Winter Fare at the Farmers Market Adds Variety and Value as Well as Health

Every Sunday 9am–1pm at Stonestown (Rear parking lot).

Kids were kept busy on the slides and bouncing to their heart’s content. Grown-ups were busy tasting free samples and squeezing fresh produce.

 Shane Yuri demonstrates the apple peeler, corer and slicer—delicious too. Yuri Ranch is out of Ceres, CA, just 20 minutes south of Stockton

Olivera Egg Ranch’s Emelda offers the freshest eggs; cage free, organic, free roaming, vegetarian diet. Their farm is in Gilroy and she’s happy to tell you about her great chickens.

 

 

 

Isn’t that our own cougar, Phyllis Sherman engaging the bread man? They offer French and Italian breads, focaccia, and Phyllis’ favorite, chocolate zucchini loaf. There are many varieties of breads, cakes and baked goods at the Market every week and vendors are happy to offer samples.

 

 

 

Bees are busy and there’s more to it than honey. From skin care products to candles and All Natural Honey, Small Bees provides only the best all natural products from local Santa Clara Valley bees.

 

 

 

 

 

Tony Howe can’t give the olive treats away fast enough. M&CP has the exclusive rights to California Kalamata olives. No lye is used in the curing process, only sea salt and water.

 

There are never any pesticides or sprays of any kind on Success Valley Farms’ strawberries. The first harvest are sweet and plump and everyone is willing to sample. A box sells for $3.50

 

There she is again, mooching Gary Peter’s Springhill Cheese sampler. All Natural, 100% Fresh Cultured Grade A Jersey Milk, Salt and Enzymes. That’s It! No Artificial Hormones.

 

…add music, art, fresh sea fish, ethnic food booths and the main event—veggies picked this morning!

March 2010

 

 

Grand Opening Celebration!

GRAND OPENING AT THE STONESTOWN FARMERS MARKET

On Sunday October 18th, the Stonestown Galleria and Marin Farmers Markets (MFM) will host a Grand Opening Celebration in honor of the new Stonestown Farmers Market.

Farmers market shoppers, local public officials, and community group representatives will join the Stonestown Galleria and MFM’s farmers, food purveyors, and artists for a pumpkin cutting ceremony at 11 am. Throughout the day, market-goers will enjoy lively entertainment, special market give-aways, and market tours with Life’s Ingredients. Shortly after the pumpkin cutting ceremony the market will be blessed by Jing Mo’s Lion Dance, taking heads of lettuce from local dignitaries and kicking them throughout the market. Chinese tradition says that those who are touched by the flying lettuce will be blessed with good luck and fortune, businesses and customers alike.

Three months after its opening day on June 28th, the market continues to thrive and grow. The Stonestown Farmers Market is a program of Marin Farmers Markets (MFM), a 501(c)5 non-profit based in San Rafael, in partnership with its sister organization Marin Agricultural Institute (MAI), a 501(c)3 non-profit. This is the second farmers market that MFM produces in partnership with General Growth Properties (GGP).

Richard Forester, General Manager of the Stonestown Galleria, is pleased with the partnership – “It’s been a very synergistic relationship. The Stonestown Farmers Market is a tremendous resource for our neighboring communities and we’re happy to offer our space and support to the local farmers and food purveyors of Marin Farmers Markets. We look forward to many more seasons to come!”

Tyler Thayer, Market Manager, reflects on the immense outpouring of support from the community – “We feel so fortunate to have been welcomed by the local communities. Everyone I speak to is thrilled that the market is here. Customers are always asking ‘how can I help? How can I make sure this market succeeds?’ I say simply, ‘tell your friends, invite your neighbors, make this market a pivotal part of your community.’ Every week the market seems to grow. It’s exciting to watch.”

The flying lettuce will surely help.

Marin Farmers Markets is a 501(c)5 non-profit which runs 8 farmers markets in the Bay Area, including the Sunday Civic Center Farmers Market – the third largest farmers market in California. For 26 years, MFM has been bringing farmers and communities together to create healthy viable local food systems. For more information please visit www.marinfarmersmarkets.org.

STONESTOWN FARMERS MARKET IS PUTTING DOWN ROOTS

Two months after its opening day on June 28th, the Stonestown Farmers Market is bustling. “Where we had maybe 500 customers join us at our first market, we’re estimating 2,000 are visiting us these days. We’ve seen exponential growth in our customer base. In just eight weeks, we’ve developed loyal regulars and they’re all so excited to share the market with their family and friends. The community here has been extremely supportive,” shares market manager, Tyler Thayer.

In the months leading up to the opening, MFM was approached by numerous community groups throughout the Westside of San Francisco – each requesting their own neighborhood farmers market. MFM’s Board of Directors and staff honed in on the Stonestown Galleria as a premier location for a farmers market that could best serve a handful of communities on the Westside while balancing the capacity of MFM and its members to meet public demand. (Photo: Sister Rosa Schneider helps Matt at Sunday's Market)

Some farmers are already touting the Stonestown Farmers Market as their best market, like farmer Matt McCue of Shooting Star CSA. Matt and Lilly Schneider grow 32 varieties of certified organic vegetables on their eight acre farm in Fairfield. “This is our most productive farmers market of the five we attend. We expect this market will be one of those where farmers are waiting for someone to go out of business or die to have the opportunity to get in – we’re glad to be here from the start,” jokes McCue.

“It’s amazing how excited people are! They’re here to shop. The quality of the growers at this market is excellent, and the customers at Stonestown are really genuinely interested in produce. It’s a great match,” notes McCue.

Shooting Star has just a few months on the Stonestown Farmers Market, having signed the lease for their perfect plot of land in Suisun Valley in March of 2009. Lily Schneider, who Matt describes as the “star grower on the farm,” has spent the past six years farming and studying sustainable agriculture and agronomy. Matt McCue is an Iraq War Veteran and Peace Corps volunteer who has dedicated his life to farming - he’s in his fourth season of farming following four years of serving in the U.S. Army. (Photo: Lisa Schneider)

Thayer can barely hold back his enthusiasm when describing the farmers, food purveyors and artisans who are attending the market: “We’ve got farmers with great stories and even better product – Matt and Lily of Shooting Star with their organic vegetables, Cliff from Hamada Farms, a multi-generational farm, with his stonefruit, grapes and melons, and Pascal of Pugs Leap Farm with phenomenal hand-crafted goat cheese, just to name a few. Our food purveyor community is filled with blossoming small businesses from around the Bay Area including Split Pea Seduction, LaVier Catering, Teeny Cake, and Santa Cruz Pasta Company. The artisan community at the market is bursting with creative, hand-made works of art – it’s food for the soul.”

Thayer looks forward to fleshing out the market as the consumer base continues to grow. “We’re looking to attract a few more specialty items to really complete the market. Hopefully in the next few months we’ll see a nursery come in with plant starts, a bakery with artisanal breads, a few more organic growers, a local rancher with meats, and a farmer growing specialty Asian greens. It was a no brainer that this market would succeed – it was just a matter of getting the word out.

In addition to a blossoming market, Stonestown customers can look forward to upcoming special events including: a chef demonstration with Chef Liza Shaw of A16 followed by a tour of the market with Rebecca Katz, author of One Bite at a Time, and Anais Radonich Galvinon of Life’s Ingredients on September 13th, and the Stonestown Farmers Market Grand Opening Celebration on October 18th.

Stonestown Galleria is owned and operated by General Growth Properties, Inc. The Company has ownership interest in, or management responsibility for, over 200 regional shopping malls in 44 states, as well as ownership in master planned community developments, and commercial office buildings. For more information, visit www.stonestowngalleria.com.

The Stonestown Farmers Market is a program of Marin Farmers Markets is a 501(c)5 non-profit which runs 8 farmers markets in the Bay Area, including the Sunday Civic Center Farmers Market – the third largest farmers market in California. It is based in San Rafael, in partnership with its sister organization Marin Agricultural Institute (MAI), a 501(c)3 non-profit. This is the second farmers market that MFM produces in partnership with General Growth Properties (GGP). For more information please visit www.marinfarmersmarkets.org.

September 2009

Fresh & Fruity Farmers Market At Stonestown

A beautiful sunny day came with the opening of the Farmers Market at Stonestown. There were concession stands with every variety of vegetable, fruit, berry, melon imaginable, as well as local home-baked goods, great hummus and ethnic foods, flowers, orchids, cheeses, eggs, honey, homemade ravioli along with enough samples to make a meal. For the Kids there were bouncy rooms and pony rides. This will happen every week, according to organizers.

Pascal Destandau, Cheesemaker, and his partner Eric Smith, the Goatherder make the best goat cheese this side of heaven. They own and operate Pugs Leap Farm in Healdsburg, an organic and eco-friendly orchard, vegetable and herb garden where their 27 goats roam and forage. “Each goat has a name and gets milked 300 days a year,” says Pascal, a Frenchman “via Australia,” who likes to sell directly to the public, “with the 250% markup most stores charge, few could afford a fine handmade cheese like this,” he says. Priced at $5.75, 8. and 12.—we agree.

Pugs Leap has been featured in San Francisco Magazine, National Geographic Traveler and California Home.

With so many eaters celebrating the perks of locally grown food, it’s no surprise that every neighborhood is calling out for its very own farmers market. However there is one piece of the puzzle that eaters sometimes forget—farmers.

Pony rides for the kids and other game areas make the shopping easy on parents and fun for kids.

Bilal and his son Uthman offer “No Cookie cookies” that have no dairy, refined sugar, eggs, or wheat—they are moist, chewy and delicious. Ch 5’s Best of the Bay.

Lily Schneider is eager to explain the value of growing and eating organic food.

In California, eaters outnumber small to mid-sized farms 12,500 to 1; with approximately 36,000,000 Californians to the 2,900 certified producers currently participating in farmers markets. Instead of spreading farmers too thin by demanding that they set up a booth in every corner of our urban landscape, it’s time that we reach a compromise.

Sample some artichoke spread? You bet!

Bill Yang is proud of his Heirloom tomatos from his Nou Vang Farms in Sanger (near Fresno)

Sam Shaclelford talks about pesticide-free gardening — common practice for most of the vendors at the Farmers Market, even those that haven’t been officially certified — its best practice at RHS Farms, his 60 acre farm in Woodland.

On Sunday June 28th, Marin Farmers Markets (MFM),in partnership with its sister organization Marin Agricultural Institure (MAI), celebrated the opening of its new farmers market at Stonestown, running from 9 AM to 1 PM. This is MFM’s first farmers market in San Francisco, and the first new market that MFM has opened in 7 years. The new market, will run year-round. They currently operate 4 farmers markets in Marin County, and 3 farmers markets in Alameda County.

While the surge in the demand for local food has been remarkable, consumers are still trapped in the culture of convenience. With over 500 markets in California, the farmers are in the driver seat when deciding how many markets they can attend and which ones. We need more farmers, more people growing their own food. But in the meantime, it’s important that we compromise and develop markets that have both the needs of the customer and the farmer in mind.

Thanks to excellent public transportation, as well as the abundance of parking available at the Stonestown Galleria, the Stonestown Market is extremely accessible.

The market will be open year-round every Sunday from 9 AM -1 PM. Stonestown Galleria is at 3251 20th Avenue, SF

More photos from the opening of the Farmers Market at Stonestown Here

July/August 2009