"On bad weather days we can squeeze a few more vendors onto the platform, so we can have as many vendors as possible attend," market manager Janet Ciel told the Press Democrat in March. "Even on stormy or blazing days we will have good-sized markets worth attending."
In spring, when the Healdsburg Farmers' Market opened its season at the new Foley Family Community Pavilion, that sounded like a sales pitch. Now it is about to be tested. This is the first fall the market has run with a permanent roof. The posted schedule runs Saturdays to December 19, 2026, three Saturdays past the end-of-November close the market described in March. December Saturdays are familiar here, since the 2025 season ran to December 20 in the West Plaza parking lot. This year, those wet-season mornings happen under cover, and much of the fall calendar now happens on North Street.
December Saturdays, now under cover
The market dates to 1978. According to the Press Democrat, it was the third certified farmers' market in California, after Davis and Gardena. For 48 years it never had a permanent home. Renee Kiff of Ridgeview Farm, who has tracked the market's past locations, lists an abandoned prune-drying plant at Haydon and East streets, a tiny space in an alley, and the empty lot where Hotel Healdsburg now stands. From the late 1990s it was held in the parking lot behind the hotel.
The Press Democrat describes space and shelter as the two things the pavilion offers that none of those earlier sites did. In March, the market planned to run from April 11 through the end of November, and Ciel said there were no plans for a winter market. The schedule now posted on the market's own site runs Saturdays from April 11 to December 19, 8:30 a.m. to noon. That restores December 5, 12 and 19, matching the December finish of the 2025 season, and puts those three mornings under a roof for the first time.
The Saturday market is now the only one running. The Tuesday market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., ended its season on September 29.
What the old Cerri warehouse gives a market in November
The pavilion is a rebuilt version of the circa-1922 Cerri building, an agricultural supply warehouse. For years it was slated for demolition to make room for more parking. In early 2020 the Foley Family Charitable Foundation pledged what grew to $7.5 million, and the City of Healdsburg added $2.5 million. The Press Democrat puts the total project cost at $10.4 million. The pandemic delayed the work, and construction began in 2024.
Over more than 18 months, crews took the building down to its studs. They poured a new foundation, put on a metal façade and added a canopy that leaves the original trusses exposed. The structure has a stage and a sound system. The brick plaza outside is built to collect rainwater that the city can use in summer. The city held its completion celebration and ribbon-cutting on December 15, 2025.
The size matters as much as the roof. The Press Democrat reports the covered space can hold 8,000 people, which makes it one of the largest covered public spaces north of Santa Rosa. On market days the city also closes North Street between City Hall and Little Saint to give shoppers more room. Ciel's plan for a downpour is to fit extra vendors onto the covered platform.
"As a farmer I would have hoped that food promotion/education/sales would be [the pavilion's] primary use, but the Foley Building will be an effective focus for the community and will surely support some interesting activities." Lou Preston, Preston Farm & Winery, to the Press Democrat
The late-season calendar, Saturday by Saturday
Preston's prediction is already playing out this fall. The City of Healdsburg's community calendar books the pavilion for more than produce, while the Plaza still hosts its biggest October tradition. Here is the rest of the season, with the musicians the market has posted for each Saturday:
- Saturday, October 10. Regular market, with Dave Hamilton.
- Saturday, October 17. The Quail & Condor Bake-Off, with Jacob Philip Benning.
- Saturday, October 24. Market in the morning with the Maile Swing Band. From 4 to 6 p.m. the pavilion hosts the free Howl-O-Ween Pet Parade, open to "your dog, cat, mouse or potbelly pig." Organizers are collecting kibble for the Humane Society's Pet Food Pantry.
- Sunday, October 25. Healdsburg's 10th annual DÃa de Muertos takes place on the Plaza from noon to 6 p.m. It includes a community altar where anyone can add a photo of a loved one, free children's activities, live music, a car show and food for sale.
- Saturday, October 31. The Pumpkin Festival, 8:30 to 11 a.m. No performer is listed yet.
- Saturdays, November 7 through 28. Sheridan Malone, John Youngblood & Co, Shivan Luca and The StriderFactor, in that order. November 28, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, is a regular market. No extra holiday-week market has been announced.
- Saturdays, December 5, 12 and 19. The first December markets under the pavilion's roof, ending the season.
The market's Fall/Holiday Craft Market runs from October through December. Exact dates have not been posted, and the market says more demos and events will be announced once they are scheduled.
Pumpkin Festival rules for October 31
The festival includes three contests, and timing matters for each.
- Pumpkin cars need wheels attached and must be under 11 inches wide.
- Carving happens on site, and the market supplies pumpkins and tools.
- Costumes are judged in three age groups: 7 and under, 8 to 15, and 16 to adult. Registration runs from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.
Voting on race cars runs from 9:30 to 10 a.m. Decorated-pumpkin winners are announced at 10, followed by the races. Voting and awards for carved pumpkins come at 10:30, and costume results at 11. Families entering all three contests should arrive at 8:30.
Who is still on the platform
The market's vendor directory lists a long roster of Saturday growers. They include Front Porch Farm, a certified-organic Healdsburg farm selling flowers, produce, fruit and milled polenta, along with Alexander Valley Farms, Dry Creek Peach & Produce and Anna's Seafood. Also listed are Middleton Farm, Noble Goat Farm, Ortiz Family Farm, Preston Farm, Reyes Farm, Ridgeview Farm and Russian River Organics. The roster also includes Tookey Farms, which grows organic crops in Alexander Valley, and Treehouse Farm, which sells vegetables, fruit, flowers and microgreens. What each stall carries in December depends on the farm and the weather. The directory shows who sells on Saturdays, not what will be in season in the last weeks.
Several of these names also appear in the market's history. Shalie Jonker, the market's board chair, co-owns Noble Goat Orchard and Farm. She called the pavilion "an investment in the community connections and local agriculture that have always been at the heart of our market." Yael Bernier of Bernier Farms in Geyserville, whose husband Paul co-founded the market with Tom Peterson and other farmers, put the case simply: "We always wanted a place to call our own."
The market's first permanent season also has a book. Farm + Market: Healdsburg, by author and photographer Liza Gershman, was produced with the market and the Friends of the Healdsburg Farmers' Market. It is a 324-page hardcover sold at the market, online and at select local bookstores. With the Fall/Holiday Craft Market running into December, it can be bought on a market morning.
North Street, before and after
The pavilion sits just west of Little Saint, near City Hall. Little Saint, at 25 North Street, is a fully plant-based restaurant open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. It runs an all-day restaurant and bakery, a coffee bar, a wine shop and a daily happy hour, plus an all-vegan provisions market with seasonal lunch bowls. Since it opens at 8, the coffee bar is serving before the 8:30 market bell. Because North Street is closed between City Hall and Little Saint on market mornings, the walk from coffee to the produce stalls is car-free. The pavilion is a short stroll from the Plaza, so the October 24 and 25 events are both within walking distance of the same downtown blocks.
In March, Ciel said the market had no plans for winter. The final Saturday of 2026 is now December 19, and it will be held under the restored trusses of the Cerri building.
The Foley Family Community Pavilion is the kind of local investment that shapes daily life in a town long after the ribbon-cutting. At ACT, we follow these changes in Healdsburg and Wine Country closely and see how they affect the way people use a town. If you would like to talk through what Healdsburg's changing downtown means for your own plans, Schedule a Confidential Consultation.