Sunday Driver!

I got up this morning to bright sunshine streaming through the windows of the condo and decided to go for a Sunday drive.  It got a little out of control.

I put 4 gallons in the tank and then sat down to recover from the shock. Thank heaven for my little tiny Toyota! I headed over to Highway 1 and went north to the outskirts of Watsonville. At the first exit for Watsonville (going north) exit and turn left, toward the Chevron station - right next door is Redman House Farm Stand. My intention was to provide some info on the stand for my readers who have trouble making it to the farmers markets. The link is to the right. It's beautiful organic food; cash only. They are open Wednesday-Sunday, 10-6. I got there at 9 a.m. Since there isn't much else to do around there, I decided to turn around and head back.  I decided to try the stands along Highway 1, because I've been driving by them for years and never checked them out.

I stopped at the Moss Landing stand which has the advantage of being co-located with Surf City Coffee.  There were a few items labeled "local" - all conventional - and they also had a jewelry stand, a lot of local nuts (the kind that grow on trees, not the "colorful character" kind), and a wide assortment of very inexpensively priced fruits and vegetables (5 lb. of oranges for $1.00).  The highlight was some delicious home made hummus, salsa and guacamole from $3.99-$5.99/container.  I bought some baby eggplant to put on the grill later.  I'm pretty sure they were not local.

Then I stopped at the Thistle Hut. (Watch out for the potholes in the driveway! Yikes!)  I suspect the artichokes were local, but nothing was labeled, so I couldn't tell.  Everything there was also conventional.  I turned off on Nashua-Molera Road to visit Pezzini Farms ("As seen on Food Network").  I was surprised to see BMW's and Mercedes parked in the lot.  When I got inside, I saw why - very upscale, gourmet local food.  They had a comprehensive collection of locavore goodies - Lula's chocolate, Pacific Cookie Company, Gil's Gourmet - attractively arranged for browsing.  The woman who greeted me was busily stocking strawberries.  She informed me that they were Albion strawberries grown in Moss Landing and very, very sweet.  I should have asked to try one, but I have a whole pint from Hector's Organic I just bought yesterday, so their sweetness will remain a mystery for now.

I ended my sojourn at the Marina Farmers' Market, where I visited with the fine people at Palermo Bakery's stand, and sampled every hummus at Mr. Falafel.  I wasn't greedy - it's just that the young guy who operates the stand opens one hummus after another (I think I tried 10 in all) and says, "try this."  I bought some mahummara, a red-pepper based, slightly spicy spread from the Middle East.  Mr. Falafel makes all the hummus from scratch, including not using canned beans.  Delicious!  The falafel is really good, too.

I hope you find some of the information about all those stands around here useful.  Until next time, I'll see you at the market!