Tag Archive for: Echo Park Farmers’ Market

Echo Parkian Peter Lassen and the Easter bunny at the Echo Park Farmers’ Market in 2012

The annual Easter Egg Hunt at the Echo Park Farmers’ Market takes place on Friday, March 29.

The craft table will help the kids prepare bunny ears to wear for the egg hunt, and the Easter Bunny will be on hand to take photos (bring your cameras!).

Toddlers ages five and under will start at 5:00 pm, ages six and over at 6:00 pm.

If you’re not able to make it with the family to the hunt on Friday, check out the Saturday egg hunt with the Echo Park Rec Center.

Word is the Echo Park Farmers’ Market has expanded its hours from 7:00 pm until 8:00 pm, starting tonight!

Our lovely little market, located in the parking lot behind the Bank of America at Sunset and Echo Park Avenue, is a fantastic place to get fresh eggs, chicken, salmon, and has some of the best vegetables around. We’re also big fans of the teppanyaki, flan, and roasted chicken. Yumm!

Kids get a special treat today at the Echo Park Farmers’ Market for Easter!

Hide the carrots because the Easter Bunny will be entertaining kids starting at 4:30 pm. Younger kids get a head start on the egg hunt at 5:00 pm, while the older kids get to start at 5:30 pm.

The craft table will also feature bunny ear making with Cindy!

And, as always, make sure to stock up on plenty of tasty veggies from our local farmers. See you there!

 

John Sweredoski helps customers at the Farmers' Market

The Echo Park Farmers’ Market is an important errand for most Fridays, but today is especially important – next week is Thanksgiving, and we want to make sure everyone stocks up fresh, local ingredients for Turkey Day.

The most important item: Herbs! These are typically very expensive in the standard grocery store if you’re buying fresh, so forget Vons or even Whole Foods and stop by booths like Sweredoski Farms (pictured) for Rosemary, Lemon Basil (they grow the best!), Tarragon, Bay Leaves, and Chives.

Don’t forget the basics at any of the oter booths: Onions, lemons, shallots, apples, celery, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, garlic, yams and eggs (especially those eggs – incredibly fresh, organic and inexpensive!).

For the Acorn Squash and other heirloom squash, I always go to the booth on the same side as the soy candle guy. While I don’t recall the name, they have some of the best squash I’ve ever had! They all carry fresh salad mix, so keep your eyes peeled.

If Soledad Goats is there, be sure to pick up our favorite goat cheese appetizer to lay out while the meal is cooking: Either the hand-rolled soft cheese in the jar with olive oil & spices ($8-10) and/or the herbed hard cheese (about $1 per ounce).

Make sure to chat with the farmers – find out where they are located, and if what you’re buying is organic (doesn’t matter if it’s certified or not). If you miss out on today’s Farmers’ Market in Echo Park, you might also find many of the same vendors at the Silver Lake Farmers’ Market every Saturday from 8:00 am – 1:00 pm, and the Atwater Village Farmers’ Market every Sunday from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.

The Echo Park Farmers’ Market takes place every Friday from 3-7:00 pm in parking lot #663 (half a block south of Sunset Blvd. off Logan Street).

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The Echo Park Farmers’ Market will be open today for Veterans Day! Shopping at the Farmers’ Market today means supporting some local Veterans. From the Farmers’ Market email blast:

We’d like to say thank you to the wonderful veterans that are a part of our market family: Jan Bruce of Frog Dog Herbs, Dexter Scott of Jazzy Sprouts, Oscar Rodriguez of Oscar’s Fresh Coffee, John Sweredoski of Sweredoski Farms, and Jack Balderama of Balderama Farms.

The Echo Park Farmers’ Market is located at Parking lot #663 , at 1146 Logan St. (half a block south of Sunset Blvd.). It runs every Friday from 3-7:00 pm.

The Echo Park Farmers’ Market is celebrating Halloween during Friday’s market with a pumpkin decorating contest for kids!

The Fifth Annual Halloween Pumpkin Decorating Contest starts at 3:00 pm, with free pumpkins provided to the first 100 kids. Judging starts at 5:30 pm.

The Echo Park Farmers’ Market is located at Parking lot #663 , at 1146 Logan St. (half a block south of Sunset Blvd.). It runs every Friday from 3-7:00 pm.

Stop by the Echo Park Farmers’ Market today and welcome a couple of new farms to the ‘hood: Maggie’s Farm and Weiser Family Farms. From the Farmers’ Market email we received this week:

In the heat of summer, nothing quite satisfies like a salad. Maggie’s Farm is well known for being one of the first farms to bring European-style salad mixes and fresh herbs to California. We can’t wait to enjoy their ‘stellar mix’ this weekend.

Paired with a baguette from La Boulangerie, you won’t need to leave Echo Park to enjoy a taste of Europe this summer! But you will need to finish up the meal with something sweet. Weiser Family Farms are especially known for their colorful array of heirloom potatoes and carrots. At this time of year, we are most excited for their unusual variety of heirloom melons! Read more about their melons and start tantalizing your taste-buds here.

Speaking of those heirloom melons, it looks like the Weiser Family Farms are expected to bring us a couple of new ones this week, The Ogen and Baby Canary. I’ve never had an Ogen (aka Israeli Cantelope) but I’m a Baby Canary fan!

There will also be story time at 4:00pm with Edendale Branch librarian Langdon Faust.

At he beginning of March, the Echo Park Farmers Market started a healthy baskets program. Similar to CSA Please review the options below to find the Healthy Market Basket that’s right for you and your family!

Order now! Orders placed by Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. will be delivered that same week. Orders placed after 12:00 p.m. Tuesday will start delivery the following week. (If you would like to pay using CalFresh/EBT please email hmbp@see-la.org or call 323-463-3171)

Available in 4, 8 and 12-week options!

Fresh Market Basket:
Weekly farm-fresh produce selection featuring approximately 8-10 farmers’ market produce items each week. No customization will be offered on these baskets. $22/week

Healthy Market Baskets:
Weekly farm-fresh produce selection offering subscribers 13-16 different market fresh fruits and vegetables. Each basket will help subscribers to meet the USDA recommendation of 31.5 cups of fruits and vegetables per person per week. Subscribers will be able to choose between Basket A and Basket B options by making a selection online.

1-Person Healthy Market Basket: $29/week
2-Person Healthy Market Basket: $55/week
3-Person Healthy Market Basket: $82/week

Click here for the website and to sign up!

John Sweredoski helps customers at the Echo Park Farmers' Market

I wrote briefly about this yesterday on our sister blog, Atwater Village Now, in my article titled “Local Farmers Markets May Be Affected by Hollywood Dispute.” In the article, I write about a dispute between Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles (SEE-LA), which runs many LA area Farmers’ Markets, and a company leasing its parking lot to the Hollywood Farmers’ Market on Sundays.

SEE-LA is concerned the loss of the parking lot will “displace” 150 vendors and will total a loss of about $130,000. This loss could affect other farmers’ markets under SEE-LA, the fear of shut-down of markets including Watts, Crenshaw, South Central, Echo Park, East Hollywood and Atwater Village.

The SEE-LA website recently posted more information about the dispute and how you can help. Please visit the website or read the information below:

We need your assistance to keep the Hollywood Farmers’ Market at its current location, where it has been for nearly 20 years. We will update this web page with new information about this breaking issue and the latest instructions for how you can help.

Under pressure from an adjacent business owner, City authorities have decided to revoke the legal authority to close Ivar Avenue on Sunday mornings which SEE-LA, the nonprofit operator of the Hollywood Farmers Market, has used for the past 19 years to serve up to 10,000 people every Sunday.

If the City follows through, most of the Sunday market vendors on Ivar Avenue between Selma Ave. and Sunset Blvd. – about 1/2 of the farmers – could be denied space to operate, or may be shifted to a new, not-yet-determined location less convenient or less safe than their current placement.

This action also jeopardizes the viability of SEE-LA, itself, and the 7 other farmers’ markets, major nutrition education program and Farmer-to-School program it operates throughout the City of Los Angeles.

Sign a New Petition if Necessary
Thank you to everyone who signed the petition and who helped publicize it. We gathered over 3,400 signatures in one day! The first round of petitions have been handed in, although we may do another round if necessary. We will let everyone know if there is another signing.

Spread the Word
Let other people know that the Hollywood Farmers’ Market needs their help. Encourage other people to sign up for our email announcements and stay tuned.

Keep Up-To-Date
Sign up for our email list, if you haven’t already. And check back here for new announcements and updates on what is happening.

Thank you for your support!

UPDATE:

LAist reports that interested parties met on Monday to resolve the issue of street closures and property access for the Hollywood Farmers’ Market. While it first seemed that the LA Film School would allow to continue access through January 9 in order to allow the city time to conduct studies on a new layout of the market, as it turned out the school will not allow continued access (we’re still unclear as to why exactly). Continue reading about this issue on LAist.

This week marks the fourth anniversary of the Echo Park Farmers’ Market!

Going on right now – live Music by Dueto Internacional Martín y Martinez, cooking demos, and, as always, fresh seasonal and local produce.

At 5:00 pm get your free cake from The Farmer’s Kitchen!

Judging for the 4th Annual Seize the Sizzle Salsa Contest starts at 6:00 pm!

Get some great cooking tips at the Echo Park Farmers’ Market tomorrow from 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm.

The Good Cooking/Buena Cocina cooking class is free, and will teach you how to prepare delicious, quick and affordable recipes.

Last Friday, I posted a sneak peak of all the wonderful goods I picked up at the Echo Park Farmers’ Market, all delicious goodies which I cooked up over the long holiday weekend.

This little Farmers’ Market shopping trip was meant to explore some the vendors and find out how far away (or close) the food at the market was coming from. It also gave me an opportunity to meet with blogger Valentina of the newly published Eastside Food Bites as we explored the sights, smells and tastes of all this great, local food.

While unable to interview all the vendors at the market, I do have some recommendations based on this recent experience as well as from some raving reviews from other Echo Park residents:

John Sweredoski helps customers at the Farmers' Market

Sweredoski Farms: Located in Bell Gardens (more less, about 15 miles from Echo Park) has a lot of herbs, lettuce varieties, really fragrant tomatoes, and other produce. The man behind the counter shown above is John Sweredoski; he is very friendly and knowledgeable about the produce he has available, and is there every week. From there I purchased an enormous zucchini and saucer squash, squash blossoms, potatoes, dill, and lemon basil. Everything is fresh, organic, and delicious.

Read more

My cats and my Echo Park Farmers' Market Bounty

I met up with super awesome blogger Valentina of the newly published Eastside Food Bites tonight, and toured the Echo Park Farmers’ market for some tasty locally grown foods. As you can tell by the photo of my bounty (cats Niña, left, and Truck, right, couldn’t resist a sniff either), I’m on a vegetable kick. I also picked up an I Luv Echo Park sticker by local artist Bill Rangel at Beauty Box when I got my bangs trimmed recently (which they do for free when you get your hair done there).

Stay tuned for my article about the local foods at the Echo Park Farmers’ market! And check out Eastside Food Bites when you get a chance.

And yes, just in case you’re wondering, that is an enormous zucchini squash longer and fatter than my arm! Can’t wait to cook that one up (I’ll even share how!).