It was quite a day, yesterday. Though I’d been to the Downtown Campbell Farmers’ Market years before, this visit was special, owing to my increasing interest in organic foods, grassfed meats, and wild caught fish. It’s funny how once your awareness has been elevated in some particular area, you see things you looked at before, but never really saw.
This must be the best farmers’ market in the South Bay Area. They had virtually everything one could want, with the exception that the eggs were only cage free and not pastured. Well, at least I still have my source at Whole Foods for that. But, they had grassfed beef, wild-caught fish, and all the other normal fare.
How about some photos? They can all be clicked upon for the hi-res versions.
That’s just the half of it
Peppers!
One of three kinds of fresh Sauerkraut
Grassfed beef. Pricey!
Grassfed lamb & mother’s milk & grassfed veal
Orchids
Bea & Julie get a taste of raw whole milk, same as I get at Whole Foods
My blurry take
So, I got away with fresh sauerkraut, leaf lard, blackberries picked the evening prior, a beefsteak tomato, raw grassfed butter, two grassfed ribeyes, two leg steaks of grassfed lamb, and a couple of 80% dark chocolate bars with cherry and red pepper.
Once we returned home, we dropped off the stuff and hopped on the bikes for a ride to the local cinema to see Food, Inc.
What a great prelude to an amazing film. I’ll spoil you with the film’s details in my next post. I have quite a lot to say about it.
Well I have to check that place out. Doesn’t look like your typical, run of the mill farmers market. Curious to see what they have poultry and egg-wise.
ok, so make sure I get the invite to diner………..
Time to photograph my local farmer’s market for fun comparison; I’ve not searched for raw dairy but I’d sure like to try some to see how different it tastes.
Wow, wish I had access to a Farmer’s Market like that.
And wow, that grassfed beef is expensive. Man! Top Sirloin on sale in my small mountain town for $4.50/lb, but $16/lb for grasfed. Yikes!!!
Arlo’s comment brings up an interesting dilemma that, if you haven’t done so before, would be interesting to hear comment on. What to do if organic fair and grassfed meats are out of your price range? Obviously, it is about making choices, but, still, paleo does require an increase in the food budget.
I’ll be posting on this, but one way would be to do less nice steaks like ribeyes, t-bones, filets, and more roasts.
I’m so jealous that they sell grass-fed beef at your FM! I do have a GREAT wild fish contact though…this morning we received 6 pounds of fresh wild alaskan salmon, it was beautiful! It had absolutely no fishy odor at all! I wish I had taken a picture. Let me know if you ever want me to order a little extra for you :)
Hi Richard. I love your blog. Good comments about the prices. Does anyone have any thoughts/perspective on the whole grass fed beef/pastured chickens and eggs thing? I mean, when will prices come down? Are more farmers looking into this as a business opportunity? (thus my hopes so that supply will increase and prices will decrease!)
I’m going to address this issue in my forthcoming post on the documentary Food, Inc.
Hey Rick,
Here in Nevada raw milk is not available in stores as it is illegal to sell it!!!???…this morning I was researching CSA shares (consumer supported agricultural shares) and they offer cow adoption. I was thinking why would you do that? Well it’s their way of getting around the legal aspects of selling raw milk. You adopt/support the cow and you get, as they call it, their “byproduct”…raw milk. They didn’t have any prices listed, so I emailed. Oh by the way, one requirement is that you have to visit your cow at least once a year and they send you a photo of your new family member!!!
Hi Everyone,
I get my grass-fed beef (chicken, prok and eggs too) at: http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/slanker_s_grass_fed_meats.htm
Their prices are reasonable and they have a lot of information regarding nutrition.
Ron
I lived in Sunnyvale for over 10 years, and I never made it to that farmers market. Dang! Yeah, that beef is expensive.
I’ve been shopping http://www.eatwild.com. Monday I visited a farm and got a whole lamb for $65 plus $65 to butcher it. Lamb was new to this farmering couple and they weren’t able to sell it. So I got it for the price of processing another one for them. I also put a deposit down on a side of pasture-raised pig. I’m pretty stoked.
We did up the leg steaks last night. If the photos came out, I’ll blog it. Quite amazing.