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Woodland's Certified Farmer's Market
Tuesdays 5-7 PM Open May through October (may vary). The Farmer's Market is one of the few places where the public can come and purchase food directly from the growers. The Woodland Farmer's Market is fairly small, usually having fewer than 12 vendors- but that number changes throughout the season based on availability of crops. The Market is in a catch-22 situation right now. In order to get more vendors, they need more customers. But to get more customers, they need more vendors. So come on out to the Market to see what they have! Ed Eckhoff, one of the managers/growers says: "We're a small market, and we limit this to locally grown products. You won't find anything that's been shipped across the country. We only take from the local counties." So let's see what is available at the market...
"Do I enjoy it? You bet!" Eckhoff Ranch has tomatoes, melons and sweet corn. They grow their early tomatoes in a cold frame, which allows them to be vine ripe by May. So when the stores are selling something picked green (sounds like a booger) Ed is selling real, ripe tomatoes. The farm is the full time job of Ed and Jan Eckhoff, working 5 acres themselves. They sell their food primarily through the Farmer's Market. "We don't sell to restaurants, because they need a steady supply of the same food all year long." Their excess food that isn't sold at the Market goes to the Wayfarer Center.
This is Abdul, and two daughters. His family has orchards up in Arbuckle where they grow 10 types of peaches along with other fruit. I asked him if he liked the Farmer's market and he said, "I enjoy it, I like to talk to the customers." Abdul was the only guy giving out samples of his products. And, not surprising...he was the first person I purchased stuff from. He had some great Asian pears and really good white peaches. I brought a bunch home, and they were gone the very same day. I asked him about giving out samples: "So it might cost me a couple peaches, or ten peaches...that's not a big deal when it helps to sell them."
Personally, I let Abdul pick out some peaches for me, and they were all perfect.
The Farmer's Market also provides entertainment, in the form of live music. On a recent Saturday, this duo sang along with a guitar, harmonica and lots of enthusiasm.
This is one of those rare times when the country music is from Davis, and the fruits are from Arbuckle.
This is Sonia. She sells squash, basil and fresh eggs. Her eggs are multi-colored- this is because she has Araucana chickens, which lay blue, green and brown eggs. She has 60 or 70 chickens which are free to roam around her 5 acres. She is a co-manager of the Farmer's Market. The thing that amazes her most about the market, is when people say, "I didn't know we had a farmer's market." She told me a lot about her chickens. She said that they were pets...friends even. She names them and gives them very good lives. Of course, I had to know:
She has some chickens that are 5 or 6 years old. Commercial chickens are only about 6 or 8 weeks old when they are slaughtered. Yes, that chicken you just ate for lunch was only 6 weeks old. One of the miracles of modern science.
This is Patricia, who works for Upper Crust Bakery. I'm going to say it right now- Awesome Cookies. Upper Crust is a bakery in Davis. They come to the Farmer's Market every Tuesday night bringing bread, cookies (awesome) and apple tarts. We bought a loaf of bread, and I started talking to Patricia about the bakery. "We've been coming to the market here since it started, about 10 years ago, and I'm glad to be out here" she said. Patricia has worked at Upper Crust for a year, but said that the real credit had to go to Mo and Trudy, the owners who started coming to the market way back when. Normally I wouldn't print that last little bit about the owners, but in this case I'll make an exception.
On the right is Lao- she is from Sacramento. I am guessing that the guy here is her brother. Her stand was full of all types of salad veggies, squash and strawberries. They had quite a variety. Her family owns a place in Sacramento where they grow everything. They also regularly sell veggies in Auburn. Her favorite vegetables are red onions, but she doesn't really cook- just makes salads. I asked her if she really liked salads, and she said, "not really." It took a while before she finally told me that her favorite food is spinach and cheese ravioli.
This lady makes soap at home, and then sells it. She told me that she wanted to make soap because commercial soaps were too harsh for her skin. She figured "if the pioneer women could make it, then I guess I could too." So she went on the Internet and found some soap recipes. Basically, soap is still made the same way it always was - oil mixed with lye. She uses nut oils and milk (it has fat) for her soap. This gives it a nice smooth texture. In pioneer days they would use fat from animals...I don't know how well that would go over. But if you did make soap from animals, I'll bet a 'chicken and dumplings' scented soap would sell pretty good. You could shape it to look like a dumpling.
This guy was also a fruit seller. He had a lot of good looking fruit, but I was tempted by Abdul's free samples so I never really looked at what he had for sale.
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Eckhoff
Ranch is run by one of the Woodland Farmer's Market managers,- Ed Eckhoff.
He has been here for 10 years, since the start of the Farmer's Market.
Ed was enthusiastic about the Market getting more exposure.
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