here, and I was there and I was like, 'This is a blast from the past,'” Winter said.
It only took him 20 minutes to use up the cinnamon buns and 35 minutes to run out of bread. She sold the last olive oil pastry half an hour later. Winter said he will return this week with much more: two to three times the amount of product.
At a small stand near the market's main entrance, Mark Welborn sold almost all of his sorrel, Meyer lemons, purple mizuna, celery, guava, sapodilla, Swiss chard, Cara Cara oranges and bunches of fresh herbs. This veteran gardener and landscaper runs the regenerative farm at Topanga's Aquifer Gardens, which he plants on 8 acres nearby.
Farmer Mark Welborn of Aquifer Gardens mans his booth at the Topanga Farmers Market.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
“I'm proud to be here and to bring what I've grown up to the community,” he said. “It's the first time we've really come out and shared what we grow and how we grow it.”
Welborn began WWOOFing (or seeking “global organic farm opportunities”) at the age of 14, studying and working in New Zealand, Greece, Italy and beyond, and specializing in biodynamic and regenerative agriculture. He has brought that experience to Aquifer Gardens, where native plants like yarrow and hummingbird sage sprout in citrus orchards, while vegetable plots are planted complementary for more nutrients, with tomatoes alongside celery and herbs .
“It's been a lot of work to get to this point, but I really feel like here at the Topanga Farmers Market I'm finding my home in life, my community,” she said. “So it's a pleasure to be here today.”
Founder Claudia Joshi (left) started Topanga Curry House as a pandemic-fueled pop-up before it became so popular that she recruited her friend Destiny London to help with the operation.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Vendor Janet Song of In a Pickle drove from Long Beach to sell her fermented products and pickle juice at the Topanga Farmers Market.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Kimmel first tried another canyon vendor, Topanga Curry House, during the pandemic, when friends Claudia Joshi and Destiny London delivered homemade curry door-to-door. They now also sell ready-made curry pastes, dry Ayurvedic spice mixes and seasonings. Her chutneys and coconut mint chutneys sold out before the end of the day, along with containers of her frozen, made-from-scratch tikka masala pasta. By the close of the market, only a few containers of fragrant yellow curry, frozen and prepared, remained in the almost empty refrigerator.
Sherry Mandell of Tehachapi Grain Project, another vendor new to the market, arrived with paper bags of flour and traditional grain tortillas so fresh they were still warm, even though her car broke down on the way. (The community, she said, is always there to help each other; a chef on his way to shop at the market picked her up on the way.)
Janet Song owns seasonal pickle purveyor In a Pickle and traveled from Long Beach to be there. She sold her spicy garlic dills and other Korean-inspired pickled farmers' market products until only one jar of radish remained. “It's a long road, but it's worth it,” Song said.
Vendor Janet Song of In a Pickle drove from Long Beach to sell her fermented products and pickle juice at the Topanga Farmers Market. At the end of the day, all that was left was a jar of pickled radish and a container of pickle brine to drink.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Kimmel advocates sustainable living and sought to incorporate that spirit into the new market. On reopening day, Re_Grocery, a local bulk grocery chain, offered spices, soaps, candy, spreads, cleaning supplies and other household items in refillable, plastic-free packaging. The event's trash bins are divided into compost, trash and recycling. For those who forget to bring their own shopping bags, paper bags are available in the information tent.
On April 19, a planned Earth Day event with Homeboy Industries and Suay Sew Shop will demonstrate composting and sustainable clothing practices, respectively.
But Swanson and Kimmel say the new Topanga Farmers Market isn't just about consciously living and shopping in Topanga; They hope their reimagined event will benefit everyone in Los Angeles. The market donates a portion of its suppliers' income to the non-profit organization Süprmarkt, which helps supply food deserts throughout South Los Angeles with CSA-style produce boxes and organic meals, and plans to open its own brick-and-mortar store soon. To support it by shopping at one of the most bucolic markets in Los Angeles, simply head to the hills any Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
