The Scoop on OC Farmer’s Markets: Anaheim

Downtown Anaheim CFM     

205 Center Street Promenade    

12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.    

Manager:  Shelley Reeves 

Email: downtownshell@yahoo.com  

714-956-3586   


I have been going to the Downtown Anaheim Farmer’s Market (DAFM) for years, actually since my 15 year old son was a toddler. They used to open at 10:00 am and close at 4:00 pm, but now they have extended their hours until 7:00 pm, which is awesome during the summer. They always have live music, usually different bands every week. They also always have new vendors coming in with a few key vendors that are always there. They have a very organized set up, the food vendors are set up one side of the street, while the merchandise vendors are set up on the other side. That way if you don’t want to buy merchandise you do not have to visit that side of the market. Otherwise, it would be a bombardment of people trying to sell you their merchandise and I hate pressure sales.

The DAFM also accepts WIC coupons for produce only. For those of you that don’t know what WIC (Women Infants and Children) is, it is a government program to help low-moderate income families with nutrition education and coupons to buy nutrition staples such as produce, juice, grains and dairy. The program also gives these coupons to pregnant mothers to promote healthy eating while pregnant. The DAFM is one of the select farmer’s markets that participate in this program and what better place to get fresh produces than from a farmer’s market.       


My overall rating for the DAFM is 3 out of 5. Only because even though there are a lot of new vendors the old ones leave, so if you are used to buying from a particular vendor chances are you may need to find someone else. I have also noticed that it is not as lively as it used to be. However, the vendors they do have are great and also move to some of the other local farmer’s markets on different days.


Please see more info below:

AUGUST Events Swingin' on the Promenade Saturday, August 13 Art Crawl Experience Saturday, August 13 Rumble & Rock on the Party Block Friday, August 19 Weekly Events Ponderosa Park Farmers' MarketEvery Tuesday  Reggae Days Every Thursday During July Downtown Anaheim Farmers' Market Every Thursday Classic Car Show Every Friday Now Through August (Except July 29) Save the Date Art Crawl Experience Saturday, November 12 Nutrcracker Christmas Tree Lighting Saturday, December 3 Events, Entertainment Schedule and More!

  Sign in   Recent Site Activity   Terms   Report Abuse   Print page  |    Powered by Google Sites

The Scoop on OC Farmer’s Markets: Buena Park

In the past few years farmers markets have become more popular. This spring and summer I will be visiting several farmers’ markets and rating them based on quality, variety, customer service and location.

Farmer’s markets have become so popular because of the freshness, cost effectiveness of the produce and unique items sold that are rarely found anywhere else. Not to mention the awesome food vendors selling exotic foods and good old fashioned comfort food. Farmer’s markets are great for just about anyone; teens, families, singles and retirees alike there is something for everyone. It gives the consumer a chance to get out, get a little exercise and enjoy the outdoors. Most farmers’ have free admission and are open for business about 5 hours one day a week. Many of the vendors also have their businesses on-line which allow you to purchase their items and have them shipped to you.

 Buena Park Farmer’s Market   
La Palma/Stanton – Sears Parking Lot  
Buena Park  
9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.  
Manager: Lee Ostendorf  
562-449-9299 (cell)   

The Buena Park Farmer’s Market sells: fruits and vegetables, pottery, jewelry, clothing, accessories, gourmet foods and food court.

Even though Buena Park is my hometown location, I still find that it is my favorite farmers’ market thus far. The vendors are super friendly; there are no high pressure sales just great people with great products and goods.

My favorite vendor is Debbie from “Salsa Anytime”. Debbie sales 4 dry mixes to make salsas or guacamole that requires the consumer to add tomato sauce, a can of tomatillos or avocados. There or 4 levels of heat mild, medium, hot and extra hot. My personal favorite is medium and my family loves the medium too. The dry mix comes in a round plastic container for convenient storage. Debbie also sells homemade tortilla chips. If you can’t get to the farmers market you can order the salsa from the Salsa Anytime website http://salsaanytime.com/main.sc.  

There is also a great food court some of them are a little pricey, but for the most part all the food is yummy. My favorite food vendors are the Chinese/Boba vendor and the burrito/tamale vendor.

For the little ones, there is a vendor that has a petting zoo and pony rides. However, they are only at the farmers’ market in the spring and summer months.

Attention CA Parents!! We are in a State of Emergency with our Public Schools.

There has been a lot of talk surrounding California Public Schools (CAPS) and the many budget cuts over the past several years. Many of us parents that have kids in CAPS have felt it through class size increases, cut programs and lay-offs of teacher and vital staff. CA State Legislation plans to cut another $4 million from all CAPS. Now more than ever we need to help keep our kids and young adults from loosing their rightful education and their future. CA Residents can help stop these cuts now.

CAPS Teachers have been passing out flyers with information on how everyone (not just parents) can help. CA citizens can CALL legislators, EMAIL and or ATTEND a RALLY in LA, MAY 13th. The purpose of the rally is to gain supporters through awareness to obtain a two-thirds vote needed to place a TAX EXTENSION  MEASURE ON THE BALLOT JUNE 2011.

Locally, Centrailia School District stands to lose at least $1.5 million of the district's budget if the extension is not on the ballot and passed in June.  The breakdown of budget each school stands to lose is as follows: Buena Terra $130,000, Centrailia $187,000, Danbrook $230,000, Miller $175,000, Dysinger $156,000, Los Coyotes $ 175,000, Raymond Temple $114,000 and San Marino $190,000. Centrailia School District was forced to shut down one of their schools and lay-off most of the school's teachers. The average class size has increased to about 35 students per class due to the school closing.

Statewide, CA may lose 20,000 more teachers adding to the 30,000 they have already lost these past three years. Entire music, art, sports programs are being cut from schools. Computer labs and libraries are closing down all across CA. Do your part and contact local legislators. Contact info below:

CA Legislators        Email: http://www.castateofemergency.com/       To Attend the Rally, call
888-268-4334                                                                       (714) 956-4581

Please join teachers and parents that support the June 2011 Tax Extension.

Blessing Always,

Jen

Be Honest with your Friends!

I am deciding to make the "Be Honest" topic a series. In my experience, it is really hard for people to be honest about a number of things. Growing up the majority of Americans are taught to be honest the moment we understand the concept. But somewhere along the way many of us lose the value of being honest, especially when it comes to our friendships.

Friends are very important, however keeping them seems to be really hard sometimes. In high school and even college our friends and social status are very important, but as we mature we find that friendships either evolve throughout the years or just disappear. Part of the problem is friends just can't seem to be honest with one another. For whatever reason is it always seems to be one person that is not being honest. For example, a major problem is standing up a friend when you have plans without calling or providing some kind of explanation. Throughout my lifetime, this has always been a problem for me. I seem to have had a lot of flaky friends that can never be committed to our friendships. I used to be really hurt because they would never call to cancel they just wouldn't show up. I used call asking them what happen and why they didn't call me to cancel. If they would just call then things would be fine it's called common courtesy. But in reality, if they were true friends they would have called and said "sorry I have to cancel our plans" and honestly any reason would be fine. However, this was never the case with people I thought were my friends. I would call and say "I have been waiting for 2 hrs are you coming still?" and they would back peddle to find answers. I used to go this through this numerous times. Until I was feed up, I used to get mad and sometimes I would do the same to them so they could see how it feels. When it comes down to it they just didn't get it because I was making friends with a lot of self absorbed people and things needed to change. These so called friends were friends because I was convenient for them, but the moment I needed them they were never there. Like I said in my first blog everyone comes to me for help and advice because I go out of my way to help people. Friendships are two way streets and not one sided. I was tired of giving and giving, so instead of getting angry I just stopped calling them. I stopped being available.

My true friends are the people I can count on to be honest with me through any situation even if it hurts to hear their honesty. These people are only a handful, the rest I just consider acquaintances or casual friends. Honesty is the glue that holds a friendship together and without it friendships do not survive.

Earth Day is Tomorrow! - Things you can do to help save our planet.

Earth Day is April 22nd every year and it is becoming more and more recognized all over the world. Instead of dedicating one day to our mother earth, we should practice rituals that conserve energy and resources everyday. I know in my last blog "The Big Lay-off" I talked about some green practices to save money when being laid-off. Practices such as; multi-use meals and shopping at farmers markets. Multi-use meals are meals you can turn into other meals later on. For example, if you cook some chicken breast and have some left over you can use it to make chicken salad sandwiches for lunch the next day or left over bread crumbs and egg from a recipes that uses breading can be sauteed in a pan to make homemade bread crumbs for a salad. The easiest way to save some cash and the planet is buying at local farmers markets. You may ask how does this save the earth? Well its simple, first of all locally grown food saves man power and resources. When you by from farmers markets there are no plastic bags unless you request them and there are also no pesticides.

Besides the things that I mentioned to incorporate in your daily rituals you can also do simple things like recycling anything and everything that has the recycle symbol on it. Use less energy by leaving the lights off as much as possible. Use less water and comply with your city's water conservation plan. If you have small plastic bags from the grocery store don't throw them away; use them for small trash bags, taking your lunch to school or work and for taking your dog on a walk to store treats or pick up waste. You can also go a step further it may be a little more expensive, but you can save energy by purchasing only energy efficient appliances. You can also save a lot of cash on utility bills by installing solar panels on your roof. Solar panels cost about $25,000, but they will cut your utility bills in half.

There are so many things we can do to save our planet. There are also many websites that promote green living and energy conservation, especially now during earth day week. So check them out you will learn something new and if you practice any of the suggestions I made or the things you learn from the web you will be saving our planet and preserving it for future generations.

Blessings Always - Jen

People Just Don't Care About Others Anymore!! - Girl Fight

Monday was a pretty normal day. I was asked if I can pick up a few extra kids at my son's Jr. High. As I was waiting for all the kids in the back parking lot near the park one of the kids getting into the car said "oh my GOD look there's a fight"! Sure enough just ahead about 10 ft away there was a bunch of kids flocking together. I told the kids to hurry and get in the car. I drove right up to the crowd with my hand pressed against the horn of my van. There must of been about 50 kids and half of them ran away, but there were about 20 kids still in a huddle. By now I could see what was going on, two girls were punching another girl and by this time she was on the ground. I put my van in park and I quickly jumped out and yelled to the kids in the crowd "hey you better stop this shit right now, because I don't think any of you want to fight me?!" All the kids ran away including the girls that where beating the other girl. I got back in my car and I saw the girl that was beat up limping and walking away. I called out to the girl and I said "hey come here, are you OK sweetie" and I put my hand on her shoulder. She said no and started to tear up and I started to tear up too. I told her to jump in my car and I would drive her to the other side of the school and take her to the office. Finally, a teacher got there and he said that he would take her to the office. As I looked around I noticed all the people including two teachers just standing around not doing a thing. I was appalled that no one stepped in to do anything, but me. I am just one women and there was others that could have stopped the fight before I even got there. One man was just standing right in the midst of the whole thing like it was a show. I took a risk stepping in like I did, but I am a mother and if things were in reverse and it was my child I would want someone to help them.

I dropped off all the kids and went back to the school to make a complaint about the two teachers that didn't do anything to stop the fight and to tell the principal how everything happened. He thanked me and said he wished there were more parents like me and that he would investigate the situation. What is wrong with people? Do they just not care about other people anymore? Are they so wrapped up in their own life to even bother? Or are they afraid of getting sewed? I want to hear from you, let me know how you feel about this subject?

Blessings Always - Jen

The Big Layoff

As all of you know our country is going through hard economic times. This downward trend started really taking effect in late 2008. Huge layoffs in major companies, businesses closing and houses going into foreclosure left and right. Well I have been affected by this economic downward spiral too along with thousands of others in the United States. I was laid-off in Oct 2009 and recently found a job again in Feb 2011, but part-time in a totally new field. Being laid off is extremely hard financially and emotionally, but if you make some changes in your live it can help you weather the storm. In what to most is a huge financial loss, can actually help you find peace.

When I was laid off I started thinking about how I can make the best of the situation. At that time my family and I were going through major unthinkable turmoil and my littlest one was greatly affected, which was  causing problems at school. I thought of this time as an opportunity to help my son coupe and heal from the scars of his abuse. I knew that by being at school with him it would help him overcome his fears and he would know he had my support. In conjunction with volunteering at the school I started doing full-time school transportation for the kids that went to my son's old daycare. I also started volunteering with a cat rescue group a couple days a week too. Volunteering at these places helped me through the depression of my family struggles and the depression of being laid-off. I met tons of new people that helped me think of my own ideas to get through this long-term temporary phase in my life.

I knew I didn't want to go back to the crazy schedule and stressful environment at my old job. But I also couldn't do anything the moment with my recent Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice because while going through the steps of becoming a State Parole Officer I discovered I had an illness that can only be corrected by surgery. Having this condition prohibited me from going forward with the career path I had chosen because I was laid off and had no medical insurance. Sure I could sulk about the multiple unfortunate events in my life or I could adjust my routines and roll with life's punches. I am not gonna lie and say I never cried or complained like everyone else around me, but I quickly picked myself up and made some changes.

First to save money, I had to get rid of the beauty rituals I was accustomed to. I stoped dying my hair and limited my trips to the nail shop from every week to every 2 months. What saved my family a ton of cash was cooking at home more often, cooking multi-meal items, learning to make meals from scratch and going to local farmers markets instead of major grocery chains. Changing these habits saved me a ton of cash. Not to mention I was no longer paying for daycare or commuting everyday. Also what helps tremendously is clipping coupons and getting them online. Of course, it also helped that I was approved for unemployment and my mother moved in with me and helped with the rent.

As far as the job search goes its tough. The last time I got laid off before the major economic crisis I found a permanent job in three weeks, but those days are over. This time it took me a year and four months to find another job. Look for work everyday and not in the field you were in either per say, but just other fields you can manage to land based off of qualities and work ethics you have already attained. You can also try to attend a career school. I know of many people that have went that route and have been successful. There are also several people that started their own businesses and have been fruitful even during these economically trying times.

Sure I miss having the money and pampering myself, but the positive is I have more time to be involved with all of my kids in a more hands-on way and I see my husband more too. The part-time job was great for a while. I got to learn about something totally new and the money is not too far off from what I was making before, but things are slowing down and I am not working as much as I would like to. So I am trying new things like this blog and bidding on jobs I can do at home. When there's a will there is a way and I will make it.