Going to the Saturday Farmers’ Market in the West Plaza parking lot, one finds it is always a place of seasonality, sociability and serendipity. Those who went last Saturday, Aug. 9, happened upon the annual Zucchini Festival, a family friendly event that’s been going on almost as long as the market has existed.
That sounds like a line of sales copy, but it’s pretty close to the truth. The green squash takes center stage at local farmers’ markets, a continuing tradition in home gardening during Sonoma County summers that finds its roots in the Boy Scouts’ Pinewood Derby almost 50 years ago.
The Healdsburg Farmers’ Market is one of the first 22 farmers’ markets in the state, begun in 1978. The Zuke Fest idea came from the Midwest, modeled after Pinewood Derby races, and was brought to Sonoma County by Hilda Swartz, the recently retired manager of the Sonoma Farmers’ Market. Pinewood Derbies are usually run as part of the Boy Scout camping experience, with handmade wooden cars speeding down a sloped wooden track to glory.
Swartz had seen derby-style zucchini races at a county fair in Iowa, and when she returned to Sonoma County she led the first festival around 1980, at the Santa Rosa Original Farmers’ Market, which she managed at the time. That puts it at about the 45-year mark in Sonoma County.
The City of Sonoma was an early partner in the informal Zucchini Festival league, and for many years the wood ramp has been shared between the two cities. (Sonoma’s Zucchini Fest is next week at the regular Tuesday Night Market, Aug. 19, starting at 6pm in Sonoma Plaza.)
“The few markets in the area all worked together in those days and the track was shared with Healdsburg for several years, until the transportation became challenging,” said Mary Kelley, a former manager of the Healdsburg Certified Farmers’ Market. “So Jerry Stewart, a market patron and husband of our contest organizer Barbara, built a track just for the Zucchini Races.”
Other past market directors including Renee and Joel Kiff also contributed to the evolution of the annual August races.
Kelley helped at this year’s Zucchini Festival, volunteering to take the entries for the zucchini decoration and the race itself, and serving on the small vote-monitoring panel along with Brigette Mansell and Susan Rose.
Modest prizes are provided by local vendors for the winners in each of three categories—weight, decoration and race performance—at three age levels. Prizes range from gift certificates up to $50 for some first-place winners to $2 in “market bucks” for all entrants. Key local sponsors included Pizzando-Spoonbar, Shelton’s Natural Foods and Copperfield’s Books.
Participation was modest but enthusiastic: 36 entries competed in the Decorated Zuke categories; the biggest squash measured out at 12.165 pounds (way to go, Fritz Carlson) and while there were 26 heats down the ramp in the races, it was too much fun to determine a winner.
For current Market Director Janet Ciel, the purpose of the event couldn’t be more clear. “The point of the event is to have fun. I’m not sure what other point there should be,” she said. “This is just about the joy of it.”
Photos from the Aug. 9 Zucchini Festival at the Healdsburg Certified Farmers’ Market are by Rick Tang.
