BERKELEY, Calif. — The Downtown Berkeley Farmers’ Market was bright and booming on Saturday as the vendors displayed their goods and the customers perused the tents. The vendors sold primarily natural and organic produce and handmade natural products.
Eduardo Morell is a former film and art student who quit college when “the filmmaking became way too expensive with all the chemicals that were bad for the environment,” he said.
After leaving the film business behind, Morell taught himself how to bake and applied his newly developed skills to the market and its demand, which happened to be the Downtown Berkeley Farmers’ Market. The family-owned business, which has been present for 16 years, promotes a healthier lifestyle by making all-organic sourdough bread.
Since 1969, the Farmers’ Market has served as a home and meeting place for vendors such as Eduardo who promote a healthier lifestyle and sell their products. The market has been at the forefront of green innovation for decades and was the first on the scene of banning the use of plastic bags.
One example of a person at the forefront of green and natural innovation is Adriane Bovone, who promotes a natural and healthy lifestyle with her stand of all natural medicine owned by her husband, Joshua Muscat’s company: Plumas Botanic Medicine Clinic, previously known as the San Francisco Botanical Clinic.
Muscat previously had health issues that could not be treated by prescription medicine, which prompted him to find natural remedies not always present in over-the-counter drugs and later started the clinic to help others. Their products are primarily aimed at treating common colds, stress, allergies and sleep problems.
“SFBMC is also committed to working in association with clinic
al herbalists in San Francisco, the Greater Bay Area and beyond,” according to the the company’s website/
Bob Bernstein, an apple-cider merchant, is a seasoned veteran of the market. Bernstein traveled from Chicago to San Francisco to discover the business of working at an orchard and selling apple cider.
“I just kind of stumbled into it actually,” Bernstein said. “It was 1971, and I was just hitchhiking around, when I stumbled onto this apple farm, and I’ve been there ever since.”
Home page photo: Bob Bernstein sells his apple cider weekly at the farmers’ market. (Photo by Polina Mogilevsky)