This Thursday, August 27, is the last Farm Night of the season on the Town Green. After that, the folding chairs stop appearing at five o'clock, the Thursday market packs up for the year, and anyone who moved here recently could be forgiven for assuming the green goes dormant until the holiday tree shows up.
It doesn't. It changes hours. The programming that made summer feel busy was built for a regional audience arriving after work, and most of it ran on Thursday evenings. What replaces it runs Sunday mornings, at 9:30, and it is aimed squarely at people who can walk or drive there in under ten minutes. If you live here, fall is when the green is most yours.
The shift change, in numbers
The Thursday market and concert season ran June 4 through August 27, skipping July 2. That is twelve Thursdays. Sonoma County Tourism counts more than 30 free annual events on the Town Green. Do that arithmetic and the summer concert series, now in its 24th year and presented jointly by the Town and the Windsor Farmers Market, accounts for roughly a third of the green's free programming. The other two-thirds happen when the tourists aren't looking.
The Windsor Certified Farmers Market moves to its Sunday rhythm now: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on the green, running through the first weekend of December. This is the market's 25th anniversary season. The Sunday version is a different animal from the Thursday concert crowd. Smaller footprint, actual produce shopping, redwood picnic tables instead of a lawn full of blankets, and monthly special events that are built around whatever is in season rather than around a headliner.
Here is what's dated and on the calendar between now and the end of the year:
| Date | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sat, Sept 26 | Windsor Day Parade & Festival, theme "Fly Me to the Moon" | Windsor High School to the Town Green |
| Sun, Oct 25 | Pumpkin Jamboree, 26th edition: kids' pumpkin carving, build-a-scarecrow, country games | Town Green, market hours |
| Sat, Oct 31 | Día de Muertos de Windsor, listed for Halloween; confirm with the Chamber | Downtown |
| Sun, Nov 22 | Thanksgiving Tastings, holiday recipes and a Kidz Dig It cooking class | Town Green, market hours |
| Sun, Dec 6 | 2026 market finale | Town Green |
Local artists start bringing gift inventory to the Sunday market in late October, which is the practical reason to go in November rather than the sentimental one. The Chamber of Commerce also runs the annual Chili Cook-Off, Day of the Dead, and the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree Grove, and partners on Scarecrow Days and the Veterans Day ceremony.
The one Saturday the town closes its own roads
The Windsor Day Parade returns Saturday, September 26, with a 10 a.m. step-off and the theme "Fly Me to the Moon." The Kiwanis Club of Windsor organizes it alongside the Town and other service clubs, and parade entries were due September 4. The route runs from Windsor High School and finishes at the Town Green, with a festival and concert on the green afterward.
If you are not in the parade, the logistics matter more than the theme. Per the Town's parade page, participants stage at the high school starting at 8 a.m. and roads along the route close at 9 a.m. At the end of the parade there is no two-way traffic on Windsor Road heading south back toward the high school; everything turns right onto Windsor River Road. In a recent year the Town ran a free shuttle from Windsor Middle School between 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., with no shuttle from the high school because of the staging. Worth confirming that detail before you plan around it.
There is now a better answer to parade-morning parking than circling McClelland. The SMART station sits at Emily Rose Circle, a short walk from the green, and since the April 12, 2026 service change the line runs 24 weekday and 12 weekend round trips. Riders 18 and under and 65 and over travel free. Twelve weekend round trips is the number that quietly changed what a Windsor Saturday can look like: it is enough frequency to take the train down for the morning and get back without planning your day around a single return. The Federal Railroad Administration approved Windsor's Quiet Zone in August 2025, so the trains stopped sounding routine horns at designated crossings. The extension also brought 2.6 miles of multiuse pathway, which is the part residents actually use daily.
October is when the trails get used, not April
Everyone talks about spring wildflowers at Foothill Regional Park. The activity data says otherwise. On Trailforks, October logs more rides at Foothill than any other month. That tracks with how the park actually behaves: 211 acres of oak woodland in east Windsor with 6.8 miles of trails, hot and exposed in July, and genuinely pleasant once the afternoons come down off triple digits.
A few things regulars know:
- Pond A Loop, Pond B Loop, Pond C Trail, and the Ravine Trail are hiker-only. Everything else is shared with mountain bikes and horses.
- Three Lakes Trail is compacted gravel and wheelchair-accessible, with a gated parking and picnic area near Pond C. Entry key cards come from the Regional Parks office in Santa Rosa at 707-565-2041, weekdays 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
- The park opens at 7 a.m. and closes at sunset. Leashed dogs are welcome. Parking is a fee unless you hold a Regional Parks membership.
- Because of Kincade fire impacts, the park can close during high wind advisories and storms. Check before you drive over in late October.
- Three ponds hold bass and bluegill.
The best hour of the fall at Foothill is the Alta Vista Trail, which Regional Parks rebuilt in 2021 with banked switchbacks instead of the old straight-up-the-hill scramble. At the top you get a 180-degree view southwest across the Santa Rosa Plain to the Coast Range. From the Arata Lane lot at 1351 Arata Lane, head east on Three Lakes Trail and keep right, with the ponds on your left and the park's southern boundary on your right. New gathering areas, trail work, and parking improvements were recently finished at both the main entrance and the Arata Lane lot.
Where the morning ends
The Sunday market closes at 12:30, which is an inconvenient hour to be hungry and a very convenient one to be a restaurant within two blocks.
Grata Italian Eatery, just off the green on Windsor River Road, does weekend brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and happy hour from 3 to 6 most days. Chef Eric Foster and Christina Keeney opened it in the fall of 2020, which was not an obvious year to open a restaurant, and it has since become the place Sonoma Magazine calls the county's best-kept secret for Italian comfort food. The chicken Parmesan runs $24, the shrimp diavolo with Calabrian chiles $28, and the ricotta zeppole with Nutella $11.
The thing to watch this fall is the same team's second act. Spur Saloon is going into the long-vacant Windsor Brewing Co. space at 9000 Windsor Road, a saloon-style pub Foster has described as "upscale Yellowstone lodge," with a grazing menu of ceviche, dips, salads, charcuterie boards and barbecue, a full bar, live country music, dancing and karaoke. The Town scheduled an administrative hearing on the minor use permit for a restaurant with alcohol sales back in March, and as of Sonoma Magazine's June update it was still in the coming-soon column. It is not open yet. The Instagram account is where the opening date will land first.
The rest of the walking radius has been stable long enough to stop counting as news, which is its own kind of recommendation. KIN has been on the green since 2011, with a covered patio that takes dogs and a banquet room that absorbs post-parade groups. Sweet T's has held the Southern and Memphis barbecue corner since the same year. Maison Porcella, chef-owner Marc-Henri Jean-Baptiste's Haitian-French charcuterie shop and bistro, sits about a mile southeast of the green in a strip mall and turns out a croque monsieur a local magazine named the county's best. Pizzaleah is Leah Scurto's, and the Old Grey Beard with two cheeses, sausage, Calabrian peppers, honey and orange zest is the one to order in cold weather. Russian River Brewing's Windsor brewpub has the lawn and the patio for the September 26 overflow. Fleur Chocolates is right there when the market ends and someone in your group is not ready to go home.
Two smaller changes worth knowing as the school year settles in: the Town installed new 20 mph school speed limit signs starting July 6, and the November 3 ballot includes a 1% local sales tax measure the Council placed in July.
Fall is also when Windsor stops performing for visitors and starts behaving like a town, which happens to be the season most people decide whether they want to stay put or make a move. If you are weighing that question, Miranda Hanson knows this market street by street and is glad to talk through what your options look like before you commit to anything. Let's Connect.
