by Margie Hurd, SLO Fresh Catch When Swordfish, Halibut, and Salmon are available, it’s easy for us at the SLO Fresh Catch booth to sell fish at the San Luis Obispo County farmers’ markets because shoppers generally know how to prepare steaks and filets of these familiar fish. But it’s early spring and our commercial fishermen are catching less familiar fish like Sand Sole and Black Cod. At this point in the season, we can also expect to...
Friendly SLO Wine Country Association members bring their wines to you at the Saturday market in San Luis Obispo twice a month. Look for the winemakers in a booth near the restaurant vendors on the south west side of the market on the second and third Saturdays of the month. SLO Wine Country’s Executive Director Heather Muran says, “We believe this is a great collaboration between SLO Wine Country and the SLO Farmer’s Market in...
It is important to remember that each stall at a farmers’ market represents a different family operated small farm. The person you see behind a table loaded with vegetables, flowers, and/or fruits is the person who grew these products or his/her employee. For most, farming is their livelihood. On average, most of our farmers sell at eight farmers’ markets every week. Our farmers are hard working people and take pride in their...
Freshness Whether you ask a customer or a restaurant chef who regularly shops at farmers’ markets what is the first thing they think of with respect to farmers’ markets they say “freshness.” In getting to a grocery store produce is first picked in the fields, sent to distribution centers, trucked to supermarket, stored in refrigerated rooms, and set out when shelves need restocking. From field to checkout counter produce has, on...
Comparison of the carbon footprints from large chain grocery stores with that of farmers’ markets: More miles traveled translate into more fuel consumed and more carbon dioxide released Grocery stores. Most produce is trucked and/or flown from farms to processing facilities, then to central distribution warehouses, and finally to individual stores of large grocery chains like Vons, Trader Joes, and Albertsons. Produce sold at grocery...
Prior to the late 1970s, there were very few farmers’ markets in California. None of these were Certified. Currently there are over 350 Certified farmers’ markets in California. So, what happened in the late 1970s? During the 1970’s an alarming number of family operated small farms in California were going out of business. Reasons? It is all about how food gets to everyone’s tables, and business. So how does food get from a farm...
