The Valley’s Certified Farmers Market expands for summer

Every Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. some local farmers will be at the Westfield Mall in Palm Desert for one of Palm Springs’ Certified Farmers Markets. It’s the second indoor location open for summer.

“All of our farmers participating have to register with our county agriculture department. They have to agree to be randomly inspected. It’s a higher level of scrutiny. You know that what you see came from a real farm. The person behind the table represents that farm and is often the actual farmer,” said Megan D, president of the Certified Farmers of the Coachella Valley.

While the Coachella Valley is among the largest agriculture regions in the state, local farmers who participate in the farmers market are small scale, family run businesses.

“Instead of growing acres and acres and acres of one crop, they’re trying to diversify and sell lots of different things, which increasingly it’s getting harder to make a living by doing that. So by directly supporting farmers with your food budget, you’re helping to keep a tradition around that’s been around for years,” Megan said.

Rodger lives in 29 Palms. He’s the only farm fresh egg producer in the Valley.

“It’s me and my four teenage boys. We live on the farm, we work the farm and we work the farmers markets together. We have 4,280 chickens. We sell 100 percent of our eggs within 24 hours of being laid,” Thomas said.

Shoppers expressed the importance of supporting the local economy.

The market will be open every Sunday at the Westfield mall until September.