SAN DIEGO — The pandemic shut down thousands of small businesses, but one woman took that challenge and created a new space for struggling vendors to come and share their twist on what it means to be a farmers market. 

Vegan Depot is a plant-based farmers market started by Christina Bohannon in Corona, California, in 2020 during the height of the pandemic. 

"We were all struggling so we thought, 'You know what? Let's get together. Let's make something happen,' and we were kind of rogue," Bohannon said. "We started at the parking lot of a bar with 15 vendors and the bar was The Depot so that's how it got the name Vegan Depot." 

Vegan Depot started its San Diego farmers market on Nov. 14. It will take place every other Sunday with about 50 entirely vegan vendors, the first in the city. 

"Amazing vegan vendors," she said. "We get the best of the best from LA, obviously San Diego."

Some of the vendors include Stone Monkey, authentic Chinese food, Secret Vegan Pizza and SeaCo Catch, which won San Diego's best fish taco with its coconut meat taco. 

Laura Kassam follows a plant-based diet and says normal farmers markets can be stressful. 

"Yeah, it's really awesome to be able to just walk around and not have to ask if it's vegan, you know?" Kassam said. "We go to a lot of other farmers markets, and it's not like this. So we have the privilege to just choose anything without having to ask them, so it's really nice." 

Bohannon plans to pop up to 10 additional cities in the next couple of years. 

For more information about Vegan Depot, visit vegandepotmarket.com or follow them on Instagram for updates on the San Diego farmers market launch.