Palo Alto Farmers' Market

 

Few places in the world make me as happy as the Palo Alto Farmers' Market. Every Saturday morning (8AM to 12PM) from mid-May to mid-December local farms and artisanal food vendors line up along California Avenue, selling the freshest produce imaginable and other hard-to-find foodstuffs.

This time of year is particularly wonderful, because it's the peak of cherry season (I LOVE CHERRIES) which means for a couple of months I have access to unbelievable cherries, cherries so good they ruin me for the rest of the year--seriously, it's hard to eat frozen cherries or even the good canned kind from American Spoon Foods (more on their fruit later) after tasting farmers' market cherries at the height of their natural glory.

As frustrating as it is to know that cherry season will eventually come to an end (as all good things do!), and I'll be deprived until next May, I'm grateful the farmers' market is around to remind me of a more natural way of eating and thinking about food. When you shop at the farmers' market you're fostering a

connection to the earth, to the seasons, and to the community itself.

Because on a Saturday morning during farmers' market season in Palo Alto, you're bound to bump into at least a couple people you know--I can't count how many times I've reached over for some arugula or stood by that AMAZING Afghani place tasting potato bread topped with lentils and eggplant and noticed that the person to my right was my neighbor, or an old client, or one of my son's high school teachers.

So when I mean community, I mean the farmers and vendors, the people who call Palo Alto home, and the land itself, the land that offers up so much beautiful produce.

Really, if you haven't been, you need to check out the farmers' market. There's usually live music, and there's always something you haven't seen before, like lamb's quarters (a wild variety of spinach I'd never heard of until a couple weeks ago).

Once you start eating sustainable, local produce, you'll never want to go back--not only will your meals taste better, but you'll be doing something good for the environment and the local economy. Supporting the Palo Alto's farmers' market means supporting the essence of our vibrant community.