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Farm fresh in the mountains |
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Written by Jason Dobbs/special to the World
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Monday, 29 May 2006 |
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 Weekly farmers markets in Tahoe and Truckee open for the season
You should go to the Farmers’ Markets this summer. That’s it — simple — you could stop reading here, and go see the colors, feel the connection and taste the flavors yourself. Or you could learn a little bit more here and now, before you go rifle through beautiful produce alongside the farmers who’ve seeded, grown, picked and brought each fruit and vegetable to Tahoe for you to enjoy fresh. Either way, you should go.
Why wouldn’t you go? Why wouldn’t you take advantage of the best and freshest produce in the world being available right here in the mountains?
California, with its varied geography, geology, soils and climates, grows all sorts of year-round and seasonal fruits and vegetables. In the coastal and valley cities, inhabitants have regular access to this fresh produce at regular farmers’ markets, if not in their own backyards. The necessary climb over uninviting winter mountain passes limits our ability to reap the benefits of our proximity to the fertile valleys.
A widely Mediterranean climate — with wet winters, dry summers and temperatures moderated by oceanic influences — gives California the rights to the barrage of four-digit code stickers affixed to strawberry pints, avocados, legumes and asparagus trucked to Safeways in the far-flung reaches of our nation. Here by the lake, we’ve got a bit of a leg up in freshness, but for the most part the quality of supermarket groceries widely available in Tahoe won’t differ much from Tacoma or Tampa or Trenton. The advantage of living here can only be found in the farmers’ market.
 With Tahoe City’s market at Commons Beach having started for the season last Thursday (it runs every Thursday from 8 a.m.-1 p.m.), and running in that time slot weekly through October; and Kings Beach's and Truckee’s weekly markets getting started on Tuesdays beginning in June, I know where I’ll be looking for most of my produce. By cutting out the middleman (read: Albertson’s, etc.) you can have a direct connection with the source of your produce, and show up to find not only fresher and more organically grown items, but also many varieties that you just can’t find at the supermarkets.
Billy McCullough, chef and owner of Dragonfly Restaurant in Truckee, shops regularly at the local weekly markets because “you’re only getting what’s in season, at the height of the season.”
Billy and Tahoe City chefs Johnny Alamilla (Sol y Lago) and Claudio Mejia (Christy Hill) are all easy to find on market mornings, and were each kind to take a moment between selecting and tasting to answer a few questions asked through lips sticky from having sampled the ripe peaches on display. All the chefs agreed with Billy, that one could possibly “order all these things from a different purveyor, but it’s never going to be as flavorful as what you get at the farmers’ market.
Alamilla will be going into his first full-time Tahoe City summer since bringing his heritage of heartily delightful Sierra Latino cuisine to Boatworks Mall at the beginning of this year. Coming most recently from his San Francisco restaurant, Alma, Johnny is used to going regularly to the markets and “seeing the hand-selected quality and coming up with a special there, based on what looks great!”
 As did the other chefs, Johnny remarked that beyond “the access to wonderful ingredients, you get to meet people as well, and you know where your food comes from.”
These chefs all have good working relationships with various farmers, so they’ll even get a heads-up on what to look forward to so they can better plan their menus.
One such farmer is John Payne (Payne Orchards) from Yuba City. John is intent to talk fruit, and will tell you of the history of every cherry. The cherry’s story begins 25 years ago when John retired from Sunsweet (you may know them as a prune and dried fruit company) and, per his son’s wishes, got into farming. Somewhere in the middle pages are the fifteen cherry trees “planted right there along the river not too far from Grass Valley” and then ending with a twist when he “had to pick the peaches and apricots as a short crop because of heavy rains last week.” All this meant he didn’t have enough time to pick as many cherries as he would have liked to bring this week. You just don’t get those types of nutritional facts doing the bagging in an air-conditioned anchor of a strip mall.
Careful to spread the wealth of his limited resource, John wouldn’t sell multiple quarts to individual buyers, and so I have just enough sweet and tart juicy red cherries to last until next week, when he’s bound to bring more. Who knows which of his grapefruits, strawberries, cherries, kiwis, peaches, apricots, pluots, plums and plumcots (See John for a rundown of varietal differences) will accompany them.
That’s the fun of showing up, to find out what you can buy each week.
That’s why Christy Hill’s Claudio Mejia prefers the selection at farmers’ markets. Unlike the other chefs who will call ahead to those farmers they trust to reserve an order, Claudio says “I always come to the market and check it out first, so I know what to pick… I shop like all people shop: if something looks the best, then I get it.”
 That’s what California Cuisine is all about — utilizing the bounties of fresh produce that thrive in our state.
The markets go beyond produce as well, offering choices from organic meats, fresh herbs, homemade chutneys, oils, dressings and marinades, flowers, artisan crafts, and who could forget the Indian breads and spreads that the vendors fire at you with rapid pace in sample form. Before I knew it, I had handfuls of bites of spinach flatbread, some with mint-garlic cream cheese, cilantro pesto or sweet jalapeno, all tasty enough for a snack I could see myself turning into a meal of its own.
The chefs I spoke with also used the prepared foods sometimes, but as culinary wizards always looking for a little edge in flavors and ingredients, the fresh produce was a clear highlight. They each had their own preferred purchases, from baby purple Peruvian potatoes to heirloom arugula to explosive Freestone peaches, because as Chef Alamilla says, “You can see the love and care [the farmers] put in, and it comes through in the flavors.”
As some items are less perennial than others, the chefs all looked forward to seeing different crops — notably the beautiful and delicate squash blossoms and heirloom varieties of tomato which have short seasons and become available later in the summer.
There is plenty to choose from now, though, and savvy home cooks and aficionados of fine foods should find themselves alongside local chefs and restaurant owners looking for the freshest fruits and vegetables on Tuesdays at Truckee’s Regional Park and Thursdays at Commons Beach in downtown Tahoe City.
 Talk to the farmers and sample the goods to experience what Dragonfly’s McCullough describes as “a treat, to go out there and feel food and taste it so you truly know what you’re getting and get excited about it. When your taste buds explode, you just think of what your customers will experience.”
Photos by Jason Dobbs
When to go:
Truckee Farmers' Market
Tuesdays from 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. at the Truckee River Regional Park
Kings Beach Farmers' Market
Tuesdays from 8 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Tahoe City Farmers' Market
Thursdays from 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. at Commons Beach
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Last Updated ( Monday, 29 May 2006 )
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