A few nights ago, there was a knock at my door fairly late in the evening, close to 10 p.m. Although it is always startling when someone shows up that late, I knew it had to be my neighbor, out walking her pup before bed. Sometimes they stop by to say hi and sometimes to bestow a basket of eggs upon me. They have about 10 hens, whom I feed when they go out of town. I opened the door… Read More »
Triple T Ranch and Farm has been a familiar presence at Santa Rosa and Marin farmers markets since the mid 1990s but that is not how it got its start. Larry Tristano began selling zucchini to local Lucky Markets in 1983, when the fecund summer squash was his primary crop. By the mid 1990s he had expanded what he grew and, in 1995, became a vendor at the Marin Civic Center Farmers Market in San Rafael. In 1996, he was… Read More »
On Saturday morning, not long before the kick-off of the Rose Parade, a new farmers market opened in the west parking lot of the Santa Rosa Veterans Building. The Redwood Empire Farmers Market is the fourth farmers market in Santa Rosa. For a summary of Santa Rosa markets, check out a recent post here. On opening day, there were 44 stalls, 42 with vendors, one with a magician and one that serves as the market’s information booth. When it comes… Read More »
Intimations of spring punctuated Saturday’s farmers market in Santa Rosa: fresh fava leaves from Bernier Farms, strawberries and Haas avocados from the Central Coast, and an Italian variety of avocado, thin-skinned, deliciously buttery and reminiscent of Hawaiian avocados, though smaller, from DeSantis Farm. EarthWorker Farm offered sunflower spouts, First Light Farm sold out of pea shoots early in the day and eggs, scarce a couple of weeks ago, were more plentiful. With a soft blue sky overhead and fresh aromas… Read More »
In January. farmers are reading seed catalogs and planning their spring strategies. Many are farming, as well; we are blessed with year-round farmers markets with plenty of freshly-harvested produce. The Santa Rosa farmers market is our largest and it thrives in the winter. In addition to market regulars, heavy hitters like Triple T, Bernier Farms and Orchard Farms, which attend weekly with a great diversity of crops, others come and go, as their harvest and the market’s space allows. In… Read More »
To my thinking, if farmers show up at the market in the rain, the least I can do is the same. But at the Sebastopol farmers market on Sunday, neither vendors nor shoppers seemed deterred by the weather. … Read More »
