Field Notes: Coastside Farmers’ Market

By Erin Tormey, organizer of the Coastside Farmer’s Market. In Half Moon Bay, the market is at Shoreline Station (at Kelly and Highway 1), Saturdays, 9am to 1pm

Well Marketeers, Fall done fell.

Which begs the question: What happens when it rains?

Well, all kinds of good things happen when it rains.  For one thing, the Market will be open and full, as will be - rain or shine- through November, every day until right before Thanksgiving.  Except , of course Pumpkin Festival Saturday.  Other than that we are here and at your service. Squash any rumors to the contrary.  Pun intended.

Fires in the hillsides get put out.  You can eke another few weeks of abundance from your lettuce patches and if your roses are in their second bought of flowering for the year, then you luck out and get an ever richer bloom.

And most importantly you get to eat some kinda tea and toast all three meals of the day, plus snacks if you want, and no one thinks you are weird.

Come to the Market and get a loaf of Greenlees’s Cinnamon Bread. They call it "Worlds’ Best Cinnamon Bread "and having done more than my requisite share of research on the issue, I concur.  All you need to do to have a seriously good morning is toast a piece of this stuff and put it on a good looking plate with slices of perfect new crop apples. Forget the butter or any other single thing.  But do have a great cup of coffee or a cup of Garimo’s Up & Atom Chai on hand to complete the effect.  Your coffee-break companions will offer to do small jobs, prune your roses or return your extension cords in time for Christmas-anything- to get asked back.

To get some assistance with the rest of the days activities,  drop by Sukhi’s for a wheel of garlic Naan, and one of those swell little quarter-moons of deep rye that Jared bakes. Pick up several new crop organic apples from Tunitas Creek Ranch, and some of their lovely Coastside estate-grown organic teas.  Pick up that new teapot from Ken Takara and meet Garimo and his Up & Atom Chai it your prefer a tea with a size 12 kick to it. .  Gather up a few bunches of Eda’s arugula, some sage and some cilantro, a hank of Maureen’s leeks and some of Steven’s Alder Smoked sea salt, a slab of smoked local albacore and some of those lovely white shallots from Joon.

Farmer John is growing a really cool cooking pumpkin called an Apple Blossom that has an incredibly dense dark orange flesh and lots of flavor.  Roast one of these babies with some of those shallots and about 10 thick sprigs of sage in the same pan. Cut the pumpkin in half, flesh side down skins on : leave the shallots in their skins to roast, then squeeze the flesh after they are done cooking through.  Do this in a slow oven- about 300 degrees-  for 40 minutes, discard the sage after roasting.  Scoop out the pumpkin & mash with the shallots, and spread a thick layer of this gorgeously coloured ( you just HAVE to spell it like the Irish) stuff onto a nice thick piece of toasted rye bread, toss a few crumbles of feta overall if you must, and marvel that you did not think of this sooner.

Or/And when you shred a couple of Pliny’s hard tart pie apples with a cheese grater, and saute them with that bunch of Giusti’s leeks, which you’ve chopped into a nice chiffonade - ask me about this if you don’t know a chiffonade from a chiffoniere.  I do , because my Mama understood the distinction and was kind enough to pass it on.  Any way, just saute the leeks until they are soft, and the whiter ends are nearly transparent (  don’t caramelize them - no need to do that with everything Phyllis), add the apples and cook a bit longer,  douse them right at the end with a nice dose of Big Paws lemon infused oil,  drape them ever so lovingly over a nice freshly rinsed pile of Eda’s arugula that you have stacked firmly on the top of a whole Naan that you’ve warmed to a lovely crispness.  It’ll look like a pizza. Sorta.  Finish it off with a sprinkling of the aforementioned Alder Smoked salt ( this stuff looks so pretty and tastes like a mouthful of clean wide ocean and it is so, so pretty - like caviar for vegans).  Cut one of these up into quarters and give the traditional Wedge Salad a whole new meaning. Go Ahead.

Kudos this week to Sam’s Chowder House - Sammy is a Market regular and serious local music fan and his parents are , in effect the Markets Ma & Pa too.  We got our start with Paul and Julie and I remain ever grateful - They got quite a nice nod from the Morning Show last week as they were in the running as one of 5 of the Best Sandwich in America.

And listen , if your own issues regarding domestic reclamation are either well in hand OR too much to contemplate, consider working off that cinnamon toast by heading down to Kelly Beach on Saturday Morning where Coastside Land Trust - another benefactor of our lovely, local and Independent Market - is sponsoring a Habitat Restoration Day.

Frank Ellis is playing this weekend, since he felt so bad about missing last week - so yay!  Another fine occasion to thank Pacifica Garden and Lumber, Half Moon Bay Garden and Lumber for their support of our Market and our desire to present the best local music we can find.

And one last Pat on Our Own ( still a little sore) Backs!  On September 15th, with the assistance of Reece Computer Systems we collected nearly 4,000 pounds of e-Waste in 4 hours.  That’s a 1,000 and hour of stuff that is not going to end up in the land fill.  What a difference a day makes.

See you at the Market - Rain, or Shine.

Erin Tormey
Coastside Farmers Markets

In Half Moon Bay
Shoreline Station ( at Kelly and Highway 1)
Saturdays, 9 am to 1pm

In Pacifica
Rockaway Beach
Wednesdays, 2:30 -6:30pm