No need to cross a bridge to go holiday shopping, all you lucky folk in Marin: you've got lots of great gifts right here at your local farmers' markets. Here's a few favorite seasonal treats for sale at the Sebastopol and Marin Civic Center markets this week.

Newcomers Joel and Carleen Weirauch of Weirauch Farm & Creamery are already generating a buzz about their small-batch cow's-milk cheeses. Now, you can serve them in style on the handmade, one-of-a-kind oak cheeseboards they're selling this month. The boards are made from oak salvaged from a 100-year-old Kentucky tobacco barn, finished satiny-smooth with olive oil and beeswax ($35-55). Get to the market early enough, and you might be lucky enough to pick up a block or two of their flower-embossed soap, made from sheep's milk and local olive oil in scents like rose geranium, lemongrass, lavender, and star anise. The Weirauchs are raising a herd of dairy sheep in Petaluma; come next spring, once lambing starts, they'll be making their own farmstead sheep's milk cheeses, too. Find them on Sunday at Sebastopol and Thursday at Marin Civic Center.

Also at the sweet Sebastopol market: Terra Savia's bright, peppery new-crop olive oil, made from organic olives grown along the Mendocino/Sonoma border and pressed just last month at Terra Savia's olive press in Hopland. This luscious olio nuovo is a Tuscan-style treat that's perfect for dipping into with a chunk of fresh, crusty bread. Terra Salvia also offers several single-varietal olive oils as well as wildflower honey, olive-oil soaps and a soothing botanical salve for moisturizing winter-dry skin.

And while you're there, don't miss the snappy, poinsetta-red boxes from Sonoma Chocolatiers, filled with handmade, chocolate-dipped salted caramels ($20). You can also put together a chic assortment of truffles ($2.25 each) in nifty flavors like fig-cardamom, holiday spice, smoky chipotle, and tequila-lime, or pick up a stocking-stuffer bag of crunchy chocolate-covered organic almonds, sugared or cinnamon-spiced.

Feeling a little DIY? Believe it or not, you can still turn out a few gift jars of homemade, local strawberry jam using Tomatero Farm's late-crop, Watsonville-grown organic strawberries ($3.50/pint), sold at the Marin Civic Center market. Or pick up a mix-and-match assortment of low-sugar, big-flavor berry jams made by Swanton Berry Farm, in flavors like tayberry, olallieberry, strawberry, and blackberry ($7-$9). They're all made using the farm's organic, union-grown berries.

Tea drinkers take their brews seriously, but they're often outnumbered by the coffee geeks. Show your tea-drinking friends that you respect their cuppa with a gift from Sky Tea at the Marin Civic Center market. Tea lover Jeni Quigg started her luxury tea company a little over a year ago, travelling around the world to source rare, small-batch, artisan-grown teas--what she calls "legendary teas." Her personally blended masala chai, which she also sells brewed by the cup, has a bright, clean spiciness to it, thanks to cardamon and peppercorns that Quigg picked herself on the Malabar coast. Even decaf drinkers can find something to love here, thanks to several blends made with rooibos or decaffeinated teas, including a rooibos chai and a seductive cinnamon plum sprinkled with saffron, flax seeds, and marigold petals.

Known for their rustic, rough-hewn hearth breads, Della Fattoria bakery also has a popular side line of pastries, including gift bags of biscotti and chocolate-chip cookies ($6) sold at the Marin Civic Center market. This year, they're offering an Italian holiday specialty, panforte ($16). Dense with dried fruits, honey, nuts, and spices, this chewy confection has a history stretching back centuries. "It was the Crusaders' little powerbar," says owner Edmund Weber. It has a deep, winter-spiced taste, lovely with a cup of Sky tea or a glass of dessert wine, the perfect reward for shopping local this season.

A note to shoppers: Both the Sebastopol and Marin Civic Center markets will be operating this Sunday, December 18. The Marin Civic Center market will be operating on Thursday, December 22. Both markets will be closed on Sunday, December 25.

"For Eva and I, life is just better with pickles!"

Saturday mornings at Marin Country Mart Farmers' Market recently got a little brighter with the addition of Emiliana Puyana and partner, Eva Lauderback of JARRED SF brine. JARRED SF brine is a new pickle business based out of the La Cocina kitchen in San Francisco. They specialize in seasonal pickles like pickled yellow wax beans, fennel, incredible shitaki mushrooms and beets (among many other rotating weekly choices). After working as a cook for years, eventually going to the Culinary Institute of America in New York, and moving to San Francisco in 2002, Emiliana started experimenting with pickling on her days off. The rest is history. Emiliana and Eva just began selling their pickles in Marin, but plans are already in place to branch out into other venues around the Bay Area and, someday, perhaps open a little artisan food shop. Chatting with both women, it's clear that a once weekend hobby can, with patience, persistence, and community support, become more of a viable business option. I asked them to tell us more about how they got started, what they're inspired by, and how the feel about the local Bay Area food scene. Here's what Emiliana had to say.

1. Tell me a little about your business, how and why you decided to start it.
For the last year or so of working in restaurants I began to get a little restless. I wanted a little more time for myself, time to spend with Eva, to plan our wedding, to have a "normal" work schedule and to get home at a reasonable hour. I started thinking of ways in which I might be able to make a living without having to be in a restaurant 12-13 hours a day. I was really thinking about starting a business that specialized in making organic pickles using local ingredients when they are in season and pickling every ingredient with its own unique flavor profile. But it was just an idea at the time. Then, came our wedding; we got married in our home and made a ton of different pickles: carrots, baby fennel, green beans, spring garlic, radishes, etc. and we used those as part of our center pieces. It was a massive hit. Everyone loved them (we had my brother design a label for us that was a sketch of our home). For days and weeks after the wedding people were coming up to us saying "You have to sell your pickles they are so good." That was the final push that I needed. Now with the help of La Cocina, Eva and my family we are finally out selling our products.

2. Why pickles?
Because they are delicious and you can use them or put them on everything. Fried pickles, pickled fennel salsa verde, tuna salad with pickled onions, Gibson martini with pickled ramps, Bloody Mary's with pickled yellow wax beans, fried green tomatoes made with sweet pickled green tomatoes, pizza with pickled jalapeños. And so on, and so on.

3. Do you think living in the Bay Area allows your business to flourish?
Without a doubt, living in the Bay Area helps us to flourish. It puts us at such close proximity to our products from the wine vinegars that we use for our brine to the different fruits and veggies that we pickle. We also love the customers here. They are well informed, they know food, they know what they want and they are adventurous with what they eat which is great for us because one of the things that we really want to do is to continue to experiment with what we pickle.

4. What have been the highlights of being a small business owner in the Bay Area thus far?
Being a small business in the Bay Area has proven to be pretty difficult for us so far. A few of the bright stops have been the local resources available to help small business start to operate. The Small Business Administration and La Cocina have been a tremendous help for us.

5. What inspires you, day to day?
I get inspiration from a number of different places: first and foremost from food. Every Wednesday I go pick up my CSA box, open it, and look at what is in it and I get inspired. Last week for instance, we got beautiful fresh Cayenne pepper in our CSA box and now we are working on developing "MARYS MATE" which will be pickle brine that we we'll sell for people to spice up their Bloody Mary's. It will have grated horseradish, fresh Cayenne pepper, and garlic. The idea is that you can put a splash of "MARYS MATE" in a glass, add a little vodka, top it off with your favorite tomato juice and voila BLOODY MARY'S!

Website: JARRED SF brine
Facebook: Jarred SF brine

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.

Follow SF pops on twitter for new flavors and locations
Like SF Pops on Facebook to stay in the loop

Molly de Vries has a very special Bay Area company, Ambatalia. The name is actually born from a Trinidad song about empowering women and nurturing the earth and Molly couldn't be a better living and breathing representation of the namesake of her company or her mission for the work she does. I first met Molly at the Marin Country Mart Farmers Market. She has a booth right next to my Marge booth and we spend many a Saturday chit-chatting and catching up with each others' lives. But the first time I really began to understand what Molly was aiming to do with Ambatalia was the day she turned down a slice of pie I offered her because it was in a clamshell container. Oh no, I assured her, it's corn-based -- not plastic. That helped. But Molly routinely and deliberately eschews any containers or packaging for a simpler way of carrying and transporting goods -- whether that be a cinnamon roll in the morning or how she brings her goods to the farmers market each morning. She's the real deal. I decided to take some time away from the market to talk to Molly about how she began and what her intentions are for her burgeoning business. I couldn't have been more inspired.

Tell me a little about your business and how/why you decided to start it.
I had closed my downtown Mill Valley fabric shop in 2004 and Tyler Florence approached me to do a kitchen line for his store. I had always created goods in and around the kitchen and the act of shopping but this really pushed me to focus on my passion for useful, sustainable textiles. After being a hairdresser for twenty years, I wanted to do something meaningful and after a year of focusing on what that would look like, when I turned forty, I started to put together clues from my life and Ambatalia was born.

I wanted to do handmade goods with integrity and beauty have a real sense of honor in my work -- the opposite of all the mass-produced plastic stuff floating around. When I walked into Joanne fabrics or other large chains, I'd just see yards and yards of plastic fleece but no wool. This seemed crazy to me. So my goal really became buying fabrics with the most integrity. the closest in distance, and as sustainable as possible.

Your business is decidedly centered around food: the serving of it, the presentation of it, the transportation of it. How did you come around to food?
Well, food and textiles have so much in common, at least in my mind. There's an obvious link in the way in which we honor our food with beautiful cloth on our table and in our kitchen, but more importantly, the people making the cloth have a direct impact on us as individuals and families. The people that are making our clothes across the globe have faces and families. So often these days, we don't take a moment to think about them, we just want a good price. And I walk down the aisles of stores and restaurants and see all of the plastic packaging, especially in the food industry, and puzzle over how so many people don't think about where all of that plastic ends up. So now, as a society, we're finally starting to understand the benefits of buying local, organic food and the importance of knowing our farmers. I believe that it's just as important to buy our textiles in the same way.

Do you think living in the Bay Area allows your business to flourish? If so, how so?
I think so and largely because we’re so cosmopolitan and the whole local food movement is thriving here. People are more receptive to paying a little more to benefit the environment or local producers and artisans. The question always remains though: how do I produce as much as I can using materials that originate as close to home as possible? So it costs more. It does. But there's a trade-off.

What have been the highlights of being a small business owner in the Bay Area thus far?
Well, the highlights are really that I grew up here; I’m native. I’ve always been a small business owner, attracting a community that I love so there has really never been anything else for me. The area itself is a source of creativity and I get the chance to be supported in doing what I love. I love bringing lightness and awareness to something I think is really important. I truly believe in doing the right thing even before making the money. I feel small business can create change where it counts.

What challenges are you facing right now in terms of growth or vision?
My vision is very clear. Honestly, the biggest challenge is about doing everything myself and figuring out a way to grow and balance within that. It's just about learning and asking for help. And right now one of my bigger challenges is the marketing side of the business-- there's only so many hours in the day!

What inspires you, day to day?
Nature, the colors of nature around me. My kids. Also, really humble and simple objects whether it be a tool or just a simple object.
I get really inspired by watching older people and how they do things. There’s something that we’re lacking in our society today. Something that unites us in a deep way...slowing down and creating something, making something useful. That’s inspiring.

What are your goals for the future of Ambatalia?
Immediate goals would be expansion in scope. Right now I do housewares including aprons, furoshiki dish towels, table coverings, and shopping textiles as an alternative to plastic, paper and packaging. I'm looking to broaden my horizons and do linen bath towels, mats, shower curtains. I'm really excited about being a part of our own fibershed project even though it's an ancient way of producing, it is a totally new concept these days. In short, it's where goods are grown and sewn close to home. I will be incorporating plant dying into my products done by Rebecca Burgess and locally produced fiber which would include organic cotton grown here in California by Sally Fox and possibly incorporate some local wool because it is in such abundance here in Marin. In the near future I plan to do a whole collection around the principles of the project. Getting the fibershed stamp of approval would mean the highest level of sustainability to me. That'll really finally bring it completely full-circle.

As a certified green business since 2005, I have sewn all of my products myself and I've just begun training men and woman to sew my products rather then going to a factory in the city. I also want to find weavers here where there is a rich community of weavers. I really believe in connection and relationships. Giving power and support rather than getting what you need or want for the very cheapest price.

As I've mentioned here, October is Eat Local Month around the nation. While I tend to concentrate on local eating throughout the year, October is a fun time to renew my efforts and find new local products.

Toward that end, I shopped at the Sunday San Rafael Farmers Market this weekend. Sporting my new Praise the Lard t-shirt, I hopped in a Zipcar and drove the twenty minutes to the Marin Civic Center.

I really love the San Rafael Markets -- they are held at the Civic Center (a Frank Lloyd Wright creation) on Thursday mornings and Sundays. While the Thursday market is mellow, quiet, and impressive in its produce offerings, the Sunday market is jam-packed, loud, and quite large.

It had been several months since I'd been to this market, and some new vendors were in attendance. The market seems to be really pushing for more local products, and the farms seem to be much more locally-based than ever before.

Devil's Gulch Ranch is in Nicasio and was offering milk-fed pork and rabbit. They are hosting a farm tour and dinner on November 8 which would be a great way to see the farm in person.

My absolute favorite find of the trip was the new organic dim sum booth that is located in the back of the market. The company is called Tru Gourmet and, for the time being, is only available at the Marin Farmers Market. I bought four pieces for $5 from their extensive list of offerings, and was impressed with the bright flavors and excellent taste. You can read more about Tru Gourmet in this article from the Marin Independent Journal.

It's a fun time of year to go to a market. Our California weather means that tomatoes are still available (the tomatoes pictured above being from Costal Fog Organic Farm in Petaluma) along with other typically summer produce alongside with winter squash and winter greens. Marin Roots Farm had absolutely gorgeous red carrots. When cut open, the insides are bright orange and the flavor is sweet. In addition to the carrots, I bought a kabocha squash from Paradise Valley Farm, beautiful braising greens from County Line Farm, and oxtails from Marin Sun Farms. Andante Dairy is attending this market and I picked up some Etude cheese, which I've already completely consumed.

In the coming weeks, I am looking forward to seeing more pomegranates, brussels sprouts, and pumpkin varieties. I hope to see you at a market!