It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has put many businesses out of business. One “growing” concern, however, that’s managed to weather the storm is the Montclair Village Farmers’ Market. The backbone of its survival has been due primarily to the diligent Northern California farmers who provide the organic fresh fruits and vegetables sold at the weekly event, but it hasn’t been easy.

Held each Sunday since 2005, the farmers’ market takes place on a block of La Salle Avenue that’s closed to car traffic between Mountain and Moraga avenues in the heart of Oakland’s Montclair district. Farmers set up stalls along the sidewalks on both sides of the street to sell their seasonal organic fruits and vegetables.

Denise Smith and her husband, Roy, have brought apples, blueberries and cherries from D&R Farms in Linden, 84 miles east of Oakland, to Montclair for almost 20 years. Hit by a wicked freeze and hail storm last February that damaged a lot of their crops, Smith says they’ve been able to overcome that. What concerns her lately though is the lack of families coming to the market.

“We’re not getting as many families out here as we would like,” says Smith. “We’re not getting the kids as much. I don’t know if it’s because of COVID and they don’t want the kids out or there’s too many events going on for them, like soccer. We try to do specials for kids. We’re giving out apples. I’m trying to teach ’em some stuff about the nutrition of apples and the product.”

Another issue Smith sees at the market is the decline in new customers.

“We have a great relationship with a lot of faithful customers. The problem is we’re not getting enough new customers. The elderly are starting to retire and move away, so we need to start trying to bring in new customers. We need more foot traffic out here. We really do.”

Still another problem D&R and other farmers who participate in the market face is the difficulty farmers’ have finding workers willing to put in the long hours needed to bring product to it.

“We’ve noticed we’re losing farmers because they can’t get workers and it’s hard because of how much people want to be paid and you can only pay so much because of the cost to come out here with gas prices and stall fee insurance,” says Smith. “And then you have to have a worker that wants to get up at 3, 4 in the morning and drive this distance to do this. Those are some of the little problems that we have with doing farmers’ markets.”

In addition to Montclair, D&R also sells at farmers’ markets throughout the San Joaquin Valley and as far south as San Diego. Still, at its heart, D&R is a family operation.

“It’s a family business for us, so all family members work the farm, pick, harvest, can, box and sell it. We don’t hire outside help right now. We’re just not big enough,” says Smith.

Another family farmer who’s making the Montclair Farmers’ Market work for their business is Jimmy Egoian of Twin Girls Farms in Dinuba, south of Fresno. Every Sunday they bring Twin Girls’ latest crop of grapes, apples, persimmons, pomegranates, plums and other delicacies to Montclair, but it’s definitely been a challenge. He describes the current state of Twin Girls’ business as “semi-postpandemic.”

“We had great support through the pandemic, so it’s been good in that regard,” says Egoian. “It’s been a little bit difficult postpandemic because we’re all trying to get back to some sense of what we were, which I don’t know if we ever will because we’ve had a new life handed to us.”

Like Smith, Egoian says one of their biggest problems is labor.

“We just have a difficult time with labor costs. People’s living expenses are horrendous. So we don’t have any issues with increased hourly wages but it’s just hard to get help. It’s been a quite a challenge, one we didn’t really anticipate.”

The Montclair Village Farmers’ Market takes place every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sponsored by the Montclair Village Association (MVA), free parking is available in the garage at the east end of La Salle Avenue. For more information, visit montclairvillage.com/farmers-market online or contact the MVA at info@montclairvillage.com.

Paul Kilduff is a San Francisco-based writer who also draws cartoons. He can be reached at pkilduff350@gmail.com.