Family Affair
Sunday farmers market brings community together
By Gabrielle Myers
September 2025
The first thing I do when visiting another city is head to the farmers market. From Rome, Paris and Lisbon to Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama, I compare fruits, vegetables, cheeses, wines, olive oils and flowers.
Believe me when I say the Sunday Certified Farmers Market at Eighth and W streets stands tall among them all.
To learn more about this local treasure, I spoke with Dan Best, a Sunday market founder and manager. He explained the event “emanated from a regulation that allowed farmers to sell directly to consumers without packing, labeling and standardization requirements.”
Produce is “the most regulated thing in the world,” Best says. Compliance costs farmers time and money. By selling direct to customers, small farmers make enough profit to stay in business.
At the Sunday market, farmers must grow what they sell. An agricultural committee inspects vendors to keep everything fair and honest. Those “We grow what we sell” signs are a source of pride for the 80 or so food artisans who supply the market.
Best considers the market a “people’s church, a place to feel a part of a community.” He says, “Here everyone is focused on one thing, food. Food equals community, creates harmony. We don’t focus on our differences but on our similarities, and then we become family.”
Danielle Best, Dan’s daughter, grew up around the Sunday affair. She loves “the small town feel to the market as people talk about food, and you can learn about different cultures. Food is the unifying factor.”
Vendors benefit in ways that might not seem obvious. Sawita Vangsaengurai with Groluv flowers of Elk Grove says, “We get therapy from the market.” Vangsaengurai’s in-laws began selling under the freeway more than 10 years ago. They built a loyal base for Groluv.
Talene Ghazarian and Gregory Paige know how loyalty works. They bought Groluv flowers six years ago when they were dating. Groluv created their wedding arrangements. Now their 20-month-old daughter enjoys the family’s market visits.
Ghazarian says the Sunday market is “one way to support local business owners. With the recent food-safety concerns, having facetime with food businesses feels safer, like there is more accountability. You are also more in touch with the seasons. Life can get hectic, but here we can go slower.”
Drawn to a stall packed with mulberries, cherry tomatoes, squash, apricots, pluots, plums, fresh potatoes, shishito peppers and onions, I discovered Spreadwing Farm of Capay Valley. Spreadwing also raises goats, chickens and cows.
Michael Smith, who operates Spreadwing with his partner and another couple, describes how the market gives him the “opportunity to connect with customers, which is invaluable.” The rest of his time is spent on the farm with his animals and plants.
Smith appreciates how all money goes to farmers at the market. There are no vendors selling cooked food. Customers stock up for the week, making the process “inexpensive and accessible for all farmers.” Other markets can be costly for vendors, he says.
Smith’s daughter, Amani, helps in the stall. She loves the mulberries and other farm-fresh fruits and produce. She says farm life means “we can eat all of the fruit and veggies we want.”
Beyond supplying local, fresh and often organic produce, the Sunday market provides another benefit: it’s a place to support and interact with farmers. When we spend dollars under the freeway at Eighth and W, we improve our health and reinforce community connections.
Gabrielle Myers can be reached at gabriellemyers11@gmail.com. Her book of poetry, “Break Self: Feed,” is available for $20.99 from fishinglinepress.com. Her new book, “Points in the Network,” has a mid-October publication date. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
