Sebastopol farmers market and Bloomfield Bees

[debbus]

I just found out that my favorite beekeepers who have been selling at the Sebastopol farmer's market for years are not going to be there anymore. No a reason given to them, no loyalty at all. I find it appalling actually, that someone gets to be in the market if the manager "likes you" and if she doesn't then you get to be replaced. I would like some thoughts on this. This should be our market!

[debbus]

I forgot to say that this is bloomfield bees.

[Sabelrose]

For the sake of clarity, did they choose to leave the market, or were they not given a space though they wanted one?

[G Whitford]

To reply for clarity...we asked for a vendors application and were refused even an application! It will be several weeks before the market starts again. Perhaps things will change or perhaps Sebastopol doesn't want local honey any more?

[MRL]

Absolutely this market goer wants Bloomfield Bees to continue to sell in Sebastopol. This is at least the fourth time I've heard of a seller kept out of the market seemingly by a unilateral decision of the management. Given that there are other choices, this might be the last straw for me. I will get in touch with Bloomfield and if they can't return, I just may not either.

[AllorrahBe]

It will be several weeks before the market starts again.

What does this mean? The Sebastopol Farm Market (at the Plaza) is running all winter this year, right? Except not the next two Sundays because of the holidays, right? Is that what you mean?

I vote for local honey; in fact, I asked Santa for it this year -- and got it!!

Thanks for Bee-in in our Conscious Community!

Rev. Allorrah Be
Circles of Light Ministries

To reply for clarity...we asked for a vendors application and were refused even an application! It will be several weeks before the market starts again. Perhaps things will change or perhaps Sebastopol doesn't want local honey any more?

[G Whitford]

Perhaps I should show up on January 8 in Sebastopol to really see who wants us there? Of course I will not be able to sell, only be there to direct folks to our farm stand on Bloomfield Road. we open it every day and I could just show up at the market about opening time. We love to see positive comments about local honey no matter what the source.

Hope to see a lot of people at the first Sunday market no matter what the cause...remember shop as local as you possibly can!


Bloomfield Bees Honey

[Barry]

[I'm posting this for Paula, the Sebastopol Farm Market Manager]

To Melissa and Deb and Barry and All our Wacco friends...

This is Paula, manager of the Sebastopol Farm Market. I can, hopefully, shed some light on the loss of Bloomfield Bees.

I would like to start by quoting Deb and Melissa's comments:

Deb: "No a reason given to them, no loyalty at all. I find it appalling actually, that someone gets to be in the market if the manager "likes you" and if she doesn't then you get to be replaced. I would like some thoughts on this. This should be our market!"

Melissa: "This is at least the fourth time I've heard of a seller kept out of the market seemingly by a unilateral decision of the management. Given that there are other choices, this might be the last straw for me. I will get in touch with Bloomfield and if they can't return, I just may not either."

Both comments contain mistaken information.

Regarding Deb's mistaken allegations:

I have never told Bloomfield Bees that they cannot sell here as a farmer. Never. I have told them that they are very welcome to continue selling at the Sebastopol Market as a farmer. Any day. Any time. Bloomfield Bees chose to stop selling here because they wish to become a non farmer - actually a wholesaler who buys and sells honey they purchase elsewhere. Market policy, market rules and state law do not permit that. I have explained all this many times to Geoff, owner of Bloomfield Bees. I will explain to you and the general public right now.

The whole entire point of farmers markets is that your farmer is your grower/producer. He doesn't buy stuff from someone else and sell it to you.

There are major major major problems with permitting Geoff to buy wholesale honey and sell it to you as a "non farmer":

1) His product would no longer be inspected by the Ag. Department to be sure that Bloomfield honey is clean and pure and produced by his own bees. Instead, Bloomfield honey could come from anywhere, even China. It could contain antibiotics or other chemicals. It could be diluted with other substances which is the case with most commercial honey.

2) This opens Pandora's box. Today I say to Geoff, "Yes, Bloomfield Bees you can buy honey wholesale and sell it here." Tomorrow Farmer John says to me, "Gee, it's so much easier to buy my vegetables from a wholesaler and sell them here. You let Bloomfield do that. I want to sell produce that I buy at a wholesaler too." If I say yes to Geoff, I have to say yes to anyone. Then we don't have a real certified farmers market anymore. We have a market full of non farmer peddlers. What's the point of that?

3) The other piece is that it is horribly unfair to the real farmers who produce and grow their own product to allow a non farmer wholesaler to sell here. What would prevent Geoff from buying cheap honey and undercutting the local farmers? Nothing. What would that do to the business of the real honey producers?

4) Finally as a consumer, how would you know what you were getting? You wouldn't. You might as well shop at the grocery store since you don't know what you are getting there either.

There is a legal way for Geoff to sell someone else's honey, and this is a bit technical. Sebastopol market rules and state law allows each farmer to sell for two other farmers. All farmers involved in this process have to do a bit of paperwork so the ag. department can be sure that the consumer is getting real farmer grown food. It is called "second certification." I have told Bloomfield Bees over and over that they are welcome to continue selling at the market as farmers if they would do the paperwork with respect to second certification. Geoff has refused to do this for some mysterious reason.

Regarding the accusations that I make "unilateral decisions" based on my personal likes and dislikes. There are a couple of things to say here. One is that I am hired to manage - which means that I make a lot of decisions. It's my job. The caveat is that I have clear guidelines from Market Rules and a Board of Directors who are all sellers here. I am also guided by state law. Basically, I work for the farmers. If they don't like my decisions, they have the power to overrule me. Plus, I wouldn't have the trust and respect of the overwhelming majority of farmers who I have worked with over the past 20 years at this market if I made random management decisions based on something as childish as my personal likes and dislikes. Ask every farmer at the market what they think of me. Don't take the word of one unhappy man.

I have a question for you, Melissa. Who are the 4 sellers that I have kept out of the market and on what basis were they kept out? There is probably a very good explanation which you might want to consider hearing before you make judgments and accusations in a public forum based on misinformation. Casting doubt on my character casts doubt on all the farmers at the market who work so hard to bring beautiful food to the community. That is not fair. You don't have to like me or my management decisions, but please don't punish these amazing farmers in order to harm me.

I would hope that Melissa or Deb or anyone else who has questions or concerns please come and hear what I have to say. One of the most beautiful pieces of the Occupy message is "hear every voice". We are, all of us, even me, the 99%.

Sincerely

Paula Downing
Sebastopol Farm Market Manager

[Dandelion]

Thank you for the explanation Paula
I Love the farmer's market, and would really like to see it stay open later into the day!

[I'm posting this for Paula, the Sebastopol Farm Market Manager]

To Melissa and Deb and Barry and All our Wacco friends...

This is Paula, manager of the Sebastopol Farm Market. I can, hopefully, shed some light on the loss of Bloomfield Bees.

I would like to start by quoting Deb and Melissa's comments:

Deb: "No a reason given to them, no loyalty at all. I find it appalling actually, that someone gets to be in the market if the manager "likes you" and if she doesn't then you get to be replaced. I would like some thoughts on this. This should be our market!"

Melissa: "This is at least the fourth time I've heard of a seller kept out of the market seemingly by a unilateral decision of the management. Given that there are other choices, this might be the last straw for me. I will get in touch with Bloomfield and if they can't return, I just may not either."

Both comments contain mistaken information.

Regarding Deb's mistaken allegations:

I have never told Bloomfield Bees that they cannot sell here as a farmer. Never. I have told them that they are very welcome to continue selling at the Sebastopol Market as a farmer. Any day. Any time. Bloomfield Bees chose to stop selling here because they wish to become a non farmer - actually a wholesaler who buys and sells honey they purchase elsewhere. Market policy, market rules and state law do not permit that. I have explained all this many times to Geoff, owner of Bloomfield Bees. I will explain to you and the general public right now.

The whole entire point of farmers markets is that your farmer is your grower/producer. He doesn't buy stuff from someone else and sell it to you.

There are major major major problems with permitting Geoff to buy wholesale honey and sell it to you as a "non farmer":

1) His product would no longer be inspected by the Ag. Department to be sure that Bloomfield honey is clean and pure and produced by his own bees. Instead, Bloomfield honey could come from anywhere, even China. It could contain antibiotics or other chemicals. It could be diluted with other substances which is the case with most commercial honey.

2) This opens Pandora's box. Today I say to Geoff, "Yes, Bloomfield Bees you can buy honey wholesale and sell it here." Tomorrow Farmer John says to me, "Gee, it's so much easier to buy my vegetables from a wholesaler and sell them here. You let Bloomfield do that. I want to sell produce that I buy at a wholesaler too." If I say yes to Geoff, I have to say yes to anyone. Then we don't have a real certified farmers market anymore. We have a market full of non farmer peddlers. What's the point of that?

3) The other piece is that it is horribly unfair to the real farmers who produce and grow their own product to allow a non farmer wholesaler to sell here. What would prevent Geoff from buying cheap honey and undercutting the local farmers? Nothing. What would that do to the business of the real honey producers?

4) Finally as a consumer, how would you know what you were getting? You wouldn't. You might as well shop at the grocery store since you don't know what you are getting there either.

There is a legal way for Geoff to sell someone else's honey, and this is a bit technical. Sebastopol market rules and state law allows each farmer to sell for two other farmers. All farmers involved in this process have to do a bit of paperwork so the ag. department can be sure that the consumer is getting real farmer grown food. It is called "second certification." I have told Bloomfield Bees over and over that they are welcome to continue selling at the market as farmers if they would do the paperwork with respect to second certification. Geoff has refused to do this for some mysterious reason.

Regarding the accusations that I make "unilateral decisions" based on my personal likes and dislikes. There are a couple of things to say here. One is that I am hired to manage - which means that I make a lot of decisions. It's my job. The caveat is that I have clear guidelines from Market Rules and a Board of Directors who are all sellers here. I am also guided by state law. Basically, I work for the farmers. If they don't like my decisions, they have the power to overrule me. Plus, I wouldn't have the trust and respect of the overwhelming majority of farmers who I have worked with over the past 20 years at this market if I made random management decisions based on something as childish as my personal likes and dislikes. Ask every farmer at the market what they think of me. Don't take the word of one unhappy man.

I have a question for you, Melissa. Who are the 4 sellers that I have kept out of the market and on what basis were they kept out? There is probably a very good explanation which you might want to consider hearing before you make judgments and accusations in a public forum based on misinformation. Casting doubt on my character casts doubt on all the farmers at the market who work so hard to bring beautiful food to the community. That is not fair. You don't have to like me or my management decisions, but please don't punish these amazing farmers in order to harm me.

I would hope that Melissa or Deb or anyone else who has questions or concerns please come and hear what I have to say. One of the most beautiful pieces of the Occupy message is "hear every voice". We are, all of us, even me, the 99%.

Sincerely

Paula Downing
Sebastopol Farm Market Manager

[Fillie]

Paula is awesome, not petty and does a great job managing the market. I trust her and appreciate her immensly.

[Peace Voyager]

I'd like to see the market stay open longer too.

And perhaps review how vendors relations may be improved.

We love this market; it hurts some of us to see folks mad and turn away.

[hales]

Paula, thank you for taking the time and being patient enough to explain the issues around allowing vendors to sell products that they do not grow or process themselves.. I love the Sebastopol market, you are doing wonderful job! the prices, quality and ambiance are possibly the best in Sonoma and Marin counties.. (and I live in Sonoma, which has an excellent market, too, but not as sweet as Sebastopol..)

Scott.

[I'm posting this for Paula, the Sebastopol Farm Market Manager]

To Melissa and Deb and Barry and All our Wacco friends...

This is Paula, manager of the Sebastopol Farm Market. I can, hopefully, shed some light on the loss of Bloomfield Bees.

I would like to start by quoting Deb and Melissa's comments:

Deb: "No a reason given to them, no loyalty at all. I find it appalling actually, that someone gets to be in the market if the manager "likes you" and if she doesn't then you get to be replaced. I would like some thoughts on this. This should be our market!"

Melissa: "This is at least the fourth time I've heard of a seller kept out of the market seemingly by a unilateral decision of the management. Given that there are other choices, this might be the last straw for me. I will get in touch with Bloomfield and if they can't return, I just may not either."

Both comments contain mistaken information.

Regarding Deb's mistaken allegations:

I have never told Bloomfield Bees that they cannot sell here as a farmer. Never. I have told them that they are very welcome to continue selling at the Sebastopol Market as a farmer. Any day. Any time. Bloomfield Bees chose to stop selling here because they wish to become a non farmer - actually a wholesaler who buys and sells honey they purchase elsewhere. Market policy, market rules and state law do not permit that. I have explained all this many times to Geoff, owner of Bloomfield Bees. I will explain to you and the general public right now.

The whole entire point of farmers markets is that your farmer is your grower/producer. He doesn't buy stuff from someone else and sell it to you.

There are major major major problems with permitting Geoff to buy wholesale honey and sell it to you as a "non farmer":

1) His product would no longer be inspected by the Ag. Department to be sure that Bloomfield honey is clean and pure and produced by his own bees. Instead, Bloomfield honey could come from anywhere, even China. It could contain antibiotics or other chemicals. It could be diluted with other substances which is the case with most commercial honey.

2) This opens Pandora's box. Today I say to Geoff, "Yes, Bloomfield Bees you can buy honey wholesale and sell it here." Tomorrow Farmer John says to me, "Gee, it's so much easier to buy my vegetables from a wholesaler and sell them here. You let Bloomfield do that. I want to sell produce that I buy at a wholesaler too." If I say yes to Geoff, I have to say yes to anyone. Then we don't have a real certified farmers market anymore. We have a market full of non farmer peddlers. What's the point of that?

3) The other piece is that it is horribly unfair to the real farmers who produce and grow their own product to allow a non farmer wholesaler to sell here. What would prevent Geoff from buying cheap honey and undercutting the local farmers? Nothing. What would that do to the business of the real honey producers?

4) Finally as a consumer, how would you know what you were getting? You wouldn't. You might as well shop at the grocery store since you don't know what you are getting there either.

There is a legal way for Geoff to sell someone else's honey, and this is a bit technical. Sebastopol market rules and state law allows each farmer to sell for two other farmers. All farmers involved in this process have to do a bit of paperwork so the ag. department can be sure that the consumer is getting real farmer grown food. It is called "second certification." I have told Bloomfield Bees over and over that they are welcome to continue selling at the market as farmers if they would do the paperwork with respect to second certification. Geoff has refused to do this for some mysterious reason.

Regarding the accusations that I make "unilateral decisions" based on my personal likes and dislikes. There are a couple of things to say here. One is that I am hired to manage - which means that I make a lot of decisions. It's my job. The caveat is that I have clear guidelines from Market Rules and a Board of Directors who are all sellers here. I am also guided by state law. Basically, I work for the farmers. If they don't like my decisions, they have the power to overrule me. Plus, I wouldn't have the trust and respect of the overwhelming majority of farmers who I have worked with over the past 20 years at this market if I made random management decisions based on something as childish as my personal likes and dislikes. Ask every farmer at the market what they think of me. Don't take the word of one unhappy man.

I have a question for you, Melissa. Who are the 4 sellers that I have kept out of the market and on what basis were they kept out? There is probably a very good explanation which you might want to consider hearing before you make judgments and accusations in a public forum based on misinformation. Casting doubt on my character casts doubt on all the farmers at the market who work so hard to bring beautiful food to the community. That is not fair. You don't have to like me or my management decisions, but please don't punish these amazing farmers in order to harm me.

I would hope that Melissa or Deb or anyone else who has questions or concerns please come and hear what I have to say. One of the most beautiful pieces of the Occupy message is "hear every voice". We are, all of us, even me, the 99%.

Sincerely

Paula Downing
Sebastopol Farm Market Manager