It’s May and farmers markets are opening all over California. The current mantra of the restaurant industry is “fresh, local and seasonal”. It really was the way past generations ate. They had to. No refrigeration and difficulties in transporting fresh produce localized what was available. While I’ll never turn down a ripe hothouse tomato in December, I agree that produce just picked is about as good as it gets. My wife and I love to visit farmers markets as a practical way to purchase food, and as a quick get away from suburban life. Meet the farmers, and taste the food. We love the challenge of making up dishes from what we purchased that day. This summer we will try to visit as many as we can and blog our results. No it’s not Iron Chef but my wife and I tend to be a little (read a lot!) competitive when working in the kitchen. She is a great with pastry and sweets and is a highly experienced poverty chef (making something from nothing). I prefer savory items and like to incorporate high quality prepared foods into my dishes. Let’s see what we come up with.
Healdsburg Farmers Market, Saturday May 14, 2005.
Healdsburg Farmers Market, Saturday May 14, 2005.
This market manages to hang on to its country charm. Healdsburg has gone upscale lately with the opening of number of very expensive hotels and restaurants. Some of the visitors would fit right in to the Beverley Hills crowd rather than the farming community Healdsburg once was.
Lou Preston of Preston Vineyards is selling his olive oil along with some of his wonderful wood fired breads. We choose the dark multigrain loaf. I’m sure that these would go good with some of his wines. A visit to his winery with its great picnic grounds is always a treat.
Tierra Farms offers tastes of their pepper jams. The Rojo is our favorite. A combination of red jalapenos and sweet peppers.
Springhill Jersey Cheese. Dry Jack and a Pecorino Romano added to our bag
Love Farms has a long line for their Squash.
Neufeld Farms Peaches smell divine!
whole grain bread with dry jack and Rojo
Grilled squash, olive oil and pecorino Romano cheese
Peach Crisp
enjoy!!
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