Lamorinda Farmers Markets - Orinda, Moraga, and Where Lafayette Goes

Lamorinda farmers market

The honest answer first, because everyone asks: there is no Lafayette Farmers Market. The original Lafayette Farmers Market closed for good on Labor Day 2013. Locals who want a Saturday market drive five minutes to Orinda. Locals who want a Sunday market drive five minutes to Moraga. The total absence of a Lafayette market is one of the small, persistent oddities of life in the largest of the three Lamorinda towns - and it’s also why the Orinda and Moraga markets are larger and more entrenched than they would otherwise need to be. They serve all of Lamorinda.

Here’s the practical guide to both markets, what each one is actually good for, and how to plan a weekend morning around them.

The Two Markets, Side by Side

	Orinda Farmers Market	Moraga Farmers Market
Day	Saturday	Sunday
Hours	9 AM - 1 PM	9 AM - 1 PM
Season	Year-round	Year-round
Location	Orinda Way, in front of Rite Aid and Orinda Community Park	Moraga Center, corner of Moraga Road & Moraga Way
Operator	Contra Costa Certified Farmers’ Markets (CCCFM)	California Farmers’ Markets Association (CFMA)
Size	~25-35 vendors	40+ farmers and vendors
Parking	Community Center lot, on-street, Theatre Square garage	Moraga Center lot
Best paired with	Coffee + a walk through Orinda Village	Brunch + the Lafayette-Moraga Trail

Both markets are certified farmers’ markets - meaning vendors must be the actual producers, not resellers. Both run year-round. Both accept CalFresh/EBT and WIC. Neither is a “tourist” market - they are for the people who live here.

Orinda Farmers Market (Saturday)

When: Saturdays, 9 AM to 1 PM, year-round
Where: Orinda Way, between Santa Maria Way and the Community Park (in front of Rite Aid)
Operator: Contra Costa Certified Farmers’ Markets - a 501(c)(5) non-profit, now celebrating over 25 years on this site
Address shortcut: 26 Orinda Way, Orinda, CA 94563

The Orinda market sits on Orinda Way at the western edge of Orinda Village, with the Community Park directly behind it. The market itself is a single linear stretch of tents - easy to walk in fifteen minutes, easy to spend ninety minutes in. The crowd is a mix of Orinda regulars, Moraga families crossing town on Saturday morning, and a smaller contingent of Lafayette residents who have made Saturday-Orinda a weekly rhythm.

What it’s known for:

Live music at the central tent through most of the season - usually a single acoustic act, the kind of thing where you stop for two songs before moving on.
A strong stone fruit lineup through summer (June through September) - Brentwood peaches, apricots, nectarines, the last of the cherries in June.
Local honey, olive oil, and preserves - the kind of pantry staples that are genuinely better than the supermarket version and not much more expensive.
The information booth with free copies of Edible East Bay and current vendor lists.

Practical notes:

Park in the Orinda Community Park lot directly behind the market, or in the Theatre Square garage and walk over (about three minutes). Street parking on Orinda Way fills up by 9:15.
The market is dog-friendly on leash - well-behaved dogs are welcome, but the central produce aisle gets crowded by 10 AM. Earlier is easier with a dog.
BART-accessible - Orinda BART is a ten-minute walk if you’re coming from Berkeley or the city.
The Orinda Theatre is across the freeway in Theatre Square if you want to make a morning of it: coffee → market → matinee.

Best time to go: 9:00-9:45 AM. The vendors are stocked, the crowd is thin, and you can still ask the peach guy which variety is at peak this week without holding up a line.

Moraga Farmers Market (Sunday)

When: Sundays, 9 AM to 1 PM, year-round
Where: Moraga Center, corner of Moraga Road and Moraga Way
Operator: California Farmers’ Markets Association (CFMA)
Address shortcut: Moraga Center, 1480 Moraga Road, Moraga, CA 94556

The Moraga market is larger than the Orinda market (40+ vendors versus ~25-35) and feels more like a destination Sunday morning than a quick stop. It’s laid out around the Moraga Center parking lot, with vendors in a U-shape and prepared-food carts at one end. The crowd is heavier on families - strollers, school-age kids, a strong “post-soccer-practice breakfast” demographic - and the social density is real. You will run into people you know.

What it’s known for:

Seasonal kid events - the Halloween Harvest Festival, the Easter Egg Hunt, the Grape Escape in early fall, the costume parade. These are genuine local traditions, not marketing.
A prepared-food row - tamales, baked goods, pupusas, coffee, fresh juice - that makes it easy to turn the market into brunch on the spot.
40+ vendors including some that don’t appear at the Orinda market - broader cheese selection, more flower vendors, occasional pasture-raised meat and seafood stalls.
The post-market walk - many families finish the market, grab a coffee at Si Si Caffé or a pastry at Town Bakery, and walk it off on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail (the trail’s western terminus is a five-minute walk from the market).

Practical notes:

Park in the Moraga Center lot directly adjacent to the market. Overflow parking in the Rheem Center lot a few minutes’ drive away.
Bring cash and cards - most vendors take both, but some of the smaller producers are cash-preferred.
CalFresh/EBT and WIC accepted - the market participates in the Market Match program.
The market shares its weekend with the Sunday-morning Saint Mary’s College campus walk, the Lafayette-Moraga Trail bike traffic, and the post-church coffee crowd at Loard’s Ice Cream (open by 11 AM). It is the busiest hour of the Moraga week.

Best time to go: 9:00-10:00 AM for serious shopping; 10:00-11:30 AM for the social brunch-and-browse rhythm; after 12:30 PM for end-of-market discounts on bread and produce (vendors prefer to sell down rather than pack up).

What’s in Season (Early-to-Mid July 2026)

Right now, both markets are in full mid-summer mode - the Fourth-of-July weekend was the inflection point when stone fruit took over the front row of nearly every produce stall, and by the second week of July the first serious field tomatoes are landing:

Stone fruit at peak: Brentwood peaches and nectarines are at true peak - Snow Queen and Spring Lady are done, Suncrest, Red Top, and O’Henry-track yellow peaches are the front-row varieties this weekend, and the white peaches and pluots are arriving in volume. Apricots are almost done for the year - Blenheims were essentially gone by the last weekend of June; a stall or two may still have the late-picked cots on Saturday Jul 4 but expect them off the tables by Jul 11. Cherries are fully gone.
Strawberries tapering: The April-planted rows are still producing but volume is dropping week-over-week as stone fruit dominates. Late-picked July berries are smaller and more concentrated in flavor. Expect strawberry volume to drop further through July.
First serious field tomatoes: Several Brentwood and Sunol growers now have real volume on early-slicing and cherry tomatoes - heirlooms remain limited but Early Girl, Sungold cherries, and small Roma varieties are landing in meaningful quantities this weekend for the first time. Prices remain premium; the real East Bay tomato peak is still three to five weeks out (late July through September).
Summer vegetables in full swing: Zucchini and summer squash in volume, sweet corn from Brentwood arriving at multiple stalls (peak is Jul-Aug), green beans, Padrón and shishito peppers, first eggplant. Asparagus and English peas are gone for the year.
Flowers: Dahlias in full color, sunflowers landing in bunched volumes for the Fourth-of-July-weekend table centerpiece market, zinnias arriving. Peonies long gone.
Melons: First real cantaloupe and honeydew from the hotter inland farms are now on the tables at two or three stalls - flavor is improving week-over-week; the peak melon stretch is mid-July through August.

Fourth-of-July Weekend at the Markets (Evergreen)

Both markets stay open on their normal schedule on Fourth-of-July weekend, every year. Orinda runs Saturday 9am-1pm and Moraga runs Sunday 9am-1pm. Neither market takes a Fourth-of-July holiday break; both operator associations (CCCFM for Orinda, CFMA for Moraga) treat the holiday as a normal market day, and both markets have been open every Fourth-of-July Saturday for years.

The holiday-weekend rhythm is stable year-to-year, so if you’re planning a Fourth-of-July-adjacent market visit, these patterns hold:

Saturday of Fourth-of-July weekend at Orinda is the day-of-fireworks market when the Fourth falls on a Saturday, or a runway market when it falls midweek. Crowd flow runs earlier-than-normal on the Saturday of a fireworks weekend - families come in through the 9:00-10:15 window to shop, then leave to prep for the Moraga Commons fireworks-night crowd or their own backyard parties. The 10:15-11:30 window is calmer than a normal Saturday - most of the shop-and-leave crowd is already gone, and the walk-up-brunch crowd is thinner because many families are prepping food at home. If you can push your market visit into that window, this is one of the easier Orinda Saturdays of the year.
Watermelon, corn, stone fruit, and flowers sell fastest on the Fourth itself and the Saturday closest to it - the classic Fourth-of-July table lineup. Get there before 10:15 if any of those are your target. The bread and pastry stalls sell out about thirty minutes earlier than normal.
Sunday of Fourth-of-July weekend at Moraga is the natural post-fireworks-recovery slot - low-social-density, walk-in-friendly. Foot traffic is meaningfully lighter than a normal summer Sunday (many locals are traveling, or sleeping in after Saturday night). The 9:00-10:30 window at Moraga on Fourth-of-July Sunday is one of the easiest full-selection Sunday market visits of the summer. The prepared-food row is at normal volume, so a market-and-brunch move works cleanly.
Vendor rotation on Fourth-of-July Sunday - a handful of vendors work both weekend markets, and their Sunday selection reflects Saturday’s draw. Practical read for the Sunday Moraga visit:
- Frog Hollow Farm (Brentwood stone fruit) typically works Sat-Orinda and Sun-Moraga on Fourth-of-July weekend. Sunday selection is narrower than Saturday - white peaches and Suncrest peaches typically sell through by 11 AM, but the O’Henry and yellow nectarine selection holds well into the 10:30-12:00 window.
- Brentwood cherry vendors (last week or two of the East Bay cherry window in years when the season stretches into early July) may still be on the Sunday tables at markdown pricing - the Sunday-after-fireworks is functionally the season’s clearance day for late Bings and Rainiers when the timing lines up.
- Sebastopol dahlia growers bring red-white-and-blue mixed buckets that are Fourth-of-July-relevant through Sunday morning and land on 30% markdown by Monday. Sunday 9-10:30 is the sweet spot for a full-color bucket at full price; the Monday-morning move is the same bucket at markdown if color-mix is less critical.
- Prepared-food row (breakfast tacos, pupusas, pastries) is at normal volume - the vendors staff for a normal Sunday, so the shorter line at 9-10 AM on Fourth-of-July Sunday is a real edge.
Market-then-Reservoir combo - the Lafayette Reservoir loop at 11 AM pairs cleanly with a 9:15-10:30 Moraga market visit any Sunday, but especially on Fourth-of-July Sunday when the reservoir loop lot runs at roughly 60% capacity (versus 90%+ on a normal summer Sunday). Drive time Moraga Center to the Reservoir staging lot on Mt. Diablo Boulevard is about 8 minutes via St. Mary’s Road; the 2.7-mile paved loop is the canonical post-fireworks recovery hike.
Parking is easier at both markets on Fourth-of-July weekend than a normal early-July Saturday/Sunday - the double-holiday-weekend travel pattern draws down local car counts.
St. Mary’s Road congestion - see the Getting Around Fourth-of-July-week frame for the standard 4:30-7:30pm St. Mary’s Road congestion window around the Moraga Commons fireworks event on the evening of the Fourth (Sat when the Fourth falls on a Saturday, Fri/Sat depending on the calendar in other years). This window doesn’t affect the Saturday-morning Orinda market visit, but it does mean that if you’re planning a fireworks-day Orinda-market-then-Moraga-Commons-fireworks combo, you want to be out of Moraga before 4:30pm and back for the concert at 6pm.

Why There’s No Lafayette Farmers Market

The original Lafayette Farmers Market ran for years and closed for good on Labor Day 2013, citing declining vendor participation and the rise of nearby year-round markets (specifically Orinda, Walnut Creek, and Moraga). There have been occasional pop-up and seasonal market efforts in Lafayette since - the Shoppes at Lafayette has hosted summer-evening market events, and various civic groups have floated revival ideas - but no permanent weekly Lafayette Farmers Market currently operates.

The practical result: Lafayette residents who want a weekly farmers market split between Saturday-Orinda and Sunday-Moraga. Many do both, treating it as a two-stop weekly produce run, with Saturday Orinda for the early stone fruit and meat vendors and Sunday Moraga for the broader selection and the social brunch. This is the established Lamorinda pattern.

If you live in Lafayette and the absence of a hometown market bothers you, your closest weekday alternatives are Whole Foods at 3502 Mt Diablo Blvd (daily) and Diablo Foods at 3615 Mt Diablo Blvd (daily) - both of which carry strong local-producer selections and have absorbed much of the weekday “I just want good produce” demand that a Lafayette market would otherwise serve.

The Weekend-Morning Game Plan

If you want to do this properly on a single weekend in early summer:

Saturday - Orinda Market morning

8:30 AM - Coffee at Shelby’s or one of the Theatre Square cafes.
9:00-10:00 AM - Walk the Orinda market end-to-end. Buy stone fruit, flowers, honey.
10:15 AM - Quick walk through the Community Park behind the market; the playground is empty before 10:30.
10:45 AM - Drive home with the produce. Total time: under two hours.

Sunday - Moraga Market morning

8:45 AM - Park at Moraga Center.
9:00-10:30 AM - Market browse, including a pastry-and-coffee stop at the prepared-food row.
10:45 AM - Walk the western stretch of the Lafayette-Moraga Trail - 15-20 minutes out, 15-20 minutes back.
12:00 PM - Late brunch or a slow scoop at Loard’s on the way back to the car.

You will have spent your weekend at both markets, walked one trail, eaten two meals out, and brought home enough local produce to anchor the entire next week of cooking. This is the model. Most Lamorinda households who use the markets seriously settle into some version of it.

A Note on the Second Weekend of June

The second weekend of June is, every year, the busiest weekend of the year at the Orinda Saturday market - by a meaningful margin. Acalanes graduates Friday night, Campolindo Saturday night, and the Saturday-morning market becomes the single most efficient staging ground in Lamorinda for the wave of afternoon and Sunday graduation parties. Strawberries, flowers, and bread sell out a full hour earlier than normal. The cheese guy doubles his board sales. The grain-free granola stand has the slowest Saturday of its year.

If you’re hosting a grad party this weekend: get to the market by 9:15 sharp. If you’re not: come at 11:30 for the calm, the kettle corn, and a remarkable amount of leftover lavender. See the Orinda Farmers Market on Graduation Saturday field report for the full anthropology.