If you’re traveling through California, perhaps staying at a Santa Monica hotel, what are your options for food?  A cafe?  A restaurant?  Vendors from large trucks selling hot dogs and tacos?  There’s an even better, fresher option for a daily meal, and that’s to stop in at one of the four Farmer’s Markets Santa Monica offers throughout the week.

For tourists as well as locals, the bayside city of Santa Monica offers some excellent ways to relax: strolling on the Third Street Promenade, walking out on the Santa Monica Pier, or stretching out on the beach.  There’s always a great view of Santa Monica Bay, sailboats, and sunsets — a view available from a park that overlooks the Pacific Coast Highway and coastline.  Eating the freshest foods available at a Farmer’s Market is one of the pleasures of the city.

Four markets are managed by the city and provide seasonal produce for about nine hundred thousand people a year.  All four are members of the Certified Farmers’ Markets (also known as CFMs).  What does it take to be a member?  The market must be made up of farmers who have a Certified Producer’s Certificate, which the county’s agricultural commissioner issues.  They have to be non-profit.  For the buyer, it’s probably more important to know that all the products and produce at a California farmer’s market has to be made or grown in the state of California.  This last part makes certain that the Farmer’s Markets support the community as much as the community supports them.

In the area, the first Los Angeles County farmer’s market started out in Gardena, with four stands.  Today, there are over three hundred CFM’s in California.  But we’re concentrating right now on the four in Santa Monica.  You can easily find any one of the markets on the weekends or on Wednesdays.  On Sundays, you may find a market at 2640 Main Street.  On Wednesdays, a market is held inside the Third Street Promenade, an open air mall, at Arizona Avenue and Second Street.  On Saturdays, there are two markets available, one on Virginia Avenue Park, and the other, back at the Third Street Promenade, on Arizona Avenue and Third Street.