Our first trip to the Santa Barbara Farmer’s Market was a huge success. In fact it made my day!
Saturdays mean a trip to Santa Barbara for fresh fruits and veggies. Thursday evenings we head to Carpinteria to visit many of the same vendors. What an abundance to have farm fresh produce twice a week! I can stock up and never run out.
I wrote about Santa Barbara’s Farmer’s Market two years ago HERE. I think the photos are better in the previous post, so you may want to take a look. I was too burdened down with produce to take great photos Saturday.
Photos from the market:
Our favorite vendor we call Farmer Fred. He’s friends with two couples we know in Santa Barbara. We went to a BBQ with him and his family last summer. He’s got a personality that doesn’t stop. He loves bantering and joking with his customers. As the close of the market approaches, he gives away produce. Two older Latino women came and he gave them two boxes of peppers. We asked what they were doing with them.
“They’re making tamales,” was all Farmer Fred told us.
They may be tamale vendors or making them for church. In any case, Fred helps them out.
While I shopped around the market, my husband hung out with Farmer Fred.
A woman was helping Fred that we’ve met in years’ past. She weighed produce for a customer and handed them their bag of tomatoes. She asked, “How much do we owe you?” We all laughed because at that point Fred was giving away produce.
We’re also on a first-name basis with our favorite stone-fruit farmer, Todd. He has 10 acres in Arizona he wants to sell us.
I bought the white peach, Flavor King and Dapple Dandy (tastes like candy) pluots from Todd. What a treat!
What I made for dinner:
Roasted round zucchini that I sliced and tossed in olive oil. After roasting, I sprinkled it with a Mexican chile seasoning.
I bought bone marrow from a vendor at the Farmer’s Market who was selling beef and pork. Bone marrow was listed under OFFAL. I roasted it in the oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, along with the zucchini. Unfortunately, the top bone lost most of it’s marrow while cooking. But what was left was delicious! I served the veggies and bone marrow with chips, salsa and guacamole made from avocados a friend gave us. Yum!
Do you have a farmer’s market near you? What are your favorite things to buy?
I used to enjoy going to the farmers markets near us in Seattle. Though a bit pricier than the safe way around the corner
Can you tell the difference in flavor?
Definitely. I made green beans from the farmer’s market last night and they had so much more flavor. Also, the fruit is unbelievable.
Yes, the farmer’s market’s are more expensive, but the fresh produce is so good.
And the food made there fresh is excellent too.
Yes!
😋
Love the people…and the fresh fruit! 🥰
Yes! The farmer’s market is a fun outing and the produce lasts all week.
🌞🥰🌞
😊
Your photos are magnificent, and filled me with yearning for a similar farmers’ market here! We used to buy peaches from a farmer and he explained to us how to ripen them (they tended to be rock hard when he sold them). Regardless of how meticulously we followed his instructions, inevitably we missed the 2 minute window where they were ripe 🤣 We always saw them as rock hard or rotten 😔 So you know I’m very taken with your experience!
Love the zucchini dish you made, am going to have to get zucchini, too! And those tomatoes look… amazing! Did they taste as good as they looked?
The vegetables were all good. The tomatoes are so flavorful and they are bright red inside.
So the big question, EA, are you going to buy the land??
Have you checked out the local AZ farmer’s market’s yet, E.A.? We have a few decent ones. Our favorite vendor was priced out of Litchfield Park a few years ago and had to move and start over much further out, which I’m still devastated about. We buy a little of everything. Fresh herbs, asparagus, and strawberries are all a million times better freshly picked than from the grocery store.
We went to the Scottsdale farmer’s market and we first moved here. We were a little overwhelmed moving from CA which was on shutdowns and being in the crowd there. I go to our Carefree farmer’s market each week, but we only have one farmer and sometimes he’s not there. But I do buy produce there. Which ones do you go to?
We typically go to Old Town Scottsdale, which has a few decent vendors. It’s small, so we can typically get in-and-out quickly. The woman who runs it, Christina, and all the support staff are so, so nice and I love seeing them.
Uptown Farmer’s Market (Central/Bethany) is okay, but really chaotic. It would be a fun market for friends visiting.
Downtown Phoenix Market is supposed to be good. They opened just a two years ago and it’s the only place our favorite vendor, Blue Sky Farm, sells now, but we’ve driven down twice and left because we couldn’t find parking, but we may try again this year.
Desert Ridge is mostly crafts and Carefree and Roadrunner Park/Cactus both have pretty limited selections.
Thanks for all the info. We took my SIL to the Old Town one last year when she was visiting. We discovered it isn’t open year round!
Nope! Open around the first weekend of Oct through mid-May to mid-June, depending on how early things heat up. The markets that remain open during the summer basically only have onions, potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers, or produce imported from CA, OR, and WA.
We learned that but did go out for a nice lunch.
As for the 10 acres, the owner said it’s too far away for him to deal with. He was growing alfalfa. But he said it’s zoned for two homes, five acres each. My husband is going to look at it, but it’s clear over in Yuma.
Ah, Yuma. Have you been? Terribly ugly, terrible farming, and lots of crime… at least 15 years, the last time I was there. Check it out, but it’s not the hottest real estate around LOL
We drove through last September on our way to a wedding in San Diego. Yes, that’s my impression, too. I don’t think my husband will actually make the drive there.
Now THIS is a farmer’s market. Ours are just okay. I think in larger cities they are better.
Yes, I think you’re right. Our Palm Springs one was not as fabulous as the Santa Barbara one. But it was better than our Carefree farmer’s market. Santa Barbara has a population 85,000 and north there are many farms nearby. Palm Springs is 45,000 and there is also farmland to the east. Carefree’s population is 3,500 and there aren’t farms nearby.
We have a farm stand that’s open daily, which is where we get peaches, corn, melons, green chile and a few other items. There’s a Saturday farmers market, but I rarely go. The college has their own stand, and I like to buy from them, but now that school’s in session it’s hard to find a parking spot. So today’s produce all came from the grocery store.
That’s nice to have a farm stand close by. Yes, I have to buy produce at home mostly from Safeway. There’s a private grocery store that has better produce, so sometimes I go there.
Wow – that produce looks wonderful! But I love the stories about the people the most. I believe that makes it taste even better!
I think you’re right. Farmer Fred’s stand also has people just hanging out to hear stories, also people stop by to help him work.
Great post and photos, and the produce looks good! Your zucchini sounds yummy too. We have a couple of smaller farmer’s markets around here, but we haven’t been in a while. Thanks for the nudge. 🙂
Thanks! Our farmer’s market at home has one farmer and a handful of artisans, one dip stand and a bread stand. I really appreciate Santa Barbara’s.