Market News
Three Americas Raises $2000 at Aptos Market for Haiti Relief
Raising money for good causes is what Three Americas does best—and they have great coffee, too! The Saturday following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Three Americas raised $2000 through the sale of their coffee and cash donations for Haiti relief efforts. The staff also made a generous donation of their own and donated their time for running the coffee booth at the Aptos Farmers Market. The donation went directly to Partners In Health, a non-profit, non-governmental organization with over 20 + years in Haiti.
Many know Three Americas as their early morning caffeine fix destination at the Aptos Farmers Market with their Café de la Esperanza, both Pancasan and Ometepe shade grown, organic, fair trade coffees. However, what some may not know is that a purchase of a cup of coffee or a bag of coffee beans goes toward supporting a myriad of projects, both local and internationally. Three Americas, a non-profit public benefit corporation, is an educational and action organization that serves to link the people of the Americas through cooperative projects supporting social, environmental and economic justice.
Find out more about many of the projects that have been funded by Three Americas through coffee sales and donations.
MBCFM Featured on Your California
Hear the interview with Randy White and Catherine Barr!
Randy White, a news anchor on the CBS and Fox stations on the Central Coast, featured the Monterey Bay Certified Farmers Markets on Your California and interviewed Catherine Barr to see what was hot at the markets right now. “It was a lot of fun talking to Randy about our markets! And what a great new show—Randy is a third generation Californian, and each week, he hosts a half hour show, discussing California's rich food and wine culture as well as great places to travel and travel tips.”
Listen to the interview with Catherine on Your California Show website (choose show number 007). You can hear the show on Tuesdays and Sundays on 92.5 The Krush in the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, or see the video pieces on KCOY CBS 12, Fox 11 and KION 46.
Dave’s Gourmet Albacore Wins Place in 2009 Taster’s Choice Hall of Fame
Dave’s Gourmet olive oil packed tuna was one of 17 products recently inducted into the Taster’s Choice Hall of Fame, an honor reserved for products scoring 80 points or higher on a 100-point scale.
The blind taste test, conducted by San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer, Amanda Gold, consisted of a panel of food writers and chefs. The panelists included Linda Anusasananan, a San Mateo based food writer and consultant; John Carroll, a San Francisco based cookbook author; Shelley Handler, a San Francisco based consultant; Emily Luchetti, executive pastry chef at Farallon restaurant in San Francisco; and Roland Passot, a chef-owner of La Folie and three Left Bank restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Read the Full Article >
MBCFM Farmers and Vendors Offer Winter Workshops
Workshops are a great way to expand your social circle and learn useful skills. There are many benefits to taking classes — expanding your mind and adding to your culinary knowledge base from people you know at the farmers market are two benefits that come to mind. Moreover, it’s rewarding and empowering to explore the “forgotten arts” or learn how to grow some of your own food.
Here are a few of the upcoming workshops!
NEW NATIVES
Learn how to grow the freshest, most nutritious, organic food possible, right in your kitchen from Sandra and Ken of New Natives. In-depth written materials are provided in addition to class instruction. Special growing techniques and “tips of the trade” will be demonstrated to ensure that your homegrown sprouts are the best possible. Sprouting supplies, including organic, non-GMO seeds can be purchased at the workshop.
Samples of sprouted foods will be offered. Lunch is included in the class fee of $60.
The next sprouting workshop will be Saturday, January16, 10 am to 1 pm at New Natives’ farm in Corralitos. Email info@newnatives.com for more information.
FARMHOUSE CULTURE
Learn about the secret, scintillating world of making sauerkraut with Kathryn Lukas at Farmhouse Culture. You’ll explore the history, science and health benefits of this amazing food before diving into a hands-on demonstration. By the end of the night, you'll have a jar full of cabbage and bacteria (the good stuff, promise), ready to ferment in the comfort of your own home. A few days later, you’ll have sweet (or maybe sour?) memories of the workshop and a jar of kraut!
Next sauerkraut workshop will be Thursday, February 25, from 6 pm - 8 pm at The Old Sashmill, 303 Potrero Street, #01A (behind Leatherwise) in Santa Cruz. Call Kathryn at 831.325.6202 or email kd@farmhouseculture.com for more information. Class fee is $30. See Farmhouse Culture website for future classes.
MALABAR TRADING COMPANY
Michael and Annaliese Keller offer regular classes about the history of tea, tea tasting, and the art of brewing perfect tea in the comfort of your home! Enjoy tasting rare, hand selected teas from around the world and learn how to distinguish a well-crafted tea. Teas are often paired with food and pastries to enhance your experience. Classes and demonstrations are available to groups of 5-10 people, from novice to connoisseur levels and costs vary with class size. Call 831.469.8233 or email annaliese@malabartradingco.com to schedule a tea tasting or for more information.
COLE CANYON FARM
Pamela Maston of Cole Canyon Farm offers workshops about how to plant and grow herbal window boxes. Participants take a tour of the Cole Canyon Farm greenhouses and select herbs to plant in a container. Information about all the herbs including which herbs do best in containers and how to harvest for ultimate culinary use is provided as handouts and in the demonstration. Each participant selects a container from a selection of EcoForm, bamboo or plastic containers. Potting soil and kelp solution is provided to give the plants the best start.
Cost of the workshop is $20 plus plants and containers at wholesale prices. Workshops are scheduled for groups of 5 - 10 participants. Call 831.726.3990 or email colecanyon@colecanyonfarm.com for more information on upcoming classes! To find out more about their products or events, go to the Cole Canyon Farm website.
Holiday Do Your Holiday Shopping at the Aptos Farmers Market! December 5, 11, 19
The fifth annual holiday fair continues this month through December 19 at the Aptos Farmers Market. If you are searching for unique handcrafts, high-end jewelry, local artisan products to fill your gift baskets, handmade pottery, delicious baked goods, gourmet seafood products, holiday wreaths and flowers, living kitchen herb baskets, locally produced olive oils, handmade cheeses, premium teas, fair-trade coffee — the Aptos farmers market has it all!
Shop locally and enjoy it! Friendly faces and smiles greet you and make you feel special — no rude clerks here! Shop early — we open at 8 AM and have lots of parking. Bring visiting friends and family to the Aptos Farmers Market to share a real “taste” of our community and enjoy the holidays with us.
Holiday Hours for MPC Market
The MPC Farmers Market will be open Wednesday, December 23 from 2 until 5 pm. The MPC market will be closed on December 31.
The Aptos Farmers Market will be open, rain or shine, on Saturday, December 26 and Saturday, January 2, as usual.
Adopt a Ewe? Ewe Betcha!
Garden Variety Cheese, a small farmstead cheese business in Royal Oaks, began their commercial milking and cheese operation with about 100 milking ewes in March 2009 and began selling their fresh sheep cheeses in June 2009 at local farmers markets. To produce the highest quality of milk, the sheep are naturally raised without antibiotics or hormones, and pastured and fed alfalfa hay and spent organic brewers’ grain. Each ewe is named after a garden flower, lovingly raised and treated with respect.
Since dairy sheep only produce milk for six months of the year, they spend most of the dry season pregnant and fattening up for the milking season. By covering the cost to keep a ewe fed and cared for during this period when no milk is being produced, you can help ensure future production of more high quality artisan cheeses. In return for your investment, you will receive delicious dividends when the ewes return to the milking parlor in the new year.
Two adoption packages are available which include a lamb package (a whole lamb) or wool package (a handmade natural wool comforter) plus six months of yogurt, ricotta, feta, and extra-aged hard cheeses. Also, you’ll receive email updates, pictures of your ewe and invitations to special events at the ranch!
For more information, contact Rebecca King at (831) 761-3630 or email her at rebeccajaneking@gmail.com.
Download Adopt-A-Ewe application >
Buy Natural Lamb Direct from Monkeyflower Ranch!
The lamb from Monkeyflower Ranch is incredibly mild and tender with none of the gamey flavor of imported lamb. A whole lamb package includes approximately 30 lbs. of meat and the half lamb package includes approximately 15 lbs. of meat.
Download Monkeyflower Ranch Natural Lamb information >
Holiday Shopping at the Aptos Farmers Market! November 21 — December
The perfect gift might be waiting for you at this year's fifth annual Home and Hearth Holiday Fair at the Aptos farmers market! Whether you are looking for unique hand-crafts, high-end jewelry, creating gift baskets to fill with local artisan products, handmade pottery, delicious baked goods, gourmet seafood products, holiday wreaths and flowers, living kitchen herb baskets, locally produced olive oils, handmade cheeses, premium teas, fair-trade coffee — the Aptos farmers market offers it all! On Saturday, November 21, the Home and Hearth Holiday Fair will be open and will continue through December 19.
Farmers market vendors are going to the dogs!
When you make the rounds visiting your favorite vendors at the farmers markets at Cabrillo College and Monterey Peninsula College, are you also drawn to visit the adorable and sometimes irresistible shelter animals? If so, you are not alone — it's a favorite stop for animal lovers of all ages, including many of our market vendors!
So many of our vendors have provided warm and loving homes to shelter animals that the SPCA for Monterey County wrote an article for a recent newsletter: “Farmers Markets Bear Fruit for Shelter Dogs.” Judy LeRoy, the Offsite Adoption Coordinator of the SPCA for Monterey, is quite the matchmaker. MBCFM market vendor, Jeanie Loe of Catering Magik, has adopted five shelter dogs over the years, and now lives with “Sweatpea,” a senior Chihuahua, “Nico,” an elderly wired-hair mixed breed, and “Squeaker,” a pug mix. Ramiro Garcia, The Begonia Man, adopted a little black mixed breed dog named “Leo.” Laurie and Tom Coke of T and L Coke Farm have added three shelter dogs to their family. Annaliese and Michael Keller of Malabar Trading Company couldn’t resist the charms of a timid red miniature dachshund dog named “Tootsie” that had been abused and abandoned. “I looked into those sweet brown eyes and knew she needed a loving family. We took her home in spite of having a large family of kitties. It took awhile for everyone to get along, but in no time, the cats had her sorted out!” said Annaliese.
Local animal welfare organizations contribute a great deal to our communities. Let's be sure to thank them for being part of our markets. A bit about these organizations:
The SPCA for Monterey County is a non-profit, donor-supported humane society that has been serving the animals and people of Monterey County since 1905. The SPCA maintains 200+ acres of land for animal welfare needs, and conducts community outreach, education programs, and community collaborations administered by hundreds of volunteers and staff members. (www.spcamc.org)
The Animal Services Authority (ASA) began serving the Santa Cruz community in 2002. Through community involvement, education, adoption, and humane law enforcement, they work to preserve the well being of all animals and bring an end to the homeless animal crisis. ASA operates two shelters, one in Scotts Valley and one in Watsonville. (www.scanimalservices.us) The Santa Cruz SPCA focuses on placing unwanted animals into new homes, low cost spay/neuter programs for the community, and humane education. (www.santacruzspca.org)
MBCFM Announces Launch of Edible Paradise Blog!
We are very pleased to announce the debut of our new blog, Edible Paradise! Here’s where you’ll find cooking tips, weekly updates about seasonal produce and specialty items at the farmers markets, guest posts by cookbook authors and chefs, basic “how to” guides for the beginning cook. You’ll also find recipes from all of our cooking demonstrations, winning recipes from our cooking contests, as well as recipes submitted by our farmers. In addition, our Chef in Residence, Andrew Cohen, generously contributed content and many of his own recipes.
We’d like to extend a special thank you to Daniel Saenz, our creative director, for his expertise in designing this beautiful food site and customizing many of the blog features to fit our needs. “I’ve collaborated with Daniel for almost 20 years on food related design projects such as branding, web site development and marketing, and he never fails to deliver a project that isn’t simply stunning,” commented Annaliese Keller, marketing director and editor of Edible Paradise. “He captures the vibrancy of the beautiful fresh produce at our farmers markets as well as the essence of the experience in his work.”
We also wish to thank Nadine Frush, owner of SaladSuccess, for donating her domain name, Edible Paradise, to us. As one of the original marketing team members, Nadine helped name our monthly market newsletter and promptly secured the URL for a cookbook she hoped to write one day featuring our local produce. Today, she is happily devising new salad dressing recipes, photographing lovely salads and writing for several food blogs, including www.saladsuccess.com and The Reluctant Cook. With a little arm-twisting and a promise to promote her new line of salad shakers (which work great!), we secured our new domain name.
As for Annaliese, her hands will need a month’s vacation to recover from inputting recipes and writing content. “I’ve loved every minute of this project. It’s been a labor of love and a tribute to our hardworking community of small family farmers and the bounty of produce they grow. I appreciate our wonderful farmers markets and take great pleasure in being a part of this organization. It’s very gratifying.”
Our recipe database will continue to expand each month and new features will be added in the coming months. If you have a favorite recipe that you’d like to contribute or comments about our new blog, we invite you to email us at newsletter@montereybayfarmers.org. We hope you’ll check in each week and see what’s new at the market!
Daniel Saenz Integrated Marketing & Design is a full service marketing and design firm that provides a wide variety of services including web site and custom blog design and development, logo design, corporate identity packages, packaging, custom illustration, brochures, copy writing and advertising. Daniel enjoys working with a wide range of clients, from small business and start-ups, to larger companies and corporations. See www.artdoor.com for portfolio or call 831.429.9119 to discuss your design project or business needs!
Tassajara Natural Meats Featured in Monterey County Weekly
“Sweet Meat: Tassajara Natural Meats delivers dry-aged excellence that goes great with Ventana Bistro and Vineyards Wine” by Jeanne Howard
There’s a new solution to lessen the dilemma of local omnivores who prioritize personal and planetary health but do not wish to compromise on the joy of eating well: Carmel Valley based Tassajara Natural Meats, a producer of grass-fed USDA-inspected beef.
Owner, local documentary filmmaker and my longtime friend Mark Shelley, who has been butchering free-range calves for 10 years for his own consumption, has turned pro. For their first year in business, Shelley and partner/wife Elizabeth expect to bring 30 calves to market after grazing them at Rancho Grande in Big Sur and Elkhorn Ranch in Moss Landing.
The debate over grain-fed versus grass-fed beef continues and mostly centers around flavor. But it really isn’t about flavor, since both are delicious. The important differences concern nutrition and humane treatment of animals — and grass-fed wins on both fronts.
In addition to these benefits, TNM offers the opportunity to buy meat from a single, local source that ensures sustainable stewardship of the land and manages the goods the entire way — from birth of the calf to slaughter to handing off the product at the market. Knowing a trustworthy farmer and his practices increases food safety and quality. Shelley calls their primary product “free-range veal” or “vitelloni,” to describe beef that comes from calves who feed on mother’s milk and supplement their diet with natural grasses and perennials while frolicking in luxuriant coastal pastures. Though not certified organic, TNM’s feed and practices conform to organic standards and include free grazing, gentle weaning and a protocol for humane slaughtering.
Hans Haverman of H&H Fish Featured in SF Gate
Angling for business: A Santa Cruz salmon fisherman follows the money – ashore By Rob Baedeker, Special to SF Gate September 29, 2009
It's a cool Saturday morning at Santa Cruz's Westside Farmer's Market, and the living seems easy.
As the coastal fog clears, shoppers sample local strawberries and organic sheep's-milk cheeses while a gypsy-style jazz trio strums bouncy background music.
At the H&H Fresh Fish stand, behind ice bins holding Ziploc baggies filled with sand dabs, sardines, opah and other assorted seafood, Hans Haveman is working the crowd – or maybe the crowd is working him. With the help of two assistants, he fills customers' orders; inquires about a passerby's kids; offers a customer cooking tips for H&H's black cod ("flour, salt and pepper, a little peanut oil"); and then turns to rib a shaggy-haired teenager for being at the market instead of out surfing ("The waves are boomin', man!"). Haveman, 44, and a father of two, has a wrestler's build, a graying goatee and a beach-town tan. His California-surfer drawl matches the laid-back vibe of the market, but there's plenty of intensity behind the operations at H&H, the business that he and his wife, Heidi Rhodes, started in 2003.
"From the outside, the farmers market looks all well and fun, like you just show up and sell your wares," he says. "But we have to conduct it seriously – just like any other business. We have rent and insurance to pay, vehicles to keep up, paychecks, the whole bit -- it takes a numbing amount of time and energy."
Still, Haverman feels lucky. For more than 20 years, he worked at the other end of the line as a commercial salmon fisherman with a small boat based in Santa Cruz harbor. And it turns out that his transition from sea to land – from fisherman to fish broker – was well timed.
As he struggled to cash in on dwindling salmon catches and increasing restrictions, he found a foothold selling a wider variety of sustainable fish in Bay Area farmers markets, just as those markets started to explode in popularity.
Dave’s Gourmet Albacore is featured in Sunset Magazine
The August issue of Sunset Magazine features a shoppers’ guide to sustainable fish entitled, “The West’s Best Fish.” This special section includes tips for selecting, preparing and cooking sustainable seafood, as well as many recipes.
On page 85 there is an article on the best fish to buy canned, and what to look for on a label. Dave’s Albacore Fillets in olive oil was selected as one of Sunset’s favorite brands of canned tuna. Comments include: “Big, firm, moist flakes and pure tuna flavor.”
Dave’s Gourmet Albacore is a popular vendor at our markets in Aptos at Cabrillo College, Carmel, Monterey Peninsula College, and Del Monte Shopping Center. Dave’s sells delicious, gourmet canned salmon, albacore and shellfish, smoked fish and gift packages. Dave’s employs the most ecologically responsible methods available to harvest his seafood – their standards are strictly hook and line, also referred to as “trolling.” This technique allows fishermen to hand select and properly store each fish to insure freshness and purity. According to Dave, “The process of harvesting salmon and albacore are among the most primitive and discretionary methods when it comes to selecting the best for our customers!”
If you aren’t already a regular customer, stop by Dave’s booth at the market and meet their friendly and knowledgeable Crista Jones. You can learn more about Dave’s Gourmet Albacore on their profile.
We can all do our part to support the health of the ocean by making conscious choices when purchasing seafood. For more information about sustainable seafood, visit www.seafoodwatch.com.
Whole Foods Markets Selects MBCFM Vendors for Local Stores
Kudos to the Monterey Bay Farmers Markets’ vendors whose products are now being offered for sale at the Whole Foods Markets in Capitola and Santa Cruz, including: Belle Farms (extra virgin olive oil), Greenheart Family Farm (fresh eggs), One Universe Farm (vegetables), and Valencia Creek Farms (extra virgin olive oil). Other vendors are probably under consideration.
Individual Whole Foods stores and regional buyers seek out locally grown produce from growers using organic or sustainable methods of agriculture whose fruits and vegetables meet Whole Foods’ high quality standards. Whole Foods defines quality: “by evaluating the ingredients, freshness, safety, taste, nutritive value and appearance of all of the products we carry.”
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