Joanne, Trent and I got on the road at 9am (an amazing early start for us!) to drive the 40 minutes to the Marin Sunday Farmers' Market in San Rafael. We scored a parking spot easily - we usually get there too late for this to happen.
Wow, this Farmers' Market is really rocking in late May! Except for chicken, milk/cream, dried beans, rice and flour, you can get probably buy everything you want to eat for the next week. Really! This is in sharp contrast to locales where the Farmers' Market doesn't even open until June or July. The people in Marin have no idea how good they have it.
Even Valencia oranges, early peaches and heirloom tomatoes with taste
(from Bruins Farms in Winters, CA). The only disappointment was that we
didn't spot any small farmer organic asparagus. But a big plus was that there were some new vendors there!
We scored organic ice cream from Three Twins (Madagascar Vanilla, Strawberry-Je
ne sais quoi, and Bittersweet Chocolate), strawberries (Swanton Berry
Farm), St Benoit Yogurt (including their new flavor, Meyer Lemon!),
Marin Root Farms lettuces (gorgeous, perfect-looking lettuces -
hopefully a top restaurant doesn't discover them), Local Salmon,
Prather Ranch steaks (who also had lamb, pork and humanely raised
veal), Marin Sun Farms eggs (there were actually at least 4 purveyors
selling eggs today), Iacopi Farms peas and artichokes (at least 4
sellers had artichokes today), Barhi dates, Brickmaiden Bread and
Cookies (Breadvine Baking Company in Point Reyes Station), Full Circle
Baking Bread, Blueberries (Sorensen's), Raspberries, sugar snap peas, snow peas, early sno peaches, another kind of peach, and some other items. Quite a few plants were for sale, too, including non-organic tomato plants and peonies.
This is
the fifth different farmer's market we've been to during the Eat Local Challenge and it's easily the star. Unfortunately, with so many farmers and vendors there, it's difficult to get to know them – and know which ones you can rely on. – Jack
Jack & Joanne live in Sonoma County – not just wine country, but food country! Their website Fork & Bottle focuses on artisan food, wine and cheese but also offers information on organic and heirloom seed sources, what to feed kids, US Cheesemakers, local foods, etc., etc.
