MEAGHAN PERRELLI of the West Sacramento Chamber of Commerce believes this space will be filled to the brim with good food, live music and happy people tomorrow afternoon. (News-Ledger photo)
News-Ledger May 18, 2011
By Steve Marschke News-Ledger Editor
Meaghan
Perrelli believes the new West Sacramento Farmers Market will live up to Mayor
Cabaldon’s prediction that it will become “one of the great ones.” The market
will open its doors (figuratively, since it’s an open-air market) at 4:30 p.m.
tomorrow at 1271 West Capitol. The tables and booths will go up in a vacant lot
behind Walgreens, and across the street from city hall.
“We have a total of about 35 vendors,” said
Perrelli. “Most are farmers, and the other 10 or so offer prepared foods – like
United Bakeries, which is doing a project with the West Sacramento Youth
Resource Coalition. They’re going to sell bread. We have five restaurants –
Wicked West Pizza, Pooja (Indian) Grill, The Eatery. The Eatery (a ‘bistro’
slated to open soon in Southport) is going to
be doing seasonal shortcake. The Hot Dogger will also be here.”
Perrelli is the Chamber’s point-person in
charge of organizing the new market. She’s confident the market has what it
needs for success, and that the rather unappealing empty lot she visited with a
reporter earlier this week will become a hive of happy people on Thursday
afternoon. The markets are slated to continue weekly on Thursday afternoons,
from 4:30 to dusk, through September 29.
As a “certified” farmers market, the produce
will come directly from the folks who grew it – “with a Yolo County
focus,” said Perrelli.
Perrelli
is also excited that the West Sacramento
market will strive to be “zero waste.”
“We are partnering with Waste Management,”
she said. “All the restaurants were told to provide only recyclable or
compostable plates, spoons and everything. There will be marked containers. We
will have two different stations – one for compostable matter, and one for
recycling. We’re trying to make it as close to ‘zero waste’ as possible.”
The weather report looks like it will
cooperate, with early-week rains giving way to a sunny Thursday afternoon in
the 70s. But will the crowds come?
“People are really excited,” Perrelli said.
“We distributed information to all the schools, and we have a lot of people
following us on our Facebook page – almost 400 people.”
The markets will often feature live music.
The band scheduled for the opening night will be Mike McGowan and the Mighty
Delta Road Masters, set to begin at 6 p.m. McGowan is a former mayor and
current Yolo County Supervisor who lives in West
Sacramento and happens to play the drums.
Getting to the market by car and then finding
a place to park may require some improvisation, due to limited downtown
parking. But parking in the city hall lot will be allowed during market hours,
and organizers are also encouraging people to bike or use the bus.
“We’re working with the YoloBus system and in
all of the bus shelters, there are signs telling people how to take a bus line
to the market. And the month of May is bike month. The first two weeks of the
market, anyone who bicycles to the market can pick up one ‘Farmers Market Buck’
to use at the market. They can pick it up at the information booth at the
market, on the honor system. They just have to say ‘I biked here.’”
Perrelli said she and the Chamber have
encouraged the Farmers Market to be used as a reason for surrounding businesses
near Merkley Avenue
and West Capitol to begin holding a “sidewalk sale” and other special events
during the weekly market.
“But we haven’t confirmed if anybody is doing
that this week,” she told the News-Ledger.
For more information on the market, call the
Chamber at 371-7042, visit www.wsmarket.com, or email marketinfo@wsfarmersmarket.com.
