Photograph by Sarah Gaffney
Just Ducky: As soon as the skies above the farmers market cleared late Sunday morning, youngsters flocked to the petting zoo around the corner from the veggie and fruit stands.
The Market Heats Up
After a gray and drizzly start, Sunday's launch of farmers market season ended in sunny success
By Sarah Gaffney
The Farmer's Almanac didn't predict the topsy-turvy weather of last Sunday morning, when slate-gray skies of slate gray cast a brief but dreary drizzle over the 25 booths lining Campbell Avenue for the first day of the farmers market.
At Alie's, the outdoor tables were all set, sans their umbrella tops, for a sunny morning breakfast. At the entrance to the market, the space for the Bolivian street musicians stood conspicuously bare, silently serenading Alie's invisible sidewalk diners. Across the street, Orchard Valley was packing in the coffee crowd, larger than usual because of the unusual weather.
Has anyone eaten outside today?, I ask an Alie's waitress as she wipes away drops of rain from a green plastic breakfast table.
"One couple did only because they had a dog," she replies. "We had no idea it was going to rain this much." Neither did the farmers who continued on with their show of delectable edibles despite the uncooperative climate.
"We were struggling here at nine o'clock," said Ron Pardini, executive director of the farmers market. "I was looking for places to hide."
The shoppers came out of hiding at about ten, when a steady stream of hats and umbrellas flowed down the avenue of fresh strawberries, oranges, avocados, flowers, nuts, apples, broccoli, chiles, onions, honey, kiwi, lettuce, potatoes, and some of the best tomato focaccia this side of Florence.
"There's only two good focaccia bakeries in the city and we're one of them," says Caroline Gilchrist of Cuneo Bakery in San Francisco, purveyors of mouthwatering pizza. I sampled a piece at 10 o'clock and came back for more an hour later to find her supply whittled down to just bread sticks.
Gilchrist was getting ready to close shop just when the sun finally got around to a late-morning hello, greeting the market's swelling crowd of shoppers.
Around the corner from an apple booth, squeals of laughter erupted from the market's miniature petting zoo.
"Honey, don't pick it up. It might have poopy in it, OK?" a mom yelled to her toddler, who was transporting handfuls of hay to feed the zoo's baby goats.
"I want that bunny," a little boy pleaded with his mom.
"That little pig is cool. I want to bring him home to my mom," a dad said to his wife. The makeshift zoo houses baby goats, and an army of pint-sized kids, along with a menagerie of bunnies, ducks, chickens, a baby pig, and a rooster. Just outside the caged corral, Twee Twee the Clown entertained a rapt audience of tykes with balloon animals.
Behind the clown, brave little ones line up for pony rides up and down Campbell Avenue, where at just about noon, a rooster raucous call finally sounds the long-awaited arrival of the sun.
Get rid of that umbrella, I kid Daniel Naranjo, who began his morning under a bright blue bumbershoot selling avocados and citrus. "When it's not raining, and it's hot, business is really good," says the seller, finally able to don some sunglasses. "And it doesn't look like I have competition today."
Just down the way, another vendor without competition is Frank MacDoren, a chile expert who sells chile plants, extracts and oils. He says he's currently cultivating 3,000 pepper seedlings in his Menlo Park backyard, many of which were given to him by customers from this and other farmers markets.
By the end of the day, farmers market head honcho Pardini is able to laugh once again. "Overall, a great day," says the executive director. "It started out to be a miserable, slow, rainy day. Since the weather cleared up, look at it, it's great."
With the sun shining and only an hour of market remaining, the crowd expands to its largest size of the day. People stroll down Campbell Avenue with armfuls of fresh vegetables and flowers for the Sunday dinner table.
Lunchtime and sunshine bring a new crowd to Alie's, where seated at every green plastic table are people enjoying mimosas and omelets and spring in downtown Campbell.
Campbell, California
