September 6, 2016. Quiet day at Redwood Valley market

LOCATION:  Organic farm outside of Ukiah, in NW California

WEATHER:  Very nice, warmer. Highs in 80s

We got up early again to load up for the smaller Redwood Valley market.  Since it is Labor Day weekend, several vendors took the day off.  It was a bit slow, customer-wise, too.  

We sold out of our salad mix and 10 baskets of the tomatoes, which is good.no I try to make the table look nice and homey.....

The best part of this market is that there is music each week.  This time, the market manager had them set up right next to our space.  They were terrific.  The extremely talented high schooler accompanied the guitarist, all ad lib.  We enjoyed 3 hours of great music.

Today, there were only about 10 vendors, and all are friends.  We are getting to know them, too.  There is a  knife sharpener guy who has a booth.  George had him sharpen his axe and my kitchen knife.  

At the end of the market, vendors swap goodies.  For some kale, we traded some flowers and okra.  We "tipped" the musicians with figs and tomatoes. All good fun.

We stopped at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant near the market for lunch.   We were about the only non-Mexicans there, always a good sign.  I tried selling the restaurant our extra tomatoes, but they had enough.  For lunch we had a tostado al pastor and a tostado con ceviche.  Buy bueno!

I stopped at a chain beauty shop for a haircut.  It is traumatic getting haircuts on the road.  

Then, we drove about 10 miles south to Hopland, a pretty wine growing area.  This winery brought in these 200-year-old olive trees.  Gnarly and beautiful....

We stopped at a solar energy exhibit.  They have off-the-grid tiny houses rented out through airbnb, a shop selling environmentally sustainable products, and organic wine tasting.  

Our last winery called Campovida is in a resort setting with nice cabins for rent and beautiful grounds.  There was a friendly group and pourer there, so we enjoyed chatting with them.  

After a full day, we unloaded our stuff from the market.  We will try to use up our leftover veg from the market this week, then start the cycle again!

DINNER:  I made chili from a recipe provided by my brother in Minneapolis after I asked him how he uses tomatillos.  In addition to tomatillos, it has onion, garlic, chicken and northern beans.  I tossed in a little tomato, too, just because......