Canyon Market News

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Canyon Market News, your monthly source for the latest market updates, vendor highlights, seasonal offerings, and farm-fresh recipes from the Topanga Farmers Market. We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We're incredibly grateful for the opportunity to bring a vibrant new market to our beautiful canyon and can't wait to share many exciting updates with you.

Lettuce rejoice!

We are so excited to bring fresh produce back to the canyon and create a convening space for local artisans, growers, and makers. We will have an exceptional collection of vendors: a total of 38 booths each week, including fresh produce, prepared foods, and a craft market. We are prioritizing partnering with local, regenerative, and organic producers, vendors, and artists committed to building community, educating consumers, and reducing negative impact on our environment. We can’t wait to share our debut vendor lineup with you. (Between us, we still have a few more farm vendor spots we would like to fill before March.) Read on for ways you can help recruit the last critical farm and food vendors!

We need your support! 

Our new market will only be as strong and amazing as the community that supports it. Here’s how you can get involved:

• Share and Comment on our Instagram and Facebook posts: Help show our vendors that we have a vibrant, supportive, and excited community and spread the word to other potential customers.

• Spread the Word: Talk to your friends and neighbors who don’t use email or social media, and share the good news about the market launch on March 1st at the TCC.

• Market Ambassadors: Represent Topanga while visiting other local farmers markets and let vendors know about the opportunity to join our new market. Click here to express interest in being an Ambassador.

• Sponsors: We need sponsors to help cover costs like the sound system for music performances and backup internet. Reach out to us at [email protected] if you would like to be a market sponsor. Sponsors will have prominent advertising opportunities.

• Market Volunteers: Sign up to work at the market on Fridays. We need Parking Attendants, Market Support Team Members, and other volunteer roles. Click here to express interest in volunteering.

• Market Staff: Are you interesting in working for one of our vendors at the market? We have multiple vendors looking for responsible and enthusiastic staff to run their booths. Email [email protected] to learn more.

• Artists: Apply to sell your art and wares at the market. Apply here.

• Musicians: Sign up to perform at the farmers market!

Why Friday Morning?!

Of the 511 Topangans who completed our community survey last June, 85% preferred Friday morning for our new market. We would love to have a huge weekend market, but there are just too many other bigger farmers markets close by to compete with and it would be too difficult to ask vendors to choose our new, smaller market over a larger, more established one. So Friday it is! We know we will have a bustling crowd come out every Friday morning and the farms and vendors who we have convinced to take a chance on us will be pleasantly surprised and grateful to be part of our community.

Vendor Highlights: 

Aquifer Gardens, Topanga

Aquifer Gardens runs a small regenerative farm with a lot of heart in the mountains of Topanga Canyon. They are excited to share their passion for truly wholesome food and love of Topanga’s native plant life with their community. Aquifer’s fare is seasonal to our special microclimate, but always fresh. From citrus and jujube to fresh greens and veggies, from occasional unique fruits to cut flowers, they strive to make their offerings as diverse and eclectic as Topanga itself.

Swenglish By Nature, Reseda

Swenglish By Nature is thrilled to present their gluten-free oat granola with vegan options packaged in glass mason jars. They believe that delicious and nourishing food should go hand in hand with sustainable practices. They are excited to be a part of the vibrant Topanga Farmers Market community and share our passion for health, environment, and culinary indulgence. The owner and founder, Jenny, is a devoted mother and outdoor fitness trainer who found her true calling, creating nutritious granola out of her kitchen, beginning in 2014.

The Team Behind the Relaunch:

We wanted to formally introduce ourselves, we’re Kate Kimmel and Freddi Swanson, two devoted friends, and canyon locals who are determined to launch a successful and sustainable market here in Topanga. We met through a mutual friend who Kate actually met at the Topanga Farmers Market back in 2016! So one could argue that we wouldn’t be friends if it weren’t for the former farmers market! We’ve raised our families together here in the canyon for the past 8 years and are so happy to be working on this important project together. 

Kate and her husband, Ryan, relocated to the canyon in 2015 while expecting their first child. They sought a home immersed in fresh air, surrounded by trees, and supported by a nurturing community. Now, as a mother of three canyon kids, Kate draws upon her background in public education, philanthropic consulting, and non-profit leadership to contribute to the community. Her expertise spans project management, event coordination, strategic change planning, and fundraising, all fueled by a deep passion for fostering community and living sustainably.

Freddi has been a Topanga local since 1995 and she and her husband, Patrick, chose to raise their own two daughters amidst the natural beauty of the canyon. She has a passion for fundraising for important causes and has devoted the last 15 years to running a marketing agency, with her husband, that caters to non-profits. She selfishly wants a market in the canyon so she doesn’t have to drive down to the valley to buy produce.

Music at the Market

Given Topanga's rich history of music, we feel compelled to bring some tunes to the market. 

Our vision includes a mix of live acoustic performances throughout the market and amplified music on the stage near the ball field. We welcome your feedback and are open to collaboration. Reach out to us at [email protected] if you’d like to help or have ideas on how to bring music to the market. Click here if you are a musician who is interested in playing at the market to get on our list!

In Honor of Those Who Came Before

We want to acknowledge that our new market will reside on the ancestral lands of the Chumash, the Fernandeño Tataviam, and Gabrielino Tongva people. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have protected it throughout the generations.

For those of us, who are not Indigenous to this land, we must acknowledge the lasting impact of the California genocide on its native peoples.

With your help, we aim to become a community market that is a thoughtful steward of the environment and can give back to this sacred land in a small way. (Stay tuned for our Zero Waste Market vision in next month’s newsletter.)

Stay in touch and up to date with the latest market news:

• Follow Topanga Farmers Market on Instagram.

• Follow Topanga Farmers Market on Facebook.

• Make sure you are subscribed to this newsletter and forward this signup link to neighbors and friends who haven’t subscribed yet.

Share your feedback! Email us at [email protected].

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