Sebastopol Farmers Market - June 25
The ride from San Rafael, where the Marin County FM is situated, to Sebastopol was about 30 minutes. Sebastopol is in Sonoma county, which is north of San Francisco. There was some NASCAR racing action at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma that weekend. We were lucky not to have encountered much of a delay as a result.
Sebastopol, SF_Pearl pointed out, is home to the annual summertime Gravenstein Apple Fair. Check out the city's website for information on this year's event.
The Farmers Market is located downtown and, though small, has a very good selection and variety of products. One of the more unusual, as in not found in any of the other FMs we've attended so far, was sprouted vegetables from Alobar Farms.
Intrigued, we spent quite a bit of time speaking with the farm owners about the products. It appears that sprouted vegetables, eaten regularly, have protective effects against cancers. We each purchased a different type of sprout. Gnarlita -lentil, SF_Pearl - broccoli and myself - chickpea. Back at home, I prepared my chickpea sprouts with just a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a healthy pinch of Hawaiian red sea salt. YUMMY!
Gnarlita loves Shiitake mushrooms, so couldn't pass up these locally grown shrooms from Carpati Farm in Sebastopol.
My blood sugar was running a little low so I looked for some sweets and found them at the La Dolce V stand. All of the sweets looked so tempting...all hand-crafted using only the best and natural ingredients. I believe SF_Pearl went with the Bliss Bar...I opted for the Lavender Shortbread cookie. You'd think lavender might be an odd cookie ingredient, but it was quite deelish!
Sugar craving being satisfied, we visited the rest of the vendors. The thing about farmers markets, is that you can smell when the produce is ripe. You're drawn to the ripest, freshest, most amazing fruits and vegetables because you can smell them well before you're standing in front of them, unlike produce at the supermarket. The difference in quality is also visually noticeable...a pleased eye is a pleased palate!
The best peaches that I've had so far this season were found here at Sebastopol FM. They're the product of Woodleaf Farm in Oroville, CA. Beautiful appearance, wonderful texture and so very juicy. Woodleaf Farm has been farming organically since 1976.
Another find at this market were the Passport melons. They look like Persian melons only in miniature. All three of us each purchased a melon, the smells were intoxicating. The flavor was so sweet too. I very much enjoyed mine all in one sitting. These little melon gems came from Love Farms in Healdsburg, CA., north of Sebastopol.
The best find of the trip were the jumbo Bing cherries from Neufeld Farms in Kingsburg, CA. They were so big, juicy, sweet, and firm to the bite. There have been cherries at all of the farmers markets visited, but none were good enough to actually bring home. These were little bites of heaven. Sadly, this was the last week for cherries. Hope next year's crop is better. Oh well, at least we were able to find and enjoy our Neufeld cherries before the end of the season.
Life may not always be a bowl of cherries (ouch, did I say that?!), but looking forward to the weekend and exploring another farmers market makes the work week more bearable.
This is a jewel of a farmers market and worth the trip!
Sebastopol, SF_Pearl pointed out, is home to the annual summertime Gravenstein Apple Fair. Check out the city's website for information on this year's event.
The Farmers Market is located downtown and, though small, has a very good selection and variety of products. One of the more unusual, as in not found in any of the other FMs we've attended so far, was sprouted vegetables from Alobar Farms.
Intrigued, we spent quite a bit of time speaking with the farm owners about the products. It appears that sprouted vegetables, eaten regularly, have protective effects against cancers. We each purchased a different type of sprout. Gnarlita -lentil, SF_Pearl - broccoli and myself - chickpea. Back at home, I prepared my chickpea sprouts with just a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a healthy pinch of Hawaiian red sea salt. YUMMY!
Gnarlita loves Shiitake mushrooms, so couldn't pass up these locally grown shrooms from Carpati Farm in Sebastopol.
My blood sugar was running a little low so I looked for some sweets and found them at the La Dolce V stand. All of the sweets looked so tempting...all hand-crafted using only the best and natural ingredients. I believe SF_Pearl went with the Bliss Bar...I opted for the Lavender Shortbread cookie. You'd think lavender might be an odd cookie ingredient, but it was quite deelish!
Sugar craving being satisfied, we visited the rest of the vendors. The thing about farmers markets, is that you can smell when the produce is ripe. You're drawn to the ripest, freshest, most amazing fruits and vegetables because you can smell them well before you're standing in front of them, unlike produce at the supermarket. The difference in quality is also visually noticeable...a pleased eye is a pleased palate!
The best peaches that I've had so far this season were found here at Sebastopol FM. They're the product of Woodleaf Farm in Oroville, CA. Beautiful appearance, wonderful texture and so very juicy. Woodleaf Farm has been farming organically since 1976.
Another find at this market were the Passport melons. They look like Persian melons only in miniature. All three of us each purchased a melon, the smells were intoxicating. The flavor was so sweet too. I very much enjoyed mine all in one sitting. These little melon gems came from Love Farms in Healdsburg, CA., north of Sebastopol.
The best find of the trip were the jumbo Bing cherries from Neufeld Farms in Kingsburg, CA. They were so big, juicy, sweet, and firm to the bite. There have been cherries at all of the farmers markets visited, but none were good enough to actually bring home. These were little bites of heaven. Sadly, this was the last week for cherries. Hope next year's crop is better. Oh well, at least we were able to find and enjoy our Neufeld cherries before the end of the season.
Life may not always be a bowl of cherries (ouch, did I say that?!), but looking forward to the weekend and exploring another farmers market makes the work week more bearable.
This is a jewel of a farmers market and worth the trip!
posted by Maggie at 8:48 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home