montereycountynow.com/bestof BEST OF MONTEREY COUNTY® 2026 43 BEST FARMERS MARKET Old Monterey Farmers Market Alvarado Street, Monterey (831) 655-2607, oldmonterey.org You can find sweet and savory culinary treats alongside fresh fruit and vegetables at the Old Monterey Farmers Market. The weekly Tuesday destination, established in 1991, can feel like a circus at peak times, when as many as 10,000 patrons fill the market, which, like a midway, spans nearly four blocks. Alongside a variety of edible curiosities, the market features arts and crafts, jewelry, clothing, flowers and even live performances, although without any clowns or exotic animals—usually. BEST BIG GROWER - FRUITS & VEGETABLES Driscoll’s 345 Westridge Drive, Watsonville (800) 871-3333, driscolls.com Cotton candy, funnel cakes decked in powdered sugar, caramel apples with rich, sticky goodness—the best part about the circus might be the finger-licking sweetness found in the snacks. The cotton candy is spun in mesmerizing fashion, transformed into a cloud that melts in the mouth. If cotton candy grew in nature, it might just look like Driscoll’s berries, with that juicy sweetness from blackberries and raspberries that turn the lips blush and feel like a treat. It’s fruit so good, children will give up on sugar. BEST ORGANIC GROWER Earthbound Farm 150 Main St., 300, Salinas (office). (800) 690-3200 7250 Carmel Valley Road, Carmel (farmstand). (831) 625-6219 earthboundfarm.com It can’t be all carnival food all the time for the members of the circus troupe. The mainstay of organic produce sections in grocery stores in Monterey County and all around the United States is Earthbound Farm. The organic greens powerhouse was founded on a 2.5-acre farm in Carmel Valley which now houses a farmstand with produce, flowers, gifts, light bites and soft serve ice cream. BEST AG INDUSTRY LEADER Richard Chapman Rodriguez BEST LOCAL AG EDUCATOR Hartnell College 411 Central Ave., Salinas (831) 755-6700, hartnell.edu Sure, a good circus needs performers flying through the air, disappearing acts using water tanks, nimble toes walking the high-wire. But the people behind the scenes are just as important to the performance as the people in the show. Someone’s gotta run the big top operations, raising the tents and engineering the trap doors. Richard Chapman Rodriguez is our big top guy in ag, finding fixes to agricultural problems using his tech savvy to find solutions in robotics and integrating AI. As a Hartnell professor, he sets up the backdrop for his students, who take the robotics show on the road. But Rodriguez is only part of what makes Hartnell tops in ag education. From the basics of plant science to cutting-edge mechatronics, the school leads the way—year round. As George Carlin said, “just ’cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.” BEST WOMAN IN AG Hester Parker, Everyone’s Harvest (831) 384-6961, everyonesharvest.org At the circus, there is one role that serves as the main connector, the one that helps the audience navigate the show, that links different acts—the acrobats with the lion tamers, the dogand-pony shows. That person is the ringmaster, the person who turns the show into a performance. Agriculture’s ringmaster may be none other than Hester Parker, executive director of the nonprofit Everyone’s Harvest. She orchestrates all kinds of programs and events. Perhaps best of all, she brings together growers with the community for a full display the county’s best produce at more than six farmers markets and so much more. BEST AG NONPROFIT Food Bank for Monterey County 353 W. Rossi St., Salinas (831) 758-1523, foodbankformontereycounty.org The very first of the big tents to go up when the Greatest Show on Earth arrived by train to a new city was the cookhouse tent. More than 100 people worked inside to feed the enormous number of performers and workers. Melissa Kendrick, CEO and executive director of the Food Bank for Monterey County, and her team have their own big crowd to feed—they provide food to one in three residents of the county. The reason Kendrick believes readers chose the Food Bank as the best ag nonprofit is due to its reach, the 5,000 weekly volunteers and the many donors who make it all possible. “At the end of the day, we’re in this ecosystem of amazing people doing amazing work with amazing gratitude,” she says. BEST AGRICULTURE BUSINESS ASSOCIATION Monterey County Farm Bureau 1140 Abbott St., C, Salinas (831) 751-3100, montereycfb.com It’s no small feat to master the art of agility. Lillian Leitzel, the queen of aerial gymnastics, would captivate audiences with tricks that involved dislocating her arm while flipping head over heels from rings 50 feet above the ground. Like Leitzel, farmers too learn this skill—in a form more applicable (and useful) to the real world—shapeshifting at the whims of changing seasons, economic pressures and consumer preferences. The nonprofit Monterey County Farm Bureau keeps farmers growing, helping them stay agile as they jump through their own hoops navigating water, land-use and policy questions. BEST FARMERS MARKET VENDOR Stackhouse Orchards Various Farmers Market Locations (800) 398-1043, stackhouseorchards.com Jugglers like to get their hands on lots of different objects, fruit being a favorite. Crowds delighted at the sight of a Agriculture Best Ag Nonprofit | Food Bank for Monterey County
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