Hello, sunshine! Foggy August is winding down, with sunnier September right around the corner, just in time for the kids to be back in school and the doldrums of summer’s cut-out-early-Fridays to slip away. So grab these last couple of weekends before Labor Day, sling your sandals and beach towels in the back of the car, and get out of the city in search of sunnier climes.

From Oakland or San Francisco, my vacation compass always points north. Yes, the delights of Pacifica, Pescadero, Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Luis Obispo on down to Los Angeles are many, and I’d happily return for a second slice of olallieberry pie at Duarte’s, or another view of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s undulating kelp forest and huge, prehistoric-looking sunfish. But what always lures me to the back roads is the sea-tinged scent of eucalyptus and coastal scrub, and the small farms, quirky towns, and rolling sheep-dotted hills of West Marin. So, 101 North, what have you to offer for the casual daytripper?

For starters, get out of town early, before the bridges and highway are clogged with the rest of the vacationing hordes. A promise of really excellent doughnuts and a superior cappuccino is usually enough to rouse even the most sluggish of un-morning people. A decade or so ago, I was working on a round-up of doughnut shops in the Bay Area for a local magazine. Not a single chocolate-glazed was worth getting up for until my friend Liz, born and bred in Marin, turned me on to her favorite high school hangout, Donut Alley in Larkspur. (The exit was Paradise Drive, easy to remember, for what is paradise but a morning that starts with a perfect doughnut?) I went there and fell in love.

The same guy had been running the place for years. They opened at 6:30am and closed when they ran out of doughnuts, usually before noon. There were no maple-bacon or vegan plum-cardamom doughnuts, just good old old-fashioned old fashioneds, your buttermilk bars and apple fritters and cute, tender, just-sweet-enough cake doughnuts, chocolate-iced, cinnamon-sugared, or pink-sprinkled. Parents came in with their kids for a bag to go; old guys sat around a few Formica tables scattered with copies of the Marin I-J and drank paper cups of coffee from the help-yourself Bun-o-matic machine. And while a recent visit revealed the place to be a little spiffed up (the coffee is organic now, the tables dark wood, and a new blueberry doughnut, made with dried berries, is selling fast), the spirit and doughnuts are exactly the same. Polite kids still point and ask, “Can my little brother have that chocolate one, please?” while their baby sisters squeal for sprinkles and chocolate milk.

And while the drip coffee on offer is perfectly fine, you Sightglass-spoiled city folk probably need a more potent eye-opener. Head across the street to the marble counters of Emporio Rulli and order your Rome-worthy latte or cappuccino. Sip it at one of the sidewalk tables, or take it to go and stroll over to Dolliver Park, at the corner of Magnolia Ave and Madrone St. Sit under a redwood tree and breathe the green forest smells while you lick the sugar off your fingers.

Double back to 101, but not for long. It’s time to get onto the meandering Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. It winds, stop and start, through the posh Marin towns, San Anselmo, Greenbrae, Ross, and Fairfax. Soon, though, the countryside opens up and the road slides under towering redwood trees and bark-shredded eucalyptus, swinging past the forested campgrounds of Samuel P. Taylor State Park, through the one-block town of Olema, epicenter of the 1906 earthquake, and into the (by comparison) bustling little town of Point Reyes Station. During the week in wintertime, Point Reyes Station is a very mellow place. On a sunny summer weekend, however, it’s up and lively, thronged with bicyclists and birders.

The Saturday morning Point Reyes Farmers' Market, in front of Toby’s Feed Barn and next to the town’s sweet community garden plots, has just a few farmers—Paradise Valley Produce, Fresh Run Farm, Wild Blue Farm—but they’re well stocked and doing a bang-up business in lettuce and kale, cukes and squash, bundles of herbs, freshly dug onions and potatoes, bright carrots and brighter bouquets. A glance through a wooden crate of new-crop Gravenstein apples from Paradise Valley reveals a couple of ringers: none other than the elusive, rarely seen Pink Pearls, a tart early apple whose cream-colored skin masks its fantastic, hot-pink flesh.

Stop by the Brickmaiden stall to pick up one of Celine Underwood's tangy sourdough loaves, baked in a wood-fired oven in a little unmarked cottage just across the street. It’s the same cottage where Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Pruiett of Tartine got their start in 1994, baking bread and pastries for small stores and farmers markets in the area under the name Bay Village Bread. Next to the bread stall is Wild West Ferments, offering handmade sauerkraut along with canning jars full of wonderfully fruity, lacto-fermented “sodas” in flavors like nectarine-vanilla and plum.

Osteria Stellina's GBD Grilled Cheese serves up three kinds of grilled cheese: a basic one with Valley Ford Estero Gold cheese on Stellina's own crusty bread; sharp cheddar with a griddled egg; and “The Bill from Bo,” Bill Niman’s slow-roasted brisket with Estero Gold. The Marshall Store, from across Tomales Bay, is serving up oysters to go, on the half shell or barbecued.

Not in the mood for oysters or cheese? Well, there’s always what might just be the best burger in West Marin, served right on the way out of town at Marin Sun Farms’ butcher shop and café. (Their beef jerky is perfect trail food, too.) Otherwise, fill out your picnic menu at Tomales Bay Foods, home of Cowgirl Creamery, and take your pick of perfect picnic spots. Families with children can head to the placid shoreline of Hearts Desire beach along Tomales Bay near Inverness. Too full of sunbathers and kayakers? Take the short, shady hike through the mossy, Hobbit-y trees to nearby Shell Beach, generally a little less populated. Or go exploring among the numerous ocean beaches, lagoons, and estuaries of the Point Reyes National Seashore itself.

On the way home, sand in your shoes, cell phones ignored, you can keep the beachy feeling going by snagging an outdoor table overlooking the marina at Sausalito’s Bar Bocce, ordering a pitcher of beer or a glass of white sangria while you wait for your crisp-crusted calamari pizza to arrive, dribbled with lemon oil, flecked with chiles. The best seat in the house isn’t actually in the restaurant; it’s the bench down on the beach, shaded by a big umbrella, where you can dig your toes into the sand and toast your very, very good fortune at having all this bounty in your backyard.

Margo True, the food editor for Sunset, will be demonstrating recipes from the magazine's latest cookbook,The One-Block Feast, at the Point Reyes Farmers' Market at 10am on Saturday, August 27.

What do you get when you combine three former Arizmendi bakers with an uber-cool new food truck (housing its own oven)? Well, Vesta Flatbread, of course. Perhaps you've seen them Saturdays at the Grand Lake Farmers Market in Oakland; now Jenya Chernoff, Traci Prendergast and Aron Ford are taking to the streets with their seasonal flatbreads and housemade drinks. Jenya and Traci founded Vesta in 2009 and Aron officially jumped on board this summer. I share a commercial kitchen space with them in Richmond, and was immediately struck with their positive energy, excitement for their new project, and the fact that they prepare beautiful meals for each other while they're cooking in the kitchen (something so many of us neglect to do). So I wanted to chat with them and find out more about their business, the mobile food truck culture, and where they see themselves in the future.

Traci roasting peppers

1. Tell me a little about your business and how/why you decided to start it.
All three of us met while bakers/co-owners of Arizmendi Bakery in Emeryville. We love the tradition and community of artisan baking and knew we wanted to make our own bread, but we wanted to expand our skills and creativity and create a business we could put our personal stamp on. Our menu was the marriage of our desire to evoke an ancient region of the world with wanting to dream up something creative and delicious using minimal equipment to sell on the streets. We’d like to think we ended up with a product that has thousands of years of history while reflecting our own “modern” food sensibilities.

2. Do you think living in the Bay Area allows your business to flourish? If so, how so?
Absolutely. People here understand and appreciate our values towards supporting local farms, ranches and dairies, even if this means our products can't be dirt cheap. For us, feeding others is an act of love, and the exchange we have with customers is important. Bay area folks are willing to try new things and explore, they are curious and open-minded.

3. What have been the highlights of being a small business owner in the Bay Area thus far?
Becoming part of the vibrant street food and farmers market community. Since becoming mobile vendors we have been able to meet so many wonderful, dedicated and creative people from all aspects of the food business, talk to farmers about their production, learn about their work and challenges and have a much broader understanding of the processes that bring food to the table.

4. What challenges are you facing right now in terms of growth or vision?
Well, one big challenge is finding our own retail/kitchen space. We have been sharing commercial kitchens, and we are grateful that such places exist. It is extremely difficult to find a reasonably sized space in a neighborhood that can support a retail food business. Mostly this is because of the regulations on building & permit processes in California, which jack up the costs of buying/building to a level prohibitive for most food businesses.

5. What inspires you, day to day?
The farmers' market, the seasons, other chefs.

6. What are your goals for the future of Vesta?
Our long term dream is to have our own kitchen and retail space. Given we launched our new truck August 25th, we are mainly just excited to become part of the nomadic kitchen culture of street food, and start serving up flatbread sandwiches in the East Bay and San Francisco.

Vesta Flatbread
Find them: Saturdays from 9 am-2 pm at the Grand Lake Farmers Market, Oakland. And soon: out on the road in the truck!
For more information:
Like them on Facebook
Follow them on Twitter

Nikki Henderson. Photo: People's Grocery

A new class at UC Berkeley is getting a lot of buzz. Edible Education: The Rise and Future of the Food Movement is all about food politics. In an unusual step, Cal is opening up the 13-week course to the general public. Well, the class was open to all. Three hundred free tickets for the first night were snatched up in less than fifteen minutes. Student enrollment filled up just as fast. Edible Education is being organized, and funded, by Alice Water’s Chez Pannise Foundation. Nikki Henderson, the executive director of People’s Grocery in Oakland, along with author and U.C. Berkeley journalism professor Michael Pollan, will co-teach the semester course.

Michael Pollan. Photo: Alia Malley

Think of the sustainable food movement as a dinner party. Edible Education will take a look at the guest list and topics of conversation. How do the slow food movement and food justice fit together? What does corporate food look like? The class will feature immigrant farm workers telling their own stories. Each week will include a guest lecturer.

Here’s the line-up:
• 8/30: The Global Food Movement, Founder Carlo Petrini with Corby Kummer
• 9/6: Building a Successful Movement, Peter Sellars
• 9/13: The Politics of Food, Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H.
• 9/20: Perspectives on Race, Place & Food, Alegria De La Cruz, Rebecca Flournoy, Yvonne Yen Liu
• 9/27: Nutrition, Health and Diet Related Disease, Patricia Crawford & Robert Lustig
• 10/4: Corporations & the Food Movement, Jack Sinclair, Jib Ellison, Michael Pollan
• 10/11: School Lunch and Edible Schoolyards, Ann Cooper
• 10/18: Global Economies of Food: GMOs, and Feeding the World, Raj Patel
• 10/25: Agriculture and Social Justice, Eric Schlosser, Greg Asbed & Lucas Benitez
• 11/1: What is an Edible Education? Alice Waters
• 11/8: Food and the Environment, Frances Moore Lappé & Gidon Eshel
• 11/22: Van Jones
• 11/29: Place Based Models of Change, Brahm Ahmadi, Hank Herrera

The class is every Tuesday from August 30th through November 29th, 6-7:30pm (doors open at 5:30pm) at the Wheeler Auditorium at UC Berkeley.

Tickets will be available, free of charge, six days before each class.

Bay Area Bites will provide coverage of the course.

Related Articles:
Nikki Henderson: On the frontlines of edible education by Sarah Henry (Berkeleyside)

Outside Lands Windmill -- recycle, compost, trash.
All Photos: Wendy Goodfriend

Outside Lands, now in it's fourth year, drew nearly 180,000 visitors this past weekend. I was one of them. On Saturday morning, as I walked along a dirt path through Lindley Meadow into a eucalyptus grove with parachutes and rope swings dangling from the trees, I thought of how this seemed a cross between Burning Man and the board game Candy Land. Ok, Outside Lands was fifty degrees cooler than Burning Man and it's in the middle of Golden Gate Park, rather than the desert. Still, the music festival has this collective feel where everyone comes together to appreciate artistic expression, be it music, food, wine or other artistic endeavors. Then, everyone leaves the land no worse for wear, hopefully. In fact, this was the most organized compost and recycling program I have ever seen at a big outdoor event.

Wind Chime Swing. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Choco Lands. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

Outside Lands also has this feeling that everything happening on the periphery is just as interesting as the bigger events, whether they are major rock bands or pyrotechnic shows. And just like Candy Land, curvy dirt paths take you from one fun land to the next. Instead of Candy Cane Forest and Gum Drop Mountain you have Food Truck Forest, Choco Lands, Wine Lands and Eco Lands. Wander down a dirt path away from the polo fields, which hosted the likes of Phish and Arcade Fire, and you might end up, as I did, amidst cypress and eucalyptus trees watching a tiny carny opera with mime faced performers dressed in kilts playing Appalachian ballads and doing their own version of the River Dance. Before the opera I visited Eco Lands, which honors San Francisco's commitment to sustainability, with all sorts of educational booths, valet bike parking and emerging artists performing on a solar powered stage. This year introduced urban agriculture to Outside Lands with yet another land to discover, Farm Lands. Here you could play games like "Veggie Twister," take an urban gardening class and munch on organic watermelon slices from Full Belly Farms.

Arcade Fire. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

Flotsam's Wonder World Opera. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Full Belly Farms Farmers Market. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

With my appetite whetted by healthy produce, I set out to explore the higher caloric choices at Outside Lands. There are more than fifty local restaurants and food trucks at this event. For a little hog in the fog action, one could try Flour + Water's porchetta sandwiches. Head Chef Thomas McNaughton said, because they only work with small farms, it took six months to prepare for the concert. Eleven acres of arugula had to be planted and, to be honest, I couldn't listen when he explained how many pigs from near Nicassio were slaughtered, let's just say it was enough to make 7,000 sandwiches over the weekend. McNaughton said the idea was also to create a little buzz for Flour + Water's two new projects, also in the Mission, Salumeria and Central Kitchen. Maybe I just knew too much about the porchetta sandwiches but I ended up trying a different meal with pork, Korean tacos from Namu. They were not really tacos at all but rather pork or chicken wrapped in seaweed with a delicious kim chee remoulade. I also had a taste of a veggie samosa from New Ganges Indian Food and a grilled cheese sandwich, with peppers, from The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen. They were both good but not as interesting as the "tacos." You can also read about my time at Wine Lands where i discovered some very delicious small lot wineries.

Thomas McNaughton and porchetta sandwich assembly line. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

I am thinking Outside Lands might be worth another visit next year. I mean, what other festival can you listen to the arena-rock jams of English Band Muse while sipping a spicy Pinot Noir preceded by a worm composting workshop?

Muse. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Related posts:
• Outside Lands Recap 2011 at KQED Arts
• Guide to Outside Lands 2011 at KQED Arts

John Pauley and Anna Li of Mattarello are what so many farmers market vendors aspire to be but never quite pull off. They're organized, friendly and smiling in the early morning hours, make an effort to get to know other vendors right away, and maintain fierce standards of quality. They even have pretty awesome matching shirts with their company badge on the sleeve. They've got it together. And although they've only been selling at The Marin Country Mart for a few months now, customers can sense this: their booth is getting increasingly busy with last week their best Saturday ever.

I had a chance to chat with them about their business, how they got started, what inspires them, and where they eventually want to be. They work at La Cocina and spend two days making pasta for Saturday's market, rolling out the pasta with a little pasta machine and hand-cutting it the night before. John also makes incredible sauces; Anna helps streamline the processes and packages the products. Without further ado, meet John and Anna, and hear their story through John's own words.

John hand-cutting pasta

1. Tell me a little about your business and how/why you decided to start it.
We are a small artisanal pasta company with a traditional, hands-on approach to making pasta. As a veteran in the food business, I (John) spent a lot of time in fine-dining and working for other people. This was an opportunity for us to open our own business and run it the way we wanted. Our goal is to stay close to the traditions that inspire our products, so being our own bosses means that we won't compromise on the quality and authenticity. This is also a great opportunity for us to work together for the first time.

2. Why pasta?
I've been cooking for over twenty years with a focus on French cuisine. During my years of cooking, I've always enjoyed making pasta, but I was mostly self-taught. After my first trip to Italy in November 2005, I became more fascinated with Italian cuisine and culture. In March of 2008, Anna and I visited Bologna and went on a culinary walking tour in the center of the city. There, we met Franco and Grazia Macchiavelli of Salumeria Bruno e Franco who make all of their pasta by hand and are considered one the best pastaficios in Bologna. I returned two months later to apprentice with them for 3 1/2 months in the art of "la sfoglia," which is traditional, hand-made pasta. We return to Italy every year and explore different regions each time so we can expand our knowledge and our experience of the cuisine. Italy and food are our passions, so this company is a perfect expression of those sentiments. Each of our ingredient labels has "love" as the last ingredient, and believe it or not, each ball of dough that's rolled into a sheet is infused with love and care. I consider each sauce and each pasta a culmination of my cooking experience and travels.

3. Do you think living in the Bay Area allows your business to flourish? If so, how so?
The Bay Area has a rich and informed food culture. People here appreciate and seek out food that is made with respect to its heritage and with the best ingredients. In Bolgona, I was accustomed to making and eating pasta that met a certain standard. There, egg yolks are so rich, they are almost red in color. In fact, they actually call the yolk the "red part" of the egg. When I returned, I spent years searching for the closest egg I could find to what I had in Italy. That led me to Yenni Ranch in Sonoma which is where we get our eggs. These eggs lend the right texture and color to the pasta. We also use their grass-fed beef, not only because it's delicious, but because we want to know where our products are coming from. In sum, our goal is to put the best possible ingredients into the best tasting products, and the Bay Area consumer has the same mission to find those products.

4. What have been the highlights of being a small business owner in the Bay Area thus far?
Opening Mattarello is the pursuit of our dream on our own terms. The satisfaction we get when we have repeat customers who have overwhelmingly positive responses to our products is confirmation that we are on the right track.

5. What challenges are you facing right now in terms of growth or vision?
Our greatest challenge is exposure. It's hard to be a small company just starting out and trying to get our product to consumers. We are confident that once people eat our pasta, the number of Mattarello converts will grow. We have had multiple people come up to us stating that after they've eaten our pasta, they can't go back to eating the "status quo."

6. What inspires you, day to day?
After many years of working long hours in hot kitchens, the summer I spent in Bologna, I lived like an Italian and everyday I pinched myself, saying, "Wow, am I really doing this?" Of all my life experiences, I am the most proud of this. I ate, lived and experienced things that I never thought possible. Through Mattarello, I can share the experience I had in Bologna and tell the stories of the people I met and worked with.

7. What are the goals for the future?
We don't have a specific goal, but we have a broad vision of several possible goals. We could develop into a company that just sells at more farmers markets or at grocery stores, we could become a catering business, we could open our own free-standing shop or restaurant. If we were pinned down, ultimately, we would like to have a small shop where we sell handmade pasta, sauces and ready-made foods which, on the weekends, would turn into a restaurant that would serve a family-style dinner.

Tartine Afterhours menu from The Perennial Plate dinner. Photo: The Perennial Plate

Daniel Klein, creator of The Perennial Plate, an online weekly documentary series dedicated to socially responsible and adventurous eating, shares some thoughts about his new Bay Area episode. Under the guidance of Chef Samin Nostrat they visited three local farms, gathered stories, harvested food and then created a Tartine Afterhours dinner at the Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. Watch the episode about the farm visits and event.

From your experience traveling across country what qualities are unique to the Bay Area with regard to food awareness and food community?

The first part of our trip was in the South where local food appears to be more along the lines of "the way things are" -- unless, of course, there is nothing -- food deserts are also often the case down south. But in the Bay Area it is a way of life in the sense that people are passionate about it -- where food comes from is important. And beyond that, California is where so much food is grown. In other parts of the country we say "oh that's from California" -- but here, well, it's all from California.

When you were putting this episode together what were the key points you wanted to communicate to your audience:

...about sustainable eating in the Bay Area?

I didn't really want to convey a message about sustainable eating, I wanted to share the story of our dinner at Tartine and the farmers that let us visit and harvest their crops. There isn't an intended message, more a hope that people will enjoy the spirit of the dinner and days proceeding.

...about the Bay Area farms you visited?

Riverdog Farm -- What an incredible farm. It seems they have held on to their ideals while expanding into a large and very professional operation. In my limited experience it seems to be a great example of what a slightly larger organic farm can be. Diverse and with incredibly pristine product. Really refreshing -- so many farms we visit are small, so it was cool to have the perspective of Riverdog (by industrial ag standards, its still tiny of course). We wanted to convey that it was larger, but also the spirit of its founder Tim Mueller.

Sunny Slope Orchard -- Bill is passionate about his stone fruit. He farms for the joy of it. But more than the farm, I wanted to share how delicious his fruit was. That plum and those apricots were like nothing I've ever had before. Truly eye opening/mouth opening? experiences.

Pluck and Feather Farm -- We were rushed at Pluck and Feather, the dinner was approaching and we needed herbs. Esperanza was there for us. We wanted to get something from an urban garden, and this place was perfect, especially with the giant McDonalds sign looming overhead.

...about the process of creating a pop-up dinner experience?

I wanted to convey that we didn't know the menu until the day of, that it was collaborative and just really fun. We chose some over the top music to drive home the culmination of two serious days of traveling, harvesting and cooking.

Preparing the Perennial Plate dinner in the Tartine Bakery kitchen. Photo: The Perennial Plate

How did you decide on the menu for the Tartine dinner?

We decided the day of based on what we had. Samin and I just shot ideas at each other and came up with simple but delicious food. Samin had made pasta a few days earlier, so we knew that was going to happen, other than that, it was just trying things out.

Cherry Tomatoes with Pluck and Feather Farm Oregano. Photo: The Perennial Plate

I know you worked together with Tartine Afterhours chef Samin Nosrat on this dinner. How did you connect with her to make this all happen?

We connected through our mutual friend Alex of 4SP Films, he suggested Samin as a story and then through a phone conversation we decided that doing a dinner together would be awesome. I could tell it would work as Samin is so lighthearted and fun.

What went into making this event a reality?

I had come out to SF for a meeting and I met with Samin. We hit it off, although I think she hits it off with everyone she meets. It was really just a matter of arranging a date. Samin in turn decided on which farms to visit. I think these were places that she really wanted to check out, so it was win win.

Trio of Daniel's Salads: New Potato, Roasted Beets and Shaved Summer Squash. Photo: The Perennial Plate

Were you able to make money from the event to help fund your project?

No, we look at the event as an opportunity to share our food and stories, not to make money. A lot of the work was on the staff, Samin and Tartine, so we were just happy to be a part of it.

I know you enjoyed a meal at Gather in Berkeley. What else did you and Mirra experience in the Bay Area that was memorable?

We went to Ubuntu in Napa which is similar to Gather in that it makes use of vegetables in unique ways. I don't know if Manresa is considered the Bay Area, but we ate there as well. All three of these restaurants represent a new wave of cooking that loves the vegetable as much as the protein, I think it's the future of cooking, so it was fun to try these three restaurants -- each has a very different take but I think a similar spirit in their dishes.

Sunny Slope Orchard's apricots al cartoccio. Photo: The Perennial Plate

It's summertime, and we might just be the one place in the country actually enjoying itself, rather than wilting under an onslaught of brain-melting heat and humidity. So get out of the house! Some of our favorite bloggers have already told you where to eat outside this summer. Still, maybe you'd like to find yourself some green, rather than spending it. Forget the food trucks for a minute; let's go hang out with the farmers!

Getting on the electronic mailing list for Marin Organic, promoters and advocates for sustainable agriculture in Marin, is a great way to keep on top of tours, talks, and special events happening just across the bridge. Coming up next month are a dairy tour of Straus Family Creamery, an orchard walk through the olive groves of McEvoy Ranch, and a discussion with bakers Chad Robertson (Tartine Bread), Celine Underwood (Brickmaiden Bakery), and David Muller (Outerlands) about their adventures in sourdough. You can also go to Sonoma Farm Trails to downloads maps and farm guides and plan your own tour of that area's rich agricultural offerings.

CUESA, the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture, is best known for running the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market, but they also organize periodic tours of local farms and producers. On August 10, you can join CUESA for an Organic Greens & Blue Cheese Tour featuring County Line Harvest, growers of excellent lettuces, strawberries, and more, and the family-run Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company.

Chez Panisse is planning a series of pricey fundraisers for the Edible Schoolyard in conjunction with its 40th birthday next month, but there is one free, family-friendly OPENeducation event happening on August 27 at the Berkeley Art Museum. (Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance.) The day is planned as a series of "interactive cooking installations" between museum-goers and a posse of farmers, educators, and artists, using corn, beans, and squash planted in the outdoor spaces of the museum.

And speaking of family fun, devoted Bay Area Bites readers may know Devil's Gulch Ranch as one of our favorite sources for locally produced rabbit, but they're more than just bunnies. They also host a ranch camp for kids, with three more weeklong sessions remaining.

Apples in August? For anyone born and bred on the East Coast, where apples mean autumn, the idea of this can seem a little bizarre. However, our California-grown heirloom apple, the Gravenstein, is a early ripener, ready for pie by mid-August. Celebrate its yellow-and-red striped delights at Sebastopol's down-home Gravenstein Apple Fair on August 13 and 14. You can even go up against this one-time grand champion in the Apple Pie Contest.

Most small producers have their hands full just getting their day-to-day chores done, especially when there are animals in the mix--which means your favorite cheesemaker or farmer is rarely available for drop-in visits. On August 7, Bay Area Green Tours is planning a daylong "Tomatoes, Peaches, Corn, and More" tour of Brentwood, with stops at Frog Hollow Farm, Dwelley Farm, and Smith Family Farm. (Don't forget your sunscreen and sun hat, as Brentwood bakes in the summertime. Good for the peaches and tomatoes, a little shocking to fog-dwelling San Franciscans.) On August 18, take a One Valley, Three Milks tour and get a behind-the-scenes peek of Bellwether Farms (sheep), Two Rock Valley Cheese (goat), and Valley Ford Cheese Company (cow).

You can also sign up (for free) as a member of Weirauch Farm, a small sheep dairy and creamery, and save the date for their next members-only tour on Aug. 13. The setting, in the rolling hills of Petaluma, is beautiful, and the sheep (pictured above) are as friendly and inquisitive as puppies. While owners Joel and Carleen Weirauch finish up their sheep-milking parlor (they're hoping to have it completed in time for next spring's milking season), they're making some delectable cows' milk cheeses, available after the tour for tasting and purchase.

But what if you want to stay closer to home, enjoying the flavor of local farms without getting mud on your shoes? Then head over to Potrero Hill's sweet, sunny Plow. Look for the metal pig hanging outside, or the many happy diners inside, all grooving on lemon-ricotta pancakes or (my favorite) dreamy French toast gobbed with mascarpone and topped with thick wedges of brown sugar-and-butter roasted Summer Zee peaches from Blossom Bluff Orchards.

The menu shifts daily, but a recent meal included breakfast and lunch offerings like a soft scramble with lambs quarter greens, mushrooms, and goat cheese; housemade yogurt and granola with fruit and Potrero Hill honey; cucumber-buttermilk gazpacho; green bean and Sungold tomato salad with purslane and fresh mozzarella; and a BLT stacked with Nueske bacon and glowing, gorgeous heirloom tomato slices. Farms, orchards, ranchers, bakers, and producers are thanked in four lines of small type at the bottom of the menu, name-checking all the purveyors we know from markets around the Bay Area: Mariquita Farms, Dirty Girl Produce, County Line Harvest, Hamada Farms, Frog Hollow, Straus Family Creamery, Marin Sun Farms, Acme Bread, and more. Happy summer!

Maggie Foard has a table next to me at the Marin Country Mart Farmers Market. She's a fairly new vendor there, but we're such a tight-knit vending community that when there's some down time in the morning hours, there's chatting and catching up and networking... and lots of coffee. Perhaps most importantly, there's time to try each others' treats. So after sampling Maggie's decadent goat's milk fudge, I knew I wanted to learn more about her process, the evolution of her company, and where she sees herself in the next few years.

First it must be said that there's a bit of a stigma surrounding the word "fudge." For so many, it conjures images of an overly-sweet, gooey confection. Often you really can't even taste the cocoa or chocolate, and it ends up seeming overly processed and fake. But Maggie's fudge is the exact opposite. The flavor profiles are complex, the cocoa distinct -- this is a very special product. I fell in love with the Dark Chocolate Almond Fudge right away. It's fantastic to slice off slowly with tea in the afternoon or to sneak into the kitchen late at night for small slices to accompany fruit or sliced peaches. Maggie's goats butter shortbread cookies are also noteworthy: they're a little more subtle in flavor than cow's butter shortbread which tend to be decadent with a rich butter flavor. These have the same texture and crumb, but are lighter and quite lovely, especially when dipped in Maggie's goat milk caramel sauce. The product certainly speaks for itself, but Maggie's passion and drive certainly help, too. A product and a face to get to know if you're not yet familiar.

1. Tell me a little about your business and how/why you decided to start it.
I had an epiphany with goat cheese a few years ago. After avoiding dairy products in general for many years, I discovered that I could eat goat cheese and goat milk products instead of cow's milk and I felt better. That sent me whirling into a whole new food group and the next thing I knew I was under contract to write my cookbook, Goat Cheese. This brought me into the local wonderful world of cheese and milk. The fudge came about in a flurry of desserts -- making up for all those years of avoiding sweets because they all had cow's milk in them! I began making goat's milk fudge for my local goat dairy a couple of years ago and it was so popular that I decided to take the fudge to the big city! That is how Kidding Around with Chocolate was born, just last September. Cheese Plus on Polk Street and Rainbow Grocery were my first two customers.

2. Do you think living in the Bay Area allows your business to flourish? If so, how so?
I am a native of San Francisco so I can't really imagine living too far from the city for very long. I do live in the coastal mountains an hour south of the city where I keep a few goats and chickens of my own. So I am not a city dweller any more but still crave the hustle and bustle of the city. It's in my blood. The entire Bay Area is such a "melting pot" and people are so open to trying new things. The newer the better, in fact, kind of like little food thrills. It's a foodie mecca.

3. What have been the highlights of being a small business owner in the Bay Area thus far?
Getting to meet other small food producers and gaining an appreciation for just how much work goes into really good products. It's mind blowing when you find out how much time it takes to produce real food. How much milk it takes to make that pound of goat cheese and how much work it took to get to produce that gallon of milk that went into it. Thankfully somebody is producing the goat milk that I use to make the fudge and caramel. I can't imagine having to run a dairy farm AND produce food from it. Cheese makers have a hard life. They are an interesting bunch.

4. What challenges are you facing right now in terms of growth or vision?
Moving product around is the hardest part. I have driven 5 hours round trip in the pouring rain to get a pan of fudge to a new grocery store customer. You lose money by the time you pay for the gasoline, but you need every new customer you can get. I am hoping to get picked up by a local distributor that serves the specialty food and cheese shop world so that I can focus on making the product and on new product development. Right now, there just aren't enough hours in the day.

5. What inspires you, day to day?
Nothing puts the smile on my face more than when somebody tastes the fudge for the first time. They say things like "Oh my God, that's the best thing I have ever tasted." And the kids love it, too. Their eyes go wide. They drag their parents to my booth at the farmers market. This really keeps you going.

6. What are your goals for the future of the company?
I can see myself producing a whole line of goat milk confections & sweets as there are so many people like me that truly love goat dairy products. You can see this now in just about any grocery store. Whole Foods in Mill Valley, for instance, has 4 different brands of goat milk side by side. Several brands of goat milk yogurt, goat milk kefir and even goat butter. And the front and center stars of the cheese dept -- the local goat cheeses. In the last few years, goat cheese has gone from being an obscure little known gourmet only food that used to be only imported from France to a local everyday staple in many households. California goat cheeses are world class. People really want a variety of foods made with goat dairy and that includes desserts made with goat milk!

Very Prairie Pie-on-a-Stick

When bone-chilling, spit-freezing winter starts on Halloween and continues til Easter, as it often does in the northern reaches of the Upper Midwest, who could blame Minnesotans for going a little crazy when summer comes? Hibernating like bears (if bears had hockey, beer, and NPR) for six months of the year, Minnesotans follow their Scandinavian forebearers and swim, run, dance, bike, party, picnic, dine, and promenade like mad during their precious summer months, soaking up day after sunny, scorching day and basking through bath-warm twilights that linger long past dinnertime.

According to my 11-year-old niece, who has lived in a suburb of Minneapolis since 2006, "everyone" has a cabin on a lake, or at least a townhouse or condo-share with lake-splashing, dock-sunning privileges. Still, it seems like plenty of people have stuck around during this Fourth of July week in the Twin Cities, where I've been having a long-overdue family visit with my sister Amy and my nephew and nieces. I pick up a copy of Minnesota Monthly magazine at the Linden Hills Co-Op, a kind of miniaturized Berkeley Bowl of the prairie, where we go to pump our own Minnesota maple syrup out of a tall stainless-steel vat and pick up a few glass bottles of Cedar Summit's organic, pastured milk. Not surprisingly, the magazine's cover story is a round-up of the best in local foods, 146 of them, in fact, from Kalona sour cream and Birch Berry Wild Rice to Surly's Darkness Stout, along with dozens of other pickles, relishes, jams, butters, chocolates, yogurt, breads, syrups, meats, and beers chosen by longtime Minneapolis writer Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl. Elsewhere in the magazine, local NPR personality and Splendid Table host Lynne Rossetto Kasper writes with pride that in her opinion, only California can compete with Minnesota when it comes to making and supporting high-quality, locally-sourced and -inspired food and drink.

My nephew, age 13, is a big fan of the octopus and frogs' legs at the tiny, quirky, molecular-gastronomy-influenced Travail Kitchen and Amusements, run by the kind of mustachioed, nose-ringed cool kids you'd see behind the bar at Alembic or in the kitchen at Nopa. Alas, it must be that all the cool kids have cabins, too, because Travail has shut down for the entire month of July, presumably for some lakeside R&R. (The fact that the un-air-conditioned restaurant is mostly a counter facing an open kitchen may have also encouraged a summertime shutdown.)

So my sister and I head to the more traditional Meritage (rhymes with heritage) in St. Paul, a spacious French brasserie with a white-tiled oyster bar (still a bit of a novelty in a city ringed with lakes but far, far away from any salt water) on one side and a crepe cart out front. We take a table on the sidewalk, the better to listen to the live music drifting over from a nearby plaza, where couples in everything from cowboy boots to flip-flops are dipping and two-stepping to Kevin Anthony and the Twin City Playboys, part of the Ordway Summer Dance series.

Our server, with a lavishly waxed and twirled mustache straight off the sign at Tommy's Joynt, hands us a stack of menus: cocktail and beer list, wine list, bar menu, dinner menu. At the top of the dinner menu are a handful of two-bite, $3 starters, including a demitasse of excellent chilled gazpacho, crunchy with minutely diced raw onion and peppers; a wee fresh-tuna taco; and a pyramid of "compressed watermelon," vividly pink, which turns out to have been cryovaced to reduce its volume by two-thirds, condensing its cool, sweet wateriness into the essence of what Henry James called the two most beautiful words in the English language, summer afternoon.

We follow our gazpacho with a martini glass of cool, jellied lobster consomme studded with a few chunks of lobster, veiled with a creamy layer of corn puree, and topped with a boutonniere of tiny basil leaves. Corn, lobster, basil: if I weren't already sitting outside, sipping white wine in a shoulder-baring sundress, one taste of these flavors would leave me no doubt that summer's in full swing. Peach and arugula salad sounds pleasant but predictable--what California-cuisine menu doesn't have a stone-fruit salad on offer right now?--but the execution is a delicious surprise. The peach slices, thin as coins and round as the moon, have been cooked sous-vide with vanilla and Muscat to a melting tenderness that would be heaven in a peach Melba with vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of raspberry coulis. But they're pretty fantastic just like this, under a tangle of snappy arugula scattered with toasted pistachios and shards of Parmesan.

Wild sea bass, with a texture caught between ceviche and crudo, is scattered with "essence of celery," diced and juiced, adding a green, woodsy note to the supple fish. The $3 bites return on the dessert menu, and so we sample a macaron of the day, lavender-hued and stuffed with chewy-sweet fig, and a satiny espresso pot de creme topped with Valrhona chocolate-crunch beads and a dab of whipped cream.

The next morning, even with thunderclouds threatening overhead, I can't resist a trip to the Mill City Farmers Market, one of the Twin Cities' largest and most popular open-air markets. As befitting its name, and Minnesota's history as a grain-producing and grain-milling center, there are several producers selling their own locally grown wheat, corn, rye, and oats. I buy a bag of organic, coarse-grained corn grits from Sunrise Flour Mill, then another bag of Prairie Hollow Farm's high-protein whole-wheat bread flour, milled from kulm, a rare heritage strain of wheat. Prairie Hollow's Pam Benike tells me that she farms organically on land that has been cultivated by her family for generations. She raises a little of everything: wheat, dairy cattle, vegetables, fruits, even what you might call gourmet weeds, very popular with her restaurant clients. For $2, I get a big bag of offbeat greens, including nettles, purslane, chickweed, plantain, and lambs' quarters. Nearby, Very Prairie is selling "prairievore" granola, excellent rhubarb ketchup, and a very state-fair-ready treat, pie on a stick.

When you can't start planting until late April, July is still spring, and so despite the 90-degree heat, the produce on offer is mostly still green: lettuce, kale, chard, peas, lots of kohlrabi and tons of garlic scapes, plus new potatoes, beets, and carrots.

Garlic scapes, I'm told by one of the workers at Swede Lake Farms, are the curly shoots and buds of hardneck garlic, which grow best in cold climates, leaving California more prone to the mild-climate softneck types. No plums or peaches yet, but there's plenty of rhubarb for pie, plus raspberries, strawberries, and black caps, similar to black raspberries but seedier and less sweet.

The prepared foods are eclectic: pedal-powered fruit smoothies, made by Erica of Foxy Falafel in a bike-powered blender; herring sandwiches and bacon-beer bratwursts from the Chef Shack truck; Himalayan momo dumplings across from puffy Swedish ebelskiver pancakes. Hmong families set up shop next to Mennonites and tattooed young farmers. Little kids lick ice cream cones from Sonny's (don't miss the black-currant sorbet) and dance to the perky tunes of Potluck and the Hot Dishes. It's all so very Minneapolis.

Chef Shack truck signage

Meritage
Address: 410 St Peter St, St Paul, MN 55102
Phone: (651) 222-5670
Facebook: Meritage St Paul
Twitter: @meritage_stpaul

Mill City Farmers Market
Address: 704 S 2nd St, Minneapolis, MN 55415
Phone (612) 341-7580
Facebook: Mill City Farmers Market
Twitter: @mcfarmersmkt

Rebecca Rouas of SF Pops has a contagious enthusiasm for her business, her product, and just for people in general. It's obvious she's a former educator; kids practically flock to her farmers market booth and it's not just for the popsicles themselves: her warm smile and encouragement to try new, potentially unfamiliar flavors (chocolate avocado!) elicit excitement from customers and vendors alike. On an average afternoon, you'll see Rebecca's chalkboard sign advertising flavors including Strawberry Chocolate, Vanilla Orange, Strawberry Lemonade, Mandarin Beet, and Blood Orange Mint. New additions appear when inspiration hits or when new seasonal fruits hit the stands.

On an early Saturday morning full of little sleep and lots of schlepping, Rebecca and husband Sean's warm smile and positive energy are always a welcome sight. And some of this absolutely must be one of the reasons their business has taken off so quickly, so I set out to learn more about the origin of the company, why Rebecca and Sean hang in there even on rainy days at the market, and how she envisions the business growing.

1. Tell me a little about your business and how/why you decided to start it.
SF POPS makes seasonal fruit ice pops made from locally-sourced produce. Our goal is to provide a sustainable, tasty treat for kids and adults alike. I really enjoy experimenting with innovative flavor combinations like plum honey cardamom, but it is also a pleasure to make the kid pleasers like strawberry lemonade. The idea for SF POPS stems from a recent trip to Oahu where I had an Ono Pop-- a locally sourced fruit pop. I had the Passion-Orange-Guave (POG), and it was incredible. I realized that the abundance of awesome local produce in California would allow me to do something similar in the Bay Area.

2. Do you think living in the Bay Area allows your business to flourish? If so, how so?
Absolutely. Bay Area folks appreciate a healthy, local, sustainable product. Also, the love of food in the Bay Area results in a lot of interest in my product. Finally, and most important to me, I am able to get all of my produce from within a 200 mile radius of the North Bay.

3. What have been the highlights of being a small business owner in the Bay Area thus far?
The social aspect. For me, I am able to interact with people when I work, which beats sitting at a computer any day. I have also become educated about local produce, seasonal availability and varieties, and I also use my business as an opportunity to educate my customers about the same. Finally, I enjoy watching people eat a Meyer Lemon Honey Mint pop so I can watch them pucker at first lick.

4. What challenges are you facing right now in terms of growth or vision?
My biggest challenge right now is getting SF POPS from the stall to the grocery store freezer. Although the farmers markets are a wonderful sales outlet, the ice pop season is limited and will be wrapping up at the end of September. Ideally, SF POPS will still be available for purchase without me having to sit out in soggy, cold weather.

5. What inspires you, day to day?
Motivated people. When I meet or hear about people who have their acts together I am inspired. It has been exhausting starting a small business, and I often felt like calling it off and taking a seat back on the couch.

6. What are your goals for the future of SF Pops?
Keep on selling pops, push to get pops at birthday parties, get pops into small grocery stores, and come back next season with even more incredible ice pops!

Find SF Pops at the following Farmers Markets: Fairfax Market Wednesdays 4-8 p.m., Civic Center San Rafael Market Thursdays 8-1, p.m., Marin Country Mart Saturdays 9-2.

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