San Carlos Farmers Market

I try to be loyal to my local farmers market, I really do. I want it to flourish. But this week I needed some produce on a Thursday; and on my commute home I kept passing "Hot Harvest Nights" sandwich boards. So I side-tracked to San Carlos and checked out their market.

Wow. The city cordons off a good section of the main street, block-party style. A long line of stalls, back-to-back and facing the permanent storefronts along the sidewalks on either side, offer an amazing bounty. It rivals the West Seattle market!

Several vendors offer baked goods, from artisan breads to decadent desserts. Several stalls feature or include fresh cut flowers, or even potted plants. If you don't want to eat al fresco at one of the thriving restaurants on the main drag, rotisserie chicken and fresh, hand-made tamales are available to go. Only one vendor offered farmstead cheeses - but what lovely cheese it is (goat as well as cow, and hard cheeses as well as soft spreads). And one vendor provided a mix of locally caught fish and imported Alaska salmon (an exception to the California-only rule, I guess). But the produce really is the star at this market. Easily half the vendors are organic farmers; and the competition is healthy among all the stalls.

Fortunately for my wallet, my transportation limited my carrying capacity. My Zapino electric motorbike has space under the seat, and a rack on the back. Stowing my bounty - three baskets of organic strawberries, a bunch of celery, two bunches of organic basil (roots intact), two small avocados, three fingerling bananas (in-state grown!), and two ears organic sweet white corn - took all my spatial relations skills and a bungee cord. The organic sunflowers, with their three-foot stalks, had to be zipped into my riding jacket, poking out at both ends.

Next Saturday I vow to return to my home market, faithful to the vendors who give up a weekend day to bring fresh produce to our neighborhood. But I may stop on my way home on a Thursday again, too. I'll just have to eat more wonderful local food.