Farmer's Market Report

Like everyone out there I have the best of intentions of making it to the farmer’s market.  But in the last month we have been so busy that I have missed several weeks.  But not this one.  I am happy to say that summer is really here.

Many of the growers that come to our area travel from sacramento or the valley, although we have not seen much summer heat yet, they have and it shows in the produce.  The booths are over flowing.  The stone fruits are in, I picked up rainier cherries (my favorites), apricots (a little early), and nectarines to make a tart. The summer squashes are all out there, it's time to go look for your favorite.  There are just the beginnings of tomatoes from a bit further south.  I only saw one booth with figs and the bell peppers don’t have much color yet.

The salad greens are great, and as we are all looking to put on those summer tops and shorts a great way to eat healthy.

The Sunday Marin market has so much going on that you are not only looking at produce.  Years ago I did my apprentice ship in Innsbruck Austria, and late at night after work we would grab a beer and go to the sausage cart ("da veiner vagon"), a very casual food truck.  The sausages were good but the bread they served them with was incredible.  I've been looking for it for years!  So today at market there was an authenic german bread booth, so I picked up a quarter loaf of german dark bread to try at home.  By the time we reached the car it already looked like a mouse was nibbling at it.  Now to find some sausage!

If you'd like a list of the farmers markets look at my Petaluma Post column from May, posted on the blog here http://blog.sonomacaterers.com/2011/05/visit-to-your-farmers-market.html

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