valley girl has baby, goes crunchy.: a week of farmer's markets: sunday.

here in the san francsico bay area, we're lucky to have lots of options for farmer's market-ing. more often than not, there are multiple markets taking place on any given day--we decide which ones to hit based on what we need and which direction we happen to be headed on the freeway. we have our favorites (and no-so-favorites), and there are many markets that we've never visited at all. this week i'll be checking out a bunch of different markets in the area--you know, the whole compare/contrast thing. see what's out there, what we've been missing. the good, the bad. the ugly.

today we hit the marin sunday market. this is my go-to favorite at time being. it's a big market by any standard--nearly 200 booths. we arrived around 11 (way late--our goal was 9!). distance from home: 18 miles.

do any of these people look familiar? yeah, me neither. but check out all of the plastic bags! gah!

we bought:

small container of organic strawberries ($4)
a pound of over-ripe/cosmetically-challenged organic peaches (on discount--$2)
1 lb sausage from humanely-raised pork ($7)
pint of wannabe organic (practiced, but not certified) blueberries ($8)

happenings:

the petting zoo was there. sounds cool, right? um, not so much when it costs $3 to go in and the petting zoo consists of 6 chickens and a bunny. no joke.

there were pony rides ($5). lucy is an animal lover, but wouldn't climb up on a pony if you paid her in cookies. no dice on the pony, mom. sorry.

hudson tasted his very first plum (thumbs up).

after the market--what we made:

well, most of the blueberries got eaten on the car ride home (guilty as charged), but there were still enough to attempt this blueberry cake recipe i've been longing to try. so, from farmer's market to cake plate--here's how it went down:

when the market gives you berries (first-of-season!)...