Anderson Certified Farmers Market

From our humble beginnings with five growers on Park Marina Drive in 1975, the Redding Certified Farmers Market then relocated to the old City Hall. As we grew, the market then moved to a much larger site at the Mount Shasta Mall parking lot on Dana Drive, and we eventually hired our first Market Manager. Everything went well until new construction at the mall forced us to relocate to the northwest corner of the mall parking lot on Hilltop Drive. This location proved to be very unsatisfactory as there was no visibility from the street and not much room for the market or parking for the customers. Searching for another location, we were offered the upper parking lot of the downtown mall accross from the Lorenz Hotel, figuring we would be an asset to Redding's downtown redevelopment program. The two moves in one year proved financially devastating to the Association which required fee increases for growers and $100 or more fee advances by the board members and those willing to contribute, just to get the Market started the following year. At the same time, there was a demand for a mid-week market on the other side of town and it was decided to start a Tuesday morning market at the Shasta Center parking Lot on Churn Creek Road. This has continued to be a successful market over the years. In 1995, eleven years ago while we were still at the downtown mall on Saturday we were invited to participate in Marketfest, a mid-summer weekly event put on by the Viva Downtown in the Library Park behind the Lorenz Hotel on Thursday evenings. We will continue to participate in this event. Meanwhile, even though the downtown mall location was slowly growing, there were several drawbacks. It was not the best location for our customers, and the inclined parking structure was a problem for the vendors - runaway apples or pumpkins would roll clear down to the bottom of the parking lot, vendors were wearing their shoes off sideways and the expansion joints were trouble for our older and wheelchair bound customers. Murals on the parking lot walls attest to our former location at this site. As we searched for a more appropriate site, the new Civic Center west parking lot on Cypress Avenue was suggested, and the City accepted our proposal to relocate there. We were excited because the Civic Center had the advantage of plenty of space, level ground, and good visibility from the busiest street in town. The location was esthetically appealing as well. The number of vendors and customers has grown rapidly every year since our move six years ago.