On the last Sunday morning of October, the corner of Main Street and N. Santa Cruz Avenue in downtown Los Gatos does what it does every Sunday: it fills with tables of seasonal fruit, honey, mushrooms, eggs and fresh-roasted herbed-crusted chicken from more than 40 farmers and food producers from Santa Clara County. On October 25, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the California Farmers' Markets Association adds a seasonal layer to that routine — Halloween Harvest & Pawlooza, a free, open-air market day with a costume-and-pet twist.
The setting is Town Park Plaza, the downtown green where the Los Gatos Certified Farmers' Market sets up weekly. It is a market with a specific and somewhat unusual rulebook: the association notes that merchants must be members of the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce and are limited to four market days per year. That constraint says something about the character of the place. This is not a flea market with a produce section bolted on. It is a certified farmers' market in the strict California sense, where the produce on the table has to come from the person selling it.
That legal architecture is worth pausing on, because it explains why a market like this feels different from a grocery store. Under California law, a Certified Farmers' Market is a location certified by the Agricultural Commissioner where a producer sells only their own fruits and vegetables directly to consumers. It may only be operated by a local government, a certified producer or a nonprofit organization. It is illegal for a farmer to buy and re-sell agricultural products at such a market. Each producer must carry a Certified Producer's Certificate in transit and post it at the market — a document issued by the agricultural commissioner of the county where the food was grown. Certified Producers also operate under exemptions from state packing, labeling, size and grading standards, which is precisely why a table at a certified market can hold knobby, uneven, unstandardized things that would never survive a supermarket supply chain.
The California Farmers' Markets Association has been running these markets as a mutual-benefit nonprofit since 1994, operating Certified Farmers' Markets across the Bay Area. Its stated aims are community and healthy eating, and its track record includes recognition from local newspapers as a best place to buy produce and honors from American Farmland Trust. The association's markets have drawn food writers from around the country, and the organization's event calendar is broader than the weekly shop: fruit festivals, monthly tastings, cooking and gardening demonstrations, Harvest Festivals and Holiday Harvest Fairs, plus healthy-eating programs aimed at children.
Halloween Harvest & Pawlooza sits squarely in that tradition of seasonal programming — a one-off Sunday when the market's usual business of produce and eggs shares the plaza with the holiday. The "Pawlooza" half of the name signals the pet-costume element, which is a natural fit for a town whose identity is bound up with animals in the first place.
Los Gatos takes its name from El Rancho Rinconada de los Gatos, a 6,631-acre Mexican land grant made in 1840 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Jose Maria Hernandez and Sebastian Fabian Peralta. The town itself incorporated on August 10, 1887.
So a morning of dogs and cats in Halloween costumes on the plaza is, in a small way, a return to the town's namesake — the cats in the hills, translated into the domestic, costumed, leashed variety. It is the kind of detail that makes a local market event more than a photo opportunity.
Practically speaking, the event is about as low-barrier as a weekend outing gets. There is no ticket, no gate and no reservation implied by the listing: it runs during the market's normal Sunday hours, in a public downtown plaza, and the association's own description of the Los Gatos market emphasizes the direct conversation between shopper and grower — talk to your farmer about harvest techniques, family recipes, heirloom seeds handed down through generations. Late October is also a genuinely interesting moment in the Santa Clara County growing calendar, the point where summer's tomatoes and stone fruit are winding down and the autumn crops and storage varieties take over the tables.
For anyone planning around it, the details are simple. Halloween Harvest & Pawlooza runs Sunday, October 25, 2026, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Town Park Plaza, Main Street and N. Santa Cruz Avenue, downtown Los Gatos. It is hosted by the California Farmers' Markets Association as part of its Los Gatos Certified Farmers' Market, which otherwise operates every Sunday in the same hours and location. Bring the household, bring the dog, and expect the usual 40-plus vendors alongside whatever the holiday adds.
One note for anyone who wants specifics on the costume contest, judging times or any pet-participation rules: the association's event listing gives the date, hours and venue but does not spell out a contest format, so it is worth checking the market's Instagram account, @LosGatosFarmersMarket, or the association's site closer to the date. What is confirmed is the shape of the morning — a certified farmers' market, in a plaza in a town named for mountain cats, on the Sunday before Halloween.