Just over a month into its 2014 season, the Upper Haight Farmers Market is going full-steam and picking up speed.
Haven't had a chance to check it out yet? Today's your lucky day: today and every Wednesday until late October, from 2pm to 7 pm in the skate park at the end of Waller (at Stanyan), you can check out locally-farmed produce and small-batch artisan prepared foods.
In case you haven't been able to make it yet, we met with Pacific Coast Farmers Market Association market manager Ashley Weidman last Wednesday, and she gave us a tour of the market as it's shaping up so far. With about 20 vendors at the moment and an anticipated 25 during the height of the season, we had plenty of produce to scope out.
This time of year the highlight offerings are "precocious," or early growers, and late harvests that last from the previous year (like nuts). Some of the current favorites are strawberries, carrots, dandelion greens, breakfast radishes, heirloom cabbages, kitchen herbs, fresh flowers, basil, beets and lettuces. All the produce is pesticide-free and most of it is California Certified Organic.
Some of the farms specializing in green produce at the moment are Tomatero, from Watsonville (get the Albion strawberries), Blue House Farm, with a huge array of leafy greens (like collards) and more strawberries, Inzana Ranch (almonds and stone fruit, including apriums), and Lockewood Acres (honey!). There's also produce from Green Oaks Creek in Pescadero, who you can also visit at the farm and camp out overnight.
Prepared foods include handmade corn dogs by Sticks, which makes its own batter and fries them on the spot (we had one, they're delicious), Roli Roti, which cooks free range whole chicks rotisserie-style on the back of a custom-built chicken-roasting truck, gluten-free delicious pastries from Four Chylde (try the coconut cake), juices and fermented drinks from Living Apothecary, and warm and take-home Indian food from Sukhi's, to name a few.
This is just a smattering of what's actually there, and the offerings will change over the course of the season. Get on over there today to check out what's for dinner in your kitchen tonight.
