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Business & Tech

Lamorinda Goes to Market

Farmers, friends, and foodies find fun, politics and bounty for their tables at popular Farmers' Markets in Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda.

Like Superman, whose meek exterior masks an explosive muscularity, Lamorinda's humble, community-minded Farmer's Markets pack a powerful punch.

Vincent, standing in front of Terra Bella Family Farm's impressive display of fruits and vegetables at Lafayette's fledgling market, opens his arms and boasts, "Most of this food, we picked out of the ground just a few hours ago."  He and his co-worker, Sarah, continue to stack the produce, the flow of conversation never interrupting their movements.

Ten feet away, Amy Courtney of Freewheelin' Farm helps an early customer.

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"It's Kale," she explains, plunging into a list of benefits to eating it and a simple, three-step technique for preparing it.  Tom Croen and his mother Lila, a visitor from New York, listen appreciatively.  It's a culinary lesson and a shopping trip in one swoop.

"Things from the farmer's market taste better, and it's better to get things from the person growing them," Croen says.  It doesn't hurt that one of the farm's owners is an Acalanes grad, making every purchase an affirmation of community.

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 Buying local is a huge reason Lamorindan's flock to the markets.  Karen Maggio, of Lafayette, proudly holds up a loaded bag of produce.

"Number one, we all like to shop local," she says.  "Spreading our money around is good.  And this brings the community together — it goes beyond just buying vegetables at the grocery store."

Jessie Neu, the markets' Executive Director, is directing traffic this day.  Farmers' trucks and vans jockey while early-bird customers quick-step out of their paths.  ("I like the attendance, but safety is important," she mutters to herself.)  Still, she has time to provide valuable first-hand history.  Neu and her fellow DVC students started the first county market as a grass-roots organization in Pleasant Hill 28 years ago.

She is exuberant because, to her, the cycle is complete: "There are communities that want to eat healthy and want to support small family farms again," she says.  "It's back to the future."

 "You can support the local community and it's walking distance for us," echoes Lauren Tyson.  Her son, William, 21 months, rides in a little red wagon perfectly suited to the occasion.  "The music is great too," she adds.

Richard Smith, of Lone Oak Ranch, says customers' motivations vary.

"For some, it's a penny here or there and it doesn't matter what it tastes like," he says.

But these people are in the minority, if you talk to Mercy Calderon.  She is buying wine today, from a local vintner.  "I know there's nothing added.  I get good quality, but I don't have to buy a lot of it to get a good price," she says.  And Antonio Vargos, picking out cherries one by one, offers the three little words every farmer loves to hear:  "It's more fresh."

In a move some may find surprising, Diablo Foods, a nearby family-owned grocery store, accepted the Lafayette market.

"They saw it as the wave of the future and jumped on board," says Keith Farley, Market Manager in Walnut Creek.  Connie Collier, daughter of Ed Stokes, the founder of Diablo Foods, worried about smaller businesses close to the market, but admits, "You can't stop the food movement.  There's no better way to get fresh food than from a farmer."  Her store is still doing well on Thursdays.  "We have a farmer's market seven days a week," she says, displaying an impressive savviness  in turning what could be competition into promotion.

In Moraga, the line in front of Bay Breads is 10 shoppers long.  "It's an old world, traditional type bread," says Carlo T., explaining why he, and others wait patiently.  "Great crusts too."  Several eavesdroppers nod in agreement.

Across the market, at V & V Farms, the pace is brisk, with customers snapping up fresh bundles of asparagus and sweet lemons.

"When the asparagus is gone, we're gone," says farmer Pedro Violini, smiling.  He quick slices a lemon and squeezes it, adding, "You can even wash your hands with this stuff."

Spend a little time at any one of Lamorinda's markets, and it's clear that local farmers come to market for two reasons: to sell their product and to educate.  The lessons — how to cook Kale, how to use honey from local bees to reduce allergies, why to buy well-cared for wine ("Costco can take a good bottle of wine and ruin it," according to Emidio Fonseca of Sterling Albert Winery) — mean customers get far more than a full backpack at the end of the day.

And if the fresh food, live music, green-movement local grassroots activity isn't enough, the chance to jaw with neighbors is always a draw.  With "cozy," the adjective of one farmer, and "politically astute" the description offered by another, Lamorinda's markets really are Superman in overalls, bursting to fill you up.

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