Van Nuys : Farmers Market to Close for Season

Farmer’s Place, which opened with a carrot-breaking ceremony eight months ago, will close today, but the weekly fund-raiser for the Volunteer Center of the San Fernando Valley will return in the spring.

“We’re going to go out singing,” said Marie Tolbert, director of special projects for the center who launched the project.

However, after a crowd of 1,800 people showed up for the open-air, weekly market’s opening day in April, the numbers quickly dropped to about 300 to 400 people a week. Six weeks ago, market organizers realized that those numbers would drop even further during the rainy winter months, so they decided to go on a hiatus, Tolbert said.

“We’re going to use this time to go over things with a fine-toothed comb to see what we can do better and what we can eliminate,” Tolbert said.

But the low turnout and financial losses did not dismay Tolbert. She said she did not expect the market to break even until at least its third year.

“We did bring some wonderful nutritious produce to the area and added to the cultural diversity of the community,” Tolbert said. Each month the market held a festival celebrating Latino, Filipino, Thai and other cultures.

On Saturday, the entertainment includes Armenian music, a cowboy guitarist, and Mexican folklorico dancers.

Farmer’s Place is at the Van Nuys Civic Center parking lot at the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Sylvan Street. It will be open from 8 a.m. to noon.