Turlock Certified Farmers Market greets customers two weeks early

Turlock’s Certified Farmers Market kicked off its second year at the Stanislaus County Fairground on Saturday morning.

The Saturday-morning market, which lost its Main Street home last year in a prolonged battle with a new market that applied for a permit to operate at the same time and place, opened two weeks earlier.

“We were hoping to get some of the earlier-season fruit,” said Brandon Follett, chairman of the Turlock Certified Farmers Market board. The record-breaking rains the area saw this winter put everything a bit behind, however. Still, enormous strawberries and vine-ripened tomatoes were just some of the items available for sale.

Follett said new vendors are expected in coming weeks.

This year, the Turlock Downtown Farmers Market, which operated on Main Street on Saturday mornings last year before cutting its season short, has changed its name and its time, and will operate Thursday nights in Central Park. It’s now called the Central Park Evening Market and has a new organizer. The markets seem to have put their contentious relationship behind; they are no longer competing and the Central Park Evening Market has been touting TCFM on its Facebook page.

The Central Park Evening Market opens May 4 at 5 p.m.

This story was originally published April 22, 2017 at 1:50 PM with the headline "Turlock Certified Farmers Market greets customers two weeks early."