zebra tomato

My name is Ashley Mason, and I’m a postdoctoral research fellow at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, where I study food cravings and eating behavior. My husband and I recently moved from the peninsula to SF, and are enjoying exploring the city’s eateries, farmers markets, and parks.

Lisa Hagen Glynn is a postdoctoral fellow who studies treatments to promote health-behavior change. A former resident of the Bay Area, Lisa recently returned to Seattle to pursue a clinical and research career. She is a part-time fine-art photographer who loves exploring the city and wilderness equally (www.lisaglynn.com).

Farmers Market Update: Mountain View

Written by Ashley Mason, Photography by Lisa Hagen Glynn

melon skin

In 2012, my husband and I moved from Tucson, Arizona, to the Bay Area, and though sad to leave the farmers markets in Tucson, we were thrilled at the opportunities to explore famous California markets we have read about at Summer Tomato.

The first California market we began frequenting regularly was the Mountain View farmers market. Below are finds from a trip to the market with my friend Lisa, who is a photographer and snapped these gorgeous photos.

tomatoes

Happy Boy Farms boasts lovely tomatoes. We chose a variety, including some salad-showcasing heirlooms as well as these snackworthy cherry tomatoes, about half of which made it home. We also chose a yellow melon that they had been sampling.

cherry tomatoes

We picked up a few sweet red peppers and yellow squash from Borba’s Farms. We like to use these to make better-than-pasta zucchini pasta, except we like to keep it colorful with Mexican squash, zucchini, and yellow squash. We hope to try this with carrots soon.

sweet pepper

summer squash

Summers remind us why we have not eaten strawberries in the past several months––because it is near-impossible to buy strawberries at the grocery store. We picked up organic strawberries at the Ortiz farm, and hopped over to Phil Rhodes Family Farms for some green table grapes.

strawberries

grapes

We also bought some potatoes from Zuckerman’s Farm. We love roasted potato wedges, and actually have adapted Darya’s roast curried cauliflower recipe for roasted potatoes and homemade fries.

new potatoes

Sometimes we treat ourselves to hickory-smoked or sesame-glazed almonds from Rodin Farms. Rodin always samples everything they sell, and it is nearly impossible to leave with just one canister. We opted for something new this time: onion and garlic almonds.

nuts

We have recently dabbled in making baba ghanoush, the primary ingredient of which is roasted eggplant. We picked up some deep-purple Asian eggplants at Wholeness Farms. We are also experimenting with Roman broccoli (Romanesco).

eggplant

romanesco

Finally, we picked up a dozen chicken eggs from Lucy. She also sells duck eggs, but by the time we arrived she was fresh out––those sure go early.

eggs

Last, I must confess to having bought several chocolate espresso cookies from Flour Chylde Bakery––they were so good that they disappeared before being captured on film.

What did you find at the market this week?

If you’d like to share your local farmers market with Summer Tomato readers feel free to read the guidelines and shoot me an email for scheduling.