Invite a farmer to a 405 sleepover
June 15, 2011
You can close the freeway, but please—don’t mess with our fresh-grown farmers market fare.
The Santa Monica Farmers Market, bracing for the mid-July closure of the 405 Freeway, has come up with a “Host A Farmer” program to ensure that growers can deliver the goods for the city’s markets scheduled for Saturday, July 16, and Sunday, July 17, despite the 53-hour shutdown.
With the midsummer bounty of corn, tomatoes, peaches and figs coming into season, a presumably gridlocked metropolis will be counting on local farmers markets for entertainment as well as sustenance during the weekend.
Customers and fresh food enthusiasts can do their part by offering to put up a farmer for the weekend, allowing growers to get into town ahead of the shutdown, which begins with ramp and lane closures on the evening of Friday, July 15. (The freeway will be completely closed in both directions all of Saturday and Sunday, with a scheduled reopening of 5 a.m. on Monday, July 18. The northbound 405 will be closed from the 10 Freeway to the 101. The southbound 405 will be closed from the 101 to Getty Center Drive. This printer-friendly brochure has all the closure details.)
This flyer—to be distributed starting Wednesday at the Santa Monica Farmers Market at Arizona Avenue and 2nd Street—suggests that market customers approach growers directly if they’d like to offer a place to stay.
Arrangements also are underway to allow farmers to park their trucks all weekend in Santa Monica city lots. Other nearby markets—including those in Beverly Hills, Encino, Hollywood and Sherman Oaks—say they’re planning to be open for business and, at least so far, are counting on their farmer-vendors to be able to get through on surface streets and freeways, such as the 5, 101 and the stretch of the 405 south of the 10 that will remain open.
Posted 6/21/11
405 bridge work causes a stink
