Anniversary Party Set by Farmers’ Market

Organizers of the Calabasas Farmers’ Market will celebrate the market’s third anniversary Saturday with a free party for customers.

Over the years, residents have supported the market, even when getting there meant fighting heavy congestion along Calabasas Road, caused by construction of the Valley Circle interchange with the Ventura Freeway, said Phyllis Power, manager of the market.

“This is our way of thanking the community for their support of our farmers market and to celebrate the opening of the interchange,” she said. “Traffic is no longer a terrible backup.”

But through it all, she said, the market survived and helped keep some merchants in the area alive.

“The market has become the place to be on Saturday mornings in Calabasas,” she said. “And when people come, they walk around and shop.”

Visitors to the market will be provided with a free barbecue brunch of vegetables, chicken, fish and carrot cake. They also will be able to participate in a raffle for bags of groceries provided by the more than 30 vendors who sell in the market each week.

The market is open from 8 a.m. to noon, and the barbecue will begin about 9 a.m. The market is on the corner of Calabasas Road and El Canon Avenue in the parking lot adjacent to the Calabasas Junction Antique Store.

Power said the marketplace was conceived in 1993 as a way to attract visitors to the young city and because an outdoor sale of fresh fruits, vegetables and meats was in keeping with the turn of the century feel of the area.

“Farmers markets are something that they did in the 1880s,” said Power, who is also director of the Leonis Adobe Museum and Plummer House, directly across the street from the market.