Farmer's Market & Local Dairy

One of the great things about living in the Bay Area is the abundance of Farmer's Markets. They're everywhere. In Fremont we have them on Saturday & Sunday, year round--gotta love California living! The loot this morning included green beans, red potatoes (both currently cooking...the smell of garlic is intoxicating!), okra, big and baby tomatoes, carrots, dahlias and a loaf from Beckmann's Bakery in Santa Cruz.

If you live in the Bay, the Buy Fresh, Buy Local Guide is a great resource for finding your local farmer's market, as well as sustainable farms and restaurants. There's also a great list of in-season produce on page 50. Outside the Bay, cool resources include the Eat Well Guide and Local Harvest.

We made one more stop on our way home from Farmer's--the Ralph's in Fremont is the only place in town that carries dairy products from Straus Family Creamery, a dairy farm in Marin County. It's the only local dairy listed in these guides using sustainable practices--namely, grass grazing their cows, rather than feeding them corn in cages. We finally tracked down our first bottle (yes, glass bottle!) of their milk in the natural foods section (not dairy section) of Ralph's today. We also picked up a tub of their yogurt, and were excited to find some organic whole grain flour and active dry yeast nearby (so Raf can finally try to make his first loaf of homemade bread--woo hoo!)

I love Sundays--they often lead to good progress on the food front for us. Now to carry it through the rest of the week...