Field Notes: Coastside Farmers Market

This weeks all kinds of shenanigans are going on at the Markets - and I do hope you’ll consider dropping in - or off-  for the hijinks.  And for the apricots. Oh, and Airelle’s strawberries. And Eda’s spinach. 

I’ll get to the regular version of Field Notes next week, but for now, I wanted to alert you to a couple of things happening at the Markets this week so you can plan accordingly. We are hoping to help our neighbors here, and those living along the beautiful and imperiled Gulf Coast in a couple of small but meaningful ways this week and you can help if you like.

FIRST- If now that the weather finally resembles something like spring you’ve got a wild hair and deep desire to rip off your stockings, why please do, and then bring them to the Market - both or either location this week.  In turn, we’ll send them along to a terrific local NGO called Matter of Trust -  to stuff full of hair of all manner of mammal to use as booms to protect the marshes in the Gulf.  Now there - finally - is a good use for a box of hair!  Seems there is nothing more attractive to stray oils than hair and fur, so MoT collects the hair from pet groomers, salons and sheep, llama & alpaca ranchers, and used nylons and tights from folks like me and die-hard Joe Namath fans.  Apparently used stockings are harder to come by than show-dog hair,  so if you have a few pair hanging around for special occasions, well, just bring them in and send them on a Gulf vacation.  There’s a new UPS Store right behind the Market in Pacifica, and they are going to help us send your stockings, pantyhose and tights off to Louisiana , so welcome to the neighborhood Joe and Wendy, and thanks! 

THEN: Coastside Hope is sponsoring a Diaper Drive on Saturday, June 12th. Cloth and disposable are both fine, though I find the cloth ones make much better sense, and car-washing devices.

OF NOTE: The late spring rains have made it tough on Dan and George from Brentwood, so we won’t have their terrific corn for about two weeks, but they’ll be back after that, and we should have swell sweet corn for the 4th, no problem. 

Plus!  This week the HEAL Project (California’s first Certified Agricultural Producer from a public school) will be in attendance, as will The Bee Man from Montara.  Very cool stuff to check out.

Thanks also to the Friends of the Farmers’ Market for helping me keep outstanding musicians employed like Gerry Basserman, who will Bossa your Nova on Saturday,  and Jay Howlett who will inspire a new interest in tractor pulls on Wednesday afternoon.

So - the photo is of hair-booms heading for the Gulf waters - NOT Serge’s garlic sausages, which are much smaller, and Quite a Bit tastier!

See you at the Market!

Erin