Customers hit the streets on Small Enterprise Saturday within the Bay Space to point out help for native institutions. The weekly Saratoga Farmers’ Market was no exception.
“I want a beautiful wreath for my door,” Maria Foss, a San Jose resident, mentioned on the market Saturday morning whereas holding a $100 handmade wreath with flowers grown by Ruvalcaba Nursery out of Monterey County.
Maria Foss, of San Jose, buys a floral wreath from Ruvalcaba Nursery on the Saratoga Farmers’ Market in Saratoga, Calif., on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
“This is California. This is what we’re all about,” Foss mentioned. “I want to keep all our local vendors and farmers supported. … We all have to participate.”
Phil Ruvalcaba, who usually runs the flower stand along with his spouse, Molly, on Saturdays, mentioned enterprise has been good this yr. However, he added, as a result of they promote seasonal flowers, he has to “get creative” to maintain clients joyful when some aren’t in bloom.
The brilliant, colourful blooms of spring and summertime are gone, and now different merchandise hit the market. He mentioned his workforce tries to steadiness affordability with the worth of uncooked supplies so as to maintain folks shopping for flowers and to maintain the lights on on the farm.
“I think it’s tough for everybody. The market really helps us. It gives us an avenue we may not otherwise have,” Ruvalcaba mentioned. “You don’t have to be a farmer to know things are pricier.”
Future Badal, of San Jose, buys flowers from Phill Ruvalcaba of Ruvalcaba Nursery on the Saratoga Farmers’ Market in Saratoga, Calif., on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
Future Badal, a San Jose resident and florist, mentioned she continues to be a daily buyer as a result of Ruvalcaba’s choice and customer support is “excellent.” She walked away Saturday with about 18 bunches of multi-colored calla lilies, cosmos and inventory flowers – a few of which she’s utilizing to make a birthday bouquet for a consumer.
Elsewhere available in the market, farmers offered items akin to almond butter, contemporary vegetables and fruit, artisanal bread and extra.
Cindy Worth, a Sunnyvale resident, mentioned she’s been coming to the Saratoga marketplace for no less than the final six years. On this event, she walked away with a batch of pioppini mushrooms from Far West Fungi, a mushroom farmer primarily based out of Santa Cruz.
As a nurse, she mentioned it’s essential for her to get contemporary produce to keep up her well being and since she likes to strive issues she’s by no means had earlier than. Pioppini mushrooms had been completely new to her on Saturday.
“When I haven’t seen something before, I ask about it and try something new,” she mentioned.
This weekend, Worth was planning to make use of her new fungi to make spaghetti with mushroom and squash in a tomato sauce.
Amy Wessner, a Mountain View resident, purchased contemporary greens from Swank Farms, a cultivator from Hollister. She’s spent the higher a part of the final eight years going to the market on Saturdays, preferring the Saratoga location to the Mountain View market on Sundays as a result of the latter is extra crowded, she mentioned.
Prospects purchase produce from Brian Moreno of Swank Farms on the Saratoga Farmers’ Market in Saratoga, Calif., on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
She mentioned she buys about 80% of her weekly greens and different produce from the market.
“I know it’s a little more expensive, but it lasts longer and it’s good quality,” Wessner mentioned.
Brian Moreno, a employee at Swank Farms, mentioned their enterprise largely relies on clients each Saturday for his or her livelihood.
“The markets are what keeps us mostly going,” Moreno mentioned. “We come whether it rains, whether it’s good weather or bad weather. If no one comes, we can’t be here.”
Different small companies within the area additionally depend upon common foot visitors to maintain their doorways open, akin to Black and Brown, a classic clothes store in San Jose.
Early buyers wait in line to benefit from the yr’s largest sale, together with $10-a-bag clothes on the Black and Brown classic clothes retailer in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
Maryam Handley, a Fullerton resident, stood first in line beside her daughter, Sarah, at Black and Brown on Saturday morning, ready to dig for some gems within the courtyard piles. She was visiting her daughter for the vacation, who lives in Mountain View, and has shopped on the retailer earlier than.
“If we do any Black Friday shopping, it’s at small businesses,” she mentioned, who mentioned she beforehand operated a small handmade jewellery enterprise. “It’s personal.”
On Saturday, proprietor Monisha Murray hosted her largest occasion of the yr – a Black and Brown “courtyard sale.” Customers waited in a line within the late morning that stretched down half a block of San Carlos Avenue for his or her flip to dig by piles of garments, footwear and equipment to fill a brown paper grocery bag and pay $10 for your complete haul.
Ruby Marin, left, and her finest good friend, Ernesto Monarres, each of San Jose, benefit from the $10 bag sale at Black and Brown classic clothes retailer in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
Beginning her enterprise in 2005, Murray opened her store in different areas, akin to one within the Alameda neighborhood of San Jose, earlier than touchdown on San Carlos Avenue a couple of years in the past. She just lately expanded into one other constructing on the property, however regardless of clear development, she mentioned being a small enterprise proprietor continues to show a “struggle.”
Patrons come to her retailer to buy – typically trying to find offers on like-new designer manufacturers akin to Prada, Yves Saint Laurent and extra – however additionally they come to promote clothes and merchandise, as a result of she can also be a purchaser of classic clothes and accessories.
“It’s tough. … It’s survival, but I have a great team,” Murray mentioned. “I’ve never had a Plan B. I’ve just had to be creative and keep it going.”
She mentioned she typically competes with different classic clothes resale web sites and shops for enterprise, however added that, fortunately, her market is not a “niche” enterprise, such because it was twenty years in the past when she began. Persons are purchasing extra typically for classic clothes, she mentioned.
However, as a San Jose native, she mentioned she began her store with a particular mission that retains her coming to work each day.
“The community really supports us. They want us here as much as we want to be here,” Murray mentioned. “I just always wanted to be the staple in San Jose.”
