Newsletter, City Alerts, and Website
Newsletter -
Now Monthly This year we're going to send the market email newsletter monthly instead of weekly.
Weekly Alerts from the City
If you would like a weekly alert about the Market, you can sign up for the City Alerts program. The City will send short emails each week to all the people who have signed up for the Market alerts.
Website and Blog - New Design with a Blog
Our technology folks have revamped our website. Please take a look. That's where you'll find the vendor list, a calendar of Market events, recipes from guest chefs, and a blog.
Yes, we have started to blog. There's just too much Market news to write about not to have a blog. Please check it out and post your comments. It's your market after all. |
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Each month, Loreen and Judy will profile a few of our excellent vendors. To read and comment on these profiles and more, check out 'Recent Posts" On the Farmers Market website.
Local and Organic -
Full Circle Farms
In spite of the wind and the rain, Katherine and Audrey from Full Circle Farms were all smiles on opening day at the Sammamish Farmers Market. And with good reason! Their display of locally-grown produce was not only a feast for the discriminating appetite, it was a feast for the eyes.
Full Circle, a 400-acre farm near Carnation, produces more than 50 crops and 400 varieties of produce. On opening day, turnips, radishes, fingerling potatoes, baby bok choy and salad mix spilled from woven baskets, introducing a bright splash of color to a gray Sammamish afternoon.
Stop by the Full Circle booth and pick up fresh, organic, locally-grown produce. What could be better?
Coffee Drinkers - Perkins Roasting Comes to the Market
Loreen is a decaf drinker. That's nearly a heresy here in the coffee capital of the world, where most people like their coffee dark, powerful, and caffeinated or "frou froued" up with syrup and milk. She's an accomplished "frou frouer" herself, partial to heaps of warm frothy milk sometimes crowned with a light sprinkle of chocolate or vanilla powder. But once her body chemistry some time ago jittered its way to a decisive "No" to caffeine, the world of coffee, with its enticing aroma and its satisfying taste, shrank catastrophically. A good decaf is hard to find.
She just found one-roasted to perfection by our market vendor, Perkins Roasting Company from Woodinville. This is a decaf that tastes just like real coffee, with substance, yet with nary a rough edge or bitter aftertaste. Perkins Roasting roasts 100% Arabica beans, all of which are organic, or fair trade organic, or relationship grown. All of you Seattle coffee lovers know there are two basic coffee beans, Arabica, which gives a smoother taste, and Robusta, usually thought of as a little inferior and more pungent in flavor.
With this vendor, we can look forward to pure Arabica artistry. If a coffee roaster can work these wonders with decaf, imagine the possibilities with caffeinated varieties. For a preview of just some of the coffee beans you can buy at the Market, check the Perkins Roasting website.
Wine at the Market!
 One evening over dinner, six couples - friends for more than 20 years - decided to turn their love of great wine into a business. Now, seven years later, you have an opportunity to enjoy the product of this shared passion. Rock Meadow Cellars will be at the Sammamish Farmers Market throughout the season with their award-winning wines.
This is a local business. Their grapes are mainly sourced from Sagemoor Farms in the Columbia Valley and the wine is produced in a barn right here in Sammamish.
Rock Meadow produced two barrels their first year and are now up to 25 barrels filled with premium reds (cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, syrah, and their signature "Rockin' Red"), a white (chardonnay), and a rosé. In May and June, they will offer some of their 2007 reds; the 2009 chardonnay and rosé will be released in July; and in September, the 2008 reds will be available.
State law prohibits the tasting of wine at the Farmers Market, but you can order Rock Meadow wines by the glass at several local restaurants, including Fins Bistro, Jak's Grill, Flat Iron Grill, Melrose Grill, and Vino at the Landing.
Stop by the Rock Meadow booth and meet the Sammamish partners, John and Carolyn Rossi and Karen and Buzz Buckingham.
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Opening Day Celebrations
The Market opened May 19 with a bang and a storm! The heavens opened up to welcome us with a spring rainstorm. The rain drenched but did not stop our walkers, who led a community walk to the Market from the Highlands Shopping Center. The Eastlake High School Drum Line met the walkers with festive drumming to announce the Market's opening
 In spite of the great wet, parents and shoppers smiled as they crowded around the Market stage to listen to a riveting performance by the Cascade Ridge Elementary School Marimba Band. You can listen to these Sammamish students here, and learn more about this engaging group and its director here.
For more about our opening day, reporter Christopher Huber describes the high spirits at the Market in spite of the rain.
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News about our Third Season
Thanks to all your support, we're back for a third season, this time with even more vendors. We'd like to share some vendor news with you.
 Returning Vendors
Almost all of your favorite vendors have returned. We welcome our old friends - Burton Brother Ice Cream, Calhoun Family Fruit, Cha New Life Garden, Crawford Farms, George's Bakery, Gradwohl's Farm Beef, Hayton Farms, Misty Mountain Honey, Smith Brothers Farms, Snoqualmie Falls Candy Factory, Tonnemaker Family Orchard, Two if by Seafood Salmon, Vue Farm, and Youngquist Farms - who have become part of our Market family here on the Plateau.
 New Vendors
We also want you to know about some of the new vendors this year. Certified organic producers Full Circle Farms, Hedlin Farms, Guerrero Farms, and Billy's Garden, join us on the Plateau this season. Other new farmers include Duris Farms, Kaolee Gardens, PaYang's Garden, and M&M Farms. As Market Manager Deb Sogge likes to say, "It's all about the farmers."
Also new are Willapa Hills Farmstead Cheese, one of the state's highly regarded artisan cheesemakers, Golden Glen Creamery, which produces unparalleled milk, cream, butter, and cheese, and Rock Meadow Cellars, our local award-winning winemaker.
Sky Valley, which has many fans at the Redmond market, will be on hand to sell their eggs and pork. An organic bakery, 3 Clouds Bakery, sells an assortment of organic (and that means organic just about everything except the salt) breads, crackers, and pastries.
We have even more vendors to round out your shopping with Perkins Roasting Coffee, McSweet Pickled Gourmet, Hooting Owl Granola, and Market Pasta.
Dinner at the Market
For all of you who love to combine shopping with dining, Panda Catering returns to delight the diners who stand in line for delectable cooking. You'll also find three new prepared food vendors, Los Agaves Mexican Restaurant, Dante's Inferno Dogs, and EJs Custom Catering.
You can see a list of vendors on our Sammamish Farmers Market website. Since this is the beginning of the season when not all crops are ripe, some of the vendors will not be at the Market until a little later in the year.
Arts & Crafts
We're trying something a little different this year. We're having an Arts & Crafts day the fourth market day of each month, giving us all a chance to enjoy in one spot at one time the creativity of many of our local artists.
As you can see, it's going to be a grand season!
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The Market and Healthy Eating
Limiting Children's Exposure to Pesticides
King County's Hazardous Waste Management program publishes a shopper's card that gives tips on how to limit pesticide exposure among children, who are more susceptible to the residue in produce than adults. King County suggests:
- Buy organically grown fruits and vegetables.
- If you can't afford or find organic fruits and vegetables, buy U.S. grown produce. Imported produce tends to have higher pesticide residues.
- When you buy produce, ask about pesticide use.
- Buy local produce. Visit Puget Sound Fresh at
www.pugetsoundfresh.org - Wash all produce with water for 30 seconds.
The card also includes a scale comparing the residues in common fruits and vegetables.  The Market has just what this card recommends - local produce. Some of our vendors are certified organic; some practice organic methods even though they have not gone through the lengthy certification process; and some follow more conventional methods but do not spray. Ask the farmer when you buy. |
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Let's Talk About Market Food
This month, we're talking tomatoes. Are they all the same? What's the difference between a hybrid and an heirloom?  When you think of "regular" tomatoes - you know, those perfectly round gems, crammed into plastic containers in the grocery store produce section - those are hybrids. They've been genetically created for specific traits: long shelf life, disease resistance, and thick skins. Those are tough tomatoes! They have to be. They endure rough handling and the weight of stacking on the long journey from farm to store. So what's wrong with all of that? Well, they can be almost tasteless. Especially since they've quite probably been picked early.
Heirlooms are grown from seeds handed down through the generations and traced back more than 50 years. Compared to grocery store hybrids, heirlooms are thin skinned and come in irregular shapes and colors. Some people even think they're ugly! But the real difference is taste. Heirloom tomatoes, picked at their prime, burst with flavor!
Pick up an heirloom at the Sammamish Farmers Market. Take it home, slice it, taste it. Yum!
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Loreen Leo and Judy Petersen, Editors
Photos by Loreen Leo and Larry Petersen
Desktop Publishing - Sue Johnston
© Sammamish Farmers Market 2010 |
Thank you to our Sponsors!
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