What? The Farmers Market in Los Angeles is a tourist attraction?

The Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax boasts that it is the oldest farmers’ market in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1917 when a few farmers pulled wagons filled of local vegetables and fruits onto a vacant lot and began to sell.

But 98 years later it is sad. Worn. Bedraggled.  In seriously need of an upgrade.  And, in my mind, it barely qualifies as a ‘farmers market’.  There are a couple of fresh fruit stalls near one entrance, but that’s it.

No rows and rows of farmers selling their own delicious locally-grown fruits and veggies like the ones you find at the dozens of neighborhood farmers markets all over L.A.

I suspect that tourists who come here must come away with a mistaken view of what a Los Angeles Farmers’ Market really is.

It is more of a fast food lunch place than a place to buy the freshest fruits and vegetables.  Whoever owns the property should take a cue from the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles which has experienced a rebirth in the last two years.  (The post I wrote about the Grand Central Market is here.)

On the other hand, some of the stalls at the Farmers Market are quite colorful so I took a few photos.  (We ate lunch across the street at Mendocino Farms.)