Ramblin’ post sort of about the Farmers’ Market

Our neigboring town, Concord, has a great Farmers’ Market every Thursday evening, and in the summer, they have live music and sometimes more (like movies, etc.).  One of the radio stations Ted works for sometimes has a booth there, and they sometimes have a radio personality come and do an announcement during a break in the music portion of the show.  Last week, Ted was asked to be the personality, and since it pays pretty well for a short gig, the weather is nice, and it’s a fun evening, he agreed.  For those same reasons, Maya and I decided to schlep along with him.  I really wish I had brought my camera along, because they were having a bizarre celebration called “Christmas in August”, and Santa was there, there was a toy drive, and they had fake snow.  Maybe it’s a ploy to make us forget that it’s August, and therefore pretty hot around here?  Not sure.  The movie was “March of the Penguins”, so yeah, I’m thinking their goal was to cool off overheated people.  Anyway, it’s a fun time, with families eating picnic dinners on the grass, kids playing in the fake snow, vendors with yummy food to offer, and lots of good times to be had.

While Ted did the inevitable standing around, waiting for it to be time for him to go on stage, I walked around to check out the produce.  When I was growing up in Stockton, going to the Farmers’ Market meant not only fresh produce, it also meant cheap produce.  No more.  These days, you can pretty much get a better deal at Safeway.  When I was buying some nectarines at one of the fruit stands, I tasted a sample, and commented on how much better they were than at the grocery store.  She said she was glad to hear me say that, because earlier, a customer had been complaining to her about how much more they cost at the Farmers’ Market than at Safeway, and she pretty much thought, “Well, you get what you pay for”.  I thought Farmers’ Markets were cheaper, because you cut out the middle man.  Makes sense, right?  But that’s not how it works anymore.  Also, I never thought about it, but they charge different prices depending on what town they’re in.  I asked if this was because it’s more expensive to set up in some towns than others, thinking that perhaps the city charges them more for setting up their booth or something, and she said, a little bit, but mostly, we have to make our money where we can.  So in Concord, the yummy and oh-so-worth it nectarines are $2 a lb.  In Walnut Creek, where I usually go, the same folks charge $2.75 a lb.  That’s a big difference in price.  At first, I was a little bit mad, but then I thought about it, and decided that they’re just copying the IRS, and charging people who have more money higher prices.  Too bad if you’re poor in Walnut Creek, I guess.  But poor folks are much more common in Concord anyway.

So, enough of that.  What did I get at the Farmers’ Market?  Allow me to tell you. 

At the Afghan booth, I got some yummy spinach bolani and some roasted eggplant dip to eat with it.  They also have potato bolani (sort of like aloo puri), pumpkin bolani, and one other that I can’t remember.  Maybe onion? Mmmm.

At the cinnamon bread booth, I got some truly yummy cinnamon bread.  They come up from Greenlee’s Bakery in San Jose to sell it.  Very good.  I made some french toast with it the next day….YUM.  I thought the only thing we needed was some bacon to go with it, but Maya said she thought her breakfast was perfect.  How can you beat perfect?  Why, with bacon, of course. 😉

Got some heirloom tomatoes, which are at their peak right now…seemed like the same price as Walnut Creek or Pleasant Hill.  I did overhear the tomato woman saying she wouldn’t come back, though, because Concord doesn’t get them parking close by, and she was alone, so had to unload all of her booth and tomatoes, and leave it there while she found parking.  I used the tomatoes to make a greek salad for Ted’s cousin’s birthday party on Saturday.  Mmmm.

At the corn booth, I got some corn.  I also got scolded by the grumpy old man working there, for pulling back the husk and silk to look at the kernals.  He said that is like cutting grass, and the cut grass gets all dried out, and in the same way, it dries out the corn.   I’ve been pulling back the husk to check on my corn my whole life, and have had produce folks at the grocery store tell me to do so, but maybe it’s different when you get corn that was picked only a few hours beforehand.  I thought of walking away and not giving him my money, but the temptation of truly yummy, sweet Brentwood corn was too much for me to handle.  So now you see, I’ll put up with quite a lot for really good corn. I ate some the next night, and yeah, it was really good corn. Next time I’ll try the other corn stand, and compare…

At the melon booth, I asked the guy working to pick out a really nice cantelope for me, as the last one I got from a grocery store tasted sort of like dust.  He went through three boxes to get a really good one…which made me wonder about the rest of them…but I had some for breakfast (with the cinnamon french toast) the next day, and, um…YUM.

At the grape booth, I got some small sweet thompson seedless grapes.  The ones in the store now are big and plump, and not as sweet.  Sometimes at the Farmers’ Markets, especially in August and September, you can find the old school grapes, which haven’t been bred for juicyness and portability…and they’re sweet and tiny and yummy, just like the ones I grew up eating by the flat in Stockton.  Mmmm.

After buying all of this yummy produce, I took it back to the car, watched Ted do his announcement, laughed at the kids in the ‘snow’ (they looked like they were having a great time!), and then we went to one of our favorite restaurants, A & Noi.  We had our usual heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad, I had a REALLY good bowl of corn soup (not a chowder…no dairy, smooth…SO yummy), and a pretty tasty crab cake.  Ted had their special, which was stuffed leg of lamb (he said it was excellent) and Maya had her usual warm goat cheese salad.  She loves that.  The waitress there just thinks Maya is the best thing since sliced bread, which I think is sweet, but it kind of creeps Maya out, so Maya kind of tries not to make eye contact.  Does that keep her from talking to Maya anyway? Not at all.

So, overall, a lovely evening was had at the Concord Farmers’ Market.  Looks like Ted is announcing again this Thursday, so maybe we’ll have a repeat performance?  The band will be a Beatles tribute band, The Sun Kings, and the film will be Ed Sullivan’s Rock and Roll Classics.  Could be fun.  Hmmm….