According to Idyllwild Community Center (ICC) Board President Stephanie Yost, an Agricultural and Standards Investigator with the County of Riverside was in town this past Sunday and stopped by the Farmers Market after seeing the sign advertising the market. He offered some information to Yost that ICC was unaware of and is now working to implement.
The newspaper reached out to Yost after receiving an email from a local about “A County inspector (not sure if he was with Code Enforcement or Public Health) was there [the local had just returned from the Farmers Market] and I overheard him telling someone that there is no permit for the Farmers Market.”
“He explained that, so long as our market sells agricultural products like produce, eggs and honey, we must get a certification and be qualified as a certified Farmers Market,” Yost wrote. “He further explained that both of the vendors who sell agricultural products also must become certified.
“He was quite nice and understood that we just didn’t know this (assuming we could hold it on our private property) and explained what we need to do to become certified, which doesn’t appear too complicated. I will be working with ICC Director Will [Steichen] to get this handled this week. To be clear, the investigator never threatened to shut us down and he understood that we just didn’t realize what we needed to do.”
The local also expressed concern about the lack of social distancing at the Farmers Market.
“I agree with the comment,” wrote Yost. “We have tried to verbally request customers to socially distance but find that isn’t working. Next week, we will have signage and make other efforts to make this requirement clear.”
