KOREATOWN : Farmers Market Begins Operation

With the breaking of a carrot, a variation on the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony, the pastors of two neighboring churches opened the 8th Street Farmers’ Market for business.

The First Unitarian Church and its Crisis Response Network initiated plans for the market earlier this year and joined with the First Baptist Church and the Southland Farmers Market Assn. to make the arrangements.

“We wanted to improve the quality of life in this neighborhood,” said the Rev. Linnea Pearson of the First Unitarian Church. “No matter what ethnic background we come from, food is the most basic thing we all have in common.”

The market will operate Mondays from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the First Baptist Church at 8th Street and Westmoreland Avenue. Flyers advertising the market in Korean, Spanish and English have been distributed throughout the area.

The 19 farmer-vendors from as far as Fresno, San Bernardino, San Diego and Thermal brought fresh produce, flowers and plants, honey, beans and an assortment of edibles.

“I am the avocado king!” bellowed farmer Ed White. “I have the best avocados in the world!”

At another table, Ana Sanchez of Orosco Farms in Fresno, sold cactus petals, which she said taste a little like string beans. With some hesitation, Yoo Duck Kim bought one after her friend Joanne Jung promised to help her prepare it.

“We didn’t have this kind of thing in Korea, but we like to try different kinds of food,” Jung said. She added that she was happy to have a market within walking distance of her apartment.

Many of the nearly 300 shoppers who stopped by were elderly residents of nearby apartment buildings. More than a few mothers pushing carriages had bags of fruit wedged in beside their babies.

While not all the offerings were bargains, farmers market prices are generally 20% to 30% below supermarket prices, said Marion Kalb, executive director of the Southland Farmers Market Assn.

The association’s 20 markets in Southern California also include one at Adams Boulevard and Vermont Avenue on Wednesday afternoons and another in South Gate Park on Monday mornings.

At the opening ceremony Monday, market manager Harry Brown-Hiegel urged shoppers to make their tastes known to the farmers. “If they know you want it, they’ll grow it,” he said. “Within a year anything you want should be available here.”

Information: (213) 749-9551.