Fresh is everything at a fruit-and-veggies market. So imagine this: several generations of the Skikos family have now succeeded in keeping things fresh at Andy’s Produce of Sebastopol for 60 years.
At a rain-christened anniversary celebration earlier this month, loyal patrons and employees of the landmark produce stand and market savored samples of nature’s bounty. They also oohed and ahhed over conceptual renderings of a construction project to freshen the face of Andy’s that is so familiar to passersby on Gravenstein Highway North.
“We want to keep our old-fashioned fruit stand appeal,” said Jina Homan, who has worked much of her life at the market created by her grandparents, the late Andy and Katie Skikos. At the same time, Homan said, her family seeks to gently upgrade and modernize the front of the store.
Maintaining its tradition while keeping up with the times is what the Skikos clan has done since 1964.
That is when Andy and Katie, who’d met and married in Ogden, Utah, opened a small stand there north of Sebastopol.
“People would stop here on their way to the beach,” Katie Skikos once recalled. “That was our main business.”
Katie and Andy gave birth to five children – and, in time, to a total of five local farmstands. All of the Skikos kids, and then their kids, and theirs, were introduced very early on to the work involved in running of a family business.
“We were all born and raised in the market,” said Homan, whose mother was the late Julie (Skikos) Kozlowski. Homan bagged groceries at a tender age at Andy’s; today she is key to the market’s business office.
Two other Skikos grandchildren – Troy Neves and Josh Skikos – also are central to the management of Andy’s. Any number of the 19 grandkids work at the store from time to time. Great-grandkids can be seen there, too.
Katie and Andy Skikos opened their very first produce stand not in Sebastopol but on Sebastopol Road in west Santa Rosa. That was 1963.
After growing to five locations, the couple decided to cut back and concentrate on the flagship stand-and-market on Gravenstein Highway North, also known as Highway 116.
They added to their beloved open-produce stand a full grocery store. They moved into the wholesale trade, delivering food to restaurants.
And all through the decades, Andy and Katie and their kids and grandkids focused great attention on personal service, high quality and reasonable prices.
Andy Skikos said a decade ago, as Andy’s Produce celebrated its 50th anniversary, “My philosophy is tomorrow. If you take care of your customers today, they will be back tomorrow.”
It’s true also that the Skikoses have always gone out of their way to honor their employees and to shine love and caring on their community.
“It’s a big goal of ours to give back as much as we can,” Jina Homan said.
A few examples of the family’s community mindedness: Andy Skikos was a founding member of the Redwood Empire Food Bank, and for years was a leader of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Katie was an early and devoted support of the Ceres Project, which engages youth in a mission to provide quality nutrition to people confronting serious illnesses.
Katie died in 2016 at the age of 81. Andy was 88 when he died in 2022.
They were there in spirit when a good many people who love Andy’s Produce gathered to celebrate its 60th anniversary on May 4. The festivities paid little mind to the rather spirited presence of rain.
Vendors in storm gear merrily served up samples. Andy’s employees greeted faithful shoppers and doled gift cards and coupons and fruit baskets. The staff of Taqueria el Mantecas food truck hustled to keep up with the demand tacos specially priced at 60 cents each.
Part of the fun was the rain.
“We made the best of it,” Homan said.
Then she added, “We want to be here another 60 years.”