Santa Cruz Community Farmers’ Markets orchestrates five epic markets in the area—Westside, Live Oak, Scotts Valley and Felton among them.
But the Downtown Santa Cruz edition remains its wisest and robust elder, having launched in 1990, before the World Wide Web entered in the wild.
But the downtown street fest isn’t resting on its lettuce. Now 35, it’s thriving at its new location at Cedar and Church, where Communications and Programs Manager Nicole Zahm has a ringside seat.
“The change in location has been wonderful, and we’ve received an overwhelming—and unexpected—amount of enthusiasm and support,” she says. “The sense of taking over the street and a civic space has generated a lot of comments. It’s been an incredible positive change, almost like a surge of fresh energy.”
The market has also expanded hours to 12:30–5pm Wednesdays, and stands ready to stock a gift basket with, say, some seasonal pomegranate and persimmon, local honey, stylish ceramics, Italian cookies and more. (But it does take off Christmas Eve and NYE, both Wednesdays, which—newsflash—are coming up quicklike.) santacruzfarmersmarket.org
DOUBLE DOWN
The ever-proliferating universe of Humble Sea spots now includes a Santa Cruz Taproom for what it describes as “a limited run of very fun, very temporary pop-up shenanigans.” The first flows hit Dec. 20 and 21 in cahoots with Collective Santa Cruz, as the roving community gathering creatives host two downtown holiday markets, 11am–5pm Dec. 21 and Dec. 22, in the former Logos Books & Records (1117 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz), featuring more than two dozen area artists, plus curated food vendors, collectivesantacruz.com. Another shoppin’ worth stoppin’ by: The Downtown Santa Cruz Makers Market pops up every weekend of the season with 25+ local creators at the former Palace Arts space (1407 Pacific Ave.), scmmakersmarket.com.
RIPENING SITCH
The Wine Institute’s just-published 2025 California Harvest Report notes a long, steady growing season with no major heat events and limited surprises—plus a cool spring and mild summer—allowed for slow maturation. That has state vintners like Melissa Paris, winemaker at Alpha Omega Winery in St. Helena, anticipating concentration and balance in the year’s wines—think reds possessing depth and structure, and whites displaying energy and precision. “The 2025 wines will lean toward elegance rather than opulence,” she says. “This is a vintage that celebrates restraint and vineyard expression.” (At the same time, the USDA forecasts 2025 California winegrape production at 3 million tons, a 4% increase from 2024 but still 16% below the previous three-year average.) More intel from the nonprofit Wine Institute, including their full harvest report, via wineinstitute.org.
BONUS POINTS
The Santa Cruz Warriors and Kaiser Permanente have committed to donating 15 meals to Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County for every point scored by the Santa Cruz Warriors throughout the 2025-26 NBA G League season, a 50% increase from the initial pledge of 10 meals per point. This increase is projected to generate an additional 25,000 meals for the community, santacruzbasketball.com…In-N-Out was so over kids going HAMburger whenever ticket number “67” was called that the burger chain removed it from its order system, following in the footsteps of “69.” Wendy’s and Pizza Hut, meanwhile, are doing 67-cent deals…PepsiCo struck a deal with activist investor Elliott Investment Management, which has a roughly $4 billion stake in the company, to sharpen its strategy amid slowing growth, leading PepsiCo to agree to cut prices and eliminate about 20% of its U.S. product offerings while redirecting savings into marketing and new product innovation. Protein Doritos, anyone?…Ellen DeGeneres, roll us out: “Nothing says holidays like a cheese log.”
