Hot Harvest Nights Cool Off

Just a few weeks ago, I stopped by my favorite local farmers' market after work, and really felt the "hot" in hot harvest nights. At 6pm, it was 90 degrees outside! The market was bustling with shoppers, and full of vendors with height-of-summer produce like tomatoes, eggplant, corn and zucchini. Since then, the days have shortened noticeably and the temperatures have dropped to autumn cool levels.

This market is one of the Peninsula's many locations that keeps a short season, opening in May and closing down in late September. (I hope to catch the very last one, this coming Thursday.) Last year, I wrote an article for Patch.com about where to find markets open year-round, or later into the fall. Now I'll need to consult it again, myself.

While I always feel a bit sad when Hot Harvest Nights shutters for the winter, there is something that feels appropriately seasonal about the decision. Set up on the main street of San Carlos, with businesses on either side, the good light falling on the vendors visibly wanes in the last few weeks of the market season. Could the city bring in lights and draw shoppers throughout the fall and winter? Probably. But the crowds would certainly thin, along with the lovely anticipation of the market's re-opening in May.