Daniel Adara Yeshua

Café Colucci/Bruno Spice Company

North Oakland • At the Farmers’ Market for a year and a half

SPN: What’s one product or item in your boot you’re really excited about?

Daniel: Berbere. Berbere is an Ethiopian spice blend that is one of our most popular. It’s almost like a basic blend; it’s composed of 13 different things. It has a lot of body to it, a little bit of heat, not too much. But it’s a universal spice blend, and it really represents Ethiopian cuisine.

Laurel O’Connor

Soulflower Farm Herbal Medicine Booth

El Sobrante • At the market for a year and a half

SPN: What’s your booth and what’s one product you sell that you think our readers should know about?

Laurel: I work for Maya Blow, who runs the Soulflower Farm Herbal Medicine booth here at the farmer’s market. We sell all kinds of herbal products and medicines.

The one product that readers need to have is our Sunshine Salve herbal moisturizer. It’s super good for eczema, inflammation, poison oak, and bug bites. If you’ve gone outside, gone camping, been loving it up in the sun, you probably want to moisturize. And you might need to do some healing. So check out our Sunshine Salve herbal moisturizer. It’s perfect for summer.

Jacob Dawes

Sea to Sky Farms

Santa Cruz Mountains

SPN: What kinds of products do you offer here at Sea to Sky Farms and what are you most excited about right now?

Jacob: We’re a super diversified little organic farm in Santa Cruz County, so we have all sorts of stuff. We’re probably best known for our sweet potatoes, which will be here in October, and avocados, which are on their way soon.

I think the thing that I’m excited about now is that we have four different types of dry-farmed potatoes. Potatoes have a really balanced nutritional profile. I feel like they don’t really get their shine enough these days, but they have so many minerals and nutrients, and ours are dry-farmed, which basically is a water conservation method. It allows the plants to root deep down to pick up extra minerals and nutrients. They are more nutritious and improved in flavor as well. We have a beautiful purple potato, a blue Adirondack, red Norlandhouse Kinnebecs, which are known for chips and fries, and a German butterball, which is a beautiful, great gold flesh potato.

Marina Costa

E&H Farms

Oakdale • At the Farmers Market since 2017

SPN: Can you tell our readers about the one mushroom you are most thrilled about?

Marina: I think the ones that I’m most excited about are the wood ears. I like them a lot because they are very, very distinct from other mushrooms. They have a specific texture to them. They’re kind of gelatinous, but they’re also very crunchy. I think you won’t find them anywhere else with that kind of texture. They have a very good flavor, too, and you can literally do anything with them. A lot of people like putting them into Ramen noodle soup. And, if you sauté them with a little bit of oil, they just become delicious!

Follow the bubbles

Face painting and bubbles usually bring out the younger set to the Farmers’ Market. Last Saturday, intrepid reporter Ken Katz caught this scene.

The bubbles were courtesy of Nikki Borodi from Fly With Me Parties who is usually a regular at the Farmers Market on warm, sunny days — which this past Saturday clearly was not. 

August Farmers’ Market Entertainment Calendar

    August 3      Lolah Entertainment

    August 10      Scott Pullman

    August 17      B Street Eklectik

    August 24      Cover Band Olympics

    August 31      Stephanie Woodford

* Weather permitting, of course!

By Madhavi athanikar.

Madhavi Athanikar has lived in the Grand Lake neighborhood for three years and recently left her job in fashion and retail management to look for her next adventure.