For Farmers’ Market, Strawberry Is the Taste of Berkeley Success

Hundreds of visitors flooded through Center Street on Saturday afternoon to attend the Strawberry Family Fun Fest, an event celebrating the anniversary of the Berkeley Farmers’ Markets becoming a part of the city’s Ecology Center.

The strawberry festival, which was held at Center and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, is the first in a series of celebratory events marking the 20th anniversary of the Berkeley Farmers’ Market establishing itself as one of the programs run by the Ecology Center.

The center, a Berkeley-based organization dedicated to issues of environment, community and justice, took on the farmers’ markets in 1987. The

markets had previously been held in numerous locations without a permanent base, said Ben Feldman the project manager for the Berkeley Farmers’ Markets.

Along with the markets, the Ecology Center also operates a curbside recycling program and runs a store for environmentally safe products, said Rosalie Zdzienicka Fanshel, the operations manager for Berkeley Farmers’ Markets.

To commemorate its 20th year, the farmers’ markets and the center kicked off the festivities with the strawberry festival, which entertained its guests with music from live bands and sold strawberry shortcake to people passing by.

The regular Saturday farmers’ market ran alongside the activities. The center also operates markets on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The strawberry festival will be followed by a peaches and barbecue festival, a tomato festival and a Halloween festival. The celebrations will conclude with an anniversary dinner in November.

While he said it was hard to pinpoint the exact turnout, Feldman said more than 400 people bought strawberry shortcake at the festival and between 5,000 to 6,000 people attended the farmer’s market Saturday.

Feldman said he considered the festival to be a successful day for the market.

“We’ve definitely met our expectations,” he said.

Those attending the festival said it provided an entertaining family environment for the weekend.

“It’s great fun. We got some fruit and vegetables. It’s been great,” said Dara Garcia, a Berkeley resident who attended the festival with her two children.

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