Corralitos foodshed

In the past, we regularly went to the Aptos market on Saturday. Given our advanced ages, we have been ordering from the local Nob Hill for delivery. I think my wife went to the Corralitos market one time but didn't like it enough to go back. However I will order from Fruitilicious Farm for farm pickup. We live on a ridge in the mountains and the farm is down in the valley north of us. I could almost hit it with a rock but there is no direct route down there. I will have to drive down to Casserly and go up Mt Madonna Road and turn onto Green Valley - WAZE says 13 minutes. I missed the window to order this week.

By the way, you should check out Blossom's Farm Market at the corner of Corralitos and Freedom. Very nice market with some unusual things to sell.

Didn't know about Mariquita. There is little flower farm on Amesti run by an elderly Japanese couple that I used to patronize. Nice, fresh flowers at very reasonable prices. I don't know if they are open. This pandemic has completely changed my shopping behavior. I haven't been in a market since it started.

Good to hear from you!

I have ordered from Fruitilicious 3 times now and picked up at their farm. Nice folks and execellent fruit. I've gotten mandarins, figs and peaches. Blossoms Market at Freedom and Corralitos have local organic produce and delivers. We just got an order. Silva's Orchard on Freedom has organic peaches right now. I got a box of Rio Oso, my favorite.

Though the noon-time temperature was 96 degrees, last Sunday I made my way to the Corralitos Farm & Garden Market. Glad I did, as this was Fruitilicious Farm's last appearance for this season. I've been enjoying the very wonderful Rio Oso yellow peaches, certified organic, grown by by them in the Watsonville hills. Intensely flavorful, sweet, yet higher acid than the stone fruits from Brentwood, Morgan Hill or Hughson. So vivid on the palate. Until now, I did not realize that Rio Oso peaches were in Slow Food's Ark of Taste.
https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en...

The end of season Murcott tangerines good too. Georgia Belle, the white peach, turned out to be mealy and underripe. Thought I had purchased some of those beautiful figs, but no.

I picked up padron peppers, $4/basket, from Many Streams Farm.

It was especially fun to shop with Bobcat Ridge, that is a small diversified farm, that had more than a dozen types of produce available. My first BLT of the season had its onion roll as a base. Almost bialy-like and made with freshly milled organic whole wheat flour, and I used its Early Girl tomatoes. I bought a small bag of Eureka lemons for $1, broccolini, avocados, and a plump Cherokee Purple heirloom tomato. An exciting find was hoshigaki, Japanese-style semi-dried persimmons, as there are only a handful of producers in California. Bobcat lists what's available each week on its website and customers can pre-order for ready pick-up on Sunday.
https://www.bobcatridgeavocados.com/

If it hadn't been so sweltering, I would have lingered longer and stopped at the remaining four or so stands that I missed. This is a sweet little market, aptly named as some of the producers are garden-size, but all very local to the area.

Last weekend I chatted with Star and Andy of Mariquita Farms at a social gathering and they have been making fairly regular appearances at the Sunday Corralitos market. Besides flowers --- the zinnias an dahlias are stunning right now --- they also sell a bit of their other crops.