Artisan Fair Unites Two Tracts

In the life of a neighborhood, often it is the small things that make a big difference: a butterfly bookmark crafted from resin, a jar of olive oil, a fond recollection of a holiday market in Munich.

All have come together to create an event this coming Saturday, November 8, 2025 that unites two tracts designed by Joe Eichler in the 1950s—Greenmeadow of Palo Alto and nearby Monta Loma of Mountain View.

The event is called the Greenmeadow Artisan Art Fair. Besides 30 or so featured artisans, the Fair will also include food trucks and a band. The event runs from 11am-3pm in Greenmeadow Park, 303 Parkside Drive.

About 80 percent of the artisans live in Eichlers, the organizers say. The event benefits the Greenmeadow Community Scholarship fund. Their first fair was held in 2022.

"It is wonderful how they are so welcoming to each other," Nicole Babaoglu says of the two Eichler neighborhoods, where homes going for $4 million may suggest that these places no longer evoke their humble origins as middle-class subdivisions.

A visit to the fair, however, with its dose of downhome Americana in the midst of Silicon Valley, will disprove this notion immediately.

Among the artisans will be Nicole, who resides in Monta Loma, selling her award-winning True Olive olive oil, made from her husband's family groves in the Dardanelles of Turkey. In Monta Loma, she says, "Neighbors come by and knock on the door [to buy oil]."

"I love that it's part of our community," she says of her oil. "The reason we love our Eichler is the neighborhood feeling. It's why we have stayed there and have grown our family."

Also at the fair will be budding artisan-entrepreneur Danielle Itskovich, 9, selling jewelry crafted from resins and other ingredients. "I just like making art, and I just like selling the things I make," she says. Her mom, Elena, says Danielle ramps up production ahead of the fair to produce enough merchandise.

Sophie Fron, a young woman who grew up in Greenmeadow and recently majored in art at Scripps College, in Claremont, will be showing Eichler-themed art in the form of totes, postcards, and posters, based on her own home.

The work on display will come from a variety of makers, say Heather Schöll, of Monta Loma and Carmen Rodwell, of Greenmeadow, two of the three organizers, along with Janice Lin.

Artisans include fine artists, ceramicists, leather makers, producers of artisanal foods, and others. They range from professionals to amateurs to children, who may be a bit of both. "It was like a nice combination of mature artists and children as well," says Elena Itskovich of past fairs.

"And what's really amazing about the amateurs is that they aren't that amateur," Heather says. "The work that they have is really impressive."

Some work may go for as much as $500, "but then you have kids selling stuff for 50 cents," Heather says. Heather herself will be vending honey from her Monta Loma backyard, and dried apples from the family orchard. She will also display her encaustic paintings.

"You know what surprised me [about the last fair] was how much the kids got in on the food idea," Heather says. "You would have someone who was making lanyard key chains, and then they baked brownies and made lemonade."

"And the thing that was really funny is that they started negotiating deals with each other, and even started negotiating deals with the adult artists. 'I really love your pottery dish. I would like to get one. Can I give you a brownie and my two dollars?' It was fun to see how everybody supported each other and interacted together."

Both Greenmeadow and Monta Loma are well-preserved mid-century modern neighborhoods, with Greenmeadow honored two decades ago as a National Register historic district. But for a neighborhood to be true to its mid-century feeling, looks are not all that count.

There has to be that feeling of neighborliness that Joe Eichler felt so strongly about. Both Greenmeadow and Monta Loma have it, in good measure thanks to people like Heather, Carmen, and Janice, and to events like the Artisan Fair.

"I had recently been on a trip to Munich to go to the holiday markets in Germany," Heather recalls. "And I thought Greenmeadow Park would be perfect for one of these holiday markets…I planted the seed with Carmen, and she was like, 'Oh, that sounds fun. We should do that.'" Carmen says having the fair support scholarships makes things even "more meaningful."

Sophie says that the fair reveals an important aspect of the neighborhood. "Greenmeadow is special because Palo Alto can be quite intense of a place to live, part of the Silicon Valley. And it can be kind of go! go! go!, very competitive.

"But Greenmeadow [itself] is kind of the opposite. It's very relaxed and just a place for families to get together. And there's just something very calming about it."