We're off to the Farmers' Market this morning. In the Los Angeles area we have them year 'round, and they're hugely popular. There are three Certified Farmers' Markets in the Pasadena area alone: Saturday at Pasadena High School, Tuesday at Villa Park, and Thursday evenings in South Pasadena.There are other farmers' markets, not certified. I wondered what the difference was, so I did a little research and found out that a certified farmers' market is part of a statewide program approved by the County Agricultural Commissioner and the Health Department. Farmers selling there must have a Certified Producers Certificate from their local Agricultural Commissioner verifying they grow the items they sell. This means when I buy a basket of strawberries from a booth at the market, the person I pay probably picked them. Or her brother did. Or her dad.
I have my favorites, people I buy from regularly: the middle-aged gent with the elderly hands who sells potatoes, onions, garlic and carrots; the handsomely weathered Frenchman who makes the most delicious organic cookies, granola and scones you ever tasted; the always-smiling, dark-haired lady who sells the freshest fish ever, wielding a knife like the pro that she is. And there's always something new to try, someone new to meet.
Yes, fish and granola at a farmers market. Cheese, too, and bread, and amazing guacamole, and...Oh yeah, vegetables and fruit! It's peach season! I gotta go!
39 comments:
Colourful Carrots! I love Markets selling yummy produce :)
This would be my choice too if we had one. As it is we have to take a chance and buy stuff nobody knows who picked it after they picked their nose or worse. LOL
Anyway. Your blog is perfect for me today. I like it.
Oh we're so spoiled with our California farmers' markets, aren't we Petrea! The summer fruits are arriving, and that gets me so excited! I shouldn't forget about the vegetables though, as you great photo reminds me. Do you practice your French with the scone seller?
When I think of carrots and Los Angeles in the same thought, I think of Sheriff John hosting the kids cartoons on local TV. On sponsorship breaks, he touted "DiMaggio carrots with the Orange Twist Top!" It's nice to see carrots with the green tops still on them, so you know the state of their health.
Just got back from the farmers' market myself. I love this time of year at the market. We came back with about 10 pounds of peaches (yellow and "Saturn" varieties), nectarines, pluots, apricots and cherries. Cheaper than the regular supermarket, higher quality than Whole Foods.
Well I have to say I am a sucker for granola, especially the Quaker brand. Strawberries I like too, but only when it's the season when they're the sweetest because I hate to sugar them when they're sour. As for cookies, who doesn't like 'em? Scones, ah even after near 21 years of existing I don't even know what they are. I should probably pick up a dictionary. Fish I'd like with some seasoning or lemon juice. Something about salmon makes me quack though...
Petrea
I am the fussiest food shopper you will ever meet but I just love farmer's market because although things are not all the same shape they tend to have the most delicious flavours, textures and are really worth their money...
If you ever come to Kent, I shall take you shopping with me ;)
Hello everyone! It's so nice to turn on the computer and find you all here.
Does Cheltenham have a farmers' market, marley? Seems such a British thing. Rose knows all about it, see? Of course Canterbury's nowhere near...
Thanks, Abe! For stopping by and for making me laugh.
Katie, de temps en temps je parle français avec Lionel. Mais il parle trop vite pour moi. Je parle comme un enfant.
Hmm. I've never thought of carrots and Los Angeles at the same time before, uselaine. It seems wrong somehow. Like organic milk and Las Vegas.
You said it, rattling the kettle. I'd add, "fresher than anywhere else unless you eat it off the tree." Mmm, pluots.
lindsey, no sugar on your strawberries, that's good. Scones--oh, you must find out about scones.
Rose, I will come to Kent someday. We might be a couple of old ladies when I do it, but I will do it. Then again, it might be sooner than you think!
By the way Petrea, sorry for going off-topic but is there any other place you routinely check for comments? I know your Myspace isn't checked that often and I would like to talk about other things besides your photos. Don't get me wrong though, I enjoy commenting on these.
Now I'm trying to imagine what the children's cartoon host would have been like in Vegas in the sixties... Uncle Dino? Promoting martini olives in a jar with the orange twist top?
lindsey m, thanks for asking. I appreciate you staying on-topic here on the blog. My Myspace page is the best place to discuss other topics, as I try to answer messages there at least once a week.
uselaine, we had Garfield Goose when I was a kid in northern Illinois. He was a puppet on the Ray Rayner show. If I'm not crazy, Ray Rayner was one of the real escapees in the actual real-life "great escape" on which the Steve McQueen movie was based. If I'm crazy, someone will correct me.
Of course none of that helps with the Las Vegas thing. I'll go with the Dino idea.
Such beautiful colors!!! Yes, I believe this is a place I would enjoy.
Allergic to carrot leaves.
Well, I checked dictionary.com for 'scone' and I'm thinking maybe I'll pick some up for myself and for my mother next month on her birthday.
She turns 50 on the 7th and I was going to treat her to the movie 'Religulous' as a late birthday gift because she likes Bill Maher and so do I, though I still keep my mouth shut out of respect for others on that topic.
Back on terms of her birthday though, maybe I'll buy her a scone or two because they do sound very delicious!
Garfield Goose...that has to be one of the most humorously odd names I've heard of in a while...
Bernie K. - Don't eat the carrot leaves, but don't throw them out either. Take them with you on your field trip to Pomona, and feed them to the sacred cows. That will make them be really, really nice to you.
A matchstick dice of the three colors of carrots there would make a lovely steam-up with fish.
By the way...I'm a bit naive to legal mumbo jumbo. When I saw your copyright notice as I was doing my several-times-a-day PDP blog check, I wondered how a single individual can copyright all these countless picture perfect photos. To get a copyright isn't it thousands of dollars, red tape, paperwork and all that nightmarish bureaucratic stuff?
I'll bet my marbles are a bit loose on this guess.
Copyrights. A professor told a writing class I was in that basically if you make notice of "copyright" on your material/art it IS copyrighted. The legal mumbo jumbo comes in with major works, patents? What is the deal, does anyone know? Are any of you Petrea fans attorneys?
Loved the whole market post, Petrea.
Petrea, If you've been to Chicago you may have visited our famous Picasso located in Daley Plaza. The city's largest farmer's market takes place there on weekends during the warm weather. It's a odd sight to see a farmer's market towered over by the skyscrapers.
Hi Petrea, we do have a farmers market, but it is on the first and last friday of the month and I am always at work :(
I only get to go when I'm off work for holidays, which is next week for a fortnight! So I'll be going and I'll make sure to take my camera! :)
"Louis" et Mme. la Vache frequent a Certified Farmers Market on Tuesdays and Saturdays near chez la Vache. Many other times, they go to Monterey Market, also nearby. Monterey Market is owned by Bill Fuimoto, a Japanese-American who has built a thriving business by helping small farmers find a market for their produce. Bill has been one of the key players in developing the market for organic produce in Northern California. Many of the top local restaurants buy their produce from Monterey Market. Monterey Market is in a shabby early '50s-era former supermarket. The glorious produce sold there more than makes up for the building's tattered edges. The place is so busy that "Louis" et Mme. la Vache have to park a block away! Your post also reminded "Louis" of the farmer's markets he enjoyed going to when he lived in France. They even have them in certain areas of Paris on certain days. OK - "Louis" will go now - you reminded him that the peaches are appearing now....
Editor to "Louis": 'How many times have I had to remind you to PROOF READ BEFORE YOU POST?!'
"Louis" to Editor: 'How many times have I had to remind you how difficult it is to type with hooves?!'
Corrections: 1) It is Bill FUJIMOTO, not 'Fuimoto'.
2) Louis intended to write that he et Mme. la Vache OFTEN must park a block away.....
"Louis" to Editor: 'Are you happy now?'
Le marché d'Antony, sud-ouest de Paris
I like the red/purple carrots, I buy the granola weekly from French guy and there are two cows living in
La Canada. Real cows.
Lydia - Copyright notices are technically just a reminder to people that the creator of a work (photo, writing, poem, art, music) is the copyright holder. When someone creates and publishes something, they instantly have copyright in the US.
See the easy explanations at the Library of Congress
This is off-topic—& let's all be nice to Petrea on this—but US copyright law is simple for the rightholhder. Everything you create, including what you photograph or write for a blog, is protected by copyright without further action from you. Every conversation you've ever been in is protected by copyright. Every jot & tittle of your output—every burp—is protected, because you're a citizen (or not, if you're not).
You don't have to do anything to be protected or to have your creations protected; the right is defined in the Constitution. (There's some semantic debate as to whether all courts will recognize copyright as a "Constutional right"; e.g., see http://tinyurl.com/6y2t86.)
The hard part comes when someone contests or violates your copyright. Then you may have to prove the work (photo, novel, dance, terrorist threat, whatever) is your creation. That's why the Copyright Office issues certificates.
Thus no action is required of Petrea to enjoy the protections of copyright unless & until someone steals her photo(s). Then she mebbe gots a prob.
Sorry to hijack this blog. Back to photography …
Lindsey - Patents are the things you apply to register with the Patent Office. They cover unique devices you have invented. That requires researching whether the device has already been invented by someone else, etc. You have to make detailed descriptions of it and pay money to get it patented.
See the more complicated explanations at the Department of Commerce.
Bernie - proving that someone stole a photo or text from your blog or web site got a whole lot easier with the advent of The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine
All I did was sleep late.
I love it when the discussion happens without me. Makes me feel like the blog is alive (like Paris Daily Photo, if only!).
Thank you all for answering Lindsey's question and providing links. I can't quite figure out that wayback machine, but I'll spend more time with it.
David, I grew up in DeKalb, got my degree at UofI C/U, then lived in Chicago for ten years. There was no farmers' market downtown at that time, but I can picture it.
Louis, a lovely link to the marché pics. I also remember perusing a very expensive farmers' market at Fisherman's Wharf where I admired the produce but didn't buy a thing.
And Palm, I can't thank you enough. Now I don't have to take Bernie and Miss Havisham all the way to Pomona.
Back to farms and cows, here's the place with the visitor's center for your field trip:
Agriscapes, Pomona
The Wayback Machine is just a tool for demonstrating the point in time your original work, say a photograph, appeared on the internet on your blog. It could then be demonstrated that the stolen photo later appeared on the site of the thief. If it came to having to debate who really created it, etc. and when, which I hope none of us ever have to do, it's nice to know it's there.
All right. Forget Cal Poly and Agriscapes. Apparently it's all horses or plants. Nevermind. Find the cows in La Canada. Much better.
*sigh*
Ah so it's free. That explains it. And you have every right to press lawsuits if these self-proclaimed copyrights are violated?
So Kellogg Ranch is more than just a road. Thanks, U.S.E. Bookmarked myself the wayback machine, too.
Lindsey, you could go to court if you could prove your ownership of the material, but a "cease and desist" request would probably be effective (and cheaper) if it sounded official enough. An article of mine was illegally copied once, and that was all it took.
Interesting. Hmm... Well, the reason I bring up this copyright topic is because well... I've wanted to make a free, fan-made manga of a game I played as an early teen. I think it has a great story, but the thing is is it legal if proper credit is given? I just don't want a story with a lot of potential to go to waste because the company that made it just wants pride in creating it.
Lindsey - You have to get permission from the person or company that owns/created the game before you make any kind of copy of it, or any kind of derivative of it. It's their property, and how they control that is up to them. It would be like stealing money from them if you put it on the internet for people to use for free. Very, very illegal.
They don't have to proclaim copyright; the law of the United States automatically bestowed it when it was created by them, like Bernie said.
Hmm....Well, I guess I still have my novel 'Faithless' to work on.
BTW, "rightholhder" is an ancient Medieval legal term applicable to disputes in deciding villleinage and suzerainity. God, that sounds … credible.
Boy, you people go to bed early.
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