Great Mall Farmers Market to Close for Season

Not all farmers markets are open year-round. On Sunday, the Great Mall Farmers Market will close for the season and give about a dozen vendors a rest.

The lead organizer of the market is Yang Farms, owned by a husband-and-wife team, Chang and Lau Yang, who drive three hours each way, from Fresno to Milpitas.

While the bigger and older farmers market at the India Community Center will continue year-round, Milpitas Patch considered it worthwhile to travel to Fresno produce a short video on the Yangs—as they won't be back in town until next May. 

Chang Yang quit his job in 1997 to farm full time with his wife. By that time, he was in his 40s. Today, he says, "We think if we weren't so old, we'd like to consider something else."

The Yangs farm on 25 acres, some of which they own and some that's leased.

Each day, the two start at sunrise and work until noon. Then they head back into the fields in the late afternoon and stay after dark, wearing headlamps.

The Yangs fled Laos as refugees in the 1970s and are descendants of generations of mountain farmers. But in the U.S., they've learned new techniques on flat, arid land, and to use tools, such as tractors.

Their calloused hands are evidence of their years of hard work to bring fresh-picked produce to the farmers market. Still, Yang says that five years from now, "If healthwise, we are still able to do it, we'll still be doing farmers markets."

The Yangs and their five employees produce enough vegetables to sell to wholesale distributors. They have three other markets besides Milpitas—Mountain View, Union City and San Leandro—and have no plans to expand.

Yang says he is content with the way things are now.

"We can only do one thing at a time, and be in one place at a time."